Greifswald - Spiegel der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft 1815 bis 1945

Greifswald, a small faculty of law situated in northeastern Germany, was founded in 1456, became Swedish from 1648 until 1806, and Prussian until 1945. Closed down in the German Democratic Republic, it was re-founded in 1992. Greifswald was a university which mostly served as a stepping stone for academic careers. Among its professors, there are quite a few famous names to be found: Windscheid, for instance, and Heck, Smend or the infamous 'dangerous mind' Carl Schmitt. In addition, the even more famous names of Savigny, Ihering or Kelsen are reflected in the faculty's history. The international conference »Greifswald - A Mirror of German Jurisprudence from 1815 to 1945« aimed to reconstruct the golden era of German jurisprudence from a small university's perspective. The contributions are not mainly focused on individuals or local history. Rather, the 'Great Greifswaldian Jurists' are taken as examples for certain legal trends, such as positivism, Interessenjurisprudenz, National Socialism or the German Grundgesetz. The contributions show a surprisingly complex picture of German law, science and society, ranging from dogmatic theory and the philosophy of law to studies of socialization and psychology.