Hermann Ehlers

Early life

Ehlers was born in Berlin on 1 October 1904 to Hermann Heinrich Ludwig Ehlers and Adelheid Louise Auguste (Rabe) Ehlers. His parents moved to Berlin from Sülze shortly before Hermann's birth due to the opening of a job with the post office for the elder Ehlers. Hermann was raised in a bourgeoisie, politically conservative and evangelical environment.

University and Early Political Involvement

After graduating from vocational school in Steglitz in 1922, Ehlers began studying law at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Ehlers' time at college was surely influenced by the revolutions, inflation, unemployment, and political radicalization that characterized Germany following World War I, and Ehler became exceedingly active in student political groups such as the "Verband der Vereine Deutscher Studenten" (United German Student Union).

Ehlers began studying at the University of Bonn in the summer of 1924, where he began attending the lectures of the famous but controversial professor of constitutional law, Carl Schmitt. Schmitt, a pioneer in the realm of authoritarian politics, ultimately inspired Ehlers to write his dissertation on the "Essence and Effects of an Imperial Prussian State." Ehlers was also heavily influenced by the early national-socialist Arthur Moeller van den Bruck during this time, and began to sympathize with the German National People's Party, a precursor to the National Socialist German Worker's Party of the 1930s.

Ehlers was married to Jutta Taubert, who died in Switzerland in 2002. Multiple schools and dormitories within Germany carry his name, and the Hermann Ehlers Stiftung continues to operate as a think tank for the CDU to this day. The Evangelical Task Force of the CDU/CSU has awarded the Hermann Ehlers Medal to church and political personalities for their service to evangelicalism since 2004.