Konrad Hesse (January 29, 1919 – March 15, 2005) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and, from 1975 to 1987, a justice of the

Federal Constitutional Court The Federal Constitutional Court ( ; abbreviated: ) is the supreme constitutional court for the Federal Republic of Germany, established by the constitution or Basic Law () of Germany. Since its inception with the beginning of the post-W ...

. Hesse was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

. He entered the scientific field after his education in law. He obtained his doctorate degree in 1950, and was habilited in 1955 at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. His

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

covered state, administration and canon laws. He received his first ordinary professorship in 1965 at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

. Additionally, he worked from 1961 to 1975 as a judge at the

Supreme Administrative Court A supreme administrative court is the highest court in a country with jurisdiction over lower administrative courts and the administrative decisions of the authorities, but not the legislative decisions (laws) made by the government (which are unde ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. As a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Hesse was a member of the first senate and coined, in connection with the census judgement in 1983, the term of the right to

informational self-determination The term informational self-determination was first used in the context of a German constitutional ruling relating to personal information collected during the 1983 census. The German term is informationelle Selbstbestimmung. It is formally defined ...

. To solve the clash of

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

, he produced the so-called term of practical concordance. Since 2003 Hesse was a member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

. He died in

Merzhausen Merzhausen is a town in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. Geography Location The northern and eastern part of Merzhausen is attached to the town of Freiburg im Breisgau. To the south, Merzhausen bo ...

Works and writings

* Grundzüge des Verfassungsrechts der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 20. Auflage Heidelberg 1999, * Verfassungsrecht und Privatrecht, Heidelberg 1988,

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hesse, Konrad 1919 births 2005 deaths Jurists from Königsberg Justices of the Federal Constitutional Court Jurists of religious law German scholars of constitutional law 20th-century German lawyers 21st-century German lawyers