{"id":31185,"date":"2026-01-17T11:16:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T10:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/wilfried-schlueter-died\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T11:19:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T10:19:40","slug":"wilfried-schlueter-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wilfried-schlueter-died\/","title":{"rendered":"Wilfried Schl\u00fcter died"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It is with deep sadness that we bid farewell to Prof. Dr. Wilfried Schl\u00fcter, a formative figure in law and former Rector of the Westf\u00e4lische Wilhelms-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnster. As was only announced today, Wilfried Schl\u00fcter passed away on New Year’s Eve at the age of 90. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His life was marked by the upheavals of the 20th century. Born in K\u00f6nigsberg, he experienced flight at the age of ten, an experience that shaped his view of the world and the importance of freedom and justice for the rest of his life. After studying in Marburg and Mainz and completing his doctorate under Hans-Joachim Fleck (later influenced by his mentor Harry Westermann and Karl Larenz), Wilfried Schl\u00fcter dedicated himself to civil and labor law. His habilitation on the “Obiter Dictum” testified early on to his keen eye for judicial legal development and methodological precision.
\nIn the 1970s, he demonstrated exceptional backbone at the Free University of Berlin during the student unrest. At a time when lectures were obstructed by butyric acid attacks and violent disruptions, he remained an advocate of objective dialog. In M\u00fcnster, he took over as rector during a period of deep institutional crisis. With legal acumen, but above all with human integrity, he succeeded in pacifying the university. He focused on loyalty and practical work rather than confrontation and led the rectorate with a pinch of “Dortmund directness”.
\nEven after his retirement, he remained tireless. As a visiting professor in Moscow, Brazil and the Baltic states, he promoted international exchange and remained a mentor to his students until the end. He always reminded his students that law is more than just looking things up in databases: he advocated reading great systematic works and learning the legal method as the foundation of every good lawyer.
\nIn Prof. Dr. Wilfried Schl\u00fcter, we are losing an old-school scholar who helped shape the modernization of the university without sacrificing his principles. His advice to “argue methodically and correctly” and to maintain a broad education will remain as a legacy for future generations. <\/p>\n

Our sympathy goes out to his family and all those who had the privilege of appreciating him as a teacher and colleague.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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See also https:\/\/youtube.com\/live\/egRQC9Wxan4<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is with deep sadness that we bid farewell to Prof. Dr. Wilfried Schl\u00fcter, a formative figure in law and former Rector of the Westf\u00e4lische Wilhelms-Universit\u00e4t M\u00fcnster. As was only announced today, Wilfried Schl\u00fcter passed away on New Year’s Eve at the age of 90. His life was marked by the upheavals of the 20th […]\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31185"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31190,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31185\/revisions\/31190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itm.nrw\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}