Univ.-Prof. Dr. Erich Sachers

Erich Sachers attended grammar school in Innsbruck and began studying law there in 1908 after graduating from high school. In 1911/12 he completed his one-year voluntary service. In 1914 he received his doctorate in law. He is called up to the k. u. k. He was first sent to the front in Galicia and then to Italy, where he was taken prisoner in 1915 and only released in 1919 as a first lieutenant (retired).

In 1920, he passed the judgeship examination and worked as a district judge from 1922. In addition to his work as a judge, he prepared for an academic career and attended the universities of Munich and Vienna for several months at a time. In 1928, he was appointed assistant lecturer for comparative private law and Roman law at the University of Giessen. He habilitated in these subjects and in ancient legal history and was appointed associate professor of Roman law and labor law at the University of Graz in 1929; he was appointed full professor in 1935.

After the Anschluss, he was banned from teaching because the National Socialists considered him a monarchist. He had to endure several house searches and was arrested by the Gestapo on July 8, 1939 and taken into custody. He was sentenced to five months in prison on the basis of false testimony. After his release in January 1940, he was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and took part in the French campaign as an officer. Because he was considered "politically unreliable", he was discharged from the Wehrmacht in 1942 and worked as a private scholar.

After the war, he was initially able to return to the University of Graz as an associate university professor, and in 1949 he regained his former chair. In 1950, he moved to the Chair of Civil Procedure Law at the University of Innsbruck. Here he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Law in 1952 and 1958 and Rector of the University.