War Criminal Procedure Code

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The War Criminal Procedure Ordinance ( KStVO ) was signed, together with the War Criminal Law Ordinance , on August 17, 1938 by the Chief of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) Wilhelm Keitel and the "Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor" Adolf Hitler and was supposed to comply with the provisions of the Military Criminal Court Code "to secure the Wehrmacht and the purpose of the war ”. The two ordinances completed in 1938 were only published in the Reichsgesetzblatt on August 26, 1939 and thus came into force immediately before the start of the Second World War .

These ordinances gave military lawyers “practically unlimited possibilities to take action against 'internal and external enemies'.” In conjunction with the War Criminal Law Ordinance , the War Criminal Procedure Code was intended to satisfy “the unavoidable military need for a tight and rapid judiciary in war”.

Essential contents of the KStVO

According to § 2 soldiers, Wehrmacht officials, conscripts and prisoners of war are equally subject to war proceedings; Jurisdiction can be applied for for persons who are accused of espionage , rioting , disintegration of military strength or high treason and treason .

Furthermore, the KStVO regulates the occupation of the field war courts (or board war courts) and the Reich court martial .

Decisions in war proceedings cannot be challenged with ordinary legal remedies. They are officially confirmed, amended or revoked in a review procedure (§ 75 ff.). Appeal and appeal bodies with the higher war courts as well as the revision body fell away.

According to § 5, the "Führer and Reich Chancellor" is the highest court lord of the Wehrmacht. According to Sections 78 and 80, he is reserved the right to confirm and set aside the death sentences of officers if he expresses a general reservation or takes up an individual case.

According to Section 103 of the first version of the KStVO, the execution of the death penalty should be carried out by shooting , and for women by beheading .

Additions and changes

By January 11, 1945, eleven implementing regulations had been issued. With the 4th DVO of November 11, 1939 (RGBl. I, p. 3132) stand courts are introduced.

In the 7th DVO of May 18, 1940 (RGBl. I, p. 787) the exclusive jurisdiction of the military jurisdiction for dismantling military strength is restricted. In addition, the judge can request other authorities "especially in the case of civilians" to take over the execution of sentences.

In fact, in the case of death sentences, senior public prosecutors were often asked to take over the execution of sentences, in whose places of execution beheading was carried out. From the end of 1942, military personnel convicted of war were killed on the gallows for the first time .

Validity period

Legally, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force abolished with Law No. 153 of May 4, 1945 all German courts-martial with the exception of field-martial courts. At the same time as the Reich Court Martial was abolished, all constitutional and procedural norms were repealed.

literature

  • Günter Gribbohm: The Reich Court Martial - The Institution and its Legal Assessment , Berliner Wiss.-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8305-0585-X , p. 22 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Announcement of the new version of the Military Punishment Act and the Introductory Act to it (MStGO) of September 29, 1936 ( RGBl. I, p. 751)
  2. ↑ § 1 of the War Criminal Procedure Code (KStVO) (RGBl. I 1939, p. 1457)
  3. ↑ Ulrich Baumann, Magnus Koch: "What Was Right Back then ..." - Soldiers and civilians before the courts of the Wehrmacht , Berlin-Brandenburg 2008, ISBN 978-3-89809-079-7 , p. 145.
  4. ^ Contemporary technical article quoted from Günter Gribbohm: Das Reichskriegsgericht - The institution and its legal assessment , Berliner Wiss.-Verlag, Berlin 2004, p. 8 with note 18.
  5. ^ Günter Gribbohm: Das Reichskriegsgericht ... , Berlin 2004, p. 8
  6. ↑ Listed by Günter Gribbohm: Das Reichskriegsgericht ... , Berlin 2004, p. 12.
  7. ↑ Hans Peter Kiausch: Shoot - Decapitate - Hang. In: Ulrich Baumann, Magnus Koch: "What was right then ..." , Berlin-Brandenburg 2008, p. 81. The author estimates their number at a total of 300.
  8. ↑ Günter Gribbohm: Das Reichskriegsgericht ... , Berlin 2004, p. 7.