Rolf Gössner: Dangers for democracy and human rights

Lawyer Rolf Gössner takes a critical look at the decades-long tradition of undermining international law and civil liberties
in the name of freedom and „internal security“.

The event takes place on the occasion of the handover of Rolf Gössner’s working library to the Fritz Bauer Library.

The Basic Law is now in its seventh decade of existence. This epoch-making work, which is the envy of many in the world, is a historically appropriate consequence of mankind’s painful experiences with fascism and two devastating world wars – albeit with initial deficits and later restrictions when viewed from today’s perspective. Just think of the emergency laws, the erosion of the basic rights to asylum and the inviolability of the home.

That is one side of the constitutional reality. The other concerns the drifting apart of constitutional claims and constitutional reality. Here it is necessary to come to terms with dark and repressed chapters of German legal history, which severely impaired the quality of the fundamental rights and freedoms of tens of thousands of people: let us think, for example, of the persecution of communists in the 1950/60s, the policy of banning people from practising their professions in the 1970s/80s, the „German Autumn“ and the state’s fight against terrorism to this day.

Based on outstanding events and developments of the past decades, Rolf Gössner sheds light on the dark sides of constitutional reality and critically takes stock in order to draw appropriate legal policy conclusions. His focus is on the tense relationship between „internal security“ and civil liberties.

The event takes place on the occasion of the handover of Rolf Gössner’s working library to the Fritz Bauer Library. The donation includes contemporary historical, legal, domestic and judicial policy titles from 70 years of German history.

Dr Rolf Gössner is a lawyer, publicist, member of the board of trustees of the International League for Human Rights, deputy judge at the State Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Author of numerous books on internal security, civil rights and democracy, co-editor of the „Grundrechte-Reports. Zur Lage der Bürger- und Menschenrechte in Deutschland“ and the bi-weekly magazine for politics/culture/economics „Ossietzky“. Until 2020, he also worked as a lawyer and as a member of the jury for the BigBrotherAward negative prize . He has received several awards, most recently the Hans Litten Prize from the Association of Democratic Lawyers (VDJ).

Photo: Michael Bahlo, Olena Bohovyk (unsplash)