Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Ferdinand Walter

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

Jurist, born at Wetzlar, 30 November, 1794; died at Bonn, 13 December, 1879. After studying at the Latin school of Muhlheim on the Rhine (1805-9), and later at Cologne (1809-13), he fought against Napoleon in 1814, as a volunteer in a Russian regiment. In autumn, 1814, he began to study jurisprudence at Heidelberg, where he graduated, 22 November, 1817. He remained at Heidelberg as privatdozent until Easter, 1819, where he was called to the newly founded University of Bonn. He taught various juristic branches there until 1875, when he resigned on account of blindness. Though a layman, Walter was a strenuous champion of he rights of the Church against civil encroachment. He was a member of the Prussian National Assembly in 1848 and of the First Chamber of Deputies in 1849. In a special pamphlet (1848) he opposed the incorporation into the criminal code of an article allowing the State to deprive the clergy of ecclesiastical rights, and on 4 October, 1849, he delivered a famous oration in defense of ecclesiastical independence in the management of church affairs. But Walter's greatest achievements are in the field of juristic literature. All his literary productions are remarkable for thoroughness as well as literary finish and some of them have become classics in their sphere. His most famous work is his "Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts" (Bonn, 1822). The eighth edition was translated into French and Spanish, the ninth into Italian. A fourteenth edition was prepared by Canon Gerlach, one of Walter's disciples (Bonn, 1871). The sources of canon law, which were added as an appendix to the sixth edition of the "Kirchenrecht", he materially enlarged and published separately as "Fontes juris ecclesiastici antiqui et hodierni" (Bonn, 1862). His other important works are: "Corpus juris Germanici antiqui" (3 vols., Bonn, 1824); "Romische Rechtsgeschichte" (Bonn, 1836); "Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte" (Bonn, 1853); "System des deutschen Privatrechts" (Bonn, 1855); "Das alte Wales ", (Bonn, 1859), on the history, laws and religion of ancient Wales ; "Juristische Encyclopadic" (Bonn, 1856); "Naturrecht und Politik" (Bonn, 1863); "Aus meinem Leben" (Bonn, 1865), an autobiography; "Das alte Erz stift und die Reichsstadt Koln" (Bonn, 1866), a civil history of the former electorate of Cologne, left unfinished.

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.