Franz Schlegelberger

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Franz Schlegelberger (born October 23, 1876 in Königsberg , † December 14, 1970 in Flensburg ) was a German judge and ministerial official . As Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice and Acting Minister of Justice in the era of National Socialism , he was the highest-ranking defendant in the Nuremberg judges' trial and was convicted of conspiracy and crimes against humanity to life imprisonment.

Life

Louis Rudolph Franz Schlegelberger was the son of a Protestant merchant family in Königsberg. The father worked as a grain merchant. His ancestors (Balthasar Schlögelberger) were exiles from Salzburg and came to East Prussia as part of the rétablissement in 1731/32.

Career

Schlegelberger attended the old town high school in Königsberg, where he passed the school leaving examination in 1894. He studied law at the Albertus University in Königsberg and in 1895/96 at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . In 1897 he passed the first state examination in law (sufficient). In Koenigsberg he received his doctorate in law on December 1, 1899 . On December 9, 1901, he passed the assessor examination (good) at the higher court . On December 21, 1901, he became a judge at the Königsberg district court, and on March 17, 1902, he became an assistant judge at the Königsberg district court. On September 16, 1904, he became a judge at the district court in the Masurian Lyck . He came to the Berlin Regional Court in early May 1908 and was appointed as an assistant judge at the Superior Court in the same year. In 1914 he was appointed to the chamber judge in Berlin, which he remained until 1918. During the First World War , Schlegelberger became a laborer in the Reich Justice Office on April 1, 1918 . On October 1, 1918, he was appointed Privy Councilor and Lecturing Council, and in 1927 he was appointed Ministerial Director in the Reich Ministry of Justice . Schlegelberger taught as an honorary professor at the law faculty of the University of Berlin since 1922 .

Activity during the Nazi era

Freisler, Schlegelberger, Thierack and Rothenberger (1942)

State Secretary

On October 10, 1931 Schlegelberger was appointed State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice under Justice Minister Franz Gürtner . He held this position for over 10 years during the National Socialist era until Gürtner's death in 1941. Schlegelberger was a member of the Academy for German Law and chaired the committee on water law. On the basis of an order by Hitler on January 30, 1938, Schlegelberger was accepted into the National Socialist German Workers' Party together with state secretaries from other departments , after Justice Minister Gürtner had already been granted party membership on January 30, 1937 by a collective order. His numerous works during this time included drafting a law to introduce a new national currency that was to end German inflation from 1914 to 1923 . On behalf of the Reich Minister of Justice, he signed the Fourth Ordinance for the Implementation of the Reich Hunting Law on March 29, 1939 (Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, p. 643), in which Article 6 regulated: "In Section 24, Paragraph 1 is amended as follows: ' (1) Jews do not receive a hunting license. "

Acting Reich Minister

After Gürtner's death on January 29, 1941, Schlegelberger was appointed acting Reich Minister of Justice for 1941 and 1942 . Otto Thierack followed him from 1942 to 1945.

On April 23 and 24, 1941 Schlegelberger convened a conference with the participation of the highest lawyers of the Nazi state. He himself chaired this conference. It served to inform and instruct the participants about the so-called " euthanasia " in the sense of the Nazi ideology that had already started but were officially kept secret . It did not become known as the Schlegelberger Conference until late and only gained historical importance 12 years after the rejection of the accusation initiated by Fritz Bauer , precisely as a result of and despite the miserable failure of a constitutional process in the FRG. (a) A "central office" serving the goals of Nazi policy outside the "Fuehrer's Chancellery" had been set up before 1941, initially in Berlin's Columbushaus , then in a purchased private villa at Tiergartenstrasse 4 in Berlin. There it was active as a front organization under four different names, depending on the type of work-sharing employment involved. So took u. a. the processing of personnel costs for the central office via a "non-profit foundation for institutional care". Not for profit should shield the fiscal review. The "division of labor" was necessary to facilitate secrecy, avoid fuss, and divert public awareness from the industrial killing machinery that was developing. For the eventual “ destruction of life unworthy of life ” the abbreviation “T4” was commonly used to refer to “Tiergartenstrasse 4”. The implementation and execution of these goals of human annihilation was named as Action T4 for adults . This gave the patient murder, which had already been carried out in secret, only a purely technical name. (a) A legal assessment was thus bypassed and should be excluded if possible. Even after the war, the German public ignored legal aspects for too long. (b) The authors Klee (a) and Kramer were the first to take up the role of justice again after Fritz Bauer. Despite attempted secrecy, even during the Nazi dictatorship, there were frequent unmasking of the strategies pursued and corresponding protests from both the church and the official-official side as well as from other well-known public figures in the local area of ​​the event ( Else von Löwis ). They led to the fact that the killing center opened in January 1940 as the first, the Grafeneck killing center in Württemberg , which was well camouflaged from the public in a wooded area, had to break off its activities on December 10, 1940. Klee objects, however, that Grafeneck's task was over because no more patients were available. - The appointment of lawyers was understandable as the last facet of a detailed managed chain of measures that were not to be secured with public effect and aimed at killing the sick and the uncomfortable and thus promoting racial politics - especially the extermination of Jews. (b) (c) (b) The course of the conference and the silence of the participants gave this practice an apparent legitimation. (a) The top representatives of the judiciary had thus adapted to the totalitarian state.

Schlegelberger played an important role in the Ewald Schlitt case . When it was another case in which Schlegelberger in crime involved, there is the murder of Markus air Glass represents. Air Glass, a Hamburg Jew, was in the administrative district of Katowice in hamsters been caught large quantities of eggs. When it was reported in the press on October 20, 1941 that Luftglass had been sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a Katowice special court in Bielitz , Adolf Hitler was indignant about what he thought was too mild a sentence. He dictated a letter to his adjutant Julius Schaub to the head of the Reich Chancellery, Reich Minister Hans Heinrich Lammers , saying that he wanted the death penalty. Lammers communicated this to the then Minister of Justice Schlegelberger in a letter dated October 25, 1941 and asked him "to do what was necessary and to report on the measures taken". Four days later Schlegelberger reported to Lammers, among other things, that he had "handed over Luftglass to the Secret State Police for execution". Schlegelberger worked with Roland Freisler on the Polish Criminal Law Ordinance , which came into force on December 4, 1941 and provided for the death penalty for "anti-German sentiments". (b) In a letter dated April 5, 1942, he suggested to the head of the Reich Chancellery Lammers that half-Jews should be sterilized, (c) which meant either deportation or sterilization for those affected . During Schlegelberger's tenure, the number of death sentences rose sharply. When he left the office on August 24, 1942 Schlegelberger received from Adolf Hitler an endowment of 100,000 Reichsmarks . In 1944 Hitler granted him the privilege of buying an estate that was otherwise only granted to agricultural professionals.

Trials after 1945

Schlegelberger in Nuremberg

Schlegelberger was one of the main defendants in the Nuremberg legal process . He was sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity . The reasoning for the judgment says

“That Schlegelberger supported Hitler's presumptuousness when he came to power to decide on life and death while disregarding even the appearance of a legal process. With his admonitions and instructions, Schlegelberger contributed to the destruction of judicial independence . His signature on the decree of February 7, 1942, made the Ministry of Justice and the courts responsible for prosecuting, negotiating and disposing of the victims of Hitler's Night and Fog Decree. He must be primarily responsible for this. He was guilty of establishing and assisting proceedings for large-scale persecution of Jews and Poles. His thoughts about the Jews were less brutal than those of his colleagues. But you can hardly call them human. When the problem of the final solution to the Jewish question came up for discussion, the question arose as to what should be done with the half-Jews. The deportation of full Jews to the East was then in full swing throughout Germany. Schlegelberger did not want to extend this system to half-Jews. "

- Justification of the judgment in Nuremberg

Instead, Schlegelberger suggested in a letter to Lammers on April 5, 1942: "The half-Jews who are capable of reproduction should be given the choice of subjecting themselves to sterility or of being deported in the same way as the Jews." (D)

Continuity of ascribed positions

It can serve as continuity of him in the Third Reich ascribed position be considered that Schlegelberger in January 1951 because of detention inability of the war criminal prison Landsberg was dismissed. (a) The judgment was expressly not set aside. After that, he received a pension of 2,894 German marks for years (see the average income of 535 marks at the time) and lived in Flensburg. It was not until 1966 that his pension was cut to 600 marks under pressure from the SPD parliamentary group, after he published a revised version of an earlier treatise from 1928 in 1959. In it he attacked the parliamentary control of the administration. (b) Investigations by the German post-war justice system against Schlegelberger turned out to be difficult, as the treaty regulating issues arising from the war and occupation of May 26, 1952 ( transfer agreement ) forbade another conviction by German courts. Since the Markus Luftglass case had not been heard in Nuremberg, the Flensburg public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation against Schlegelberger in December 1958; the District Court Flensburg but rejected the initiation of a preliminary judicial investigation on 14 April 1959th

Schlegelberger's sons made careers at that time. Günther Schlegelberger became Consul General in Japan and Ambassador in Panama in the Foreign Service. Hartwig Schlegelberger was involved in several death sentences as a naval judge during the Nazi era, after the war he was a member of the CDU Schleswig-Holstein and district administrator in the Flensburg-Land district , (c) a member of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament and long-time Minister of the Interior of Schleswig-Holstein.

Works

  • The agricultural labor law. Representation of the private and public law of agricultural workers in Prussia. C. Heymann, Berlin 1907.
  • War book. The laws of war with the official justification and the entire jurisprudence and legal doctrine. All war laws and war ordinances of the Federal Council and the Reich Chancellor and official justification, along with the most important implementing provisions, as well as all the material that is taught through jurisprudence and legal theory. Systematic order: special rights of those involved in war, assertion of claims during wartime, financial laws, retaliation measures, army supplies , traffic restrictions , etc. Vahlen, Berlin 1918 (with Georg Güthe)
  • Voluntary jurisdiction. Issue 43, Industrieverlag Spaeth & Linde , Berlin 1935, 22 pages. From the study instructions at the beginning of the collection: “The task of this work is to convey the meaning and nature of the National Socialist state to the German civil servants and to help them practically in fulfilling their varied duties and obligations based on the National Socialist spirit. The work is not only intended to be read, but to be worked through page by page, chapter by chapter, so that its content passes completely into the intellectual and emotional possession of those who undertake this study. " - From the preface by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick : " Das As I am told, the work has met with full approval from the German civil servants and officials and has been rightly described by all sides as an excellent training tool. I wish the plant, which has a large number of leading party comrades among its employees and is therefore particularly suited to conveying National Socialist ideas about the foundations, structure and economic order of the Third Reich to the officials and officials, complete success also for the upcoming reprint . " - From the preface by Albert Forster (State Councilor, Gauleiter of Danzig, head of the Reich professional groups in the German Labor Front): " The present work for the German civil servant is also of great importance for the German officials. In addition to civil servants, they play a not insignificant role in all branches of administration. In the age of liberalism, in which arrogance and class struggle were the order of the day, attempts have always been made to artificially create contradictions between civil servants and officials. The National Socialist state put an end to this nonsense by creating the national community. "
  • Law on the revaluation of mortgages and other claims of July 16, 1925. Dahlen, Berlin 1925 (co-author: Rudolf Harmening)
  • To streamline legislation. Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1928.
  • Yearbook of German Law (with Leo Sternberg). 26th year, report on the year 1927, Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1928.
  • The law of the modern age. A guide through the current law of the Reich and Prussia since 1914 (with Werner Hoche). Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1932.
  • Comparative law dictionary for civil and commercial law at home and abroad. 4th vol .: Community of property in the event of death - child law. Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1933.
  • The interest rate cut according to the decree of the Reich President of December 8, 1931. With an introduction and brief explanations by Dr. Dr. F. Schlegelberger, State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice, Franz von Dahlen, Berlin 1932.
  • The law of the modern age. From World War to National Socialist State. A guide through the applicable law of the Reich and Prussia from 1914 to 1934. Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1934.
  • What do the German people and German lawyers expect from the standardization of the German judiciary? Lecture given in the district group Cologne d. Gaues Köln-Aachen of the Federation of National Socialist German Lawyers. Vahlen, Berlin 1934.
  • The commercial law of the Third Reich. Vahlen, Berlin 1935, lecture in d. Univ. Koenigsberg on June 28, 1935.
  • Stock Corporation Act. Law on stock corporations and limited partnerships on shares of January 30, 1937 - Commentary (with Leo Quassowski). Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1937; 3rd, supplemented edition. 1939.
  • Law on the Matters of Voluntary Jurisdiction. Heymanns, Cologne 1952.
  • The right of the present. A guide to the law applicable in Germany (as editor). Franz Vahlen, Berlin and Frankfurt am Main 1955.
  • Maritime trade law. At the same time supplementary volume on Schlegelberger: Commentary on the Commercial Code. Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1959 (with Rudolf Liesecke).
  • Commentary on the Commercial Code in the version in force since October 1, 1937 (excluding the law of the sea). Explained by Ernst Geßler, Wolfgang Hefermehl, Wolfgang Hildebrandt, Georg Schröder. Franz Vahlen, Berlin 1960; 1965; 1966.

literature

  • Michael Förster: Lawyer in the Service of Injustice: Life and Work of the former State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice Franz Schlegelberger, 1876–1970 . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1995, ISBN 3-7890-3719-2 .
  • Eli Nathans (Ed.): Franz Schlegelberger . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1990, ISBN 3-7890-2042-7 .
  • Lore Maria Peschel-Gutzeit (ed.): The Nuremberg jurists judgment of 1947: historical context and current references. Nomos-Verlag, Baden-Baden 1996, ISBN 3-7890-4528-4 .
  • PA Steiniger , K. Leszczyński (eds.): Case 3 - The judgment in the legal process. Liked on December 4, 1947 by the United States Military Tribunal III. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin (GDR) 1969.
  • Andreas Thier:  Schlegelberger, Louis Rudolph Franz. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , p. 44 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Arne Wulff: State Secretary Professor Dr. Dr. hc Franz Schlegelberger, 1876–1970 . Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1991, ISBN 3-631-44243-2 .
  • Between right and wrong - CVs of German lawyers . Ministry of Justice NRW, 2004, DNB 973198117 , pp. 59–63.
  • Hennig von Alten: Right or Wrong? The State Secretary's administrative litigation a. D. Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Franz Schlegelberger for his civil service pension payments. Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8391-1582-4 .
  • Menno Aden: Franz Schlegelberger - State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1931–1942, Nordhausen ISBN 978-3-95948-378-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Dissertation: May MPs be put up for disposition as civil servants because of their vote?
  2. ^ Lothar Gruchmann : Justice in the Third Reich. 3. Edition. 2001, p. 219.
  3. a b Helmut Kramer : Higher Regional Court presidents and attorneys general as assistants in Nazi »euthanasia« . In: Kritische Justiz, Heft 1, 1984, p. 29 on Stw. "More details when convening the conference" PDF online .
  4. a b c Christoph Schneider: Servants of the law and destruction . The proceedings against the participants in the 1941 conference or: The justice system against Fritz Bauer. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-593-50689-0 ;
    (a) p. 7 f. to Stw. “Political objectives when convening the conference”;
    (b) p. 221 on stw. “No mention of legal issues or the subject of the conference by the authors Steglich and Kneuker”;
    (c) p. 8 to Stw. “The consequences: Construction of the first extermination camp like in Belzec - also for Jews”.
  5. ^ A b Wulf Steglich & Gerhard Kneuker: Encounters with euthanasia in Hadamar . [1985] Revised new edition Heimdall-Verlag, Rheine 2016, ISBN 978-3-939935-77-3 ;
    (a) p. 19 ff. on section “Organization of Destruction”;
    (b) p. 25 to district “Grafeneck”.
  6. ^ Dorothee Roer & Dieter Henkel: Psychiatry in Fascism . Hadamar Asylum. [1986] Psychiatrie-Verlag Bonn, 400 pages, ISBN 3-88414-079-5 New foreword from 2nd edition 1996 and 6th unchanged edition, Mabuse Frankfurt 2019, ISBN 978-3929106206 ; P. 30 on Stw. "Formal legal discussion - addressed but expressly excluded from the treatise topic".
  7. a b Ernst Klee : Euthanasia in the Nazi state. The destruction of life unworthy of life. [1983] S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-10-039303-1 ;
    (a) pp. 206 ff., 220 ff., 232 ff., 239 ff., 248 ff., 328 ff., 358 ff., 384 ff. on “Justice”;
    (b) P. 289 ff. to chap. "The end of Grafeneck".
  8. a b c d Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. [2003] 2nd, updated edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 538;
    (a) p. 538 on the “Schlegelberger Conference”;
    (b) p. 538 on the “Polish Criminal Law Ordinance”;
    (c) p. 538 on Stw. “Half Jews”;
    (d) p. 538 see quotation from Klee.
  9. Léon Poliakov , Joseph Wulf : The Third Reich and its servants. Frankfurt am Main 1983, ISBN 3-548-33037-1 , pp. 252 ff. (First edition: Arani 1956)
  10. "The defendant Schlegelberger", text of the judgment by Peschel-Gutzeit: The Nuremberg jurists judgment of 1947. 1996, pp. 143–147, here p. 144.
  11. from the judgment text in Peschel-Gutzeit: The Nuremberg Jurists' judgment of 1947. 1996, p. 145.
  12. a b c Norbert Frei : Careers in the Twilight . Hitler's elites after 1945. [2001] Campus. Frankfurt, ISBN 3-593-36790-4 ;
    (a) pp. 309, 314, 335 and on dust jacket for stw. "Continuity";
    (b) p. 191 on taxation “Pension and exemption for Franz Schlegelberger”;
    (c) p. 191 on resident “Hartwig Schlegelberger”.