Alexander Kraell

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Alexander Kraell (born March 13, 1894 in Kirch-Beerfurth ; † March 9, 1964 in Darmstadt ) was a German lawyer , as a Nazi military lawyer , President of the Senate at the Reich Court Martial and from 1943 head of the Reich War Lawyers.

Career

Kraell attended a humanistic grammar school in Bad Kreuznach together with Karl Sack . Kraell was a participant in the First World War and was discharged in 1919 with the rank of lieutenant of the reserve. His begun the same year law degree from the University of Giessen he graduated in 1922 with the promotion of Dr. jur. (Topic of the dissertation : The liability of the comrades for debts of the cooperative: A contribution to the Reich law on the acquisition and economic cooperative of May 1, 1889 ). In 1925 he became a public prosecutor in Offenbach am Main . From 1930 he was a district judge in Darmstadt and after the transfer of power to the National Socialists he joined the NSDAP , whereupon he was promoted to senior public prosecutor in Darmstadt in October 1933. He then switched to the Wehrmacht Justice in 1934 , where he became a judge at the Reich Court Martial .

During the Second World War he was Reich war attorney from October 1, 1942 and, as the successor to Friedrich Neuroth, advanced to the position of President of the 2nd Senate of the Reich Court Martial. From April 1, 1943, Kraell was initially temporarily commissioned to manage the business of the Upper Reich War Attorney. Until June 1943, the head of the Reich War Prosecutor was officially Reich War Prosecutor Schrag, Walter Rehdans's representative in office, but Kraell had actually been in charge of business since April. Kraell only officially acted as head of the Reich War Prosecutor from July 1, 1943 to May 1945. From May 1, 1944, he was also temporarily transferred as a general staff judge to the officers in the special service.

After the end of the war, Kraell was remanded in French custody in Rastatt from 1945 to 1947 . In 1946 and 1948 he wrote reports on the Schulze-Boysen / Harnack resistance group , which differed in content. In the 1950s Kraell was a partner in the law firm of the resistance fighter and later constitutional judge Fabian von Schlabrendorff .

Role in litigation against resistance fighters

As a conservative military lawyer, Kraell tried to protect the Wehrmacht justice system from all too obvious attacks by Nazi arbitrariness, but he was far from fundamental opposition to the Nazi state. Nevertheless, through his acquaintance with Karl Sack , Rudolf Lehmann and Max Bastian , Kraell played an unintentional role as a helper in the persecution of Hans Oster , Hans von Dohnanyi and Admiral Canaris , especially because Kraell had already reduced the autonomy of the Wehrmacht's judiciary vis-à-vis the party and the SS / Gestapo wanted to maintain.

Kraell was the presiding judge in the trials against the Rote Kapelle before the 2nd Senate of the Imperial Court Martial. Although he came into conflict on some matters with the fanatical prosecutor who was favored by Göring , Chief War Judge Manfred Roeder , Kraell, as chairman of the 2nd Senate of the Reich Court Martial, was nonetheless jointly responsible for numerous death sentences . The condemnation of Mildred Harnack to six years in prison, decided under Kraell's chairmanship on December 19, 1942, met with Hitler's rejection, which is why Kraell had to submit the case to the 3rd Senate, which finally imposed the death penalty on January 16, 1943.

literature

  • Geertje Andresen: Who was Oda Schottmüller? Two versions of her biography and their reception in the old Federal Republic and in the GDR (= studies and documents on everyday life, persecution and resistance under National Socialism. 3). Lukas, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86732-125-9 , p. 21, (also: Berlin, Freie Universität, dissertation, 2011).
  • Günter Gribbohm: The Reich Court Martial . The institution and its legal evaluation (= legal contemporary history. Section 1: General series. 14). BWV Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8305-0585-X , pp. 69-78.
  • Norbert Haase: The "Rote Kapelle" case before the Reich Court Martial. In: Hans Coppi , Jürgen Danyel, Johannes Tuchel (eds.): The Red Chapel in the Resistance to National Socialism (= writings of the German Resistance Memorial Center. A, 1). Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-110-1 , pp. 160-179, here p. 177.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. G. Andresen: Who was Oda Schottmüller? P.21; Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2012.
  2. ↑ Cf. Heinz Höhne : We will end up on the gallows! , in DER SPIEGEL June 16, 1969
personal data
SURNAME Kraell, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military judge
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Beerfurth
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1964
Place of death Darmstadt