The Most Famous

LAWYERS from Germany

Icon of occuation in country

This page contains a list of the greatest German Lawyers. The pantheon dataset contains 136 Lawyers, 4 of which were born in Germany. This makes Germany the birth place of the 4th most number of Lawyers behind Italy, and United Kingdom.

Top 9

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary German Lawyers of all time. This list of famous German Lawyers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

Photo of Rudolf von Jhering

1. Rudolf von Jhering (1818 - 1892)

With an HPI of 65.12, Rudolf von Jhering is the most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 28 different languages on wikipedia.

Caspar Rudolph Ritter von Jhering (German: [ˈjeːrɪŋ]; also Ihering; 22 August 1818 – 17 September 1892) was a German jurist. He is best known for his 1872 book Der Kampf ums Recht (The Struggle for Law), as a legal scholar, and as the founder of a modern sociological and historical school of law. His ideas were important to the subsequent development of the "jurisprudence of interests" in Germany.

Photo of Fabian von Schlabrendorff

2. Fabian von Schlabrendorff (1907 - 1980)

With an HPI of 59.39, Fabian von Schlabrendorff is the 2nd most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt von Schlabrendorff (German: [ˈfaːbi̯aːn fɔn ˈʃla.bʁənˌ̯dɔʁf] ; 1 July 1907 – 3 September 1980) was a German jurist, soldier, and member of the German resistance against Adolf Hitler. From 1967 to 1975 he was a judge of the German Federal Constitutional Court.

Photo of Helmuth James von Moltke

3. Helmuth James von Moltke (1907 - 1945)

With an HPI of 58.64, Helmuth James von Moltke is the 3rd most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.

Helmuth James Graf von Moltke (11 March 1907 – 23 January 1945) was a German jurist who, as a draftee in the German Abwehr, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He was a founding member of the Kreisau Circle opposition group, whose members opposed the government of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and discussed prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles after Hitler. The Nazis executed him for treason for his participation in these discussions. Moltke was the grandnephew of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger and the great-grandnephew of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the victorious commander in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars, from whom he inherited the Kreisau estate in Prussian Silesia, now Krzyżowa in Poland.

Photo of Hans Litten

4. Hans Litten (1903 - 1938)

With an HPI of 55.29, Hans Litten is the 4th most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Hans Achim Litten (19 June 1903 – 5 February 1938) was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic. During one trial in 1931, Litten subpoenaed Adolf Hitler to appear as a witness, and cross-examined him for three hours. Hitler was so rattled by the experience that, years later, he would not allow Litten's name to be mentioned in his presence. In retaliation, Litten was arrested on the night of the Reichstag fire along with other progressive lawyers and leftists. Litten spent the rest of his life in one German concentration camp or another, enduring torture and many interrogations. After five years and a move to Dachau, where his treatment worsened and he was cut off from all outside communication, he committed suicide. A number of memorials to him exist in Germany, but Litten was largely ignored for decades because his politics did not fit comfortably in either the west or the communist postwar propaganda. Not until 2011 was Litten finally portrayed in the mass media, when the BBC broadcast The Man Who Crossed Hitler, a television film set in Berlin in summer 1931.

Photo of Heinrich Marx

5. Heinrich Marx (1777 - 1838)

With an HPI of 54.87, Heinrich Marx is the 5th most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Heinrich Marx (born Herschel HaLevi, Yiddish: הירשל הלוי; 15 April 1777 – 10 May 1838) was a German lawyer who fathered the communist philosopher Karl Marx, as well as seven other children, including Louise Juta.

Photo of Bernhard Windscheid

6. Bernhard Windscheid (1817 - 1892)

With an HPI of 54.31, Bernhard Windscheid is the 6th most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Bernhard Windscheid (26 June 1817 – 26 October 1892) was a German jurist and a member of the pandectistic school of law thought. He became famous with his essay on the concept of a legal action, which sparkled a debate with Theodor Muther that is said to have initiated the studies of the processal law as we know it today. Windscheid's thesis established the modern German law concept of Anspruch (roughly, a legally enforceable claim), distinguishing it from the Roman law concept of actio. His principal work was his Lehrbuch des Pandektenrechts, and this was the main source of inspiration for the German Civil Code – the BGB. Between 1873 and 1883, Windscheid was part of the commission in charge of the drafting of the German Civil Code. Additionally, Windscheid worked as a teacher at several universities in Germany and Switzerland, including Basel, Greifswald, München, Heidelberg, and Leipzig.

Photo of Karl Binding

7. Karl Binding (1841 - 1920)

With an HPI of 52.95, Karl Binding is the 7th most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Karl Ludwig Lorenz Binding (4 June 1841 – 7 April 1920) was a German jurist known as a promoter of the theory of retributive justice. His influential book, Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens ("Allowing the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living"), written together with the psychiatrist Alfred Hoche, was used by the Nazis to justify their T-4 Euthanasia Program.

Photo of Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg

8. Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (1905 - 1944)

With an HPI of 52.73, Berthold Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg is the 8th most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Berthold Alfred Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg (15 March 1905 – 10 August 1944) was a German aristocrat and lawyer who was a key conspirator in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944, alongside his younger brother, Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. After the plot failed, Berthold was tried and executed by the Nazi regime.

Photo of Christian Gottfried Körner

9. Christian Gottfried Körner (1756 - 1831)

With an HPI of 45.58, Christian Gottfried Körner is the 9th most famous German Lawyer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Christian Gottfried Körner (2 July 1756 – 13 May 1831) was a German jurist. His home was a literary and musical salon, and he was a friend of Friedrich Schiller.

People

Pantheon has 9 people classified as German lawyers born between 1756 and 1907. Of these 9, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased German lawyers include Rudolf von Jhering, Fabian von Schlabrendorff, and Helmuth James von Moltke. As of April 2024, 5 new German lawyers have been added to Pantheon including Hans Litten, Bernhard Windscheid, and Karl Binding.

Deceased German Lawyers

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Newly Added German Lawyers (2024)

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Overlapping Lives

Which Lawyers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 9 most globally memorable Lawyers since 1700.