Adolf Süsterhenn (1905–1974) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

constitutional lawyer and politician. He worked on the state constitution for

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

and was on the

Parlamentarischer Rat The ''Parlamentarischer Rat'' ( German for "Parliamentary Council") was the West German constituent assembly in Bonn that drafted and adopted the constitution of West Germany, the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, promulgated on 23 M ...

, which drafted the

Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany () is the constitution of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came into effect on 23 May after having been approved b ...

. He was born on 31 May 1905 in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

and was Minister for Culture and Justice in Rhineland-Palatinate between 1946 and 1951 for

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany ( , CDU ) is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. Friedrich Merz has been federal chairman of the CDU since 31 ...

. He also served on the

European Commission of Human Rights The European Commission of Human Rights was a special body of the Council of Europe. From 1954 to the 1998 entry into force of European Convention on Human Rights#Protocol 11, Protocol 11 to the European Convention on Human Rights, individuals d ...

from 1954 to 1973. He died in

on 24 November 1974 at the age of 69. Süsterhenn, along with

Franz-Josef Wuermeling Franz-Josef Wuermeling (8 November 1900 – 7 March 1986) was a West German CDU politician and minister who served as Federal Minister for Family Affairs from 1953 to 1962. Early life and education Wuermeling was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin ...

, had been one of the leading advocates of continuing the criminalization of homosexuality in West Germany according to the 1935 version of

Paragraph 175 Paragraph 175, known formally a§175 StGBand also referred to as Section 175 in English language, English, was a provision of the Strafgesetzbuch, German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It Criminalization of homosexuality, mad ...

introduced under Nazism. In 1968, he relaxed his stance on the issue, commenting that many Catholic moral theologians no longer saw homosexuality as something that must be punished by the state.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Susterhenn, Adolf 1905 births 1974 deaths Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians Politics of Rhineland-Palatinate