27 Facts About Thomas Dehler

Thomas Dehler was the Federal Republic of Germany's first Minister of Justice and chairman of Free Democratic Party.

Thomas Dehler passed his state examinations in 1920 and 1923, respectively.

In 1925, Dehler had married Irma Frank, a Jewish woman.

In 1920, Thomas Dehler joined the liberal German Democratic Party and in 1926 was elected district party chairman in Bamberg.

In 1930, the DDP merged with the Young German Order into German State Party, of which Thomas Dehler remained a member until its dissolution in 1933.

Thomas Dehler grew up in a Roman Catholic family, but in 1927 he joined the masonic lodge Zur Verbruderung an der Regnitz in Bamberg.

Thomas Dehler however resisted the pressure and stood by his wife and his Jewish clients and even took up cases for opponents of the regime.

In World War II, Thomas Dehler again joined the army but after a few months was expelled as "unworthy" because of his marriage.

Thomas Dehler served in the legal system, as district attorney at the Oberlandesgericht Bamberg, as chief prosecutor at the court of cassation at the Bavarian ministry for political liberation and as president of the Oberlandesgericht Bamberg.

In 1946, Thomas Dehler was one of the founding members of the Free Democratic Party in Bavaria.

Thomas Dehler was elected party chairman and remained in that office until 1956.

In 1948, when FDP organised on a federal level at its founding convention in Heppenheim, Thomas Dehler was elected into the federal board.

In 1946, Thomas Dehler was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Bavaria.

Thomas Dehler was one of three members of the redaction committee.

Thomas Dehler's opposition has been interpreted as an attempt to shield German war criminals, an important constituency to which the FDP appealed by repeatedly demanding the release of all "so-called war criminals" from prison.

Thomas Dehler initially supported Adenauer's western policies - integration into NATO and rapprochement with France - as a means to gain enough international trust and weight to attain German reunification.

However, as Adenauer's policies progressed, Thomas Dehler grew skeptical towards this approach and towards Adenauer's intentions, later accusing the Chancellor of having deceived him.

Notable points of disagreement were the Saar issue, on which Adenauer cautiously tried to avoid conflicts with France, which tried to keep the region as its protectorate, without giving up German claims, and the Stalin Notes of 1952, which Thomas Dehler considered a sincere offer worth exploring further.

Immediately after his departure from government, Thomas Dehler was elected chairman of FDP's parliamentary group and of the federal party, replacing Hermann Schafer and Vice-Chancellor Franz Blucher, respectively.

Thomas Dehler now combined two central party offices for the first time since 1949.

In 1954, Thomas Dehler played a vital role in Bavarian politics again, engineering a coalition between his party, the Social Democrats, the Bavaria Party and the refugee party BHE.

Thomas Dehler had hoped to weaken Adenauer's government and establish his party as a "third force" but the Federal elections of September 1957 resulted in a triumphant victory for CDU and CSU, who won an absolute majority in parliament and henceforth could govern without the support from any other party.

Thomas Dehler was replaced by Reinhold Maier and Max Becker, respectively.

Thomas Dehler remained a member of parliament until his death and remained a vocal critic of Adenauer, especially in the field of German policy by calling for renewed attempts to seek reunification via the Soviet Union.

Thomas Dehler was an unyielding opponent of attempts to exempt Nazi crimes from the statute of limitations by citing basic legal principles.

The Bundestag decided in favour of tolling and eventually, years after Thomas Dehler, of deciding to exempt all kinds of murder from the statute of limitations.

On 21 July 1967, Thomas Dehler died of a heart attack while swimming at a bath at Streitberg, Upper Franconia.