The constitutional lawyer and former constitutional judge Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde has become one of the most influential jurists in the Federal Republic, not least due to the so-called Böckenförde dictum, which states that the liberal, secular state relies on conditions it cannot guarantee itself. This volume combines Böckenförde's essays on the constitutional situation, constitutional law, and the order of Europe with a substantial biographical interview in which he discusses his career, intellectual influences, scientific research, his Catholicism, his membership in the SPD, and his time as a constitutional judge. A significant contribution to the history of ideas and the contemporary history of the Federal Republic.