An espresso with...Antje Grotheer

Antje Grotheer studied law at the University of Bremen from 1986 to 1991. She then worked as a research assistant at Uni Bremen, completed her legal clerkship and subsequently took up work as a lawyer. From 2003 to 2011, she held management positions in the Bremen administration and has been a member of the Bremen Parliament since 2011. In 2019, she succeeded the late Christian Weber as President of the Bremen Parliament for three months then was re-elected to the office in the summer of 2023.

Why did you study at the University of Bremen?

I was born and raised in Bremen, and at first I thought I would leave Bremen to study. But back then, places in law programmes were allocated centrally – and what I was allocated was not what I had imagined. So I decided to go to Uni Bremen after all. And I was also already politically active in Jusos (Young Socialists in the SPD). That was absolutely the right decision. In my first days at the university, I was thrilled to see so many normal people walking around with the lawyers – unlike at the university I had been assigned to. There, the law programme had a clear business focus and you could see that straight away, 1980s-style: polo shirt and tassel shoes for the men, pleated skirt and pearl necklace for the women. A little exaggeration, of course. At Uni Bremen I was happy to see people who, for the most part, wore jeans and pullovers, just like I did.    

After those good first impressions, were your expectations met for the study course as a whole?

Yes. What I really liked was that it was all underpinned by a big debate about social circumstances and the question of what the university can do to bring about change. Is the university an engine or just a catalyst? That did a lot for me, that we were having discussions around the conditions for studying, and how everyone can gain access to the university and be able to stay there. This theme of equal opportunities has been with me for my entire life.

What was the most formative thing about your law studies?

It was towards the end of our programme, we were focussing on international and European law, when the Berlin Wall fell. We had so many discussions about how the new reality should be shaped. What happens with the five new states? Is it a reunification or an annexation? What has to be done so that the people there live under the same conditions as here and don't feel like they’re being overrun? How should it be legally structured? That was very exciting, and the discussion is still going on today. For many people in those five no-longer-new federal states, the feeling of not having been brought along is still there.

Which of the professors was most consequential for you?

For me, the most consequential was Professor Gerhard Stuby, with whom I studied international law and then started a doctorate, which unfortunately I didn’t finish, on the topic of international protection of minorities. In the meantime, history has moved ahead: my proposition was that it should be regulated by international law, and now there is an international convention.

The single-phase law degree at Uni Bremen was heavily criticised and devalued, especially in conservative circles. Did you have any problems in this regard after your studies?

That wasn’t my experience at all. Maybe it was a little easier because I was already part of the second cohort that had a two-phase education. Whenever I had to deal with lawyers from other universities during my clerkship and we had to prepare briefs together, we Bremeners were not a jot worse.

After I finished my studies, I worked for a while as a research assistant at Uni Bremen. Today I meet people all the time who say: "You failed me once on an exam.” It’s true that of the many exams I corrected, not all were up to the mark – and people obviously remember that better than a good grade. Then I completed my legal clerkship and was a lawyer in Bremen. In 2003 I started working in the Bremen administration as a personal assistant to the then Senator for Education, Willi Lemke. I moved to the Interior Ministry with him in 2007 and then took over the management of a department there in 2008. Since then I've had a lot to do with [Bremen’s] interior affairs.

As President of the Bremen Parliament, surely you can benefit from your law degree?

Absolutely. I have a basic understanding of the meaning of laws, why they are the way they are. I also have the ability to explain laws. For example, there is often a call for tougher criminal laws – and there it’s important to clarify why it’s often not the law that’s the problem, but rather that you need to prove which specific offences were committed. Of course, my experience in the administration also helps, because I have an idea of why some processes don't go as quickly as we would like. This expertise has also helped me in parliamentary committees of enquiry, because I know the administration from the inside and know what has to be presented to the senator and what’s done at the working level.

What advice do you have for today's students?

To take in the course content, but also to remain curious about what’s to the right and left of it. "Law" is not an end in itself. I started studying law because I wanted to write court reports like the then well-known court reporter Gerhard Mauz did in Der Spiegel. I found that fascinating. Law presents an opportunity when you know what impacts laws have and you know how people feel when they’re materially affected by legal processes. That's why it's important to include subjects in your studies that aren’t purely law, like something in the social sciences, or do volunteer work. But of course that applies in general.

What is your view of Uni Bremen today? You are a member of the alumni association, but you also have a perspective from one of the state of Bremen’s highest public offices.

I look at Uni Bremen with delight because I think it has shaped up well. I suffered a little when the excellence designation lapsed. Regardless, I think it’s important that we get moving in that direction again. It’s a strong university and I am proud of my Uni. I like telling people that I studied in Bremen. And I'm happy that many people who now hold important positions in the city and the state also studied at this Uni. It's wonderful that the university does so much for the region, for the economy and for society.