Henning Tappe

Henning Tappe was born in Münster (Germany) in 1975. He studied law at the University of Münster and passed his first state examination in 2000. He then worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Tax Law at the University of Münster (Prof. Dr. Dieter Birk). He completed his legal clerkship from 2002-2004 in Berlin with stations at the Berlin Court of Audit, the Senate Department for Justice and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labor, among others. His dissertation ("Das Haushaltsgesetz als Zeitgesetz") was awarded the dissertation prize of the University of Münster. In December 2012, he habilitated with a paper on the "Justification of Tax Laws". From 2013 to 2014, Tappe was Professor of Public Law at the Institute for Finance and Tax Law at the University of Osnabrück and has been Professor of Public Law, German and International Tax Law at the University of Trier from October 2014 to March 2026. Since April 2026 he is a Professor for Public Law and Finance Law at the University of Cologne. He declined an appointment at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer in 2020. His research focuses on tax law (including constitutional and international aspects) and financial law (in particular budget law, public debt law and financial equalization law).