Eugen Ehmann is an Honorary Senator

In recognition of his many years of service to the state, law and society as well as his impetus for the development of JMU, the University of Würzburg awarded Dr Eugen Ehmann the title of Honorary Senator at its 2026 Foundation Festival in the Neubaukirche.

Eugen Ehmann, born on 28 January 1958 in Tauberbischofsheim, has had an outstanding influence on public administration in Bavaria for decades. His work is characterised by legal precision, strategic foresight and a deep sense of responsibility towards the state and society.

It is not only the multitude of offices and functions that characterise him, but above all the attitude with which he has fulfilled them: objective, reliable and always committed to the common good.

Eugen Ehmann's career

After graduating from Matthias-Grünewald-Gymnasium in Tauberbischofsheim, Eugen Ehmann studied law in Mannheim and Erlangen, supported by the German National Academic Foundation. In 1987, he received his doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg with a legal history thesis on market law.

Even at this early stage, his interest in categorising legal issues in a wider social context and making academic findings useful in practice was evident.

His career in the Bavarian civil service began in 1986 with the government of Middle Franconia and soon took him to the Bavarian State Ministry of the Interior, where he dealt with topics such as data protection, press law and new media - fields that were highly relevant to society both then and now.

This was followed by formative years at the Nuremberg District Office, where he assumed responsibility for public safety and order and later for construction and central administrative tasks, while also acting as the district administrator's internal representative.

Other important positions included the Bavarian State Chancellery in the area of data protection and the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety, where he headed the "Coordination and Strategy" department.

District President of Lower Franconia from 2019

In 2008, Eugen Ehmann was appointed District Vice President of Middle Franconia before taking over as District President of Lower Franconia in 2019. In this role, he shaped the administration as a modern, efficient and citizen-centred institution and provided important impetus for cooperation, efficiency and the future viability of government action.

His time in office also saw numerous important construction projects at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, which were realised with the involvement of the state building administration and sustainably strengthened the development of the science location. These include the Centre for Artificial Intelligence CAIDAS, the Centre for Philology and Digitality, the new mathematics building, the Centre of Polymers for Life and the new chemistry practical building. These projects are examples of the close and trusting relationship between the state and the university.

Scientific activities

In addition to his work in administration, Eugen Ehmann was also always active in science. As co-editor of the journal "Computer und Recht" and as a member of the scientific advisory board of the "Zeitschrift für Datenschutzrecht", he contributed his expertise to the professional discourse.

His publications on issues of data protection, citizenship law and social challenges in municipalities - in particular on the legal categorisation of homelessness - testify to a special flair for socially relevant topics, to which he devoted himself early on and with lasting effect.

However, it is not only the functions and publications that characterise Eugen Ehmann. Above all, it is his human attitude: his reliability, his integrity and his feeling for people's concerns - values that characterise him as a formative personality.