Gerhard Anschütz


Gerhard Anschütz was a noted German teacher of constitutional law and the leading commentator of the Weimar Constitution. His principal work is the two-volume legal encyclopedia Handbuch des deutschen Staatsrechts; his constitutional commentary saw 14 editions during the Weimar Republic.
Anschütz, a proponent of legal positivism, taught constitutional law in Tübingen, Heidelberg, Berlin and again Heidelberg. A Democrat by conviction even during World War I, he resigned his teaching position in 1933 after the Nazis seized power. After World War II, he served as a consultant to the US military government and in this position was one of the fathers of the constitution of the Bundesland Hesse.

Selected literature