Jutta Limbach (27 March 1934 – 10 September 2016) was a German jurist and politician. She was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). She served as President of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany from 1994 to 2002, as the first woman in this office.

Education and early career

Born as Jutta Ryneck, Limbach grew up in Berlin. Her grandmother Elfriede Ryneck was a member of the Weimar National Assembly and the Reichstag, and her father Ernst Ryneck served as mayor of Pankow after 1945. Limbach studied law in Berlin and Freiburg. She passed the first and the second state law examination in 1958 and 1962. From 1963 to 1966 she worked as a research assistant at the law school of the Free University of Berlin and received her doctorate in law in 1966, with a thesis in legal sociology. She fulfilled the requirements to be appointed professor by the German educational system in 1971. In 1972, she was appointed professor for civil law, commercial law and legal sociology at the Free University. From 1987 to 1989, she was member of an academic advisory council at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.

Under Walter Momper as mayor, Limbach was the senator for Justice in Berlin from 1989 to 1994. During her time in office, German prosecutors issued a warrant for the arrest of Erich Honecker after discovering written orders by the former East German leader for guards at the Berlin wall to shoot to kill people who were seeking to flee the country.

Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany

In 1994, she was then appointed to the position of vice-president of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, the same year she became president, succeeding Roman Herzog. She was the first female president of the court and served in this role until she reached the age limit of 68 in 2002. During her leadership, the 2nd Senate of the Court issued numerous important rulings, including decisions on the criminal prosecution of former Stasi spies (BVerfGE 92, 277), on Germany’s accession to the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (BVerfGE 97, 350) and on the German system of equalization payments (BVerfGE 101, 158).

Later role

Limbach then became president of the German non-profit organization Goethe-Institut. In 2004, she was repeatedly named as a possible candidate to succeed Johannes Rau as President of Germany in that year's election. Limbach was a member of the committee of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

In 2005 and 2006 she was a member of the Group of Wise Persons who was tasked by the Council of Europe to develop strategies how to manage the workload of the European Court of Human Rights. 2007 she was a member of the Group of Intellectuals for Intercultural Dialogue set up at the initiative of the European Commission.

In 2010, Limbach in an interview proposed that liberal human rights activist Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger be made a judge at the court, praising her "intellectual honesty"; instead, Andreas Voßkuhle was nominated by the SPD.

During the winter semester of 2014, Limbach was a guest lecturer at the University of Duisburg-Essen’s NRW School of Governance.

Limbach Commission on Nazi art

Since 2003, Limbach has headed the so-called Limbach Commission (Advisory Commission on the return of cultural property seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially Jewish property), a panel convened by the German government to give recommendations on restitution claims regarding art works stolen or purchased under duress by the Nazis; the panel’s decisions are not legally binding but are intended as a form of mediation in disputes over provenance. The eight members of the commission are charged by Germany's federal, state and local governments with helping to return art looted by the Nazis to its rightful owners gathered for the first time. As of 2014, the Limbach Commission has been called upon to advise on about a dozen restitution cases.

Recognition

Limbach held honorary degrees from the University of Basel (1999), Erasmus University Rotterdam (2002), University College London (2002), York University (2003) and University of Bremen (2008). In 1999, she was named Honorary Bencher of the Gray‘s Inn. She has also received numerous awards, including the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold of the Republic of Austria (1998) and the Louise-Schroeder-Medal (2005).

Death

Limbach died on 10 September 2016, aged 82, in Berlin.