Decision of the Greater German Reichstag of April 26, 1942
The decision of the Greater German Reichstag of April 26, 1942 was the last decision made by the Reichstag during the National Socialist era . In essence, it was about completing the synchronization of the administrative apparatus. In addition, it meant the final and unreserved implementation of the Führer principle .
On this April 26, 1942, a session of the German Reichstag took place for the last time.
Origin and content
Even if the title of the law to restore the civil service of 1933 suggested a connection to the tradition of the German Empire , the restoration of the situation from before 1918 was not the aim of the Nazi regime . Rather, it was a matter of strengthening the loyalty to the “ Führer ” Adolf Hitler . The new official oath of August 20, 1934, for example, served this purpose. It was a matter of transforming the professional civil service into a service to the “Führer”. National lawyers like Theodor Maunz propagated the end of subjective public law . However, the theory of the two pillars of state and party set limits to the cause. The German Civil Service Act of 1937, with which Wilhelm Frick prevailed against Rudolf Hess , even came to a codification of civil service law. The dispute between administration and party smoldered in the following years.
The fact that the National Socialist leadership had only made tactical compromises is shown by the unanimous resolution of the Reichstag, which now consists only of National Socialists, on April 26, 1942. This was essentially based on demands from Hitler himself. With reference to the war and Hitler's position as leader, commander-in-chief, head of government and supreme court lord, he would have the right
"... to be able at any time, if necessary every German - be he a simple soldier or officer, low or high civil servant or judge, leading or serving functionary of the party, worker or employee - with all means he deems suitable to fulfill his duties to stop and in the event of a breach of these obligations after a conscientious examination without consideration of so-called well-earned rights to prove with the atonement due to him, in particular to remove him from his office, from his rank and position without the initiation of prescribed procedures. "
The resolution was in the form of an enabling law for the duration of the war. The safeguards of the Civil Service Act of 1937 and the tradition of the civil service with its reservation rights, which is still reflected in it, were thus canceled.
meaning
Beyond the area of the public service, the decision meant the final implementation of the Führer order as the final decision-making instance. Since then, there was no longer any kind of legal protection or right of objection. Since then, Hitler's will stood completely above all legal provisions applicable up to that point, including those of the Greater German Reich . Hitler now also had formal absolute authority over every German.
“It overshadowed everything that history had gathered in power in the hands of a person, even systems that Karl Marx called Asian despotism . Truly, this form of modern serfdom would have made its predecessors from the era of slave-holding societies, from Cambyses to Sargon and Timur to Ivan the Terrible , green with envy - even if it was because of the incomparably more effective technical equipment of domination than it ever was in previous epochs of history had given."
literature
- Bernd Wunder: History of the bureaucracy in Germany . Frankfurt am Main 1986, ISBN 3-518-11281-3 , pp. 143 f .
Web links
- The wording of the resolution of April 26, 1942 ( RGBl. 1942 I p. 247)