Werner Maihofer is still regarded today as an outstanding intellectual in the history of German liberalism. The criminal law professor represents a group of political newcomers who transformed the party landscape, particularly the FDP, in the 1960s and 1970s. With the Freiburg Theses, he provides a theoretical foundation for social liberalism and is considered a close confidant of Walter Scheel and Willy Brandt. However, his meteoric rise does not last long: as Minister of the Interior, Maihofer stumbles, and in 1978 he is ultimately abandoned by his own party. It turns out that not only was Maihofer himself never truly anchored in the FDP, but also his convictions. With Maihofer's withdrawal from the cabinet, the idea of social liberalism simultaneously disappears from the banners of the Free Democrats.