Rudolf Stammler, born on 19 February 1856 in Alsfeld, died 25 April 1938 in Wernigerode, was an eminent representative of Neo-Kantian current of legal thought. He had studied at the Universities of Giessen and Leipzig and obtained a doctorate in 1877 based on a dissertation on “Notstand im Strafrecht”.
In 1880, he presented his habilitation thesis in the domain of roman law. Between 1882 and 1884 he was extraordinary professor at the University of Marburg, then until 1885 extraordinary professor at the University of Giessen. For a period, between 1885 and 1923, he held a chair at the University of Halle an der Saale, before being called the the Humboldt University in Berlin.
In 1913 he founded the journal “Zeitschrift für Rechtsphilosophie”, and in 1933 he was nominated a member of the “American Academy of Arts and Sciences”. In times of National Socialism in Germany, he was part of the “Ausschuss für Rechtsphilosophie” within the “Akademie für Deutsches Recht”.
For more information about the person and his works, please refer to:
Alexander Graf zu Dohna: Rudolf Stammler zum 70. Geburtstag, in: Kant-Studien, Philosophische Zeitschrift, vol. 31 (1926), Berlin: Rolf Heise, 1926, pp. 1 ss.
Gustav Radbruch: Rudolf Stammler – Zum 70. Geburtstag, in: Gesamtausgabe, vol. 16, ed. von Günter Spendel, Heidelberg: C. F. Müller, 1988
Selected Works of the Author
Rudolf Stammler: Die Lehre von dem richtigen Rechte, Berlin 1902; Idem: Theorie der Rechtswissenschaft, Halle: Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1911 (2nd ed. 1923); Idem: Lehrbuch der Rechtsphilosophie, Berlin/ Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 3rd ed. 1928; Idem: Wirtschaft und Recht nach der materialistischen Geschichtsauffassung – Eine sozialphilosophische Untersuchung, Leipzig: Veit & Co., 1896 (3rd ed. 1914; 5th ed. 1924); Idem: Rechts- und Staatstheorie der Neuzeit – Leitsätze zu Vorlesungen, Leipzig: Veit & Comp., 1917; Idem: Rechtsphilosophische Abhandlungen und Vorträge, 2 vols., Berlin-Charlottenburg: Rolf Heise, 1925; Idem: Deutsches Rechtsleben – Lehrreiche Rechtsfälle, gesammelt und bearbeitet, 2 vols., München: C. H. Beck, 1932.