Eugene Schiffer

Eugene Schiffer

Eugen Schiffer (born February 14, 1860 in Breslau , † September 5, 1954 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer and politician ( National Liberal Party , DDP , LDPD , FDP ). Schiffer campaigned for legal standardization in the German Empire. During the First World War he was promoted to Undersecretary and became Minister of Justice in the Weimar Republic. He last held this office in 1921.

After the Second World War , Schiffer became a member of the LDPD in the Soviet-occupied zone and worked in the central administration. He moved to West Berlin in 1950.

Life

First steps

Schiffer came from a Jewish family who had converted to Protestantism . After graduating from the Elisabeth-Gymnasium in Breslau , he studied law at the universities of Breslau , Leipzig and Tübingen and again in Breslau from 1877 to 1880 , where he also passed the legal clerkship. After traineeship and doctorate, he passed the Great State Examination in Law in 1885, which he passed with a grade of “good”. From 1888 to 1899 he worked as a local judge in Zabrze / Upper Silesia , then until 1906 as a local judge and then a regional judge in Magdeburg . In 1906 he was at the Court of Appeal in Berlin called and 1910 Oberverwaltungsgerichtsrat appointed.

Political career in the empire

Parallel to his legal career, Eugen Schiffer pursued a political one. From 1912 to 1917 he was a member of the Reichstag of the German Empire , where he represented the constituency of Wolmirstedt - Neuhaldensleben as a member of the National Liberal Party . There he devoted himself mainly to the standardization of the administration of justice in the German Reich , which was still very much determined by the individual states despite the Reich justice laws . From 1904 to 1918 Schiffer represented the constituency of Magdeburg-Stadt in the Prussian House of Representatives . Because of his professional promotions, he had to resign three times during this time, but was always re-elected in the replacement election. From 1903 to 1917 he was a member of the central board of the National Liberal Party. In contrast to the majority of party members who helped to reorganize the National Liberal Party into the DVP , Schiffer participated in the founding of the DDP . On October 23, 1917, he was appointed by Georg Michaelis as Undersecretary of State to the Reich Treasury . Schiffer held this position until the end of the Empire. During the rule of the Council of People's Representatives , he served as State Secretary from November 14, 1918 to February 12, 1919 .

Minister of the Weimar Republic

First meeting of the Scheidemann cabinet on February 13, 1919 in Weimar. Eugen Schiffer (3rd from left)

As the first Reich Minister of Finance, Schiffer took over the management of the newly established Reich Finance Ministry from February 13 to April 19, 1919 . In this function, he worked during the same period under Prime Minister Philipp Scheidemann as deputy head of government. In the successor government he was under Gustav Bauer from October 3, 1919 to March 26, 1920 as Reich Justice Minister and again as Vice Chancellor . In July 1919, as the negotiator of the coalition talks, he was largely responsible for bringing about the Weimar school compromise . During the Kapp-Lüttwitz putsch , Schiffer was the only minister to remain in Berlin. He refused to cooperate with the putschists and finally brought about the end of the putsch through concessions to General Walther von Lüttwitz . After all, he was Minister of Justice for the second time in Joseph Wirth's first cabinet from May 10 to October 22, 1921. In his functions, he consistently advocated a unitarization of the Reich administration and was thus one of the sharpest opponents of federalism in Germany .

Simplification of the judiciary

Schiffer was in the Weimar National Assembly from July 9, 1919 as the successor to Friedrich von Payer parliamentary group leader of the DDP and until 1924 a member of this party in the Reichstag . In 1923 he drafted a motion for the DDP parliamentary group for a “First Law to Simplify the Judiciary”, which was passed in an amended version in February 1924. The main aim was to shorten the duration of the civil process and to counteract the delay . For this purpose, among other things, a "quality procedure" was introduced. From 1921 to 1924 he was also a member of the state parliament in Prussia . However, since he left the party and faction on October 22, 1924, he did not take up the mandate. From 1924 Schiffer practiced again as a lawyer and published on the state of the German administration of justice. His most important work was published in 1928: "The German Justice". It dealt with the hypertrophy of the law in Germany and criticized the sheer mass of regulations, which are difficult to understand even for experts and - in connection with the unworldliness of many judges and the people's alienation from the law - lead to a crisis of confidence in law and justice . Almost resignedly, he states: "An inner relationship between the people's soul, legal order, administration of justice and judiciary is [...] not given [...], the bond between people and law is no longer just loosened, but torn." In his book, published in 1932, " Storm over Germany "he said a. a. critical of the Weimar Constitution, which gives the Reich President too many powers.

Schiffer was also co-editor of the German legal journal .

Chairman of the Supervisory Board

From 1923 to 1934, Schiffer was chairman of the supervisory board of Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG and Anhaltische Kohlenwerke , which were linked as part of an administrative community at the beginning of his term of office. After 1945 Schiffer stated that “as a half-Jew for racial and political reasons” he had to resign from his position as President of the Supervisory Board of these two largest mining companies in the Central German lignite mining area . It must be taken into account that Schiffer could not be re-elected in 1934, as the articles of association of the two joint stock companies limited re-election to 4 × 3 time years. Schiffer also received his pension undiminished until the end of the war for his work as chairman of the supervisory board of Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG and Anhaltischen Kohlenwerke.

Little is known about Schiffer's fate during the Nazi dictatorship. He experienced the end of the war in a hospital that will have offered refuge for those at risk because of his Jewish origins.

LDPD founded after the war

Eugen Schiffer (right) at the first demonstration of the anti-fascist-democratic bloc in August 1945

Immediately after the end of the Second World War , in early July 1945, Eugen Schiffer and Wilhelm Külz published the call for the establishment of a Liberal Democratic Party in Germany . Until the beginning of 1950 he was a member of the central board of the LDPD.

Legal structure in the Soviet Zone and the GDR

In 1945 the communist and later chairman of the GDR State Council, Walter Ulbricht , invited him to work on the “anti-fascist-democratic” reconstruction in the area of ​​the Soviet occupation zone as part of his bloc policy . He thought the former Justice Minister and anti-fascist was a big name Democrat. Schiffer agreed to “walk part of the way together”. By order no. 17, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) in 1945 appointed the then 85-year-old as the first President of the German Central Administration of Justice (DJV). He brought Hermann Emil Kuenzer to his side. Since the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) gained increasing influence in the following years and - in agreement with the Soviets - wanted to bring key positions in the administration of justice into its hands, Schiffer came under pressure as a member of a liberal party. On August 14, 1948, when he was on vacation, his deputy Ernst Melsheimer (SED) signed the letter of dismissal for two leading DJV lawyers - a snub for Schiffer, who immediately submitted his resignation. The SMAD dismissed him by order No. 146 of August 23, 1948 and appointed Max Fechner as the new DJV chairman on October 2 by order No. 158 . A little later, Fechner became the GDR's first Justice Minister.

From 1949 to 1950, Schiffer was a member of the GDR's provisional People's Chamber as chairman of the constitutional committee . He was also in his capacity as president of the DJV in January 1947 the first editor of the New Justice . As in the Weimar Republic, Schiffer spoke out against a federalist state and played a key role in the centralization of the administration of justice in the GDR.

Relocation to West Berlin

Wilmersdorf cemetery in Berlin: Schiffer family grave (honorary grave of the State of Berlin)

In 1950 Eugen Schiffer moved to the West and joined the FDP . He was buried in the Wilmersdorfer Friedhof in Berlin. Schiffer was married and had two children. His son-in-law Waldemar Koch was the first chairman of the LDP in the Soviet occupation zone in 1945 .

Honors

• Schiffer received honorary doctorates from the University of Halle (Saale) (1928) and the Humboldt University of Berlin (1950).
• The city of Berlin honored him with an honorary grave in the Wilmersdorf cemetery .

Publications

• On the doctrine of gambling. In: The courtroom, 1895, page 184 ff.
• The latest draft reform of the criminal procedure , Katowice 1896
• The legal consultants , Berlin 1897
• New proposals to speed up and standardize the administration of justice. In: Juristische Wochenschrift , 1914, pages 2ff.
• The Patriotic Aid Service; Explanations and materials on the law on patriotic auxiliary service of December 5, 1916 , Liebmann, Berlin 1916.
• German democracy after the Reichstag elections , 1920.
• The German judiciary. Basic features of a thoroughgoing reform , Otto Liebmann Verlag, Berlin 1928; 2nd, fundamentally revised edition, Berlin 1949.
• Storm over Germany , Otto Liebmann Verlag, Berlin 1932.
• The new constitution of the German Empire. A political sketch , Hobbing-Verlag, Berlin 1932.
• A life for liberalism , Herbig, Berlin 1951.

See also

• Scheidemann cabinet
• Cabinet peasant
• Cabinet Wirth I.

literature

• Heike Amos: Communist personnel policy in the judicial administration of the Soviet Zone / GDR (1945–1953). From the liberal legal expert Eugen Schiffer to the party functionary Max Fechner to the communist lawyer Hilde Benjamin . In: Gerd Bender: Law in Socialism. Analysis of norm enforcement in post-war Eastern European societies (1944 / 45-1989). Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-465-02797-3 , pp. 109-145.
• Jürgen Frölich : A national liberal among “democrats”. Eugen Schiffer and the organized liberalism of the German Empire after the Second World War. In: Jahrbuch zur Liberalismus-Forschung 18 (2006), pp. 153-186, ISBN 3-8329-2187-7 .
• Dietrich Goldschmidt : Memories of the life of Eugen and Marie Schiffer after January 30, 1933. In: Berlin in the past and present. 1991, pp. 117-146.
• Dietrich Goldschmidt: Eugen Schiffer (February 14, 1860 to September 5, 1954). A life for liberal politics and popular law. In: Walter Pauly : Hallesche jurists of Jewish origin. Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-452-23486-X , pp. 69-81.
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Schiffer, Eugen . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Joachim Ramm : Eugen Schiffer and the reform of the German judiciary. Luchterhand-Verlag , Neuwied 1987, ISBN 3-472-01026-6 .
• Thilo Ramm (Ed.): Eugen Schiffer (1860–1954). A national liberal statesman. Nomos Verlag , Baden-Baden 2006.
• Martin Schumacher (Hrsg.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation, 1933–1945. A biographical documentation . 3rd, considerably expanded and revised edition. Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-5183-1 .
• Hellmut Seier : Eugen Schiffer as a time observer 1941/42. To an unknown war diary of the former Reich Minister. In: Jahrbuch zur Liberalismus-Forschung 19 (2007), pp. 225-257.
• Hellmut Seier: The nation state and social equilibrium as Silesian motifs of the national liberal Eugen Schiffer. Stuttgart 1986.
• Hans-Henning Zabel:  Schiffer, Eugen. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , pp. 749-751 ( digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bernhard Mann (edit.): Biographical manual for the Prussian House of Representatives. 1867-1918. Collaboration with Martin Doerry , Cornelia Rauh and Thomas Kühne . Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1988, p. 340 (handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties: vol. 3)
2. ^ Ernest Hamburger: Jews in Public Life in Germany: Members of the Government, Officials and Parliamentarians in the Monarchical Period 1848-1918. Mohr Siebeck 1968; P. 112 as well as Gangolf Hübinger: Spectator-Briefe and Berliner Briefe (1919–1922). Walter de Gruyter 2015; P. 634
3. ↑ Eugen Schiffer: The German Justice. Outlines of a radical reform. Verlag Otto Liebmann 1928; P. 72 ff
4. ^ Hermann Wentker: Justice in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945-1953. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2009, p. 592.
5. ↑ Knut Wolfgang Nörr: Between the millstones. History of private law in the Weimar Republic. Mohr Siebeck, 1988, p. 226.
6. ↑ Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG Annual Reports 1923 to 1934 Hamburg World Economic Archive, accessed on May 10, 2019
7. ↑ Julius Mossner (ed.): Address book for directors and supervisory boards. 1928. Finanz-Verlag, 1928, p. 1565.
8. ^ Katharina Lübbe, Wilhelm Heinz Schröder: MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Droste Verl, 1994, p. 418.
9. ^ Martina Neumann: Theodor Tantzen. Hahnsche Buchhandlung Verlag, 1998, p. 197.
10. ↑ Wilhelm Orth, in: Pathfinders of our party (LDPD writings 38), Berlin 1986, p. 22
11. ^ Hermann Wentker: Justice in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945-1953 , Oldenbourg, Munich, 2001, ISBN 978-3-486-56544-7 , p. 256
12. ↑ Martin Posch: 60 Years "New Justice" Neue Justiz 2006, pp. 145–150
13. ^ Hermann Wentker: Justice in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945-1953. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2009, p. 592.
14. ↑ Julian Lubini: The administrative jurisdiction in the countries of the SBZ / GDR 1945-1952. Mohr Siebeck, 2015, p. 80 f.

Web links

Commons : Eugen Schiffer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Eugen Schiffer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Eugen Schiffer in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Eugen Schiffer in the database of the members of the Reichstag
• Eugen Schiffer in the online version of the Reich Chancellery Edition Files. Weimar Republic