The history of the Cologne faculty offers, on the one hand, an insight into the development of jurisprudence in the first half of the 20th century, and, on the other hand, a history of science embedded in the political development with the incisions of 1918, 1933 and 1945. A much noted episode is the meeting of Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt in 1932/33.
In 1919 Konrad Adenauer succeeded in establishing a second university to sit alongside Bonn in Prussian Rhineland. In a short space of time and thanks to its founding members - F. Stier-Somlo, H. Lehmann, H. Planitz, G. J. Ebers, A. von Tuhr, A. Baumgarten, and G. Bohne - Cologne University's Faculty of Law developed into an eminent institution. However, when six of its members (G. J. Ebers, H. W. Goldschmidt, F. Haymann, H. Kelsen, L. Waldecker, and L. Wieruszowski) were forced to resign during the National Socialist regime, closure threatened. The faculty's fortunes were revived after 1945 by scholars such as H. C. Nipperdey (Labour Law), H. Jahrreiß (Constitutional and International Law), G. Kegel (International Private Law) and B. Rehfeld (History of Law), who renewed and expanded the range of disciplines. Federal Presidents Gustav Heinemann and Karl Carstens were among later faculty members.
