Dr. Gerhart F. Rothe, born in 1903, was the founder of our law firm. On 1 April 1933, he joined the business partnership of his father, lawyer and public notary Dr. Friedrich Rothe, in Berlin. This date almost coincided with the the National Socialists’ seizure of power, a regime which proved intolerable to both father and son. Dr. Gerhart F. Rothe therefore withdrew at the early date of June 1933 from his self-employed status and took up a position as legal counsel to a trust company based in Berlin with a largely international client base, while remaining a licensed attorney, as before.

After the end of the Second World War, in 1948, Dr. Gerhart F. Rothe, free of political ramifications, was able to open his own law firm as one of the first attorneys in Munichand rapidly established an excellent reputation. His long-standing activity as legal adviser to Deutsche Kreditsicherungs-AG gave him extensive international experience and opened the door to a domestic and international clientele in the field of business and company law and, in later years, particularly in copyright law and film rights.

In 1967 Dr. Gerhart F. Rothe found a long-term partner in Erhard Senninger. In 1968 they were joined by Dr. Eberhard Kollmar who had already worked together with Erhard Senninger from 1965 to 1967 in a prestigious Munich-based law firm. Erhard Senninger, who was born in 1933 and also came from a line of lawyers (both his father and his grandfather practised in Passau), was a passionate promoter of the legal profession in Germany. In 1988 he was elected as President of the German Bar Association. In this capacity, he addressed the many problems associated with Germany’s reunification in particular, for which he received widespread acclaim.

After the deaths of Dr. Gerhard F. Rothe and Erhard Senninger, Dr. Eberhard Kollmar took over the law firm as senior partner, perpetuating a tradition founded in 1948 and deriving reinforcement from engaging younger partners. To mark the transition to the new generation, the practice was renamed at the start of 2010 from Rothe, Senninger & Kollmar to the new name of Kollmar, Deby & Sinz. At the same time, it changed its legal form into a Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH (German law firm LLC).