Law in West German democracy : : seventy years of history as seen through German courts / / Hugh Ridley.

• Superior document: Studies in Central European Histories; volume 66
• VerfasserIn: Ridley, Hugh,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden Boston : : BRILL,, 2020.
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Central European Histories; v. 66.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (342 pages).

Law in West German Democracy relates the history of the Federal Republic of Germany as seen through a series of significant trials conducted between 1947 and 2017, explaining how these trials came to take place, the legal issues which they raised, and their importance to the development of democracy in a country slowly emerging from a murderous and criminal régime. It thus illustrates the central issues of the new republic. If, as a Minister for Justice once remarked, crime can be seen as ‘the reverse image of any political system, the shadow cast by the social and economic structures of the day’, it is natural to use court cases to illuminate the eventful history of the Federal Republic’s first seventy years.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright page -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- The Historical Situation of Law in the Federal Republic -- The Trial of Friedrich Flick -- Adjusting the Political Landscape: Banning the KPD -- The Lüth Case – at What Price Freedom of Expression? -- Four Murders, and Reflections on Court-Reporting in the Federal German Press -- Personal Matters in Court: Homosexuality and Abortion -- The Spiegel Affair -- The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial -- The 1970s: the Campaign against Radicals – Ideology Becomes the Crime -- Chasing after Sympathizers – Threats to the Rule of Law -- The Rub of the Green – a Range of Environmental Cases -- Danger from the Right -- Back Matter -- Background Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.