Erwin Albrecht

This article deals with the judge and politician. For the satirist and humorist Erwin FB Albrecht see there.

Erwin Karl Eduard Albrecht (born February 21, 1900 in Düsseldorf , † June 26, 1985 in Saarbrücken ) was a German judge at the time of National Socialism and a Saarland politician .

Life and work before the Second World War

Albrecht, whose family had been based on the Saar since the early 19th century, completed a commercial apprenticeship and was employed in industry and banking until 1925. In addition, he prepared for his matriculation examination, which he passed in Saarbrücken in 1924 as an external student. From 1926 to 1929 he worked for the German National Handicrafts Association in Berlin and Hamburg .

He also attended evening lectures on law and newspapers, and in 1929 finally began studying law and economics at the University of Marburg . During his studies he became a member of the Association of German Students in Berlin . and at the Association of German Students in Marburg . He passed his first state examination in 1931. In the following years he did his doctorate on the law of the revolution and began his legal preparatory service, which he completed in 1936 with the second state examination. In 1933 he joined the SA . An assessment in the SA-Sturm 7/70 in Saarbrücken certified him as a Rottenführer a "complete satisfaction" with the service conception.

On June 1, 1936, he joined the NSDAP ( membership number 6.921.749). Until 1938 he worked as an assessor at the public prosecutor's office and the courts in Saarbrücken and Koblenz . From 1939 to 1945 he worked as a district judge at the Mönchengladbach district court .

Activity in the Third Reich

Albrecht participated in the death sentence against Marianne Golz-Goldlust . It was on October 8, 1943 at 16:44 by the executioner Alois Weiss by guillotine in the Prague Gestapo -Gefängnis Pankrác executed

From 1941 to 1945 he was seconded to the district of the German Higher Regional Court in Prague . From December 1, 1941 to May 31, 1942, he worked as a judge at the Brno Special Court in the 3rd and 4th chambers of the German regional court in Brno .

He then moved from June 1, 1942 to June 30, 1942 as a district judge in the criminal division of the district court in Brno. He was transferred to the German regional court in Prague with effect from July 1, 1942, where he was involved in criminal matters.

At the same time he took up a position at the Prague Special Court . On May 3, 1944, the responsible regional court president in Prague issued him a service certificate, where he received the grade "good". Albrecht was confirmed in the certificate that he was appointed from July 1, 1942 in the district of the regional court president as an assessor in the special court and the criminal chamber. It was mentioned in particular that in the last period before the certificate was issued, Albrecht had repeatedly worked as a single judge and chairman of the chamber.

He was praised both in his legal work and in his political stance:

“I have no doubts about his close ties to the National Socialist state, especially since as an SA man he has already been actively committed to the goals of the movement. I keep Dr. Albrecht well suited for the position of a higher regional judge as well as a regional court director. "

In the files of the courts at which Albrecht worked, it was possible to prove that he had participated in 31 death sentences until a review in 1960. After the war he was searched for in the Czechoslovak Republic (list of war criminals No. A / 38/61). He was also listed on the United Nations War Crimes Commission's list of war criminals .

Work after 1945

Back in Saarbrücken, Albrecht worked as a lawyer and businessman from 1945 to 1948, after which he became in-house counsel and managing director of the Saarland Medical Association . He was also managing director of the Association of Liberal Professions.

He joined the Saarland CDU and was elected to the Saarland state parliament in 1955 . Until reunification with Germany , he represented Saarland in the Advisory Assembly of the Council of Europe . Then in 1957 he was appointed chairman of the CDU parliamentary group. From 1957 to 1960 he was also Chairman of the Broadcasting Council at Saarland Radio .

Judicial files from the Nazi era that were forwarded to the West German authorities by the GDR contained indications of possible involvement in judicial crimes. When the allegations became public, the CDU excluded him from the state parliamentary group on December 6, 1958. From February 25, 1959 until the end of the legislative period (1960) he was a guest of the DPS parliamentary group. In the years 1959 to 1962 Albrecht was heavily burdened by copies of National Socialist judicial files presented in numerous German cities as part of the traveling exhibition Unpunished Nazi Justice . In the spring of 1960, the organizers of the exhibition on behalf of the Socialist German Student Union and, at the same time, the Czechoslovak Association of Antifascist Resistance Fighters, an organization of former partisans, frontline soldiers and resistance fighters, filed criminal charges on suspicion of perverting the law in the act of manslaughter.

literature

• Association of Antifascist Resistance Fighters / Československý Svaz Protifašistických Bojovníku (Ed.): Criminals in judges ' robes . Documents on the criminal activities of 230 Nazi judges and prosecutors on the occupied territory of the Czechoslovak Republic who are currently serving in the West German judiciary . Orbis, Prague 1960.
• Stephan Alexander Glienke: The exhibition “Unpunished Nazi Justice” (1959–1962). On the history of coming to terms with Nazi judicial crimes. Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2008, ISBN 978-3-8329-3803-1 .
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .

Web links

• Alexa Himbert-Schäfer: Erwin Albrecht on saarland-biografien.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Louis Lange (Ed.): Kyffhäuser Association of German Student Associations. Address book 1931. Berlin 1931, p. 5.
2. ↑ Hans-Peter Klausch: List 1: Alphabetical list of members of the Saarland state parliament with proven NSDAP membership. (PDF; 2.15 MB) In: Brown traces in the Saar state parliament. The Nazi past of representatives from Saarland. The left. Parliamentary group in the Saarland State Parliament, Saarbrücken 2013, p. 18 , accessed on January 25, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Erich later : The word of the Führer is our order. Heinrich Schneider a German patriot ( Memento of the original from March 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Accessed January 30, 2013 (PDF; 18 kB). 
4. ↑ Luitwin Bies: Antifascists established new trust. ( Memento of the original from August 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 11.