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| HISTORY |  |
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History
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The founder of the law firm
Löffler-Wenzel-Sedelmeier, Prof. Dr. Martin Löffler, contributed
significantly to the formation and characteristics of today's
s media law in Germany. Due to Löffler's political impartiality throughout the Third Reich he was called upon to act as a defence lawyer in the Nuremberg Trials held between 1945 and 1949. In the following years he represented publishing companies in their legal battles over compensation or restitution payments for losses caused by the political and spiritual repression by the Nazi Regime. The expertise and reputation gained from his dynamic involvement in these cases qualified him as an adviser on the formation of the press in the newly established Federal Republic of Germany in the years after 1949. At the time the law governing the press was in a rather chaotic state. Even the most fundamental issues such as the validity of previous laws (e.g. the "Reichpreß"-law dating back to 1874) were unresolved. The situation was not clear until eventually new statutes were gradually introduced in the German federal states (Bundesländer) - the academic fundament for which had been set by Löffler's "Kommentar zum Presserecht" in 1955. For Löffler, the press played an outstanding role in any democracy; he referred to it as the fourth power within a state. With over 200 publications Löffler was an internationally renowned specialist in the field of media law. In 1969 he was asked by UNESCO to analyse the international codes of conduct of the mass media. |
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| Furthermore, Prof. Dr. Martin Löffler was a member of the steering committee of the "Deutsche
Gesellschaft für die Vereinten Nationen", a registered German non-profit
association for anyone interested in the United Nations. He was also a member of
the German Commission for UNESCO and chair of the "Internationale Forschungsgesellschaft
für Kommunikationsrecht", an international association for research on communication
law. In the SPIEGEL scandal of 1962 Löffler contributed with a publication
about the constitutional mission of the press. Apart from numerous publications within Germany, Löffler also
was a co-editor of Lord Denning's s Report on the British Profumo Affair in 1963.
After writing the first two editions of his "Kommentar zum Presserecht" on his own in 1955 and 1968, his partners Karl-Egbert Wenzel and Klaus Sedelmeier were co-authors of the third edition (1983). After Löffler's death the fourth edition of the book was published by Wenzel and Sedelmeier in 1997 with support from other attorneys of the law firm. The fifth edition was published by Klaus Sedelmeier and Emanuel H. Burkhardt in October 2006, with the attorneys Eva Maria Löhner and Joachim von Strobl-Albeg being co-authors as well as a range of well-known scientists and practicians in the field of press law. In 1956 Prof. Dr. Martin Löffler founded the "Studienkreis für Presserecht und Pressefreiheit", a society of professionals with a specific interest in media law, and continued to be both its chair and intellectual mastermind until he passed away in 1987. Karl Egbert Wenzel took over the chairmanship until his death in 1998. Since then Emanuel H. Burkhardt has been the chairman of the association. In 1960 Karl-Egbert Wenzel joined Löffler's s law firm. He further established the reputation of the firm. Wenzel published his book "Das Recht der Wort- und Bildberichterstattung" as early as 1966 (2nd edition 1979, 3rd edition 1986 and 4th edition 1994). The fifth edition of this frequently quoted classic in the field of press law was continued after Wenzel's death by Emanuel H. Burkhardt, Joachim von Strobl-Albeg and Waldemar Gamer. Wenzel was also a specialist in the field of copyright law. In 1987 he published "Urheberrecht für die Praxis" - the 2nd and 3rd editions followed in 1990 and 1996. Emanuel H. Burkhardt published the 4th edition in 1999 and the 5th edition in 2009. However, most importantly Wenzel was an enthusiastic lawyer who contributed to many fundamental court rulings in both media and copyright law. He was involved in the German Federal Constitutional Court's ruling of the "Hackethal Beschluss" concerning advertising practices for doctors, as well as the rulings of the German Federal Court of Justice relating to copyright law "Hummel-Figuren" (together with Klaus Sedelmeier) and "Verschenktexte I" and "Verschenktexte II" concerning copyright issues and the protection of work titles. The following lawyers have joined the law firm Löffler-Wenzel-Sedelmeier in the past few decades: Joachim Ritter von Strobl-Albeg in 1977, Eva Maria Löhner in 1982, Waldemar Gamer in 1989, Emanuel H. Burkhardt in 1992, Andreas Pucher in 1995, Kristian Gamer in 1998, Antonia Stein in 2000, Michael Laudahn in 2007, Ann-Kathrin Kaiser in 2008 and Matthias Lehr in 2011. Since January 2006 Löffler-Wenzel-Sedelmeier's s buisness law activity has been expanded through the entry of Walter Hübner (attorney – withal notary and certified public accountant) into the firm.
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