Heinrich Hölscher

Heinrich Hölscher (born April 11, 1875 in Wellingholzhausen , Hanover province , † December 3, 1945 in Berlin ) was a German lawyer and politician . After the Prussian strike in 1932, he served in the provisional government for Prussia until March 1933.

Life and work

Hölscher studied law. He entered the Prussian judicial service in 1898 and worked from 1906 as a district judge and district judge in Konitz , West Prussia and later in Hagen . In 1917 he was promoted to district judge and in 1919 to chamber judge. From 1921 Hölscher was a full-time member of the Judicial Examination Commission in the Prussian Ministry of Justice. In 1923 he moved to the Prussian Ministry of Finance as a ministerial advisor, using it as a judicial officer, and in 1925 became vice-president of the State Legal Examination Office. In 1933 he succeeded Eduard Tigges as President of the Kammergericht , the Higher Regional Court of Berlin. He retired at the end of December 1942 and built his own home on the Scharmützelsee in Brandenburg.

The question of whether and to what extent Hölscher was a supporter and beneficiary of the Nazi system was assessed differently after 1945. While the judiciary in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR viewed him as a major supporter of the Nazi regime, even if he was not a member of the NSDAP, Weichbrodt (2009) assumes in his appraisal of the Nazi history of the Berlin Chamber of Commerce that Hölscher "did incorporated into the National Socialist regime, but not beyond that permeated it in a special way with its evil ". However, z. B. According to Hölscher's view, for the Hereditary Health Court, Berlin, which is essential for the implementation of the Nazi racial ideology and eugenics, only those officials are considered as judicial members "who are thoroughly familiar with National Socialist ideas and are staunch supporters of the National Socialist movement and the new state" .

Hölscher, who had been considered missing in Soviet custody since 1945, was pronounced dead on March 7, 1947, unaware of his fate. According to another source, he and his wife were shot dead by invading Soviet troops in 1945. In fact, on October 9, 1945, Hölscher was arrested at his place of residence in Bad Saarow . He was to be tried on December 7, 1945 before the Soviet military tribunal in Berlin for his work as President of the Chamber Court. A few days before the start of the proceedings, Hölscher died on December 3, 1945 in special prison No. 6 of the NKVD in Berlin-Lichtenberg .

Political party

Hölscher was initially a member of the Center Party , from which he later left.

Public offices

Hölscher was State Secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Justice from 1927 to 1932. After the " Preussenschlag " he was appointed Reich Commissioner on July 21, 1932 and took over the management of the ministry. On March 23, 1933, he was replaced in this function by the National Socialist Hanns Kerrl .

literature

Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): The protocols of the Prussian State Ministry 1817-1934/38 . tape 12/2 . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York City 2004, ISBN 3-487-12704-0 .

Web links

Heinrich Hölscher. In: “Files of the Reich Chancellery. Weimar Republic ”online. Federal Archives, accessed on March 2, 2013 .

Individual evidence

↑ (see Weichbrodt, Stephan, The History of the Court of Appeal from 1913–1945. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2009, p. 375)
↑ s. Fuchs, Petra (2009): 'I calculate 20 minutes for each case' - On the activity of the Potsdam Hereditary Health Court in the period from 1934 to 1945. In: Westermann, Stefanie & Richard Kühl & Dominik Groß (eds.): (2009): Medicine in the service of "hereditary health": Contributions to the history of eugenics and "racial hygiene" (Medicine and National Socialism, Vol. 1). Münster: LIT, pp. 23-38; here p. 26
^ Fritz Hartung : Lawyer under four realms . Carl Heymanns Verlag, Cologne / West-Berlin / Bonn / Munich 1971, ISBN 3-452-17216-3 , p. 78 .
↑ Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner, Andreas Weigelt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947). A historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 , short biographies on the enclosed CD, p. 275 there

personal data
SURNAME	Hölscher, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German lawyer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH	April 11, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH	Wellingholzhausen
DATE OF DEATH	December 3, 1945
Place of death	Berlin

[1] (see Weichbrodt, Stephan, The History of the Court of Appeal from 1913–1945. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, Berlin 2009, p. 375)

[2] s. Fuchs, Petra (2009): 'I calculate 20 minutes for each case' - On the activity of the Potsdam Hereditary Health Court in the period from 1934 to 1945. In: Westermann, Stefanie & Richard Kühl & Dominik Groß (eds.): (2009): Medicine in the service of "hereditary health": Contributions to the history of eugenics and "racial hygiene" (Medicine and National Socialism, Vol. 1). Münster: LIT, pp. 23-38; here p. 26

[3] Fritz Hartung : Lawyer under four realms . Carl Heymanns Verlag, Cologne / West-Berlin / Bonn / Munich 1971, ISBN 3-452-17216-3 , p. 78 .

[4] Klaus-Dieter Müller, Thomas Schaarschmidt, Mike Schmeitzner, Andreas Weigelt: Death sentences of Soviet military tribunals against Germans (1944-1947). A historical-biographical study . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-525-36968-5 , short biographies on the enclosed CD, p. 275 there