Gilbert Häfner

Gilbert Häfner was born in 1955 in Munich and studied law in Munich, Geneva (Switzerland) and Heidelberg. After working as a junior lawyer in Heidelberg, he completed his second state law exam there in 1983 and went on to work as a prosecutor and judge here. From 1985 to 1992 he was advisor and department head of the Ministry of Justice of Baden Wurttemberg in Stuttgart where he initially worked on personnel matters and then in training and further training.

In 1992 he joined Saxony’s State Ministry of Justice which was still in the development phase where he assumed the position of head of training and further training and, at the same time, the role of president of the Federal State Authority of Law Examinations. In 1995 he joined the Dresden Higher Regional Court as presiding judge of a civil senate. From 2009 to 2011 Gilbert Häfner was, as head of section, in charge of Department I of the Saxony’s State Ministry of Justice which is responsible for personnel matters and budget, organisation and policy questions in justice in Saxony. Since January 2012 he is president of the Dresden Regional Court where his roles include chairman of a civil chamber.

Gilbert Häfner also has extensive experience as an arbitrator. Alongside his judicial work he has also chaired private arbitral tribunals, some with international members, in a considerable number of proceedings. Furthermore, he completed a mediator training in 2014 and has been active in this role since then. In addition he is a lecturer at various further training events on different subjects. Since 2002 Gilbert Häfner has been working on an MDR advisory programme on legal questions in everyday life which is broadcast every two weeks in the programme “MDR um vier” and is, therefore, well known to a television audience from more than 300 episodes.

Gilbert Häfner lives in Dresden, is married and has two daughters.