Wolfgang Kaleck

Wolfgang Kaleck is a lawyer who worked for many years as a criminal defence attorney. In 2007, he founded the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), a legal human rights organisation based in Berlin, and has served as its Secretary General ever since. Kaleck has received numerous awards for his work as a lawyer and founder of the ECCHR, including the Hermann Kesten Prize from the PEN Centre Germany in 2014 and the Honorary Award of the Bruno Kreisky Foundation for Special Merits in the Field of Human Rights in 2017.

Kaleck is also an author and has published, among other books, Mit Recht gegen die Macht (2015), published in English as Law Versus Power (2018), Die konkrete Utopie der Menschenrechte: Ein Blick zurück in die Zukunft (2021), published in English as The Concrete Utopia of Human Rights (2022), and most recently Die Stärke des Rechts vs. das Recht des Stärkeren. Plädoyer für Völkerrecht und Menschenrechte (2026), published in English as The Power of Law (2026).

He has also participated as a curator and speaker in numerous cultural events, including at the Akademie der Künste, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Wiener Festwochen and Hamburger Phototriennale.