Professor Dr. Andreas Heldrich Deceased
06.11.2007
Professor Dr. Andreas Heldrich, emeritus professor und former Dean of the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität (LMU) München, died in Munich on 31 October 2007 at the age of 72. With his passing we lose a nationally and internationally renowned scholar of great practical insight and a gentleman of charming wit and noble mindedness.Andreas Heldrich was for many decades closely connected to the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. From 1962 to 1965 he was a research fellow at the Institute during which time he prepared his habilitation on international jurisdiction and choice of law (Andreas Heldrich, Internationale Zuständigkeit und anwendbares Recht, Berlin 1969). As Dean of the Münchener University he returned to the Institute and from 1996 to 2002 became a member of the advisory board. His knowledge and judgment were brought to bear for a final time in the comparative evaluation of the Max Planck legal institutes completed in 2006.
Following a professorship in Münster he held the Chair for Civil Law, Sociology of Law and International Private Law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. From 1976 until 1982 he was a member of the academic council, serving as its chairman from 1979 to 1982. During his tenure as Dean of the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität München from 1994-2002 he instituted landmark measures towards the modernisation and extension of the LMU and significantly shaped academic and university policy in Germany.
"Immense scholarly curiosity, relentless pursuit of conceptual clarity, the search for an empirical foundation for new insights, finely honed language and a profound sense of humour characterised Heldrich as a teacher and a unique personality in the world of research." (translated from the forward from Stephan Lorenz, et al (eds.), Festschrift für Andreas Heldrich zum 70. Geburtstag)
In Andreas Heldrich we have lost not only an exceptional scholar but also a good colleague and friend.