Spiros Simitis

Spiros Simitis (; 19 October 1934 – 18 March 2023) was a Greek-German jurist and a pioneer in the field of data protection. In recognition of his role, admirers sometimes describe him as "the man who invented data protection".

He was appointed Chief Data Protection Commissioner for the state of Hessen in 1975, and remained in post till 1991. When the West German government prepared for the 1978 launch of a national equivalent, he was seen by commentators as the obvious choice for the post of Federal Commissioner for Data Protection. He was indeed offered the job, but he rejected it in protest against the government decision, taken shortly before launch, to cut the resources allocated to the new department. That involved reducing the staffing level at the new commission from 32 – "previously agreed as necessary" – to 20. "The state of Bavaria on its own is budgeting no fewer than twenty data-protection staff for the coming year – a telling comparison" ("Allein das Land Bayern sehe für Datenschutz-Aufgaben in seinem eigenen Bereich im kommenden Jahr nicht weniger als zwanzig Bedienstete vor – eine "bezeichnende Relation"").

Spiros Simitis obtained West German citizenship in 1975. His younger brother, Costas Simitis, served as Prime Minister of Greece and was leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) between 1996 and 2004.

Biography Spiros Simitis was born in Athens to Fani and Georgios Simitis, a lawyer and law professor who later became a member of the National Liberation Front government in World War II. He received his doctorate for work completed in 1956 on "Actual contractual relationships as an expression of the changing social purpose of legal principals in civil law" ("Die faktischen Vertragsverhältnisse als Ausdruck der gewandelten sozialen Funktion der Rechtsinstitute des Privatrechts"). He then moved a short distance south, to Frankfurt University, where he worked as a research assistant till 1962/63. His ambition was to make his career in the universities sector: accordingly, in 1963 he received his habilitation at Frankfurt. Although the risks associated with unregulated accumulation by public bodies of vast quantities of personal data were already appearing on the horizon among academics familiar with developments in database technology, his habilitation was not concerned with Data Protection, the speciality which by the end of the 1960s had become the focus of his work.

Around the time he submitted his dissertation Simitis met the Freudian psychoanalyst-scholar Ilse Grubrich at the home of their friend, the sociologist-philosopher Jürgen Habermas and his wife Ute. The wedding ceremony for Spiros and Ilse Simitis took place on 3 August 1963, following the Greek Orthodox rite which on this occasion, as one impressed academic colleague noted, involved "dancing around the bride and groom with floral wreaths". Simitis was director of the Research Centre for Data Protection at Frankfurt University and has been a guest professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1976), Strasbourg University (1987–1988) and Yale University (1981–2000). It was from the start, in his words, a "reaction to the constant refinement and evolution of Information Technology" (als "Reaktion auf eine sich ständig weiterentwickelnde und verfeinernde Informationstechnologie").

Simitis died on 18 March 2023, at the age of 88.

Memberships and commissions Spiros Simitis has been a member of the German Council for International Private Law since 1966. Between 1966 and 1980 he was General Secretary of the International Data Commission (Generalsekretär der Internationalen Zivilstandskommission). In addition, between 1979 and 1982 he was a member of the standing deputation for Data Protection of the German Jurists Convention (Deutscher Juristentag), and between 1982 and 1986 he served as chair of the Council of Europe's Experts Commission on Data Protection questions. Since 1988 he has served as permanent advisor to the European Commission on Data Protection questions.

Recognition and celebration During his professional career Spiros Simitis received a succession of honours from international commissions and academic institutions. He was an honorary doctor of the Democritus University of Thrace since 1992, and also, from 2003, of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He was also an honorary member of the German Jurists Convention (Deutscher Juristentag) from 2002 and a corresponding member of the Academy of Athens from 2003.

Further awards and honours (selection)

1981: Order of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Commander) 1992: Hessian Order of Merit (Hessischer Verdienstorden) 1996: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1st class 1999: Commander of the Greek Order of Honour 2004: Officer of the French Legion of Honour 2010: Arnold Freymuth Society prize

Publications (selection)

Kommentar zum Bundesdatenschutzgesetz. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1978, (7., neu bearbeitete Auflage. ebenda 2011, ). Zur Verrechtlichung der Arbeitsbeziehungen. In: Friedrich Kübler (compiler-editor): Verrechtlichung von Wirtschaft, Arbeit und sozialer Solidarität. Vergleichende Analysen. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1984, , pp. 73–165. Kindschaftsrecht – Elemente einer Theorie des Familienrechts. In: Albrecht Dieckmann, Rainer Frank, Hans Hanisch, Spiros Simitis (Hrsg.): Festschrift für Wolfram Müller-Freienfels. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1986, , pp. 579–616. Die verordnete Sprachlosigkeit: das Arbeitsverhältnis als Kommunikationsbarriere. In: Willy Brandt, Helmut Gollwitzer, Johann Friedrich Henschel (compiler-editor): Ein Richter, ein Bürger, ein Christ. Festschrift für Helmut Simon. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1987, , pp. 329–358. Lob der Unvollständigkeit: Zur Dialektik der Transparenz personenbezogener Informationen. In: Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Klaus Kinkel, Hans Meyer, Helmut Simon (compiler-editor): Gegenrede. Aufklärung – Kritik – Öffentlichkeit. Festschrift für Ernst Gottfried Mahrenholz. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1994, , pp. 573–592. with Ulrich Dammann: EG-Datenschutzrichtlinie. Kommentar. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1997. Internet oder der entzauberte Mythos vom "freien Markt der Meinungen". In: Heinz-Dieter Assmann, Georgois Gounalakis, Thomas Brinkmann, Rainer Walz: Wirtschafts- und Medienrecht in der offenen Demokratie. Freundesgabe für Friedrich Kübler zum 65. Geburtstag. Müller, Heidelberg 1997, , pp. 285–314. Auf dem Weg zu einem neuen Datenschutzkonzept. In: Datenschutz und Datensicherheit. Band 24, Nr. 12, 2000, , pp. 714–726. Data Protection in the European Union – The Quest for Common Rules. In: Collected Courses of the Academy of European Law. vol 8, Nr. 1, 2001, , pp. 95–141. Der Streit um die Stasi-Akten oder die fortschreitende Enthistorisierung des Interpretationsprozesses. In: Cornelius Prittwitz, Michael Baurmann, Klaus Günther, Lothar Kuhlen, Reinhard Merkel, Cornelius Nestler, Lorenz Schulz (Hrsg.): Festschrift für Klaus Lüderssen. Zum 70. Geburtstag am 2. Mai 2002. Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2002, , pp. 141–151. Rechtliche Anwendungsmöglichkeiten kybernetischer Systeme. In: Recht und Staat in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 322. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 1966