Gerhard Gaul

Justice Minister Gerhard Gaul (right) and his predecessor Bernhard Leverenz (Photo: 1967)

Gerhard Gaul (born August 9, 1909 in Lübeck ; † December 17, 1982 ibid) was a German lawyer, naval chief judge in World War II and a CDU politician .

Life

education and profession

After graduating from high school, Gaul studied law at the universities of Tübingen , Berlin and Göttingen from 1928 to 1931 . In Tübingen he became a member of the Corps Rhenania . In 1931 he passed his traineeship exam and in 1935 his assessor exam . After the state examinations , he settled in Lübeck as a lawyer and notary .

In 1937 he became a member of the NSDAP .

Second World War

During the Second World War he worked as a naval judge and was known for his mercilessness. He sentenced on 14 April 1942 sailors Walter Rötcher following grounds to death : "For the desertion of the death penalty is pronounced. It is necessary. At a time when countless men are leaving their jobs and families in order to take their place as decent soldiers in their duty to leaders and people and to seal their oath with their lives, a man like the defendant deserves no leniency. Even if he is credited with being a baseless and aimless character, a long prison sentence would serve no purpose whatsoever for this defendant. [...] Anti-social elements such as the accused must be eradicated ruthlessly. "Walter Rötcher was in on June 1, 1942 Spaden at Wesermünde executed .

Gaul passed another death sentence on January 27, 1943 on board the supply ship Carinthia . Among other things, the 20-year-old sailor Karl-Heinz Lichters was accused of refusing to obey . A former crew member later reported the roar of the presiding naval judge. The convicted seaman was executed on March 4, 1943 in a bay in the Rombaksfjord .

On February 16, 1943, he acknowledged a self-accusation of the Norwegian Finn Hauge, forced under torture , as a "confession" in his judgment: "Even if the accused should be sharply touched during the protracted interrogation, which was difficult due to the initial denial, there are still no concerns." Naval judge Gaul did not grant mercy, as can be seen from a note on the file: "I do not support a mercy grant." The 32-year-old Norwegian was shot on the evening of April 6, 1943.

At least three death sentences must be proven to Gaul, which he passed in 1942/43 for desertion, damage to military equipment and alleged lack of discipline.

post war period

Gaul got captured at the end of the war and was released from this in 1946.

After the war he worked again as a lawyer and notary in Lübeck. In his function as a lawyer in the spring of 1948 he represented the interests of Elise Hildebrandt, the wife of the war criminal Friedrich Hildebrandt , who was sentenced to death . In its proxy Gaul presented on April 5, a petition for clemency , the former Gauleiter should keep Hildebrandt before the execution.

Local and state politicians

Gaul was later active in both Lübeck local politics and in the state politics of Schleswig-Holstein . He was elected to Lübeck's citizenship in 1959 and was an honorary senator for the Hanseatic city from 1959 to 1962 , and as city president from 1962 to 1966 and 1974 to 1979, its highest representative.

From 1967 to 1969 he was Minister of Justice and then in 1969 for a short time Minister of Economics in the cabinet of the Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Helmut Lemke .

In his role as Schleswig-Holstein Minister of Justice, he argued vehemently against the extension of the statute of limitations for Nazi crimes .

On November 29, 1979 he resigned as mayor of Lübeck due to age.

Honors

Gaul was the bearer of numerous domestic and foreign orders and decorations. In 1964 he was awarded the Freiherr vom Stein commemorative medal . In 1972 he was also awarded the Federal Cross of Merit and in 1978 he was appointed Grand Officer of the Portuguese Order of Infante Dom Henrique . His hometown Lübeck awarded him the Bene Merenti commemorative coin in 1982 .

On December 15, 1979, the Tübingen Corps Rhenania elected him an honorary member.

Publications

• 300 years of Lübeck citizenship. In: Der Wagen 1966, pp. 9–15.
• The smiling Holsten Gate. Instead of history-city stories. Lübecker Nachrichten Verlag, Lübeck 1981, ISBN 3-87498-290-4 .
• Thoughts became words: speeches by Gerhard Gaul. Hansisches Verlagkontor, Lübeck 1982.

See also

• Lemke II cabinet

literature

• Karl-Ernst Sinner: Tradition and Progress. Senate and Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck 1918-2007. In: Archives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (ed.): Publications on the history of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. Volume 46 of the series B. Lübeck 2008, pp. 90-92.

Web links

Commons : Gerhard Gaul  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Gerhard Gaul in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norbert Haase: Danger for male discipline: refusal and resistance in the mirror of the verdict activity of naval courts in Wilhelmshaven (1939-1945). Verlag Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 978-3-7752-5844-9 , p. 98.
2. ↑ ^{a b} 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 2005, ISBN 978-3-10-039309-8 , p. 174.
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Viola Roggenkamp : "Merciless Hardship" The death sentences of the city president Gaul . In: Die Zeit , No. 29/1978.
4. ↑ ^{a b} Judges: Carelessly eradicate . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 1978 ( online ).
5. ↑ Express approval of the Gestapo's interrogation methods ; see. Jürgen Thomas: Wehrmacht Justice and Combating the Resistance: The Work of the Ordinary German Military Justice in the Occupied Western Territories 1940-45 under legal historical aspects . Nomos-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1990, ISBN 978-3-7890-2069-8 , p. 175.
6. ↑ Norbert Haase, Otl Aicher: German deserters . Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1987, ISBN 978-3-88022-328-8 , pp. 94 .
7. ↑ Günther Fahle: Aspects of Military Justice in Northwest Germany 1939-1945. In: Ranke-Gesellschaft (ed.): Historical messages. Volume 15. Stuttgart 2002, p. 233.
8. ↑ Gerhard Gaul. In: kunterbunt.de. Retrieved March 13, 2017 . 
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Christian Madaus: Friedrich Hildebrandt - Hitler's follower and recipient of orders in Mecklenburg. Stock & Stein, Schwerin 2000, ISBN 978-3-932370-79-3 , p. 78 f.
10. ↑ Gösta Dahmen, Rainer Assmann : The Tübinger Rhenanen. 5th edition. (2002), p. 203