Thomas Dehler (14 December 1897 – 21 July 1967) was a German politician. He was the Federal Republic of Germany's first Minister of Justice (1949–1953) and chairman of Free Democratic Party (1954–1957). Early life Dehler was born in Lichtenfels in Upper Franconia, Bavaria. After graduating from grammar school in 1916, he fought in World War I. After the war, he studied medicine but soon switched to law and political science, which he studied in Munich, Freiburg and Würzburg. He passed his state examinations in 1920 and 1923, respectively. In 1920, he attained his doctorate with the dissertation "The statement of grounds in penal verdicts". In these days (1923) he also became co-founder of an anti-antisemitic student fraternity "Südmark-Monachia" in Munich. In remembrance of his studies at Würzburg, he later, in 1948, joined the student fraternity "Humanitas" Würzburg as an Alter Herr (alumnus). After 1923, he worked as a solicitor in Munich and, after 1925, in Bamberg. In 1925, Dehler had married Irma Frank, a Jewish woman. Political and religious affiliations In 1920, Dehler joined the liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and in 1926 was elected district party chairman in Bamberg. In 1924 he was among the founding members of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, a paramilitary group founded in defence of the Weimar Republic. In 1930, the DDP merged with the Young German Order into German State Party, of which Dehler remained a member until its dissolution in 1933. Dehler grew up in a Roman Catholic family, but in 1927 he joined the masonic lodge Zur Verbrüderung an der Regnitz in Bamberg. After the lodge had been banned under the Nazi regime, Dehler was among its refounders in 1946 and remained a member until his death. In his latter years, Dehler was a vocal opponent of Political Catholicism. Nazi regime After the advent of the Nazi regime, and especially after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws, pressure from Nazi authorities and professional bodies was put on Dehler to divorce his wife. Dehler however resisted the pressure and stood by his wife and his Jewish clients and even took up cases for opponents of the regime. Subsequently, the Nazi periodical Der Stürmer dubbed him "a real comrade of the Jews". In 1938, he was arrested because of contacts to resistance circles. In World War II, Dehler again joined the army but after a few months was expelled as "unworthy" because of his marriage.