Ernst Benda

Ernst Benda
4th President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
In office 8 December 1971 – 20 December 1983
Preceded by	Gebhard Müller
Succeeded by	Wolfgang Zeidler
6th Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany
In office 2 April 1968 – 21 October 1969
Preceded by	Paul Lücke
Succeeded by	Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Member of the Bundestag
In office 15 October 1957 – 8 December 1971
Personal details
Born	(1925-01-15)15 January 1925 Berlin, Germany
Died	2 March 2009(2009-03-02) (aged 84) Karlsruhe, Germany
Political party	CDU
Alma mater	Free University of Berlin

Ernst Benda (15 January 1925 – 2 March 2009) was a German legal scholar, politician, and judge. He was the fourth president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany from 1971 to 1983. He also held the position of Minister of the Interior of Germany from 1968 to 1969.

Benda was born in Berlin, the son of an engineer. After completing his schooling, he served in the Kriegsmarine from 1943 to 1945. After World War II, he pursued law studies at the Humboldt University of Berlin in East Berlin. However, in 1948, he moved to the University of Wisconsin and later to the Free University of Berlin in West Berlin. In 1956, he began working as a lawyer in Berlin.

Benda became a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1946. He played a role in founding the Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit (KgU) ("Combat Group against Inhumanity") in 1948, an anti-communist organization that operated in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The KgU received financial support from various Western intelligence agencies and the West German government. He served as a member of the Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin, the parliament of Berlin, from 1954 to 1957. In 1957, he was elected to the Bundestag, the West German parliament. In 1965, Benda played a role in bringing significant changes to West Germany's statutes of limitations for murder, allowing charges of murder against former National Socialists. He held the position of Secretary of State in the German interior ministry from 1967 and became Minister of the Interior in 1968.

In 1969, Benda was appointed as a judge to the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. He became the president of the court from 1971 to 1983. Starting in 1984, Benda held the position of a professor of law at the University of Freiburg.

Awards and honours

1974 Grand Cross of Merit of the Italian Republic

1975 Grand Gold Medal with Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria

1983 Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

1974 Honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Law, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

1978 Honorary Professor at the University of Trier

1978 Pipe smoker of the year

1987 Heinz-Herbert Karry Prize

External links

Media related to Ernst Benda at Wikimedia Commons

• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German)