Courts in the Free City of Gdansk

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The courts in the Free City of Danzig were based on the tradition of the German Reich Court Constitutional Law, but had special features due to the fragmented nature of the Free City of Danzig.

Danzig was the seat of the Danzig Regional Court in the German Empire . The Marienwerder Higher Regional Court was superordinate to this. Nine local courts were located there.

As a result of the Peace Treaty of Versailles , Danzig was spun off from the Reichsverband as a "free city". Most of the surrounding area was assigned to Poland . This reorganization did not take into account existing district boundaries or the respective judicial districts. Two urban and three rural districts were formed from the remaining districts of the Danzig area. From the parts of the regional court district that belonged to the Free City of Danzig was divided into four district court districts. Since all district court seats (except for Gdansk itself) had become Polish, new district court seats were selected.

The Danzig Regional Court itself continued to exist, but its judicial district was limited to the area of ​​the Free City of Danzig.

The Danzig Higher Court was established as the highest court . It had both the function of the Supreme Court as the highest court and those of a higher regional court . There was therefore only a two-stage instance in regional court matters.

The judges were elected by a People's Day Judges Election Committee in accordance with Article 64 of the Constitution of the Free City of Gdansk .

On April 9, 1920, a "provisional Higher Administrative Court" was set up for the Free City of Danzig. This worked according to the previous provisions of the Prussian administrative judiciary and was both the decision-making authority and the upper instance in administrative proceedings. By decree of January 7, 1927, an administrative court in Danzig was created. Its full-time members were appointed by the Senate, the honorary members were elected by the citizens of Gdansk, the city council and the district committee. On August 9, 1935, the independent administrative judiciary was set and the administrative matters were transferred to the Danzig Regional Court, where a chamber for administrative matters was formed. The tasks of the higher administrative court were taken over by the higher court where a senate for administrative matters was formed. With the ordinance of June 8, 1939, a new regional administrative court was established on July 15, 1939. Due to the annexation of the Free City of Danzig to the Reich, this measure was no longer relevant

Other institutions with a judicial character were the Disciplinary Court for Judges, the Disciplinary Court for Non-Judicial Officials, the Maritime Administration , the Oberseeamt and the Usury Court .

After the invasion of Poland in 1939, the statehood of the Free City of Danzig ended. The Danzig Higher Court was transformed into the Danzig Higher Regional Court , and the district of the Danzig Regional Court was expanded to include eleven local courts.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Constitution of the Free City of Danzig
  2. ↑ Gerd Heinrich (Ed.): Administrative history of East Germany 1815-1945, 1993, ISBN 3170113380, pp. 357-358
  3. ↑ State Statistical Office of the Free City: State Manual of the Free City of Danzig. Edition 1926 , Danzig 1926, pp. 51–61.
  4. ↑ Handbuch der Justizverwaltung, 1942, p. 75, online