Erich Lattmann

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Erich Lattmann (born December 11, 1894 in Goslar ; † September 11, 1984 in Kassel ) was a German military lawyer . During the Second World War he was first head of the legal department at the Army High Command (OKH). Together with Chief Staff Judge Rudolf Lehmann at the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW), Lattmann formed a decisive authority for the position of the Wehrmacht on issues of international law : on the part of the OKH, he was decisively involved in the legal drafting of the martial law decree and the commissioner 's order. From November 1942 Lattmann was a judge at the Reich Court Martial , most recently with the rank of General Judge . After the war he testified as a witness in the Nuremberg trials in which his colleague Rudolf Lehmann was the only military lawyer charged. A case against Lattmann himself was discontinued in 1983 after 19 years of proceedings before the Federal German courts.

Life

Erich Lattmann began military service in the Imperial Army in 1912 at the age of 18 , first in the 78th Infantry Regiment and later in the 167th Infantry Regiment . From 1914 to 1918 he took part in the First World War, at the end of which he was taken prisoner by the British . In 1924 he joined the Stahlhelm , and was later transferred to the SA reserve , where he achieved the rank of SA Sturmbannführer . From 1927 to 1930 he studied law at the University of Göttingen , where he completed his doctorate with a thesis on the concept of constitutional disputes in the Weimar constitution . From 1930 to 1933 Lattmann worked first as a trainee lawyer , then as an assessor at courts in Göttingen and Celle.

After the “ seizure of power ” he worked from November 1933 to February 1934 as a teacher for military instruction in the “Trainee Lawyer Camp Jüterbog” (also called camp Hanns Kerrl ), a “ indoctrination center ” of the Association of National Socialist German Lawyers . In 1934 Lattmann joined the army justice service as an army judge, after six months he was appointed judge-martial in October 1934. From 1934 to 1936 he worked as a judge in the military district court I (Königsberg) and at various divisional courts . From October 1936 Lattmann was seconded to the legal department in the Reich Ministry of War for six months before he was appointed judge at the military court of the 1st Army Corps in February 1937 . After a year he was transferred to the High Command of the Army (OKH) in February 1938 after being promoted to the High Court Judge.

Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed head of the legal department at OKH at the end of August 1939 as part of the mobilization . In this position he was replaced by General Judge Otto Grünewald at the end of October 1942 . From November 1942 until the end of the war, Lattmann was a judge at the Reich Court Martial (RKG), where he was promoted to judge general in May 1944. He headed the 4th Senate of the RKG and was involved in a number of death sentences . In March 1945, the 1st Senate under Lattmann's leadership passed a death sentence in absentia against Major General Botho Henning Elster for his surrender when he withdrew from France.

In May 1945 Lattmann became an American prisoner of war, from which he was released in May 1947. He found a new job as a district judge, later as a senior magistrate in Clausthal-Zellerfeld . In May 1948 he said at the XII. Follow-up trial to the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal (OKW trial) as a witness in which OKW lawyer Rudolf Lehmann was indicted. The central office of the state justice administration in Ludwigsburg prepared 1965-72 a case against Lattmann himself, which was opened in 1972 by the public prosecutor's office in Kassel. In 1983 the proceedings were discontinued because Lattmann was unable to stand trial .

literature

  • Norbert Haase: The Reich Court Martial and the Resistance to National Socialist Rule . German Resistance Memorial Center, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-926082-04-6 . (Catalog on the occasion of a special exhibition at the German Resistance Memorial Center.)
  • Ernst Klee : The personal dictionary of the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003. ISBN 3-10-039309-0 .
  • Manfred Messerschmidt and Fritz Wüllner: The Wehrmacht Justice in the Service of National Socialism - Destroying a Legend . Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1987. ISBN 3-7890-1466-4 .
  • Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war: legal norm, specialist discourse and war practice in Germany 1899-1940 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008. ISBN 3-486-58206-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war: legal norm, specialist discourse and war practice in Germany 1899-1940 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2008, p. 13. ISBN 3-486-58206-2 .
  2. ↑ Ernst Klee: The personal dictionary of the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 358. ISBN 3-10-039309-0 . (2nd Edition)
  3. ↑ Erich Lattmann: The term "constitutional disputes" according to Article 19 of the Reich constitution . University of Göttingen, 1931. (Submitted as a dissertation at the Law and Political Science Faculty of the University of Göttingen on February 23, 1931.)
  4. ↑ Folker Schmerbach: The "Hanns Kerrl Community Camp" for trainee lawyers in Jüterbog 1933-1939 . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2008, p. 262. ISBN 3-161-49585-3 .
  5. ^ Andreas Toppe: Military and international law of war , p. 199.
  6. ^ Welf Botho Elster: The limits of obedience: The life of Major General Botho Henning Elster in letters and contemporary testimonies . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 2005, p. 124f. ISBN 3-487-08457-0 .
  7. ↑ Affidavit of Dr. Erich Lattmann , May 15, 1948. In: "Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10." Vol. 10: United States of America v. Wilhelm von Leeb, et al. (Case 12: 'The High Command Case'). United States Government Printing Office , District of Columbia 1951. pp. 1134-1137.
  8. ^ Proceedings of the Kassel public prosecutor 3 a J s 373/72 against Werner envelope, Erich Lattmann et al.
personal data
SURNAME Lattmann, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German military lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Goslar
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1984
Place of death kassel