Thomas Dehler (14 December 1897 – 21 July 1967) was a German politician. He was the Federal Republic of Germany's first Minister of Justice (1949–1953) and chairman of Free Democratic Party (1954–1957).
Early life
Dehler was born in Lichtenfels in Upper Franconia, Bavaria. After graduating from grammar school in 1916, he fought in World War I.
After the war, he studied medicine but soon switched to law and political science, which he studied in Munich, Freiburg and Würzburg. He passed his state examinations in 1920 and 1923, respectively. In 1920, he attained his doctorate with the dissertation "The statement of grounds in penal verdicts". In these days (1923) he also became co-founder of an anti-antisemitic student fraternity "Südmark-Monachia" in Munich. In remembrance of his studies at Würzburg, he later, in 1948, joined the student fraternity "Humanitas" Würzburg as an Alter Herr (alumnus).
After 1923, he worked as a solicitor in Munich and, after 1925, in Bamberg.
In 1925, Dehler had married Irma Frank, a Jewish woman.
Political and religious affiliations
In 1920, Dehler joined the liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and in 1926 was elected district party chairman in Bamberg. In 1924 he was among the founding members of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, a paramilitary group founded in defence of the Weimar Republic. In 1930, the DDP merged with the Young German Order into German State Party, of which Dehler remained a member until its dissolution in 1933.
Dehler grew up in a Roman Catholic family, but in 1927 he joined the masonic lodge Zur Verbrüderung an der Regnitz in Bamberg. After the lodge had been banned under the Nazi regime, Dehler was among its refounders in 1946 and remained a member until his death. In his latter years, Dehler was a vocal opponent of Political Catholicism.
Nazi regime
After the advent of the Nazi regime, and especially after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws, pressure from Nazi authorities and professional bodies was put on Dehler to divorce his wife. Dehler however resisted the pressure and stood by his wife and his Jewish clients and even took up cases for opponents of the regime. Subsequently, the Nazi periodical Der Stürmer dubbed him "a real comrade of the Jews". In 1938, he was arrested because of contacts to resistance circles.
In World War II, Dehler again joined the army but after a few months was expelled as "unworthy" because of his marriage. In 1944, he was arrested again and sentenced to forced labour for Organisation Todt. However, he was released from duty after only four weeks.
Post-war period
At the conclusion of the war, Bavaria was occupied by American troops. In June 1945, the new military government appointed Dehler Landrat of the district of Bamberg, which he remained until 1946.
He also served in the legal system, as district attorney at the Oberlandesgericht Bamberg (1945/47), as chief prosecutor at the court of cassation at the Bavarian ministry for political liberation (1946/47) and as president of the Oberlandesgericht Bamberg (1947/49).
In 1946, Dehler was one of the founding members of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in Bavaria. Dehler was elected party chairman and remained in that office until 1956. In 1948, when FDP organised on a federal level at its founding convention in Heppenheim, Dehler was elected into the federal board.
In 1946, Dehler was a member of the Constituent Assembly of Bavaria. From 1946 to 1949 he was a member of the Bavarian parliament.
In 1947/48 he was a member of the Länderrat, a parliamentary body representing the three states in the American zone of occupation. In 1948/49 he was a member of the Parlamentarischer Rat, in which delegates from the states of the American, British and French zones assembled to draw up a constitution for a West German federal state. Dehler was one of three members of the redaction committee. Though Dehler was not completely satisfied with the result - the Basic Law passed on 23 May 1949 - he supported its ratification and harshly criticised any opposition to its ratification in the Bavarian parliament.
Federal Minister of Justice
In the Federal elections held in August 1949, Dehler was elected into the Bundestag, the new federal parliament. The FDP party formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the German Party (DP). CDU chairman Konrad Adenauer was elected Federal Chancellor, while FDP chairman Theodor Heuss was elected Federal President. On 20 September, Dehler was one of three FDP politicians to be appointed to Adenauer's cabinet and served as Minister of Justice.