Canaris was born in
Liegnitz, Germany. His father was
Constantin Canaris. Canaris went to school in
Königsberg,
Miesbach and
Düsseldorf. He studied law, philosophy and
Germanistics in
Paris,
Geneva and
Munich, where he passed the first state exam
(erstes Staatsexamen) in 1961. He became scientific assistant
(wissenschaftlicher Assistent) of
Karl Larenz at the
University of Munich and graduated with the dissertation
Die Feststellung von Lücken im Gesetz (How to find lacunas in the law) in 1964 (2nd edition 1983). He habilitated in Munich in 1967
(Die Rechtsscheinhaftung im deutschen Privatrecht). His
habilitation thesis was a groundbreaking study on the theory of
legitimate expectations equal in rank to
Rudolf von Jherings operationalization of
culpa in contrahendo. He was appointed full professor at the
University of Graz in 1968, at the
University of Hamburg in 1969 and finally returned to Munich in 1972 taking the chair of his academic teacher Karl Larenz. In 2000 the German Minister of Justice,
Herta Däubler-Gmelin, made him a member of the committee for the reform of the
German law of obligations (Schuldrechtsreform). He was professor emeritus from 2004 to his death. == Memberships and honours ==