Born in 1894 as a child of workers, Friedrich Wilhelm Wagner overcame the barriers of a society trapped in class divisions. He became a lawyer, a Social Democratic politician, survived National Socialism in exile, was one of the fathers of the Basic Law, and advanced the political and legal reappraisal of the Nazi era in the early Federal Republic. Wagner's life, rich in breaks and changes, was typical of 20th-century Germany. His political career took him from the Reichstag to the Parliamentary Council of early post-war Germany and finally to the Bundestag. He had a strong sense of social responsibility and stood firmly for the democratic rule of law. The legal reappraisal of National Socialism was very important to him. As Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court, Wagner oversaw the Basic Law, which he helped to establish as its foundation.