The Association of German Teachers of Constitutional Law turns 100 this year. Yesterday there was a big ceremony as part of this year's Staatsrechtslehrertagung in the venerable old Ratshalle of the city of Bremen, and I had the privilege of being there. It was a very uplifting experience, but also a very strange one. The Staatsrechtslehrervereinigung, for those who don't know it, is not just any academic learned society. It is something special. But what exactly, and why, is a question that is

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... not easy to answer and which seems endlessly fascinating to themselves. The humongous festschrift under the title "Streitsache Staat" (roughly: litigation cause / matter of controversy state), which was written for this occasion and unveiled yesterday as the highlight of the ceremony, devotes a total of over 1000 pages of text to the search for an answer. I am not a Staatsrechtslehrer myself, not by a far shot. But I share this fascination. I find that really interesting. The association is made up of people and does things, neither of which seems special at first glance: it is the professional society of German public law scholars, and it holds a yearly conference at which lectures are given and critically discussed. So far, so unremarkable. What makes it special is the limits it imposes on itself in both respects: Not everyone can become a member but only specific people, and it is not always easy to say who exactly and why. The lectures are held and discussed in a very specific way, not everyone can listen and criticize but only specific people, and who exactly and how exactly and to what end exactly -all that remains strangely mysterious and unspecified.