Aufrechter Gang: Leben und Werk des Föderalismustheoretikers Walter Ferber (1907-1996)

Abstract

In this paper, the life and work of Walter Ferber (1907-1996) – German theorist of federalism, survivor of the KZ Dachau – is portrayed. Ferber was born on December 24, 1907, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. He emigrated in 1932 to Vienna, Austria, where he first worked as an editorial journalist of the labour union’s journal “Die neue Zeitung” and later as a freelance writer warning readers of the national socialist tendencies in Germany and Austria. After the “Anschluss” in 1938, the Nazis deported him on June 17, 1938, to the concentration camp Dachau and then to the concentration camp Flossenbürg, and then again to Dachau, where he stayed until October 24, 1942. In November 1942, he fled to Switzerland while being moved to France. After the war, he worked on his theories about federalism while living in Augsburg and Singen, Germany, and in Lucerne, Switzerland. His work (especially his “Der Föderalismus”, Augsburg 1946) had some influence on the federalistic ideas of the Basic Constitutional Law of Germany. Ferber died on April 13, 1996, in Lungern, Switzerland (abstract written by Gregor Damschen).