Hans Gawlik

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Hans Gawlik also Johannes Gawlik (born August 29, 1904 in Breslau ; † after 1968) was a German lawyer and civil servant who played an important role first as a criminal defense lawyer in Nazi trials and then as head of the Central Legal Protection Office (ZRS) from 1950 to 1968 played in the criminal defense of Nazi perpetrators in the Federal Republic.

Career until 1945

Gawlik received his doctorate in 1930 from the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Wroclaw with a subject in civil law . In 1933 Gawlik joined the NSDAP . In the time of National Socialism, Gawlik was the first public prosecutor at the OLG Breslau. From 1942 he was a public prosecutor at the Special Court in Breslau, dealing with the elimination of political opponents of National Socialism. He was also a judge at the district court of the NSDAP district of Upper Silesia. On February 15, 1945, Breslau was surrounded by the advancing Red Army . At that time there were still 80,000 civilians in the besieged area. On May 6, 1945, the Wroclaw garrison capitulated and the city was completely captured. It is not known whether Gawlik left the city for the west before February 15, 1945, or after the surrender.

Defender in the Nuremberg Trials

After the end of the Second World War , Gawlik settled as a lawyer in Nuremberg . In 1945/46 he was appointed as defense counsel for the organization of the Reichsführer SS (SD) security service, which was accused of criminal offenses, in the Nuremberg trial of the main war criminals . In 1947/48 he was the defender of Erich Naumann in the Einsatzgruppen trial . Gawlik also represented the concentration camp doctor Waldemar Hoven in the Nuremberg medical trial . In the process of the main economic and administrative office of the SS , he was the lawyer for Leo Volk and Hanns Bobermin .

Head of the legal protection office

In 1949 Gawlik became head of the "Coordination Office for the Promotion of Legal Protection for German Prisoners Abroad" at the State Council in Stuttgart, the German two-zone administration . After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, the coordination office became the Central Legal Protection Office (ZRS) at the beginning of March 1950 , of which Gawlik remained as head. The Central Legal Protection Agency was a federal authority until 1970, which was subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Justice and then to the Foreign Office .

The ZRS, headed by Gawlik, organized legal counsel for Germans who were wanted by non-German courts for Nazi and war crimes, who had been charged or convicted. This work focused on Western Europe, especially France. In mid-1950, 2,784 people were looked after. In addition, the authority collected trial documents from abroad in order to warn Germans convicted in absentia against visiting countries in which they were on the wanted list. In order to get the addresses of Nazi perpetrators convicted abroad for the purpose of warning, Gawlik u. a. with the Red Cross and also with the silent help . Starting in 1964, the Central Legal Protection Agency searched for a total of 800 Germans and Austrians who had been convicted of war crimes in absentia by the French courts via the tracing service of the German Red Cross .

The matter came to light in 1968 when the list of wanted Austrians, which the DRK had given to the Vienna Red Cross , appeared in a newsletter of the comradeship of the Linz 45th Infantry Division , where friends of Simon Wiesenthal noticed them. This warning list contained, among other things, the name of Alois Brunner . At that time, Gawlik was the lecturer in the first class . Gawlik was then retired in 1968.

rating

In the report of the Scientific Commission, which investigated the handling of the Federal Judicial Authority with the Nazi past, Hans Gawlik is described as a key figure and “gray eminence” of an organization that systematically prevented officials of the Third Reich from committing the most serious crimes for 18 years , received a punishment based on the rule of law. With his biography and the convictions behind it, Gawlik should not have held a leading position at the Federal Ministry of Justice. Nevertheless, he was patronized by Thomas Dehler and Walter Strauss .

literature

  • Bernhard Brunner: The France Complex. The National Socialist Crimes in France and the Justice of the Federal Republic of Germany . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-89244-693-8 .
  • Norbert Frei : Politics of the past. The beginnings of the Federal Republic and the Nazi past . Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-41310-2 .
  • Manfred Görtemaker, Christoph Safferling: The Rosenburg files. The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nazi era. Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-69768-5 (esp. Pp. 211–222)
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 , 2nd updated edition. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 175.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Gawlik: The irrevocable power of attorney . Hochschul-Verlag, Breslau 1930. (Dissertation)
  2. ^ A b Ernst Klee Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , second updated edition. Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 175.
  3. ^ Norbert Frei: Past Policy , Munich 1996, p. 184.
  4. ↑ To Dr. Hans Gawlik as Head of the Central Legal Protection Office (in the medium) ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / media.offenes-archiv.de
  5. ^ Christopher Duffy : Red storm on the Reich: the Soviet march on Germany, 1945 . Routledge, London 1991, ISBN 0-415-03589-9 , pp. 253-267.
  6. ^ George J. Annas, Michael A. Grodin: The Nazi doctors and the Nuremberg Code . Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0195101065 , p. 111.
  7. ^ Mazal Library [1]
  8. ↑ The role of the authority (with Dr. Hans Gawlik , in the medium) ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2017 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / media.offenes-archiv.de
  9. ^ Manfred Görtemaker, Christoph Safferling: The Rosenburg files. The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nazi era. Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-69768-5 , p. 214.
  10. ↑ a b Has been notified . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1968, pp. 51 ( Online - Apr. 15, 1968 ).
  11. ↑ Oliver Schröm and Andrea Röpke: Silent help for brown comrades: the secret network of old and neo-Nazis , 2nd edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3861532662 , pp. 51-52.
  12. ↑ Ulrich Keitel: The Foreign Office in Twilight or How Much Surface Does the Foreign Office offer? ( Memento of the original from June 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Commentary in the Hessischer Rundfunk on August 17, 1968.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kokhavivpublications.com
  13. ^ Manfred Görtemaker, Christoph Safferling: The Rosenburg files. The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nazi era. Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-406-69768-5 , pp. 216/217.
personal data
SURNAME Gawlik, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gawlik, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and civil servant, head of the Central Legal Protection Office (ZRS)
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH 20th century