Rudolf Sieverts

Rudolf Sieverts at the founding ceremony of the Danish-German Academy (January 1968). Rudolf Sieverts (3 November 1903 – 28 April 1980) was a German Law professor and Criminologist.

Life Rudolf Sieverts was born in Meißen, a short distance down river from Dresden. His father, Adolf Ferdinand Sieverts, was a Chemistry professor. In Hamburg, Sieverts took over the professorship, holding between 1934 and his own retirement in 1971 the teaching chair for criminal law, criminology, youth law, forensic law and comparative law. Visiting England, he took a particular interest in the education provision for youth offenders and in the borstal system, an area in which at that time the British system was seen as a standard setter.

Later on, Sieverts was a member of the expert committee on youth justice which had a decisive influence over the 1953 reform of the Juvenile Courts Act. In October 1953 he was appointed senior chair of the Youth Court in Munich. He was temporarily president of the regional High Court in Hamburg, and in 1960 he chaired the Working Group on Criminal Law reform. In 1967 he was appointed to chair the West German Justice Ministry's Federal Justice commission. In 1964 he was a co-founder in Hamburg of the first West German Amnesty International group.