Protected Areas Act
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Protected Areas Act |
| Previous title: | Law regarding the legal relationships in the German protected areas |
| Abbreviation: | SchGG |
| Type: | Imperial Law |
| Scope: | Protected areas |
| Legal matter: | Colonial law , civil law , criminal law |
| References : | 4124-1 a. F. |
| Original version from: | April 17, 1886 ( RGBl. P. 75) |
| Entry into force on: | May 1, 1886 |
| New announcement from: | September 10, 1900 (RGBl. P. 812) |
| Last change by: |
Art. 1 AMG of 25 July 1900 (RGBl. P. 809) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
January 1, 1901 (§ 1 Regulation of November 9, 1900, RGBl. P. 1005) |
| Expiry: | January 1, 1977 (§ 4 G of August 20, 1975, Federal Law Gazette I pp. 2253, 2254 ) |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
The Protected Areas Act (SchGG) of April 17, 1886 was a law governing legal relationships in the German colonies ( colonial law ). It regulated general criminal and civil jurisdiction, in particular labor law, property law, questions of nationality , " mixed marriage ", administrative questions, criminal provisions, the applicability of German law as well as mining and prospecting rights.
Protective power
The Protected Areas Act gave the German Kaiser - in the name of the German Empire - the exercise of "protective power" over the colonies. The term “protective power” encompasses complete sovereignty and the exercising power of the legislative , executive and judicial branches and can be viewed in this context as an enabling law . The separation of powers and the rights of the German Reichstag were abolished with reference to the colonies. The Reichstag only had a say in colonial laws that had direct effects on the German Reich. This meant that the Reichstag had no legal basis for a say in z. B. had in colonial housekeeping. This was regulated separately from the Reich budget by the Department for "Colonial Affairs and Dispatch of Warships for the Protection of German Interests" (later Reich Colonial Office) set up in the Foreign Office on February 19, 1885 and supported by the Colonial Council . Since the colonies were not financially self-sufficient and the income, for example through customs duties and around 60 million M diamond tax from German South West Africa alone, did not cover the expenses, loans from the Reich were repeatedly required. Their approval was discussed in detail in the Reichstag, such as the supplementary budget of December 13, 1906. The application of the Protected Areas Act could be transferred via the consular jurisdiction to a colonial company provided with the imperial letter of protection or to officials of the colonial administration on site.
Local population
The native population was subjected to German sovereignty through the Protected Areas Act. The legal position of the locals was regulated contradictingly. In an imperial ordinance from 1900, they were only designated as “ natives ” who did not receive German citizenship and were also not considered to be Reich citizens . Due to the Protected Areas Act, the population in the colonies was subject to imperial power, but German laws were not valid for them. There was therefore no way to object to regulations or court rulings. For Germans and other Europeans who lived in the colonies, German law was still binding. Thus, two different legal systems applied in the German colonies , which reinforced the racial segregation policy of the colonial power. A possible combination of the two legal systems was not envisaged.
Expiry
Since the Protected Areas Act remained a legal basis for the colonial societies after the loss of the colonies by the Versailles Treaty , it was later incorporated into the revised Federal German law under the title Act on the Legal Relationships of Colonial Societies . Its final expiry did not take place until January 1, 1977 with the law on the dissolution, liquidation and deletion of colonial societies of August 20, 1975 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2253 ).
literature
- Ignacio Czeguhn: The ordinance law in the German colonies . In: The State . Journal for state theory and constitutional history, German and European public law . Vol. 47, 2008, ISSN 0038-884X , pp. 606-633.
- Marc Grohmann: Exotic Constitution. The competences of the Reichstag for the German colonies in legislation and constitutional law of the German Empire (1884–1914) . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-16-147532-1 . Google book
- Karl Hampe: The Foreign Office in the Bismarck era . Bouvier Verlag, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-416-02558-X .
- Martin Schröder: Corporal punishment and the right to punishment in the German protected areas of Black Africa . LIT Verlag, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-8258-7574-1 .
- Winfried Speitkamp: German colonial history . Reclam, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-15-017047-8 .
- Julian Steinkröger: Criminal law and the administration of criminal justice in the German colonies: A comparison of law within the possessions of the empire overseas. Publishing house Dr. Kovač, Hamburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-339-11274-3 .
- Rüdiger Voigt , Peter Sack (ed.): Colonization of the law. On the colonial legal and administrative order . Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2001, ISBN 978-3-7890-7347-2 . review
Web links
- Protected area law in: Deutsches Koloniallexikon , edited by Heinrich Schnee, 1920, Volume III, p. 317 f.
- Federal Archives: Reich Colonial Office - R 1001, 1832-1945.
Individual evidence
- ↑ § 1 The protective power in the German protected areas exercises the emperor in the name of the empire.
- ^ Ernst Rudolf Huber : German Constitutional History. Structure and crises of the empire. Vol IV . Kohlhammer, p. 628 ff
- ↑ Speitkamp, 2005, p. 42
- ↑ Hampe, p. 174
- ^ Goldberg: The diamond mining in German South West Africa. In: Polytechnisches Journal . 329, 1914, pp. 531-533.
- ↑ Speitkamp, 2005, p. 42
- ↑ Speitkamp, 2005, p. 44
- ↑ Speitkamp, 2005, p. 45
- ↑ Law on the dissolution, liquidation and deletion of colonial societies (KolGesAbwG) of August 20, 1975, repealed by Art. 150 G of April 19, 2006 ( BGBl. I pp. 866, 885 )