Friedrich Günther (lawyer)

Friedrich Hermann Günther (born October 22, 1880 in Nossen , Saxony, † after 1944) was a German lawyer, ministerial director and head of the Saxon State Chancellery.

Life

Günther was the son of the university professor Julius Hermann Günther. After graduating from the Princely School in Meißen , he studied law in Berlin, Munich, Geneva and Leipzig. On January 20, 1904, he passed the first state examination at the University of Leipzig with "good". On May 23, 1908, he passed the Assessorexamen (Great State Examination) with "good" in Dresden. In 1914 he came to the Plauen district court .

From 1914 to 1918 Günther took part in the First World War as a cavalryman, infantryman and air observer , in which he was mainly deployed on the Western Front. He was injured twice in the war and was awarded the Iron Cross .

In 1921 Günther came to the Dresden Regional Court as a district judge . On September 1, 1927, he was promoted to the higher regional court advisor at the Dresden Higher Regional Court , where he remained active until March 8, 1933. Privately, he married Charlotte Becker in 1922. The marriage had two children.

Günther was politically active in the Völkische Movement since 1919 . He belonged to the Pan-German Association and until 1921 the Ogesch and the Plauen volunteer department. From 1921 he was temporarily a member of the Ehrhardt Marine Brigade .

After Günther had belonged to the DNVP until 1929 , he joined the NSDAP in December 1930 , to which he had been close as legal advisor to the SA leader Manfred von Killinger .

Period of National Socialism until 1944

A few weeks after the National Socialists came to power, Günther was appointed Deputy Reich Commissioner for Saxony on March 9, 1933, and Head of the Saxon State Chancellery with the rank of Ministerial Director on May 8, 1933 . In this capacity, from July 1933 to February 1934, he was also deputy representative of Saxony in the Reichsrat .

On June 30, 1934, Günther was taken into protective custody, which he spent in the Columbia-Haus concentration camp, among other places , and from which he was released on August 17, 1934. The background to the arrest was probably the rivalries between his superior, the Saxon Prime Minister Killinger, and the governor Martin Mutschmann , who had Günther retired in early 1935. He was then officially in temporary retirement from July 1, 1935 to June 30, 1937.

After his rehabilitation, Günther was entrusted with the office of Senate President at the Hamm Higher Regional Court . On November 1, 1942, he was appointed President of the Senate at the Supreme Court in Berlin. In Berlin he headed the 15th Civil Senate, which also acted as the Fideikommiss Senate. According to the assessments in his personnel file, Günther performed his tasks with great diligence and thoroughness.

Günther's fate after 1944 is unknown.

literature

• Joachim Lilla : The Reichsrat. Representation of the German states in the legislation and administration of the Reich 1919–1934. A biographical manual. With the involvement of the Federal Council November 1918 – February 1919 and the State Committee February – August 1919. (Series of Handbooks on the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties. Volume 14), Droste, Düsseldorf 2006, ISBN 978-3-7700-5279-0 , p 101-102 (short biography).
• Werner Schubert: Academy for German Law, 1933–1945. Company Law Committee. 1986, p. 44.