Dr. Claus Wagner

After finishing elementary school, Dr. Claus Wagner completed an industrial management assistant training and worked in sales including in a leading position at Heyne-Verlag, Munich (a publishing company). Whilst in this role he resumed his education and completed his Abitur (A-levels) after which he started business management and law studies at Munich University. During his studies he worked for the publisher Ewald Schwarzer-Verlag, Berlin (formerly Munich). He completed both his state law exams in 1974/1977 with the grades good/good; the business management studies were completed with the intermediate diploma. In between both exams he completed his doctorate on state investment incentives/promotion.

After entering civil service in Bavaria in 1977 he initially worked as a government councillor for two years in the Ministry of Justice where he worked, amongst other things, on the compilation of an information brochure for citizens. He was then public prosecutor in a juvenile court for two years and, from 1981 to 1988, judge of the Munich Regional Court I at the chamber responsible for press disputes. After being appointed judge of the Higher Regional Court he was initially full-time trainer for junior lawyers and then appointed to a retail trade senate before moving to Saxony on 1.10.1996. In Saxony he assumed the chair of a major criminal division in Chemnitz until 31.12.1196 and was then the presiding judge of the Dresden Higher Regional Court (including the senate for trade law and state liability). Besides his work as judge, he was also a trainer for junior lawyers who had not succeeded the second state law exam in Saxony. He has worked as an examiner for the second state law exam and has compiled numerous exam papers. After retiring in 2011 he was admitted to the bar as a lawyer specialising in mediation, arbitration and evaluation. From an academic viewpoint, he holds legal lectures and also works as main author of the following legal commentaries: Bamberger/Roth BGB, Beck-Verlag; Graf von Westphalen/Röhricht, Commentary on the German Commercial Code (meanwhile submitted); Munich Commentary on the Code of Civil Procedure, Beck-Verlag, in particular commentary on Otto Schmidt