Alexander Niedner

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Alexander Niedner (born August 24, 1862 in Kalkberge , † May 21, 1930 in Munich ) was a German lawyer and President of the Senate at the Imperial Court . Niedner was the best-known and most colorful judge personality of the Weimar judiciary , who “was blind in the right eye”, ie who punished politically right-wing offenders much more leniently than politically left-wing ones.

Life

Christian Morgenstern noted in 1905: "I know two people whom I wanted as statesmen in our most public posts: Werner Sombart and Alexander Niedner" .

family

Morgenstern dedicated a poem to Niedner's wedding with Hilde Zitelmann in 1892. Hilde was the sister of Franz Karl Zitelmann (1872–1947) Morgenstern's Sorauer friend. Hilde Zitelmann was a cousin of Ernst Zitelmann . Niedner was related to the church historian Christian Wilhelm Niedner . His brothers were Heinrich Oswald (1867–) general director of Donnersmarck'schen Berg- und Hüttenwerke and Johannes Niedner (1868–1920) professor of public law and senior administrative judge in Jena.

Empire

In 1892 Niedner became a district judge in Myslowitz and in 1896 a district judge in Meiningen . In 1905 he was seconded to the higher regional court in Frankfurt am Main as a laborer . In 1906, Niedner was promoted to the higher regional judge in Kiel . In 1910 he was appointed a full-time member of the large examination commission in Berlin and was transferred to the higher court . Disciplinary proceedings because he had once been seen at the beer table with Karl Liebknecht did not harm his career. In 1913 he was appointed to the Reichsgericht.

republic

In 1924 he became President of the Senate and Chairman of the III. then in the fourth criminal senate . He became known as a member of the State Court for the Protection of the Republic (RepSchStGH), which was set up in response to the right-wing attacks on Scheidemann , Erzberger , Rathenau . He was considered to be a good choice because he met expectations: With his work “Socialization of the Administration of Justice” from 1919, he advocated a democratization of the administration of justice and he was a member of the left-liberal Republican Judges' Association . The fact that Niedner, as a specialist in international private law, had not previously been active in criminal law was seen as a plus point, as it was feared that the public prosecutors, who were socialized in the German Empire, would not provide good protection for the republic. It was overlooked that the sponsor was Niedner's Ministerialrat Curt Joël , the indispensable gray eminence of Weimar's judicial personnel policy and the brake on any democratic renewal of the judges' corps through dismissals. Since 1922, Niedner was a deputy member of the RepSchStGH. In 1924 he became chairman of the South German Senate, which was dominated by professional judges, and from 1924 to 1927 chairman of the court. The Bavarian government in Munich stubbornly opposed his appointment as President of the State Court of Justice for the Protection of the Republic.

Lawsuits against the right

In March 1924 he chaired the trial against Höß and Bormann . Höß was imprisoned for ten years , Bormann received a year imprisonment for his role in the “ Parchimer Fememord ” against the elementary school teacher Walter Kadow. In 1928 Höß was released due to a general amnesty. The State Court for the Protection of the Republic, by decision of October 13, 1926, repealed the prohibitions of “ Bund Wiking ” and “ Sportverein Olympia ” imposed by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior on the basis of the Republic Protection Act (RSG) : “The State Court for Protection of the Republic has Wiking and Olympia put through its paces, nothing suspicious was found and the Prussian Interior Ministry's ban on May 12th was lifted. Preparations for the right-wing coup are not punishable in Germany ... The new performance of the State Court for the protection of the Republic bears the signature of Mr. Niedner, who has long enjoyed a reputation as a judge, but was not bothered much by the democratic-republican press because he was wisely preferred the communists as a hunting object. After these little outpost battles, Mr. Niedner now dares to take on higher game, and his debut is indeed a hit right in the middle of the black-red-goldne. Perhaps the democratic papers will now finally deal critically with this judge, who is also their greatest discovery and whom they celebrated a few years ago as "bon juge". "( Carl von Ossietzky )

Trials against the left

Senate President Niedner displayed aggressive anti-communism in the trials against communists. Niedner was also fond of alcohol. The fact that Niedner was not squeamish when dealing with defendants and defense against this background is evident from an incident during the Cheka trial . Niedner often refused to allow the questions or cut off the lawyer concerned. After all, lawyer Dr. Samter issued a statement on behalf of all defense counsel against the manner in which the case was conducted by the chairman. Samter continued to speak despite being deprived of his word and refused to withdraw the explanation given to the clerk. Samter was then forcibly led out of the courtroom by two police officers on Niedner's instructions. The lawyers protested unanimously, while the judges spoke of a "spectacle of deliberate sabotage of the proceedings by a 'lawyer' '" and praised the chairman, who had been "exemplary patient until then".

Left-liberal magazines criticized: "Mr. Niedner, (...), since he seems to have little knowledge of the code of criminal procedure, but all the greater abundance of choleric temperament, has turned away from socialism and turned towards militarism in the course of time: he is now militarizing the administration of justice. ” Ossietzky noted that things were also different:“ The newspapers of the Left praise the chairman, Senate President Reichert , for elegant conduct of negotiations. Certainly it was not à la Niedner, it went off without noise, police and alcoholic interludes. “At first, the KPD parliamentary group in the Reichstag tried unsuccessfully in August 1924 to dissolve the State Court of Justice and bring an indictment against Niedner for perverting the law. In further debates in the Reichstag, the KPD faction denounced Niedner in speeches and heckling. One of the lawyers Dr. In December 1925 Brandt presented the Reich Minister of Justice with a published memorandum on the Cheka trial, in which Niedner was accused of perverting the law.

Senate President Niedner is considered to be the author of the case law, in which every activity for the KPD represented a preparation for high treason. In addition to this extensive interpretation of § 86 StGB, every KPD member was also a member of an anti-republican association within the meaning of §§ 7, 4 RSG. Thus, in the case of high treason preparation, in ideal competition with § 7 RSG, prison sentences instead of imprisonment were made possible. On August 17, 1925, the Reichstag passed the Hindenburg amnesty . Apart from serious crimes such as homicides, prison sentences, which, according to Kurt Rosenfeld , were imposed “only in the rarest of cases against the right”, were excluded from the amnesty . Flyer distributors, booksellers and typesetters were convicted. The case of the " actor [s] Josef Gärtner became famous for reciting poems by Ernst Toller , John Henry Mackays , [who] [was] sentenced to one year and three months in prison. ... We are indignant about the Moscow judiciary, we feel elevated above the American judges, but we endure the Leipzig wickedness with a dullness which we must be ashamed of in the face of the whole world. "( Das Tag-Buch ) Since such judgments of" literary treason "were not isolated cases, but were made weekly with the same wording, this practice aroused fierce criticism. “The slogan: For the freedom of art! is the more convenient, more palatable to the liberal philistine. The other: Away with the Republic Protection Act, away with Niedner! the more risky, less inviting to sign, but politically more real. It hits the core of the problem. " (Ossietzky)

The Hamburg criminal lawyer Moritz Liepmann criticized the judgments as an “authority product of fear and fantasy” and the insufficient evaluation of evidence. Alexander Graf zu Dohna-Schlodien spoke of the " questionability " of this case law. Politicians, as Johannes Bell (Z) demanded, “ that above all in the political processes unconditional objectivity must be maintained so that the thought of any partisan or one-sided position cannot arise; In this regard, it would also be desirable if, in particular, some careless expressions by chairmen were not used in future ”. Gustav Ehlermann (DDP) spoke in this context of judgments that were “ legally wrong, humanly unjust, politically intolerable and extremely questionable for the people's trust in the administration of justice ”. Johannes Wunderlich (DVP), assessor at the State Court of Justice, addressed errors in the process management. Wolfgang Heine (SPD), also a member of the State Court of Justice, resigned in protest against the Gärtner judgment.

The Reichstag tried to change jurisdiction through three laws. With effect from April 1, 1926, the State Court was the only instance in republic protection trials to be eliminated. Its tasks went back to the IV Criminal Senate of the Reich Court. However, the Senate took over the practice of the State Court because Niedner became Senate President of the 4th Criminal Senate. At the same time, the SPD obtained the deletion of the prison sentence in § 7 RSG. In 1927, the fourth criminal senate continued to sentence old cases to prison, although the aim of the changes in the law was to prevent prison sentences. In response to an official request from the Senate, Wilhelm Kahl (DVP) had confirmed that the new version should correct the case law of the Reich Court. The Senate adhered to the framework of the law, but disregarded the will of the legislature.

He retired “for health reasons” on February 1, 1928. He died in 1930 in Munich-Schwabing. The communists shouted after him in the grave that he was the type of executioner of the capitalist republic.

Fonts

  • "Components and accessories" , Dr. JA Seuffert's sheets for the application of law Volume 72 (1907), p. 8 .
  • "On Section 866 (3) CPO. Security mortgage under M. 300 " , Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung, Volume 5 (1900) p. 203 .
  • “Determination of deadlines in the event of refusal to fulfill” , Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung Volume 6 (1901), p. 443 .
  • "Conditional transfer of ownership and landlord's lien" , Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung, Volume 12 (1907) pp. 569/570
  • "For understanding about the judicial reform" , Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung Volume 12 (1907) p. 793/794 .
  • Commentary on the Civil Code and its subsidiary laws / Volume 1. Commentary on the Civil Code / Volume 6. The Introductory Act of August 18, 1896, 2nd edition, Berlin 1901 ( digital copy of the MPIER ).
  • Socialization of the administration of justice, Leipzig 1919.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Breitner (Ed.): Morgenstern, Christian: Works and Letters: Volume 7, Correspondence 1878–1903, Stuttgart 1905, p. 1147
  2. ↑ Katharina Breitner (Ed.): Morgenstern, Christian: Works and Letters: Volume 7, Correspondence 1878–1903, Stuttgart 1905, p. 1248
  3. ↑ Alexander Niedner in the online version of the edition files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic Federal Archives: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online edition> Biographies> SZ> Z> Zitelmann, Franz Karl
  4. ↑ Herrmann August Ludwig Degener (ed.): Our contemporaries: who is ʹs?; Biographies, 9th edition, Berlin 1928, p. 1117.
  5. ↑ Saxony, Prussia, Reich and Kaiser , Die Weltbühne of October 26, 1926
  6. ^ "Alcoholic interludes" , Carl von Ossietzky: The Ponton Trial , Die Weltbühne of March 20, 1928, "In addition, as a real German man, he pays homage to alcohol" , Berthold Jacob: "Niedner" , Die Weltbühne from January 27, 1927, P.136ff. , "A very good drinking and drunkenness gentleman" , Johannes Mötsch and Katharina Witter (eds.): Jacob Simon: A Jewish life in Thuringia. Memories of life until 1930, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2009, pp. 72, 78 , “ The energetic face shows the unnatural blush of a red wine drinker ”, Ernst Ottwalt Because they know what they are doing. - A German justice novel. Berlin, Malik-Verlag, 1931.
  7. ↑ Kerstin Gröner: Defense lawyer and session police, Berlin 1998, p. 43.
  8. ^ Ludwig Bendix , Martin Drucker and Anton Graf von Pestalozza, JW 1925, 901ff.
  9. ^ Karl Klee (1876-1944) KG-Rat and ed. Von Goltdammer's Archive for Criminal Law , there vol. 69, p. 270.
  10. ↑ Rolf Sievers : " The Tscheka Trial ", Die Weltbühne of April 21, 1925 p. 581 .
  11. ^ Carl von Ossietzky: The Ponton Process , Die Weltbühne from March 20, 1928
  12. ^ Application by Katz , Scholem Stoecker and comrades of August 9, 1924, RT-Drs. 1924 II No. 430 , interpellation Katz Scholem and comrades of August 13, 1924, RT-Drs. 1924 II No. 433 . Minutes of the Reichstag session of August 22, 1924, p. 769
  13. ^ Interjection at the Reichstag speech by Reich Justice Minister Josef Frenken on March 25, 1925, p. 1017 , Karl Korsch (KPD) on March 25, 1925, p. 1019 , 1025 .
  14. ↑ The Tag Book of August 1, 1925, Issue 31, Volume 6: TAGEBUCH DER ZE1T, p. 1118
  15. ^ Tired fighters, Die Weltbühne of October 12, 1925.
  16. ↑ In the Criminal Law Committee of the 4th electoral term, minutes of the 22nd meeting of November 30, 1928, p. 4.
  17. ↑ See Paul Levi (SPD) in the budget debate of February 22, 1927, p. 9171 .
  18. ↑ cf. Lohmann-Altona (DNVP) : Reichstag protocols, vol. 394, 367th session. P. 12401 , meeting on January 25, 1928.
  19. ^ Obituary in the Rote Fahne from May 23rd: Executioner Niedner died .
personal data
SURNAME Niedner, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Imperial Judge
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Limestone mountains
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1930
Place of death Munich