About us
We look back to the late 1960s, to the young students and friends Annemarie Gaugel, Hartmut Wächtler, Thomas Hessel, and Hubert Heinhold. At the time, they were part of the first post-war generation; their parents had also lived through the war and its aftermath—as convinced Nazis, fellow travelers, or as refugees and expellees. They all knew each other from their studies or from various campaigns and discussions within the 1968 student movement.
A reckoning with the crimes of the Nazi era, let alone the kind of denazification they had hoped for, was not taking place at the time. The Nazi past was largely hushed up and suppressed. In post-war Germany, many former NSDAP members, convinced Nazis, and fellow travelers held leading positions and public offices in politics, business, universities, and the courts. These young people protested against this silence. Under the slogan "Under the gowns—the mustiness of 1,000 years," they demanded clarification, transparency, and a confrontation with their own family histories and the roles their parents had played. Like the others, Wächtler, Gaugel, Hessel, and Heinhold wanted to do everything differently than their parents: they wanted to free the "newly minted" democratic Federal Republic—and themselves—from the structures of the old Nazis that still existed. Furthermore, they campaigned for peace and an end to the Vietnam War, as well as for free love and equality.
"We are, it must be admitted, a product of the famous '68 years," Hartmut Wächtler later said, describing the firm's origins. Since the student unrest, he, Annemarie Gaugel, Wolfgang Bendler, and Wolfgang Kisch had become friends. Some of them had already gained initial experience with the legal aid services of the APO (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition), advising students who had clashed with the police during demonstrations.
In 1973, the time had come: an office was rented at Schellingstr. 52, an enamel sign was put up, and the joint law firm "Wächtler und Kollegen" was founded.
Initially, the clientele consisted primarily of those affected by the '68 protests. Hartmut Wächtler recalls: "The first clients were the same people we already knew from legal aid. They faced charges for resisting arrest, disturbing the peace, or simply for not leaving when the police ordered them to." Later, as the protests shifted to the university because students were demonstrating against the reactionary new Bavarian Higher Education Act—and were rewarded with the abolition of their student government, the AStA—Wächtler notes that charges for coercion and trespassing were added. "Franz Josef Strauß provided us with many cases because he filed criminal complaints against everyone who disparaged him—the Bavarian judiciary processed it all."
One of these individuals was Rolf Pohle, a friend of Hartmut Wächtler’s from their student days and the APO. When Wächtler took over his defense in September 1973, Pohle had already been in pre-trial detention for 21 months. The case became Wächtler’s first major trial and a defining moment for his future career.
Pohle’s biography is representative of many in his generation who, coming from the moderate West German left, became increasingly radicalized and eventually faced the choice of either breaking with their previous lives or conforming. As a law student, he polarized the conservative Munich student body, became chairman of the student government (AStA) in 1968, and in this capacity campaigned specifically against the Vietnam War, the Greek military coup, and the Grand Coalition’s impending emergency laws. "Rolf Pohle exerted a great personal attraction on me and others," Hartmut Wächtler later recalled. "Rolf had a very pragmatic relationship with leftist theory," Wächtler continued. A "very strong sense of justice" was essential to him, "especially for the weak and the threatened." He understood the student revolt as a "liberation from the lies of the fathers."
Rolf Pohle's later life was marked by arrests, long periods of solitary confinement, and several trials due to his proximity to the RAF, as well as his role in the kidnapping of Peter Lorenz, which led to his release and departure to communist South Yemen. After his re-arrest in Athens in 1976, the Greek Areopagus (the supreme court for criminal and civil cases in Greece) initially ruled against his extradition to Germany, classifying the charges against him as political offenses, thereby making the case a symbol of Greece's independence from the Federal Republic and the overpowering, wealthy Western Europe. However, under political pressure, a turnaround occurred; Pohle was extradited after a new trial and imprisoned in Germany once again. In a further trial in Munich, he received an additional prison sentence, after which he finally rejected the offer of being defended by Wächtler again. "The Pohle case affected us all back then," recalls Thomas Hessel.
Just like the Pohle case, other politically explosive and interesting cases followed for the firm, particularly in the 80s, including those in the context of protests against the Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant or the protests against Franz Josef Strauß's candidacy for chancellor (the so-called "anachronistic procession"), to name just a few examples.
While the focus was initially exclusively on criminal law, that soon changed—especially when Thomas Hessel and Hubert Heinhold joined four and five years later, respectively, bringing additional areas of law.
Annemarie Gaugel became a legal advisor to the Green Party parliamentary group in 1983. In this role, she advised the party, which had just entered the Bonn parliament. It was an opportunity for her to try something different, Gaugel explains. "Everything was new," she recalls. "The time was exhausting; no one had experience—no one in the parliamentary group." After a year, however, she returned to her career as a lawyer in Munich. Later, she also advised public television on fictional marriage and divorce cases for television programs.
Thomas Hessel initially focused primarily on tenancy and labor law, representing tenants being evicted from their homes or employees having trouble with their jobs. Over time, he added his current focus: medical law. Furthermore, in the 90s, he was actively involved in the redesign of the then-new Psychotherapist Act. He also deals with topics in criminology, such as the criminal responsibility of mentally ill persons or the socialization of prisoners.
With Hubert Heinhold, the firm began representing clients in immigration and asylum law starting in the 80s. Initially consisting of a single filing cabinet full of clients from the persecuted Sikh community, the division expanded considerably over time as the Federal Republic increasingly became a country of immigration. "More persecuted people followed, because word got around that Heinhold took immigration law seriously, which was by no means the rule in the 70s," Hartmut Wächtler later recalled.
In 1995, the firm moved to its current location at Rottmannstraße 11a. The baton was passed to Katharina Camerer and Anna Frölich around the mid-2010s, marking the younger generation's assumption of responsibility for the firm. Since then, the firm's immigration law division has been significantly expanded and has become its thematic focus. Initially consisting of a single filing cabinet full of clients from the persecuted Sikh community, the division expanded considerably over time as the Federal Republic increasingly became a country of immigration. "More persecuted people followed, because word got around that Heinhold took immigration law seriously, which was by no means the rule in the 70s," Hartmut Wächtler later recalled.
Naturally, the firm has changed significantly over the past 50+ years. It was never a family business, yet it has remained consistently active for such a long time. The firm's founders were part of the '68 generation, which left a strong political and cultural mark on the then-young Federal Republic through their protests. They are contributors to and witnesses of a phase of upheaval and modernization in West Germany.
The firm's initial philosophy is still maintained today: "We tried to do everything together, to shape the work together, and to earn the money together," recalls Thomas Hessel. "It wasn't about the money. Expenses were deducted from what we earned, and the rest was shared—fairly: regardless of whether one person worked more or less, or how many lucrative cases they had."
"This approach, which stems from our tradition and benefits our clients who need support, will continue," says Hessel. The firm's goal is to "maintain a strong sense of justice and support those who are disadvantaged." The firm's profile has changed generally over the years, according to Hartmut Wächtler. Nevertheless, it remains essential to continue defending the rights and civil liberties of clients with the utmost vigor if necessary. "That is what we are here for, and that is how it should remain."
Hubert Heinhold surrendered his license to practice law in 2025 and is now retired. Hartmut Wächtler passed away in December 2025 at the age of 81 following a short, serious illness.
The firm has grown significantly in recent years and now includes several associate lawyers, assistants, and trainees. According to partner Anna Frölich, the firm can learn from its past 50 years to be well-positioned for the next 50. While she notes that a law firm cannot be run the same way today as it was back then—immigration law has become more complex and the financial pressure greater—"the spirit of the early years is still present," says Frölich. For her, this means the ability to make a real difference through one's work and to stand up for a group that exists on the fringes of society.
There are big plans for the coming years: the goal is to continue growing, building contacts, and gaining influence in order to "...", explains Katharina Camerer, a partner at the firm. Camerer and Frölich have a grand plan for the firm—their "project," as Camerer calls it.
On your side, worldwide.
Wächtler & Associates Attorneys at Law
Rottmannstraße 11a
80333 Munich
VAT ID: DE 130751887
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