Editing Gustav Heinemann (section)

==Early years and professional career==
Heinemann was named after his mother's father, a master roof tiler in [[Barmen]], with radical-democratic, left-liberal, and patriotic views. His maternal grandfather, Heinemann's great-grandfather, had taken part in the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|Revolution of 1848]]. His father, Otto Heinemann, a manager at the [[Krupp]] steelworks in [[Essen]], shared his father-in-law's views. In his youth, Gustav already felt called upon to preserve and promote the liberal and democratic traditions of 1848. Throughout his life, he fought against all kinds of subservience. This attitude helped him to maintain his intellectual independence even in the face of majorities in political parties and in the Church.<ref>Helmut Lindemann: Gustav Heinemann. Ein Leben für die Demokratie. Munich (Koesel) 1986, (1st ed. 1978), {{ISBN|3-466-41012-6}}, p. 14</ref>

Having finished his elite secondary education in 1917, Heinemann briefly became a soldier in the [[First World War]], but his severe illness stopped him from being sent to the front.

From 1918, Heinemann studied law, economics, and history at the universities of Münster, Marburg, Munich, Göttingen, and Berlin, graduating in 1922 and passing the bar in 1926. He received a Ph.D in 1922 and a doctorate of law in 1929.

The friendships that Heinemann formed during his student years often lasted for a lifetime. Among his friends were such different people as [[Wilhelm Röpke]], who was to become one of the leading figures of economic liberalism, Ernst Lemmer, later a trade unionist and also a [[Christian Democratic Union (Germany)|Christian Democrat]], and Viktor Agartz, a Marxist.

At the beginning of his career, Heinemann joined a renowned firm of solicitors in Essen. In 1929, he published a book about legal questions in the medical profession. From 1929 to 1949, he worked as a legal adviser to the Rheinische Stahlwerke in Essen, and from 1936 to 1949, he was also one of its directors. 

The steelworks were considered to be essential for the war so Heinemann was not drafted into the army. He was a lecturer at the law school of the University of Cologne between 1933 and 1939. It was probably his refusal to become a member of the [[Nazi Party]] that ended his academic career.<ref name="fes">{{Cite web | url=http://www.fes.de/archiv/adsd_neu/inhalt/nachlass/nachlass_h/heinemann-gu.htm | title=Archiv der sozialen Demokratie | access-date=4 March 2010 | archive-date=15 May 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515145016/http://www.fes.de/archiv/adsd_neu/inhalt/nachlass/nachlass_h/heinemann-gu.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Heinemann was invited to join the board of directors of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Kohlensyndikat (Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate) in 1936, but the invitation was withdrawn due to Heinemann's refusal to end his work for the anti-Nazi [[Confessing Church]].<ref name=bp/>