Control Council Act No. 4

With the Allied Control Council adopted Control Council Law no. 4 of 20th October 1945 on the "transformation of the German judicial system," the courts were again following the pattern of the Judicature Act of 1877 in local courts , regional courts and higher regional courts divided. However, certain criminal cases have been withdrawn from their jurisdiction , which is essentially related to the situation before 1933 , in particular for cases in which allies are affected. Members of the NSDAP were excluded from the office of judge or public prosecutor .

content

In the preamble , Control Council Act No. 4 refers to Proclamation No. 3 of October 20, 1945, which orders that the German judiciary should be based on the democratic principle, legality and equality of all citizens before the law regardless of race , Nationality or religion needs to be transformed.

The first two articles tie in with the structure of the courts and jurisdiction on the circumstances before the time of National Socialism . Special courts and people's courts are thus eliminated. This is expressly formulated at the same time, also on October 20, 1945, in "Proclamation No. 3 - Principles for the Reorganization of the Administration of Justice" in Article III.

The Control Council Act No. 4 restricts the jurisdiction of German courts in some cases. These include criminal acts against the allied occupation forces or nationals of the allies as well as attempts to "resume activities of the Nazi organizations".
Criminal acts in which military personnel of the Allied Forces or Allied nationals are involved are not subject to German jurisdiction.
The Allied Military Commander is authorized to remove other civil or criminal matters from German jurisdiction.

All former members of the NSDAP "who actively campaigned for their work" are to be removed from their office as judges and public prosecutors and may not be admitted to such offices in future.

Validity

The Control Council Act No. 4 of October 20, 1945 was drawn up in Berlin on October 30 and came into force on November 2, 1945.

It ceased to be in force for the Federal Republic of Germany through Act No. 13 (jurisdiction in the reserved areas) of the Allied High Commission of November 25, 1949 (ABl. AHK p. 54).

For the German Democratic Republic , it remained in force and was only suspended in 1955 by the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the dissolution of the High Commission of the Soviet Union in Germany on September 20, 1955.

implementation

According to estimates, more than 80% of the public prosecutors and judges were members of the NSDAP. Contrary to the provisions of the Control Council Act No. 4, judges who had already held this office during the National Socialist era were soon reinstated in the three western zones. In the so-called "piggyback procedure", together with an unencumbered fully qualified lawyer, a further judge with a former NSDAP membership was appointed who was generally classified as "exonerated" in the denazification process . In the British zone of occupation , this fifty percent quota was exceeded as early as the spring of 1946. In the course of the “increasingly liberal denazification practice of 1947/48”, almost all those released in 1945 were given the opportunity to return to the justice system in the western zones; only the leadership and representation level of the judiciary was changed.

In contrast to this, in the Soviet occupation zone and later GDR, so-called people's judges were trained in the fast-track process and thus people who were loyal to the line were deployed.

literature

Gerhard Fieberg : In the name of the German people. Justice and National Socialism. Published by the Federal Minister of Justice. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-8046-8731-8 (exhibition catalog).

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Fieberg: In the name of the German people. 1989, p. 354.
^ Fieberg: In the name of the German people. 1989, p. 359.
^ Jörg Friedrich : acquittal for the Nazi judiciary. The judgments against Nazi judges since 1948. Documentation (= Ullstein 26532). Revised and supplemented edition. Ullstein, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26532-4 , pp. 142/143.
^ Fieberg: In the name of the German people. 1989, p. 358.

[1] Fieberg: In the name of the German people. 1989, p. 354.

[2] Fieberg: In the name of the German people. 1989, p. 359.

[3] Jörg Friedrich : acquittal for the Nazi judiciary. The judgments against Nazi judges since 1948. Documentation (= Ullstein 26532). Revised and supplemented edition. Ullstein, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-548-26532-4 , pp. 142/143.

[4] Fieberg: In the name of the German people. 1989, p. 358.