Berlin and the Institute for Advanced Study

After the end of his term as justice, Dieter Grimm moved from Karlsruhe to Berlin where he joined the Faculty of Law of Humboldt University and became permanent fellow and a year later rector of the Wissenschaftskolleg, Institute for Advanced Study. This chapter is devoted to the six years where he directed the Kolleg, the selection of forty fellows from all disciplines and continents for each academic year, the priorities that he set, the recruitments of legal scholars, and the role and impact of legal science in general among the various disciplines.

Europe

The chapter deals with the impact of European interpretation on the national constitution and the national constitutional courts. It reflects Dieter Grimm’s position on a European constitution, his controversy with Jürgen Habermas, his thesis of the “over-constitutionalization” of the EU as one of the most important, but at least noticed causes of the diminishing acceptance of the EU.

Experiences on the Court

The chapter contains more about the internal business of the Court, the interaction among the judges, the role of the judge rapporteur, the influence of the Court’s president, the cooperation with the law clerks, the value of oral arguments. Furthermore, it describes the position of the Court within the system of separation of powers. End of the term as justice.

Uproar about the Constitutional Court’s Jurisprudence

The chapter deals with the two most contested judgements of the Court in which Dieter Grimm was involved (“Soldiers are Murderers” and “Crucifix in Classrooms in Bavaria”), the protests that the judgments entailed, his personal attitude vis-à-vis the protest, murder threats against him, relationship between national and constitutional law.

Bielefeld

The chapter is devoted to the first professorship at the University of Bielefeld, the specific orientation of that university, the colleagues, the interdisciplinary contacts, in particular with colleagues from history (Kosellek, Wehler, Kocka), political science (Offe) and sociology (Luhmann), his directorship at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) of Bielefeld University, his project on “Functions of the State” at the ZiF and the other subjects of his research in these years (1979–1987)

Max Planck Institute and Habilitation

The chapter describes the first job as a researcher in legal history in the newly founded Max-Planck-Institut for the History of European Private Law in Frankfurt, his work on the relationship between constitutional and private law in the nineteenth century, his Habilitation on the same subject, the novelty and importance of the subject. The year 1968, student protest movement, his involvement in two reform movements in connection with 1968, one concerning the Cusanuswerk (scholarship fund of the Catholic Church), the other the Max-Planck-Society.

International Constitutionalist: Renewed Ties with the US

This chapter deals with Dieter Grimm’s international engagement after his time on the Court, especially with his teaching in the US, next to his chair at the Law Faculty of Humboldt University Berlin where he has been teaching since 2000. The American universities where he taught mostly comparative constitutional law were NYU, Harvard, and mostly Yale. The merits of a comparative approach in constitutional law, the necessity of contextualization if one wants to understand foreign legal systems. The chapter treats moreover Yale’s famous Global Constitutionalism Seminar and its prominent participants as well as the difference between the conditions for teaching and research at German and American universities.

Paris, America, and PhD

The chapter treats Dieter Grimm’s postgraduate study in Paris and Harvard, the special impact of Harvard University and his teachers there, the differences between German and American legal education, his work in an American law firm after graduation and his dissertation in Frankfurt, his practical training (Referendariat) with various legal institutions like courts, agencies of public administration, law offices, etc. and his examination after the traineeship (which qualifies for any legal profession).

Biographical Imprints—Childhood Home, War, School, Career Hopes

The chapter treats the family background of Dieter Grimm, his childhood during the Second World War and in post-War Germany, education and teachers, religious context, treatment of national socialism in post-War Germany, division of the county, emergence of the Federal Republic, early political interest.

From Outsider to the Center of Constitutional Scholarship

The final chapter tries to determine the impact of the main stations and cities of his career and his academic achievement and the future of constitutionalism as the centrepiece of his work and his reflections.