Prof. Dr. Christofer Lenz and Dr. Henrike Schulte successfully defended State Parliament President Muhterem Aras against an AfD constitutional complaint regarding regulations governing access to State Parliament premises, in particular a connecting tunnel.

OPPENLÄNDER Rechtsanwälte, represented by Prof. Dr. Christofer Lenz and Dr. Henrike Schulte, has once again won a case for State Parliament President Muhterem Aras at the Constitutional Court of Baden-Württemberg. The AfD members of the state parliament and their parliamentary group had challenged decisions made by the president within the scope of her domiciliary rights regarding the arrangement of access to state parliament premises. This also concerned the use of a connecting tunnel beneath Konrad-Adenauer-Straße between the plenary building and the building housing the offices of the members of the major parliamentary groups of the Greens and the CDU.

The Constitutional Court has already rejected the application as inadmissible because Prof. Dr. Lenz and Dr. Schulte were able to demonstrate that the deadline had not been met. However, the reasoning behind the ruling makes it clear that there is unlikely to be any impairment of members of parliament in their mandate activities if they only have to use a public road. Since the AfD members of parliament do not have their offices in the building connected to the plenary building by the tunnel, they have to leave their office building anyway to get to the plenary building. To do so, they must continue to use the street, in accordance with the state parliament president’s building concept, just like the SPD and FDP members of parliament.

OPPENLÄNDER Rechtsanwälte, with its proven duo of partners Prof. Dr. Christofer Lenz and Dr. Henrike Schulte, has won all constitutional disputes for the President of the State Parliament and the State Parliament in the legislative period that is coming to an end. Both partners also work for various other state parliaments, in some cases together with Dr. Maximilian Gerhold.

Press release from the Constitutional Court (as of December 18, 2025) (in German only)

Reporting on Beck-Online “Landtag Baden-Württemberg: Mitarbeitertunnel bleibt Einbahnstraße für AfD-Fraktion” (as of December 19, 2025) (in German only)

Reporting in Stern “Verfassungsgericht untersagt AfD, Landtagstunnel zu benutzen” (as of December 18, 2015) (in German only)

Reporting in Tagesschau “Kurioser Zoff im Landtag: AfD darf Tunnel zum Landtagsgebäude weiter nicht nutzen” (as of December 18, 2015) (in German only)