Georg Neithardt

Georg Neithardt (born January 31, 1871 in Nuremberg ; † November 1, 1941 in Rottach-Egern ) was a judge at the Bavarian People's Court . Among other things, he led the high treason trial opened against Adolf Hitler and his co-conspirators in the spring of 1924 as a result of the Hitler-Ludendorff putsch (see Hitler trial ). Neithardt sympathized with the putschists who wanted to eliminate democracy in Germany. For this reason, too, they were sentenced to extremely mild sentences.

Life

Neithardt grew up as the son of a wholesale merchant in a wealthy family. After attending grammar school in Nuremberg and graduating from high school in 1888, he studied law in Erlangen and had been a member of the Corps Bavaria since 1890 . He continued his law studies at the University of Munich .

After the legal exams in 1892 and 1895, which he passed with average success, he entered the judicial service of the Kingdom of Bavaria and completed an inconspicuous career there, which took him to the local court in Munich in 1904 and to the Munich I regional court , most recently the title of higher regional judge . On November 14, 1918, Neithardt signed the declaration of commitment to the new People's State of Bavaria . On May 14, 1920 he swore the oath of allegiance to the new constitution of the Free State of Bavaria and the Weimar Imperial Constitution .

In 1919 Neithard was transferred to the Bavarian People's Court in Munich. There he led various political processes, which he specifically pointed out in a promotion request in January 1921:

"Perhaps I may sincerely suggest, in the official appraisal of my judicial activity, to mention that I have led the trial in a number of important political criminal cases [...]."

So u. a. against a Munich insurance officer Alexander Liening for inciting a violent general strike (one year imprisonment for preparing high treason ), against Fritz Ehrhardt , editor of the communist Neue Zeitung “for inciting class warfare and inciting high treason” (one year prison sentence). In April of the same year he sentenced Wendelin Thomas and two other defendants to two years' imprisonment without parole for inciting class struggle. In contrast, in the trial of the right-wing extremist murderer of the Bavarian Prime Minister Kurt Eisner , Count Arco , he was remarkably lenient. Although he imposed the death penalty on him, it was not meant to be serious, as the verdict shows:

“Of course, there could be no question of a revocation of civil rights , because the behavior of the young politically underage man did not arise from low convictions, but from ardent love for his people and fatherland [...] and was the result of the indignation that prevailed in large circles of the people against Eisner. "

The very next day the murderer was logical by the Bavarian state government to life imprisonment pardoned. Neithardt's promotion to regional court director at the regional court in Munich I in 1922 was not long in coming.

Another trial under his chairmanship was the trial in June / July 1923 against those involved in the “ Fuchs Machhaus Conspiracy ”, in which the involvement of Bavarian government agencies in this attempted coup was covered up.

The Hitler Trial

Neithardt knew Hitler from a previous conviction in January 1922. At that time he had "released" him two months on probation from a three-month prison sentence for breach of the peace, namely the violent demolition of a meeting of the Bayernbund founder Otto Ballerstedt .

Neithardt already supported Hitler in the run-up to the high treason trial by preventing his transfer to the legally competent state court for the protection of the Republic of the German Reich, in accordance with the line of the Bavarian state government. Just a few days after the coup, their Justice Minister Franz Gürtner ( DNVP ) declared that he was unable to follow the arrest warrant issued by the responsible State Court in Leipzig , since all the other parties, with the exception of the left, were of the opinion that the trial did not belong before the State Court. Neithardt gave Hitler and his fellow defendants the greatest possible scope for political self-expression. Hitler's previous convictions were not taken into account, as was the fact that four officers from the Munich police were shot by the putschists. In the end, contrary to the law, the court sentenced Hitler to a minimum sentence of five years and even promised the offender, who had already broken parole, the prospect of imminent suspension. In fact, Hitler only served about eight months of imprisonment.

The legally required deportation of the Austrian national Hitler did not take place. During the trial, Neithardt had already replied to a politician who pointed out the relevant provisions of the Republic Protection Act that this should not be taken into account because Hitler had fought in the German army. He explained to the then State Councilor Fritz Schäffer that the process had to be conducted in such a way that the “national idea” would not suffer, which he believed was largely in line with public opinion in Bavaria. The weak attempts by the public prosecutor involved in the process with Ludwig Stenglein , Hans Ehard and Martin Dresse to prevent Hitler's early parole were in vain . The objection raised later that the convicts had illegally participated in the illegal continuation and reorganization of the putschist associations during their imprisonment in Landsberg was also not heard by the Bavarian judiciary.

The further career

At the beginning of January 1933, Neithardt became president of the Hof district court . Shortly after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he was appointed President of the Munich Higher Regional Court in early September 1933 . On January 1, 1934, he was also given the office of President of the Reich Disciplinary Chamber in Munich and from the beginning of September 1934 was a member of the Judicial Examination Office at the Munich Higher Regional Court. From January to December 1935 he also acted as a representative at the Munich Hereditary Court Court. He also became a member of the family law committee of the Academy for German Law . At the beginning of September 1937, Neithardt was retired with a personal thank-you certificate from Adolf Hitler . He died on November 1, 1941.

In the course of the denazification process , proceedings were brought against his estate with regard to his widow's substantial pension payments . Initially, Neithardt was classified as the main culprit and the estate was confiscated (Spruchkammer Munich on March 11, 1950). This allegation was reduced across various instances. By decision of the court of cassation of the Bavarian special ministry of July 10, 1951 it was decided that Neithardt was also no longer a so-called incriminated person. The proceedings were closed at the expense of the state treasury.

literature

• Otto Gritschneder : The Hitler trial and its judge Georg Neithardt. The scandalous verdict of 1924 paves the way for Hitler. CH Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48292-9 .
• Otto Gritschneder: The Bavarian judge Georg Neithardt and his momentous Hitler judgment of 1924. In: NJW , 2001, p. 484 ff.
• The Hitler Trial in 1924. Part 1 to 4. In: Speeches, writings, orders: February 1925 to January 1933. Saur, Munich 1997–1999, ISBN 3-598-21930-X .
• Bernhard Huber: Georg Neithardt - just an apolitical judge? in Marita Krauss: Right careers in Munich. From the Weimar period to the post-war years , Volk Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-937200-53-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Georg Neithardt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Joachim Lilla in ders .: Minister of State, senior administrative officials and (NS) functionaries in Bavaria 1918 to 1945 , Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bavaria 2 radio knowledge The Hitler putsch . [1]
2. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 20 , 273.
3. ↑ Criminal files in the Munich State Archives: Alois Lindner (Stanw. 2709), Alexander Liening (Stanw. 7304), Josef Eisenberger (Stanw. 2436), and Fritz Erhardt (Stanw. 2445)
4. ↑ BR 2 Radio Knowledge: Munich History (s) Between Beer Cellar and Salon - Hitler in Munich ( Memento of the original from April 18, 2018 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 April 17, 2018. 
5. ↑ Lothar Gruchmann , Justice in the Third Reich 1933–1940: Adaptation and Submission in the Gürtner Era , 3rd edition, Munich 2001, p. 37.