August Leyendecker

August Leyendecker (born April 27, 1873 in Cölln near Rockenhausen, † August 14, 1937 in Ebermannstadt ) was a German lawyer. He was best known for his role as second judge in the proceedings for high treason against Adolf Hitler and the other leading protagonists before the Munich People's Court in March and April 1924 due to the failed Hitler-Ludendorff putsch of November 1923.

Life

Leyendecker was a son of the stone carver Johannes Leyendecker and his wife Katharina, nee. Dautermann.

After attending school, Leyendecker studied law. Until the 1920s he was a member of various public prosecutors, before he was finally appointed judge at the People's Court I in Munich in 1922 with the rank of district judge.

On February 1, 1905, Leyendecker was appointed third public prosecutor in Kaiserslautern. On May 1, 1906, he moved to Zweibrücken in the same capacity. On May 1, 1905, he became a district judge in Kirchheimbolanden, before he was appointed as a district judge in Landau in the Palatinate on April 1, 1909. On March 1, 1916, Leyendecker became the second public prosecutor at the Munich I court. On April 1, 1921, Leyendecker was appointed district judge at the Munich I district court.

In 1923 Leyendecker chaired the trial of half a dozen National Socialists, including Johann Wilhelm Ludowici and Edmund Heines, because of the "storm" on the Munich Hotel Grünwald in January of the same year. In this incident, a crowd of several hundred had drawn up in front of the hotel in Munich's Hirtenstrasse, with several dozen members of the National Socialist fighting organization SA having penetrated the building and devastating the dining room and destroying parts of the inventory. The reason for the attack was the popular mob's assumption that the hotel would accommodate French military personnel who were part of an Allied monitoring commission in Munich that monitored compliance with the disarmament regulations imposed on the German Reich in the Treaty of Versailles. The belief that the hotel would host French military guests in an unpatriotic manner had excited the crowd due to the occupation of the Ruhr area by the French army in January 1923. After a search of the building for French by a large number of SA men, they had withdrawn, but had caused millions in damage. On this occasion, Leyendecker passed very mild sentences, and even acquitted ringleader Heines on the basis of questionable apologies.

In March 1924 Leyendecker belonged to the five-member senate of the People's Court Munich I, before the main participants in the failed attempt of the National Socialists to overthrow on November 8 and 9, 1923 ("Hitler Putsch") on account of the accusation that they were attacked on the existing state guilty of high treason was negotiated. While the regional court director Georg Neidhardt presided, Leyendecker acted as adjunct judge. In addition, three lay judges took part in the proceedings. In the judgment of April 1, 1924, Leyendecker and the other members of the Senate agreed to condemn the defendants to the minimum sentences for high treason and also to impose generous probation periods on them. One consequence of this mild treatment by Leyendecker and his colleagues was that Adolf Hitler, who had been given a five-year prison sentence with the prospect of early release if he was well managed, was released again in December 1924 (thirteen months after his attempted violent overthrow) was set.

On August 16, 1925, Leyendecker took up the post of 1st public prosecutor in Weiden. On October 1, 1930, he moved to Nuremberg as a higher regional judge.

After the National Socialists came to power, Leyendecker did not become a member of the NSDAP. However, on December 8, 1933, he became a member of the National Socialist Lawyers' Association (membership number 31.773) and on June 1, 1934, a member of the National Socialist People's Welfare (membership number 303.592).

literature

• Schweitzer's diary for Bavarian lawyers , born in 1925, 1929 and 1934, p. 262.
• The Hitler Trial in 1924: Wording of the main hearing before the Munich People's Court , 4 vol., Munich 1998.

photo

• The Hitler Trial in 1924: Wording of the main hearing before the Munich People's Court , 4 vol., Munich 1998, p. 1220.