Hans Litten

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Litten bust in the building of the Berlin Regional Court
Memorial plaque on the house, Littenstrasse 9, in Berlin-Mitte
Stolperstein , Zolastraße 1a, in Berlin-Mitte

Hans Achim Litten (born June 19, 1903 in Halle (Saale) ; † February 5, 1938 in Dachau concentration camp ) was a German lawyer and criminal defense attorney . Hans Litten made a name for himself in particular as an opponent of the Nazi regime and “advocate for the proletariat ”.

Early political formation

Hans Litten was born as the eldest of three sons in a middle-class family in Halle / Saale, where the family lived until 1906. Then she moved to Königsberg (Prussia) . The dominant father, Friedrich Litten , one in the traditions of the Empire persisting arch-conservative opponents of 1918 proclaimed republic , was a lawyer and professor of Roman and civil law , temporary dean of the law faculty and rector of the University of Königsberg , Privy Councilor and consultant to the Prussian Government. Litten's relationship with his father was fraught with conflict. His turning away from Judaism (baptism) he viewed as an opportunistic act. Hans Litten himself was baptized as a Christian, but had already learned Hebrew at school and had his Abitur exam in the subject. His interest in Judaism was initially a reaction to his father, but it led to his desire to be a Jew , who was prone to mysticism .

Hans Litten received his political stamping primarily from his mother, Irmgard Litten , née Wüst, who came from a Swabian family of pastors and professors and was open to humanistic ideas and art. Due to their influence, he also developed a strong sense of justice towards the threatened, persecuted and disenfranchised.

In his youth in Königsberg, Litten and his childhood friend Max Fürst turned to the German-Jewish youth group with social-revolutionary ideas "Schwarzer Haufen" (SH), which until 1927 belonged to the liberal comrades, the German-Jewish hiking association and dissolved in 1928.

Hans Litten sought a political debate early on. Important socio-political events that shaped him included the anti-war demonstration in Berlin on May 1, 1916, the arrest and murder of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, and the revolutionary events of 1918.

There is an anecdote from his school days that when asked whether one should hang the picture of Paul von Hindenburg , the “winner of the Battle of Tannenberg ”, in the classroom, he dryly said that he had always been in favor of hanging it.

legal studies

For Jura -Studies Hans Litten was pushed by her father. His own opinion on law is expressed by an entry in his diary:

"When the ox was bored in paradise, he invented jurisprudence."

Nevertheless, he, who had moved to Berlin in 1927 and lived there in a shared apartment with his childhood friend Max Fürst (a carpenter) and his girlfriend Margot Meisel , passed his exams with brilliant grades. He refused a position in the Reich Ministry of Justice ; In 1928 he settled in a joint law firm in Berlin with the socially committed attorney Ludwig Barbasch , who was close to the KPD .

Suffered as the "advocate of the proletariat"

Already one of his first lawsuits was to cause a sensation and outlined the further path of life of Hans Litten as a “labor lawyer”. He represented workers who, in March 1921 , had been sentenced to long prison terms for organized resistance to the police march into central German industrial locations ordered by the Prussian Interior Minister Carl Severing ( SPD ). With some he was recognized as a political perpetrator, which fell under the amnesty law of August 1920.

Through his law firm colleague Ludwig Barbasch , Litten also had contact with the Rote Hilfe - a self-help organization founded by Wilhelm Pieck and Clara Zetkin , which supported working-class families in need, particularly in times of strikes and unemployment . In addition, the Red Aid organized legal protection and defense for workers who were charged with their political activities or convictions. By mid-1929, the Red Aid had provided legal assistance to almost 16,000 imprisoned workers and legal protection in a further 27,000 cases. Hans Litten also took over Red Aid mandates.

Litten's litigation in the numerous proceedings against the victims of police assaults and National Socialist attacks aimed to place the individual case in a political framework, to expose the civil war-like methods of the police and to expose the responsibilities to the highest circles. But he did not want to create socialist martyrs , that is, he sought acquittal or, if necessary, appropriate punishment. This sometimes led to conflicts with the Red Aid and the KPD.

For the defense, Litten not only used the procedural means offered by the Code of Criminal Procedure , but also the public events of the Red Aid. These became tribunals through public and effective witness interrogations .

Trial of May 1st, 1929

In 1929, Litten defended participants in a disbanded May Day rally in Berlin, in which more than 30 demonstrators were killed and hundreds injured. The workers had been charged with rioting for serious breach of the peace . In preparation for the defense, Litten founded a “Committee to Investigate the Berlin May Events” together with Alfred Döblin , Heinrich Mann and Carl von Ossietzky . Litten, who had himself observed the demonstration and the brutal behavior of police officers and was beaten up when he was taking down the names of witnesses and victims, filed a complaint against the then Berlin police chief Karl Zörgiebel for inciting murder in 33 cases. In his advertisement he stated:

“Zörgiebel has been a member of the social democratic party for many years: he therefore knows that the workers' right to demonstrate in May, even in imperial Germany and tsarist Russia, never let the police banned them. He also knows that a socialist educated working class will never let this right be deprived of them. So if the accused kept the ban on demonstrations upright, he knew that there would still be a demonstration. As a normally gifted person, however, the accused knew that the lifting of the ban on demonstrations could not have had any effect even remotely as terrible as the violent enforcement of the ban on demonstrations had. "

The prosecution against Zörgiebel sought by Litten was not brought. Litten did not give up, however, and accused Zörgiebel of further murders in order to get him to sue him for insult . Zörgiebel Litten did not do this favor, instead he sued a worker who had slapped him. Litten took over his defense. In the trial, Litten defended himself by arguing that the worker acted out of justified anger over the 33 murders of Zörgiebel. The judiciary did not want to give itself the nakedness of having to investigate the evidence offered ; Instead, Litten's application for evidence was rejected on the grounds that the punishability for the slap would not be eliminated even if the murder allegation against Zörgiebel was assumed to be true.

Eden Palace Trial of 1931

The process leading to the attack on the Eden dance hall in Kaiser-Friedrich-Str. 24 in Berlin-Charlottenburg . On November 22, 1930 had SA - Rollkommando raided the predominantly of left workers visited local. The action was prepared according to plan, and the police investigations after the crime were slow.

Hans Litten represented four of the 20 injured workers as a representative of the secondary prosecution . In the process, in addition to the criminal prosecution of the immediate perpetrators, he wanted to show that the terror was used as a systematic tactic of the National Socialist leadership to destroy the democratic structures of the Weimar Republic . Shortly before, Adolf Hitler had sworn to the Leipzig Reichsgericht that the " National Revolution " was legal .

The court called Adolf Hitler to the stand on May 8, 1931 at the request of Litten and the defense counsel for the defendants. Litten wanted to show that the Eden raid was organized by the party leadership and supported in terms of content, that the NSDAP was not a democratic, legitimate party that was moving within the legal framework. In the course of the interrogation, Litten confronted the witness Hitler with a paper by the Reich Propaganda Leader of the NSDAP , Goebbels , entitled “The Nazi Sozi”. This pamphlet called for parliament to be blown apart in order to seize power and "crush opponents to a pulp".

Hitler was embarrassed and cornered by Litten's questions. He yelled at Litten with a red head:

"How do you come to say, Mr. Lawyer, that there is an invitation to illegality? That is an explanation that cannot be proven by anything! "

Hitler never forgot the embarrassment in the Edenpalast trial and the danger to the National Socialist movement posed by the lawyer. Years later, the name Litten could not be mentioned in his presence.

Felseneck Trial 1932

In this process, an attack by thugs of the SA on January 19, 1932 on the arbor colony "Felseneck" in Wilhelmsruh was negotiated. Fritz Klemke (1902–1932), who had become a member of the KPD four days earlier, was gunned down during the clashes on his property. Although the facts of the murder had been recognized, the SA defendants fell under the Christmas amnesty. After 1933 this attack was honored by the National Socialists as a "heroic deed" and a street in Reinickendorf was named Felseneckstraße, consequently since 1947 this street has been called Klemkestraße.

In the Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung on September 11, 1932, Litten assessed what he believed to be characteristic of the trial as follows:

“ Karl Marx's statement that the law is a superstructure of social realities proves its correctness especially in times of heightened class antagonisms . At such times, the social foundations change so quickly that the legislative machine does not always keep pace with developments. In a process that lasts for months, one can observe particularly clearly at such times how the manner of negotiation adapts to economic and political developments. The Felseneck trial, which began on April 20, 1932, is the last remnant of proper jurisdiction in political matters amid the work of the special courts . But the development could not bypass the pending proceedings. What was introduced in special court proceedings through legislation by means of emergency ordinance was achieved in another way in the Felseneck trial. In political processes, clarifying the background often contradicts the interests of the ruling class. "

Even before this Felseneck trial, in which Hans Litten was rejected by the court as defense counsel and co-plaintiff representative, because he had "unfolded unrestrained party-political propaganda in the trial [and] made the courtroom a playground for political passions", Litten had one of the "Reds Help ”provided escort. He rejected the proposal to go abroad for a period on the grounds:

"The millions of workers can't get out, so I have to stay here too."

Persecution by the National Socialists

Shortly after the National Socialists “seized power ” in 1933, Hans Litten was taken into “ protective custody ” on the night of the Reichstag fire in the early morning hours of February 28, 1933 . In addition to him, the communist members of the Reichstag Fritz Emrich , Ottomar Geschke , Ernst Schneller and Walter Stoecker , the Prussian state parliament member Wilhelm Kasper , the writer Egon Erwin Kisch , Ludwig Renn , Carl von Ossietzky , bourgeois intellectuals such as Erich Baron and Felix Rosenheim , and Litten's colleagues Ludwig Barbasch and Felix Halle were arrested and severely mistreated in custody.

Litten was first brought to Spandau. Numerous attempts, especially by his mother, but also by foreign lawyers, such as the British pacifist and MP Baron Allen of Hurtwood ( Independent Labor Party ) and the "European Conference for Law and Freedom" (which took place in November 1937 with the participation of delegates from eight countries in Paris had taken place) to obtain Litten's release were in vain.

Further stations of his five-year imprisonment were the Sonnenburg concentration camp and the Brandenburg penitentiary , where the anarchist Erich Mühsam was interned and tortured . In February 1934, Litten was transferred to the " moor camp " Esterwegen in the Emsland and a few months later to the Lichtenburg concentration camp . Litten came to Buchenwald in the summer of 1937 and finally to Dachau in October 1937 . Before being interrogated again on February 5, 1938 , he was found hanged in the latrine by his friend Alfred Grünebaum . It was later suspected that Litten was murdered by the guards; Statements from fellow inmates clearly show, however, that the severely tortured Litten was driven to suicide by the long years of torture and ill-treatment .

He found his final resting place in the Pankow III cemetery in the UWG department.

Hans Litten Archive

The Hans Litten Archive was founded in 2005 to document the "history of the solidarity organizations of the workers' movement and social movements in Germany and internationally since the First World War" . The archive is based on the Göttingen Rote-Hilfe-Archiv, the sponsoring association Hans-Litten-Archiv e. V. is registered as a non-profit association . Materials from the various Red Aid groups and other left-wing groups as well as documents on the history of political justice and persecution from 1918 to the present are collected . The archive houses a collection of 20 m of books, 3 m of brochures, 160 magazine titles and personal papers totaling 80 folders. Parts of the holdings are digitized and published by the archive. In addition, the archive organizes seminars and lectures in which it makes its results public for educational work. The archive is suing against the assertion by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution that the archive belongs to the “structure of the Red Aid ” and is thus left-wing extremist .

Honors

Memorial plaque for Hans Litten at the Berlin district court

In honor of Litten, on May 10, 1951, the Neue Friedrichstrasse was renamed Littenstrasse in Berlin . The district court of Berlin and district court of Mitte lie on her . A memorial plaque for Litten was also installed at the regional court and a bust was placed in the courthouse.

Federal Bar Association and the Bar Association Berlin headquartered in Littenstrasse 9, Hans-Litten-house called the German Bar Association in Littenstraße 11 near the Dortmund District Court, right on the former building of the Prosecutor's Office Dortmund, located in 1988 named Hans-Litten- Street.

The Association of Democratic Jurists (VdJ) has named its prize for democratic engagement, which is awarded every two years, after Hans Litten. She emphasizes:

"The tradition to which Hans Litten was committed is also the tradition to which the VDJ feels obliged."

- Prof. Dr. Norman Paech (Hamburg)

In May 2006 a stumbling block was laid in front of his former home, Berlin-Mitte , Zolastraße 1a . In addition, there is a memorial plaque for Hans Litten at the house where he was born in Burgstrasse in Halle, depicting his death as an assassination on February 4, 1938.

In February 2015, the Upper School Center for Law and Economics (OSZ Law) in Berlin-Charlottenburg was renamed the Hans-Litten School.

literature

reception

Movies

Series

In the third season of Babylon Berlin , Trystan Pütter embodies the role of "Litten", who offers legal assistance.

theatre

Web links

Commons : Hans Litten  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The name refers to the German Peasants' War and the song Wir sind des Geyer's black heaps, popular among the youth movement
  2. ↑ Quoted from Carlheinz von Brück: A man who cornered Hitler. Hans Litten's fight against fascism. A documentary report . Union, Berlin 1975, p. 29.
  3. ↑ Quoted from Carlheinz von Brück: A man who cornered Hitler. Hans Litten's fight against fascism. A documentary report . Union, Berlin 1975, p. 58; see also Knut Bergbauer et al.: Monument figure. Biographical approach to Hans Litten . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-8353-0268-6 , p. 108.
  4. ↑ Knut Bergbauer et al.: Monument figure. Biographical approach to Hans Litten, 1903–1938 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, p. 149.
  5. ^ Andreas Stadler: The exclusion of the defense lawyer. An investigation since the Imperial Code of Criminal Procedure from 1877 until the statutory regulation in 1974 . Monsenstein and Vannerdat, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-86991-864-8 (Zugl .: Hagen, Fernuniv., Diss., 2013), pp. 58-134, (= 3rd chapter The Felseneck Process ).
  6. ↑ Klemkestrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
  7. ↑ Quotation from Norman Paech: Hans Litten - A lawyer in the fight against fascism .
  8. ↑ Quotation from Norman Paech: Hans Litten - A lawyer in the fight against fascism .
  9. ↑ Knut Bergbauer / Sabine Fröhlich / Stefanie Schüler-Springorum: Monument figure. Biographical approach to Hans Litten, 1903-1938 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2008, p. 292.
  10. ^ Statutes of the Hans-Litten-Archiv e. V. , accessed on August 19, 2015.
  11. ↑ Hans Litten Archive , Republican Lawyers Association , Info Letter 102, 2009.
  12. ↑ Collecting, sorting , filing : Independent archives and movement historiography , Arranca! No. 44, August 2011.
  13. ↑ Hans Litten Archive. In: Directory of Free Archives. Alternative literature archive, accessed June 11, 2020 .
  14. ^ Hans-Litten-Archiv eV (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on November 18, 2019 ; accessed on June 11, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Constitutional Protection Report 2018
  16. ↑ Left Hans Litten Archive from Göttingen complains against the report on the protection of the constitution , Neues Deutschland, September 6, 2019.
  17. ↑ http://www.brak.de/die-brak/buero-berlin/rechtsanwalt-hans-litten/
  18. ↑ VDJ: Hans Litten Prize , accessed on May 2, 2015.
  19. ↑ Hans Litten (article with photo), in: "Halle im Bild", accessed on September 30, 2018.
  20. ^ Website of the Hans Litten School , accessed on February 25, 2015.
  21. ↑ The Man Who Crossed Hitler - introduction , BBC
  22. ^ Jens-Peter Marquardt: Theater premiere in London. The lawyer who interrogated Hitler. ( Memento from February 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau.de . January 30, 2015.
  23. ↑ Gina Thomas: He brought Hitler to court, in: FAZ No. 23, January 28, 2015, p. 12.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on October 16, 2005 .
personal data
SURNAME Litten, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Litten, Hans Achim (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and criminal defense attorney, opponent of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH February 5, 1938
Place of death Dachau concentration camp