German Interior Minister Otto Schily studied Law in Munich and Hamburg in the late fifties. Former vice president and Professor of law at the Freie Universität Berlin, who was his flat mate in Hamburg remembers: “We had long breakfasts and were mainly interested in cultural events and women these days – we also sometimes visited lectures. One can learn a lot about legal careers as well as about the political history by reading this biography by the Berlin freelance Journalist Stefan Reinicke, who wrote a number of biographies such as Jim Jarmusch’s for. Schily lived a controversial lawyer’s life.
Straight after his bar exams in Berlin he used his excellent contacts in the Berlin art and cultural scene to set up a law office famous for divorce and criminal defence. As a criminal defence lawyer he was known defending human rights in the Bader-Meinhof-trials, later he founded the Green party and was the head of the Flick inquiry which exposed the involvement of Nazi industrialists in German politics. In 1989 before the Wall came down Schily left the Green party and became a member of the Social Democrats where he was a complete newcomer. He felt uneasy with this situation – being accustomed holding centre stage. Since the end of the Kohl era in 1998, he came back, with full power as the German Interior Minister side by side with his old friend Joschka Fischer as the German Minsiter for Foreign Affairs. Together they visited Gaddafi of Libya in the early eighties in a dessert tent to check on international relations with Arab countries. Since than he has suffered setback after setback in his efforts to make Germany a secure country by, for example, trying to inhibit the extreme right NPD party what failed on the Constitutional Court or by drawing up Germany’s first immigration laws.
Reinicke examines this extraordinary personality from a very neutral point of view and points out that Mr. Schily is an outstanding lawyer with great and helpful attitude. He’s always extremely well prepared on his subject, more than any one else in the room. This is true of in legal and in all other matters including today’s press conferences. He does know the Constitution and freedom and privacy laws and fights hard for them as well as for human rights. Also the author shed light on the soft sides as a family man which now other journalist was able to do in the last fifty years. Even if you’re a newcomer to German language the easy structure will allow you an insight into political generation in Germany today and an understanding of the lawyer’s profession in this country.
