Die Wissenschaftskultur der Staatsrechtslehrer

The Association of German Constitutional Law Teachers was founded one hundred years ago. Helmuth Schulze-Fielitz deals with the cultural history of this professional academic association from a scholarly and sociological perspective. He describes the requirements for and the cultural contexts of a membership as well as admissions controversies steeped in politics. In addition, he traces the aristocratic structures of the association, examining the governing body's substantial power in regard to personnel decisions and setting the scholarly agenda. The author discusses characteristic features of the annual meetings and sheds light on the hidden peculiarities of their oral debates. It becomes clearly recognizable that this is a very distinctive culture of a professional association which has remained unique regardless of personal, political and scholarly pluralization processes.