I was very saddened to learn early this afternoon of the death of Jutta Limbach.

We mourn the loss of a great advocate of constitutionality and the rule of law, who was renowned and respected in Germany and beyond.

Jutta Limbach conducted important legal research. At the same time, she was always politically active as a professor, as Senator of Justice in Berlin, and then naturally as President of the Federal Constitutional Court. She made German constitutional law, while her dedicated public support for the foundations of the democratic constitutional state made her one of our country’s outstanding judges.

As President of the Goethe-Institut, Jutta Limbach also had a profound impact on German cultural policy. She showed enormous enthusiasm in launching projects that sent an important message at a time when there was still widespread trepidation about promoting the German language.

Jutta Limbach did a great deal to improve Germany’s reputation in the world. We will all miss her lively, optimistic and, at times, admonitory voice.