Horst Neubauer (judge)

Horst Neubauer (born May 12, 1897 in Görlitz ; † 1981 ) was a German judge who passed 96 death sentences at the Litzmannstadt Special Court during the German occupation of Poland . The legislation and legal practice in the Federal Republic of Germany , in which Neubauer was still President of the Senate , prevented him from being accountable to the courts.

Life

Horst Neubauer's father, Karl, was a wine wholesaler in Görlitz; he had married Helene Wiesner, the daughter of a factory owner and city councilor. Like his parents, Horst Neubauer grew up in his hometown, where he graduated from the Augustum high school . Since he was not drafted for health reasons, he was able to start studying at the University of Marburg in 1916 , and in 1917 he joined Wingolf . In 1918 he moved to the University of Greifswald and the University of Breslau , where he was awarded a Dr. phil received his doctorate . In Berlin , he went on to study law, which he completed after four semesters at the Supreme Courtgraduated with the first state examination. During the clerkship, he published writings labor law and a doctorate in 1926 in Berlin to Dr. jur. utriusque . From 1927 he was employed by the German Association of Cities and in 1929 he was elected mayor of Lauenburg in Pomerania with a starting salary of 8,400 RM p. a.

On April 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP (number 1,824 940), but had already supported the local NSDAP subdivision and on April 5, 1932, before the Prussian strike , he welcomed the campaigner Adolf Hitler . In 1935 he became block leader of the NSDAP in Berlin , and during the National Socialist era he was a member of the RDB , the NSV and the Reichsschrifttumskammer , the RLB and the BDO , later he was also a district training speaker in the party and in Litzmannstadt he was active as managing director of the Nordic Society . He had the first child in 1934 with the daughter of a Reich judge who was married in 1933 .

In Lauenburg he was dismissed as mayor with the law for the restoration of the civil service in 1934 in order to make room for the old fighters of the party who were to be provided with benefices , was re-accepted into the Prussian judicial service and in 1935 received a position as a judge at the Charlottenburg district court . While Neubauer was also working on labor law cases for the German Labor Front , he was able to improve his income considerably, but he also drew criticism from his superiors at the Supreme Court. Before this came to a head, after the German conquest of Poland in the newly created Reichsgau Wartheland , Neubauer was seconded to Bentschen as sole judge . In April 1940 he was promoted to the position of regional court director as chairman of a chamber of the special court in Litzmannstadt ; his regional court president was Heribert Kandler , whose representative was still promoted by Neubauer. From the end of 1941, the Polish Criminal Law Ordinance allowed litigation without having to appoint a defense for the accused. Due to his reliability and cooperation in the NSDAP, Neubauer was also appointed deputy chairman of the Hereditary Health Court at Litzmannstadt District Court . In 1941 he received the War Merit Cross, Second Class . Neubauer announced 963 judgments, of which 96 were death sentences. In total, 281 people were sentenced to death at the special court of 3,700 convicts. The last sentence on 6 weeks in prison was passed by Neubauer on January 9, 1945 under the treachery law against a German for unauthorized wearing of the NSDAP party badge . After fleeing from the East, he was delegated to the Jena Higher Regional Court as representative of the Senate President for high treason and treason ; nothing is known about the rulings there, the city was captured by the US Army on April 13, 1945 .

Neubauer fell under automatic arrest and was interned in various American camps from June 13, 1945 to May 24, 1946 . In the denazification proceedings in Detmold , he kept quiet about his activities in the special court, asserted the dismissal in 1934 and the alleged Jewish descent of his wife and was classified as a follower on November 8, 1948 . He then benefited from the North Rhine-Westphalian ordinance issued by Prime Minister Karl Arnold and Justice Minister Artur Sträter to conclude denazification of August 24, 1949 and was now able to return to the public service as a general exonerated person . The Düsseldorf District President Kurt Baurichter issued him the required clean bill of health , with which he was hired as a judge at the Administrative Court of Düsseldorf in 1950 . In 1955 he was appointed Senate President of the State Social Court of North Rhine-Westphalia in Essen by Minister of Social Affairs Johann Platte .

Decisive for the premature end of Neubauer's career were the GDR's “ blood judge ” campaign at the end of the 1950s and the exhibition Unpunished Nazi Justice , first organized in Karlsruhe by the Socialist German Student Union , in which Neubauer's death sentence against Stefan Redzynia was listed as an example; Redzynia had poked a German policeman in the chest to avoid arrest. The exhibition organizers Wolfgang Koppel and Reinhard Strecker reported Neubauer to the public prosecutor's office in Essen in January 1960 "for perversion of the law, presumably in unity with manslaughter"; the investigations were taken over by the Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office at Neubauer's place of residence, the investigation files were later destroyed as not worthy of archiving. The public prosecutor discontinued the proceedings and informed the complainant eight months (sic!) After the termination in June 1961. Neubauer's judicial activity in Poland was also the subject of a disciplinary investigation since May 1958 , in which Neubauer argued, also citing the case law of the BGH , that the standards of today could not be applied to then . Neubauer was able to negotiate the discontinuation of the disciplinary proceedings on the basis of the principle of opportunity , was honorably discharged into early retirement on July 5, 1961 and was able to enjoy his senate presidential pension for another twenty years, including his service in Poland.

Only when judges from the GDR were convicted of perverting the law after the reunification of Germany did the case law of the Federal Court of Justice change in 1995, which now ruled that the death penalty in a large number of cases resulted in the conviction of judges and prosecutors of the National Socialist regime of violence [n] have to lead . This late insight was inconsequential, because even a Dr. H., who as a judge in the Lviv and Stanislau Special Courts sentenced thirteen Poles to death who had given shelter to fugitive Jews , died in 2003 before the investigation, which began in 2001, led to the indictment.

Fonts

• The city constitution law of Germany . F. Vahlen, Berlin 1930
• The city of Görlitz at the beginning of the 18th century: its economic, social and political circumstances . Breslau, R.- u. state science Diss., 1927
• The employment contract in the more recent foreign legislation . Goerlitz 1927
• with Paul Wöbling: The dismissal of workers and employees according to the latest law, esp. d. Ordinance of 15 October 23 on the closure and Work stretching . Industry publ. Spaeth et al. Linde, Berlin 1923

literature

• Holger Schlüter: "... known for humanity in terms of punishment ..." - The Litzmannstadt Special Court and its presiding judge . Ministry of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf 2006.

Web links

• Literature by and about Horst Neubauer in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ↑ The biographical information according to Holger Schlüter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , here p. 207.
2. ↑ Holger Schlüter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 30f.
3. ^ Holger Schlueter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 32.
4. ↑ His successor, Mayor Schiffer, was also appointed to the Reich Committee for the Protection of German Blood .
5. ↑ Holger Schlüter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 147f.
6. ^ Holger Schlueter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 156f
7. ^ Holger Schlueter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 170f.
8. ↑ In the name of the German people! , 8 Sd. KLs.83/44 PoV. , at: Holger Schlüter: The Litzmannstadt Special Court and its presiding judge , pp. 253–255.
9. ^ Holger Schlueter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 188.
10. ↑ Holger Schlüter: The Litzmannstadt Special Court and its presiding judge , literal quotation on p. 201, here abbreviated accordingly.
11. ↑ Holger Schlüter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 207.
12. ↑ BGH St. 41, 317ff., Quoted by Holger Schlüter: The special court Litzmannstadt and its presiding judge , p. 209.
13. ↑ Schlueter does not mention any names. Holger Schlüter: The Litzmannstadt Special Court and its presiding judge , p. 211.