Albert Hänel
Albert Hänel (10 June 1833, in Leipzig – 12 May 1918, in Kiel) was a German jurist, legal historian and liberal politician.He was one of the leaders of the German Progress Party, and served as Rector of the University of Kiel.After the fusion with the Secessionists in 1884, “Fortschrittspartei” was styled as the “Deutschfreisinnige Partei.” Upon the breakup of the party in 1893, he represented the ‘Freisinnige Vereinigung’ (Liberal Union), but in the elections of the same year to the Reichstag he was defeated by the Social-Democratic candidate.Hänel's writings about the German Empire as a federal state and public law in general are characterized by his constitutionalism and opposition of legal positivism.He significantly influenced Heinrich Triepel, Rudolf Smend, Erich Kaufmann and Hermann Heller.