Ehrenhof (Wehrmacht)

The court of honor of the army was a body of field marshals and generals of the army of the Wehrmacht , which was formed by Hitler on August 2, 1944 through the " Führer decree ".

The committee had the express task of expelling members of the army who, according to the Gestapo , had participated in the assassination attempt on the dictator on July 20, 1944 , from the army. The aim mentioned in the decree was to avoid having to bring the leaders of the military resistance against the National Socialist leadership of the German Reich to a military court . Instead, they were brought to the political justice of the People's Court .

composition

Hitler appointed the following persons to the committee (military rank at the time of the issue):

Field Marshal General Gerd von Rundstedt , as senior officer, he presided over
Field Marshal General Wilhelm Keitel
Colonel General Heinz Guderian
General of the Infantry Walter Schroth
Lieutenant General Karl Wilhelm Specht

As a representative, Hitler called:

General of the Infantry Karl Kriebel
Lieutenant General Heinrich Kirchheim

Hitler reserved the right to personally decide on the applications of the court of honor. Neither the accused nor the defense counsel were heard. Between August 4 and September 14, 1944, a total of 55 army officers were expelled from the Wehrmacht and another 29 were dismissed at the suggestion of the Court of Honor.

Their expulsion from the Wehrmacht was the prerequisite for being transferred to the People's Court and not to the Reich Court Martial actually responsible for judgment.

Individual evidence

^ Führer decree "Formation of a court of honor to review those involved in the assassination attempt of July 20 , 1944 " , Adolf Hitler, August 2, 1944 , documented in: Martin Moll: Führer-Erasse 1939–1945. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1997.

^ ^A ^b Gerhard L. Weinberg : Role and self-image of the officer corps of the Wehrmacht in the Nazi state In Rolf-Dieter Müller , Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed.): The Wehrmacht. Myth and Reality. Oldenbourg publishing house, Munich 1999.

literature

Arnim Ramm: July 20th before the People's Court. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86573-264-4 ( writings on jurisprudence 80), (also: Kiel, Univ., Diss., 2006).

Günter Gribbohm: The Reich Court Martial . The institution and its legal evaluation. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8305-0585-X ( Legal contemporary history. Dept. 1: General series 14).

Web links

Marion Countess Dönhoff : The spirit of Guderian. Die Zeit , issue 17/1965, April 23, 1965.
Johannes Tuchel : The revenge of the regime. Die Zeit , issue 51/2004, December 9, 2004.
July 20, 1944. Plötzensee Memorial, 2003.
The regime's revenge. Bavarian State Center for Political Education , 2004.

[1] Führer decree "Formation of a court of honor to review those involved in the assassination attempt of July 20 , 1944 " , Adolf Hitler, August 2, 1944 , documented in: Martin Moll: Führer-Erasse 1939–1945. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1997.

[:0-2] A ^b Gerhard L. Weinberg : Role and self-image of the officer corps of the Wehrmacht in the Nazi state In Rolf-Dieter Müller , Hans-Erich Volkmann (ed.): The Wehrmacht. Myth and Reality. Oldenbourg publishing house, Munich 1999.