Bernd Baron von Maydell (1934–2018), also ''Berend F. von Maydell'', was a German

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and secondary school teacher, who specialised in

social law Social law is a unified concept of law, which replaces the classical division of public law and private law. The term has both been used to mean fields of law that fall between "core" private and public subjects, such as corporate law, competition ...

Life

Bernd Baron von Maydell, also ''Berend F. von Maydell'', was born on 19 July 1934 in

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

''Bernd von Maydell'', in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 May 2018, p.20 (short obituary of von Maydell).
Obituary
', in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9 May 2018, retrieved 19 June 2018. After his resettlement from

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

to the

province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...

and his schooling there, Maydell

fled ''Fled'' is a 1996 American buddy action comedy film directed by Kevin Hooks. It stars Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin as two prisoners chained together who flee during an escape attempt gone bad. Plot An interrogator prepares a man to ...

to the west with his family in February 1945 and settled in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...

. He graduated from secondary school in 1954 at the Friedrich Wilhelm School in

Eschwege Eschwege (), the district seat of the Werra-Meißner-Kreis, is a town in northeastern Hesse, Germany. In 1971, the town hosted the eleventh ''Hessentag'' state festival. Geography Location The town lies on a broad plain tract of the river Wer ...

. He then studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. His first law degree was awarded in 1958, his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

at the University of Marburg was awarded in the summer of 1960. Thereafter von Maydell became a

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

and lecturer at

Bonn University The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

. His

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

took place in 1971 in the subjects of civil law,

employment law Labour laws (also known as labor laws or employment laws) are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, ...

and

. In 1975 von Maydell accepted the chair for social law at the Free University of Berlin, which he held until 1981. He then moved to the University of Bonn and became a full professor of civil law, employment and social law. There he also headed the university's Institute of Employment and Social Security Law. From 1990 to 1992 he was spokesman for the research training group "European and International Business Law". In February 1992 von Maydell took over the management of the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy founded by

Hans F. Zacher Hans Friedrich Zacher (22 June 1928 – 18 February 2015) was a German academician. He was a professor at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and was the President of the Max Planck Society from 1990 till 1996. Biography Zacher was born in ...

in Munich. Since then he has also held an honorary professorship at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and the University of Munich. He also advised Central and Eastern European countries on social reform issues after the end of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and the dissolution of the

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

. After his retirement at the end of July 2002, von Maydell continued and expanded his advisory work on an international level. He also participated in the expert committee of the

Bertelsmann Foundation The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself h ...

"''Zielen in den Altenpolitik''". He died on 3 May 2018.

Honours and distinctions

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

, 1st class *

Order of the Sacred Treasure The is a Japanese order, established on 4 January 1888 by Emperor Meiji as the Order of Meiji. Originally awarded in eight classes (from 8th to 1st, in ascending order of importance), since 2003 it has been awarded in six classes, the lowest ...

, Gold Rays (Japan) * Heinrich Lünendonk Medal for special services in the field of social security * Visiting scientific member of the

Polish Academy of Sciences The Polish Academy of Sciences ( pl, Polska Akademia Nauk, PAN) is a Polish state-sponsored institution of higher learning. Headquartered in Warsaw, it is responsible for spearheading the development of science across the country by a society of ...

, Warsaw * Officer's Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Order Zasługi Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej) is a Polish order of merit created in 1974, awarded to persons who have rendered great service to Poland. It is granted to foreigners or Poles resident ab ...

* Honorary doctorate from the University of

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

* Medal of cooperation of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church

Works (selection)

* ''Inhalt und Funktionen eines modernen Volksgruppenrechtes. Dargestellt am Anspruch der Volksgruppen auf eigene Schulen in Deutschland''. Marburg, Rechts- und staatswissenschaftliche Fakultät, dissertation, 28 July 1960. * ''Geldschuld und Geldwert. Die Bedeutung von Änderungen des Geldwertes für die Geldschulden''. Reihe ''Schriften des Instituts für Arbeits- und Wirtschaftsrecht der Universität zu Köln''. Band 32. Zugleich: Bonn, Univ., Rechts- u. Staatswissenschaftliche Fakultät, Habilschrift. 1971/72. C. H. Beck. Munich. 1974. * zusammen mit Wolfhart Burdenski, Walter Schellhorn: ''Kommentar zum Sozialgesetzbuch, Allgemeiner Teil''. Luchterhand. Neuwied. 1976. * ''Zusammenarbeit der Leistungsträger und ihre Beziehungen zu Dritten. GK-SGB X 3''. Reihe ''Gemeinschaftskommentar zum Sozialgesetzbuch.'' Luchterhand. Neuwied. 1984. * with Friederike Wütscher (ed.): ''Enabling social Europe''. Reihe ''Wissenschaftsethik und Technikfolgenbeurteilung.'' Vol. 26. Springer Verlag. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 2006. * with Peter Axer, Franz Ruland, Ulrich Becker (eds.): ''Sozialrechtshandbuch (SRH)''. 5th edn.. Nomos-Verlag. Baden-Baden. 2012.

Literature

* ''Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag''. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialreform (ZSR). Issue 7, Jul 1994. * Winfried Boecken (ed.): ''Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik in Deutschland und Europa''. Festschrift für Bernd Baron von Maydell. Luchterhand. Neuwied. 2002. * * Franz Ruland: ''Bernd Baron von Maydell (1934–2018) – ein Nachruf'', in: NZS 2018, 488. *Boecken/Borchert/Breuer/Eylert/Knieps/Kreikebohm/Kretschmer/Kunze/Majerski-Pahlen/Steinmeyer: Obituary for Prof. Dr. Bernd Baron von Maydell, in: NZS 2018, 570.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maydell, Bernd Baron von Social law Academic staff of the University of Bonn Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin Members of the Polish Academy of Sciences Max Planck Society people Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of the Sacred Treasure Officers of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland Baltic-German people 1934 births 2018 deaths