The Federal Ministry of Justice ( or BMJ) is a federal ministry in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

Under the federal system of Germany, individual states are most responsible for the administration of justice and the application of penalties. The Federal Ministry of Justice devotes itself to creating and changing law in the classic core areas related to Constitutional law. The Ministry also analyzes the legality and constitutionality of laws prepared by other ministries.

The German Federal Court of Justice

Federal Court of Justice of Germany

The Federal Court of Justice of Germany in Karlsruhe is the highest court in the system of ordinary jurisdiction in Germany. It is the supreme court in all matters of criminal and private law...

, the German Patent and Trade Mark Office (GPTO) (German: Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt (DPMA)), and Patent Court all fall under its scope.

It was founded on January 1, 1877, as the Imperial Justice Office (Reichsjustizamt). After Germany became a republic in 1919, it was raised to the rank of a federal ministry as the Reichsministerium der Justiz. The ministry was formally renamed the Bundesministerium der Justiz in 1949. In several laws predating 1949, the ministry and the minister are however referred to as Reichsministerium der Justiz and Reichsminister der Justiz, respectively. This has gradually been replaced with the new name and title when laws have been amended, most recently in 2010.

State Secretaries for Justice, 1876–1918

• Heinrich Friedberg 1876–1879
• Hermann von Schelling 1879–1889
• Otto von Oehlschläger
  Otto von Oehlschläger
  Otto Karl von Oehlschläger was a German jurist and politician.-Biography:Oehlschläger was born Otto Oehlschläger in Blumenau-Heiligenwalde , he was ennobled in 1888....
  
   1889–1891
• Robert Bosse 1891–1892
• Eduard von Hanauer 1892–1893
• Rudolf Arnold Nieberding
  Rudolf Arnold Nieberding
  Rudolf Arnold Nieberding was a German jurist and politician.-Biography:Nieberding was born in Konitz to Karl Nieberding, a teacher and later director of the “Gymnasium Petrinum” in Recklinghausen....
  
   1893–1909
• Hermann Lisco 1909–1917
• Paul Georg Christof von Krause 1917–1919

Ministers of Justice, 1918–1945

• Otto Landsberg
  Otto Landsberg
  Otto Landsberg was a German jurist and politician.-Life:Landsberg was born in 1869 in Rybnik in the Province of Silesia. After passing the Abitur in 1887 in Ostrowo, he moved to Berlin to study law. In 1895, having passed the First and Second State Examination , he opened a lawyer's office in...
  
   (SPD
  Social Democratic Party of Germany
  The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
  
  ) 1919
• Eugen Schiffer
  Eugen Schiffer
  Eugen Schiffer , was the German Minister of Finances and Vice-Chancellor from 13 February to 19 April 1919 and 3 October 1919 to 27 March 1920. From 1919 to 1920 and again in 1921 he served as Minister of Justice....
  
   (DDP) 1919–1920
• Andreas Blunck
  Andreas Blunck
  Max Andreas Blunck was a politician of the liberal German Democratic Party.Blunck was born in Krempe and studied law and the Chinese language. He worked as lawyer in Hamburg. From 1912 he was parliament member of the Reichstag...
  
   (DDP) 1920
• Eugen Schiffer
  Eugen Schiffer
  Eugen Schiffer , was the German Minister of Finances and Vice-Chancellor from 13 February to 19 April 1919 and 3 October 1919 to 27 March 1920. From 1919 to 1920 and again in 1921 he served as Minister of Justice....
  
   (DDP) 1921
• Gustav Radbruch
  Gustav Radbruch
  Gustav Radbruch was a German legal scholar and politician. He served as Minister of Justice of the German Empire during the early Weimar period. Radbruch is also regarded as one of the most influential legal philosophers of the 20th century.-Life:Born at Lübeck, Radbruch studied law in Munich,...
  
   (SPD) 1921–1922
• Rudolf Heinze
  Rudolf Heinze
  Karl Rudolf Heinze was a German jurist and politician. He was Vice-Chancellor of Germany and Minister of Justice from 1922 to 1923 under Wilhelm Cuno....
  
   (DVP
  German People's Party
  The German People's Party was a national liberal party in Weimar Germany and a successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire.-Ideology:...
  
  ) 1922–1923
• Gustav Radbruch
  Gustav Radbruch
  Gustav Radbruch was a German legal scholar and politician. He served as Minister of Justice of the German Empire during the early Weimar period. Radbruch is also regarded as one of the most influential legal philosophers of the 20th century.-Life:Born at Lübeck, Radbruch studied law in Munich,...
  
   (SPD) 1923
• Erich Emminger (BVP
  Bavarian People's Party
  The Bavarian People's Party was the Bavarian branch of the Centre Party, which broke off from the rest of the party in 1919 to pursue a more conservative, more Catholic, more Bavarian particularist course...
  
  ) 1923–1924
• Kurt Joël 1924–1925
• Josef Frenken (Centre
  Centre Party (Germany)
  The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the Kaiserreich and the Weimar Republic. Formed in 1870, it battled the Kulturkampf which the Prussian government launched to reduce the power of the Catholic Church...
  
  ) 1925
• Hans Luther
  Hans Luther
  Hans Luther was a German politician and Chancellor of Germany.-Biography:Born in Berlin, Luther started in politics in 1907 by becoming the town councillor in Magdeburg. He continued on becoming secretary of the German Städtetag in 1913 and then mayor of Essen in 1918...
  
   (acting) 1925–1926
• Wilhelm Marx
  Wilhelm Marx
  Wilhelm Marx was a German lawyer, Catholic politician and a member of the Centre Party. He was Chancellor of the German Reich twice, from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1928, and also served briefly as minister president of Prussia in 1925, during the Weimar Republic.-Life:Born in Cologne to...
  
   (Centre) 1926
• Johannes Bell (Centre) 1926–1927
• Oskar Hergt
  Oskar Hergt
  Oskar Hergt was a German nationalist politician, who served simultaneously as Minister of Justice and vice-chancellor from 28 January 1927 to 12 June 1928. Hergt attended the prestigious Domgymnasium Naumburg before reading law at Würzburg, Munich and Berlin...
  
   (DNVP
  German National People's Party
  The German National People's Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the NSDAP it was the main nationalist party in Weimar Germany composed of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and...
  
  ) 1927–1928
• Erich Koch-Weser
  Erich Koch-Weser
  Erich Koch-Weser was a German lawyer and liberal politician...
  
   (DDP) 1928–1929
• Theodor von Guérard
  Theodor von Guérard
  Theodor von Guérard was a German jurist and politician. He served as Minister of Justice during the Weimar Republic era in the early 1930s.-References:...
  
   (Centre) 1929–1930
• Johann Viktor Bredt
  Johann Viktor Bredt
  Johann Viktor Bredt was a German Weimar era justice minister.-Biography:Bredt was born in Barmen. He rose to be Justice minister in 1930 succeeding Theodor von Guérard.Bredt died in Marburg.-References:...
  
   (WP
  Reich Party of the German Middle Class
  The Reich Party of the German Middle Class , known from 1920-25 as the Economic Party of the German Middle Classes , was a liberal German political party during the Weimar Republic. It was commonly known as the Wirtschaftspartei or WP....
  
  ) 1930
• Kurt Joël 1930–1932
• Franz Gürtner
  Franz Gürtner
  Franz Gürtner was a German Minister of Justice in Adolf Hitler's cabinet, responsible for coordinating jurisprudence in the Third Reich. Detesting the cruel ways of the Gestapo and SA in dealing with prisoners of war, he protested unsuccessfully to Hitler, nevertheless staying on in the cabinet,...
  
   (DNVP) 1932–1941
• Franz Schlegelberger
  Franz Schlegelberger
  Louis Rudolph Franz Schlegelberger was State Secretary in the German Reich Ministry of Justice and served awhile as Justice Minister during the Third Reich. He was the highest-ranking defendant at the Judges' Trial in Nuremberg.- Early life :Schlegelberger was born into a Protestant salesman's...
  
   (Nazi) 1941–1942
• Otto Georg Thierack
  Otto Georg Thierack
  Otto Georg Thierack was a Nazi jurist and politician.-Early life and career:Thierack was born in Wurzen in Saxony. He took part in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 as a volunteer, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He suffered a face injury and was decorated with the Iron Cross, second class...
  
   (Nazi) 1942–1945

Ministers of Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany (since 1949)

• Thomas Dehler
  Thomas Dehler
  Thomas Dehler was a German politician. He was the Federal Republic of Germany's first Minister of Justice and chairman of Free Democratic Party .-Early life:...
  
   (FDP
  Free Democratic Party (Germany)
  The Free Democratic Party , abbreviated to FDP, is a centre-right classical liberal political party in Germany. It is led by Philipp Rösler and currently serves as the junior coalition partner to the Union in the German federal government...
  
  ) 1949–1953
• Fritz Neumayer
  Fritz Neumayer
  Fritz Neumayer was a German politician. He was Federal Minister of Building from 1952 to 1953, and Federal Minister of Justice from 1953 to 1956.-Early life:...
  
   (FDP, FVP
  Free People's Party (Germany)
  The Free People's Party was a short-lived political party in Germany. It was formed in 1956 by Franz Blücher, Fritz Neumayer and others, but the following year it merged into the German Party....
  
  ) 1953–1956
• Hans-Joachim von Merkatz
  Hans-Joachim von Merkatz
  Hans-Joachim von Merkatz was a German politician. He was Federal Minister of Justice from 1956 to 1957. He was a member of the Bundestag from 1949 to 1961...
  
   (German Party
  German Party
  The German Party is a name used by a number of German political parties in the country's history. The current incarnation is represented only at the local level in Germany. However, from 1949 to 1961, a German Party was part of the ruling coalition in the Bundestag...
  
  ) 1956–1957
• Fritz Schäffer
  Fritz Schäffer
  Fritz Schäffer was a German politician for the Bavarian People's Party and the Christian Social Union . In 1945 he became the first Bavarian Minister-President after World War II...
  
   (CSU
  Christian Social Union
  Christian Social Union may refer to:*Christian Social Union of Bavaria, a political party in Bavaria, Germany*Christian Social Union , a nineteenth and early twentieth-century organization within the Church of England...
  
  ) 1957–1961
• Wolfgang Stammberger
  Wolfgang Stammberger
  Wolfgang Stammberger was a German jurist and politician. He served as German Minister of Justice from 1961 to 1962....
  
   (FDP) 1961–1962
• Ewald Bucher
  Ewald Bucher
  Ewald Bucher was a German politician of the FDP....
  
   (FDP) 1962–1965
• Karl Weber
  Karl Weber (German politician)
  Karl Weber was a West German politician with the Christian Democratic Union. He served as the Minister of Justice from 2 April 1965 until his replacement by Richard Jaeger in October of that same year.-References:...
  
   (CDU) 1965
• Richard Jaeger
  Richard Jaeger
  Richard Jaeger was a German politician of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria. Under Ludwig Erhard's second ministry, he was Minister of Justice ....
  
   (CSU) 1965–1966
• Gustav Heinemann
  Gustav Heinemann
  Gustav Walter Heinemann, GCB was a German politician. He was Mayor of the city of Essen from 1946 to 1949, West German Minister of the Interior from 1949 to 1950, Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1969 and President of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1969 to 1974.-Early years and professional...
  
   (SPD) 1966–1969
• Horst Ehmke
  Horst Ehmke
  Horst Paul August Ehmke is a German lawyer, law professor and politician of the Social Democratic Party . He served as Federal Minister of Justice , Chief of Staff at the German Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs and Federal Minister for Research, Technology, and Post...
  
   (SPD) 1969
• Gerhard Jahn
  Gerhard Jahn
  Gerhard Jahn was a German politician and a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
  
   (SPD) 1969–1974
• Hans-Jochen Vogel
  Hans-Jochen Vogel
  Hans-Jochen Vogel is a politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.- Early years and professional career :...
  
   (SPD) 1974–1981
• Jürgen Schmude
  Jürgen Schmude
  Jürgen Dieter Paul Schmude is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He was born in Insterburg East Prussia, Germany, ....
  
   (SPD) 1981–1982
• Hans A. Engelhard
  Hans A. Engelhard
  Hans Arnold Engelhard is a German jurist. A member of the Free Democratic Party, he served as German Federal Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Kohl I, II, and III, between 1982 and 1991....
  
   (FDP) 1982–1991
• Klaus Kinkel
  Klaus Kinkel
  Klaus Kinkel is a German civil servant, lawyer, and politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party . He served as Federal Minister of Justice , Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the government of Helmut Kohl. He was also chairman of the liberal Free Democratic Party from 1993...
  
   (FDP) 1991–1992
• Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
  Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
  Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is a German politician of the pro-business Free Democratic Party. Within the FDP, she is a leading figure of the small social-liberal wing...
  
   (FDP) 1992–1995
• Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig
  Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig
  Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig is a German jurist. He currently holds the chair for public law at the University of Kiel. A member of the Free Democratic Party, he served as German Federal Minister of Justice in the Cabinet Kohl V between 1996 and 1998.Born in Berlin, Schmidt-Jortzig was raised in...
  
   (FDP) 1996–1998
• Herta Däubler-Gmelin
  Herta Däubler-Gmelin
  Herta Däubler-Gmelin is a former German Minister of Justice. Amid controversy, she resigned in 2002 after a remark about George W. Bush.-History:...
  
   (SPD) 1998–2002
• Brigitte Zypries
  Brigitte Zypries
  Brigitte Zypries is a German politician. She was Federal Minister of Justice of Germany from 2002 to 2009. She is member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .- Career :...
  
   (SPD) 2002–2009
• Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
  Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
  Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger is a German politician of the pro-business Free Democratic Party. Within the FDP, she is a leading figure of the small social-liberal wing...
  
  (FDP) since 2009

External links

• Official homepage in German (translation available)
• Official translation of German federal laws/parts