About Anwaltsblatt

Anwaltsblatt

The Anwaltsblatt is the journal of the German legal profession, published by the Deutscher Anwaltverein (DAV) — the German Bar Association — with a print run exceeding 60,000 copies, making it the highest-circulation legal specialist journal in the German-speaking world. Appearing monthly, it reports on developments across all areas of law from the lawyer's perspective, with thematic focuses on professional law (Anwaltsrecht), lawyer liability, legal fees, the legal-services market and law-firm management. Founded in 1914 as the DAV's member newsletter, renamed Anwaltsblatt in 1926, suppressed under the Nazis and refounded in 1950, it has accompanied the German legal profession through more than a century — from the Kaiserreich through two world wars and division to the reunified Federal Republic's modern legal market.

Overview

Germany has over 165,000 admitted lawyers (Rechtsanwälte), organized in a dual system: the mandatory regional bar chambers (Rechtsanwaltskammern) and the voluntary Deutscher Anwaltverein, the profession's independent interest representation with its 250-plus local bar associations. The Anwaltsblatt is the DAV's voice and the profession's forum. Its readership spans the practicing bar — solo practitioners, boutique partners, large-firm lawyers, in-house counsel, young lawyers and the profession's functionaries — plus judges, academics and the legal publishing world.

The editorial program is defined by the lawyer's perspective on legal developments. Where general legal journals address the law as such, the Anwaltsblatt asks what each development means for lawyers' practice: new legislation's consequences for client advice, court decisions' implications for litigation strategy, regulatory changes' effects on law-firm economics. The standing thematic focuses reflect the profession's perennial concerns: Anwaltsrecht (the professional law governing admission, duties and discipline), Anwaltshaftung (the liability exposure that shadows every mandate), Anwaltsvergütung (the fee regulations — the RVG — that determine lawyers' income), Anwaltsmarkt (the competitive dynamics of the legal-services market, from alternative providers to digitalization), and Anwaltsmanagement (the business of running a law firm). Around these focuses, the journal covers developments in all substantive areas of law — civil, criminal, public, labor, family, tax — always through the practitioner's lens.

History

In September 1913, the DAV's representative assembly resolved to found a second association publication alongside the Juristische Wochenschrift (published since 1872): the "Nachrichten für die Mitglieder des DAV" (news for DAV members). The new publication was meant to relieve the JW of association news and to serve for communications "that are expediently not treated in the broadest public, but for which a free discussion limited to the circle of association members is otherwise desirable." The first issue appeared in January 1914 under the editorship of managing director Heinrich Dittenberger — a members' bulletin of news and dates.

The First World War transformed it: the war emergency legislation, with its questions of fees and professional law, was too insignificant for the Juristische Wochenschrift but immensely important for practitioners — and the Nachrichten became a legal journal. In 1926 came the renaming to the still-valid title Anwaltsblatt. The Nazi era brought the journal's darkest chapter: in 1933 it was "gleichgeschaltet" (forcibly coordinated), appearing with the supplement "official bulletin of the Reich specialist group of lawyers of the BNSDJ" until the end of 1933 — the independent bar press did not survive the regime.

After the war, the DAV was refounded in 1948, and in July 1950 the Anwaltsblatt reappeared in its original form as the members' bulletin. It soon outgrew that function, developing into a respected legal specialist journal reporting on developments in all areas of law from the lawyer's perspective. The following decades brought the journal through the Federal Republic's legal history: the expansion of the welfare-state legal order, the professional-law reforms, the fee-law modernizations, reunification's integration of the East German legal profession, the liberalization of advertising and practice rules, and the digitalization of legal work. Today, with its diverse online presence and 60,000-plus print circulation, it stands as the profession's leading journal — the more so since the BRAK-Mitteilungen (the mandatory chambers' bulletin) moved to digital-only.

Coverage and Content

Each monthly issue (with a double issue for August/September) delivers the profession's agenda. The professional-law coverage tracks the BRAO and BORA developments, admission and disciplinary questions, and the evolving rules on law-firm organization — including the liberalization debates on alternative business structures and multidisciplinary practices. Liability coverage addresses the case law and risk-management practice of Anwaltshaftung, the professional-indemnity insurance market, and the organizational precautions firms take against claims. Fee-law coverage follows the RVG — the statutory fee schedule that remains the economic foundation of much German legal practice — through its reforms, court interpretations and practical application questions.

Market coverage examines the legal-services market's structural change: the growth of legal-tech providers, the Big Four's legal arms, alternative legal-service providers, consolidation among firms, and the economics of practice areas. Management coverage addresses law-firm leadership: strategy, marketing, human resources, knowledge management, digitalization and the work-culture questions preoccupying the profession's young generation. The substantive-law reporting spans all fields from the practitioner's viewpoint: landmark decisions analyzed for their litigation consequences, legislative projects assessed for their advisory implications, and the DAV's own committee work — opinions, statements and reform proposals — documented as the profession's collective voice. The DAV's academy, conferences and the annual Anwaltstag (lawyers' congress) extend the journal's community function.

Organization and Ownership

The Anwaltsblatt is published by the Deutscher Anwaltverein e.V., headquartered in Berlin (Littenstrasse 11, 10179 Berlin), the voluntary national association of the German legal profession. The publishing is handled by the Deutscher Anwaltverlag und Institut der Anwaltschaft GmbH of Bonn — the DAV's own publishing arm, based at Wachsbleiche 7, 53111 Bonn. The editors named for the journal are Edith Kindermann, Martin Schafhausen, Christian Deckenbrock and Ruth Nobel — practicing lawyers who guarantee the journal's practitioner orientation — working with the professional editorial staff.

The DAV's media ecosystem extends beyond the journal: the katzenkönig, a legal magazine for students and trainee lawyers launched in June 2020 (successor to the discontinued Anwaltsblatt Karriere), and the Deutsche Anwaltauskunft, the online lawyer-search and legal-information portal operated since 1999. Commercially, the journal runs on the association model: DAV members receive it as part of membership, supplemented by subscriptions, and advertising from the legal industry's suppliers — legal publishers, software providers, professional-indemnity insurers, banks and service companies targeting the 60,000-strong lawyer readership. The circulation — the highest among German-language legal journals — makes it the reference advertising medium for the legal profession.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is anwaltsblatt.anwaltverein.de, carrying the online edition with current articles, the archive, and the digital extensions of the print content. The "diverse online presence" the DAV cites includes the journal's integration into the association's digital ecosystem: the anwaltverein.de portal, the Deutsche Anwaltauskunft's legal news and background reporting, newsletters, and social-media channels through which the journal's content reaches the profession's digitally native generation.

The e-paper serves readers who have shifted from print, while the online archive provides the profession's searchable memory — more than a century of professional-law debate, fee-law evolution and market commentary. The katzenkönig's online-first format addresses the next generation where it lives. After 110 years, the Anwaltsblatt operates as the German legal profession's cross-media forum: monthly in print for the curated professional reading, daily online for the news flow, and institutionally anchored in the DAV's committee work, academy and congresses — the journal through which the German bar has discussed its own affairs since 1914, from the Kaiserreich's war decrees to the digital age's legal tech.