Fritz Bauer was one of the most important and legally influential returned Jewish emigrants in post-war Germany. As a district attorney, he initiated important criminal proceedings against Nazi perpetrators, in particular the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, despite considerable opposition. He also played a decisive role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann, who was put on trial in Israel for his crimes as former head of the “Jewish Affairs Section” at the Reich Security Main Office.

This exhibition documents Fritz Bauer’s life history in the context of broader historical events, using original exhibits, sound and film recordings. A Jew and Social Democrat who, in 1930, became the youngest district judge in the Weimar Republic, he was subject to persecution in the Nazi period. He escaped Germany, returning only in 1949. Fritz Bauer’s view that a district attorney is first and foremost responsible for protecting human dignity, especially against state violence, revolutionized the traditional view of this office – an important step forward in democratization in the early Federal Republic.