On July 29, 1959, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that mothers and fathers have equal rights. Previously, the father had the sole right to decide in the event of disagreements between the parents. Erna Scheffler, the first woman to sit on the Federal Constitutional Court, announced the ruling on behalf of the President, who was ill. Here she speaks in a radio interview on October 1, 1959 about the abolition of the so-called paternal casting vote.