War Economy Ordinance

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The War Economy Ordinance of September 4, 1939 ( KWVO ) was a German law at the time of National Socialism that served to implement the state-controlled war economy in World War II and introduced the offense of war economic crimes. It can be found in the Reichsgesetzblatt 1939, Part I, pp. 1609ff, corrected in 1700; On March 25, 1942, the penal provisions were expanded in a supplementary ordinance (RGBl. 1942, Part I, p. 147).

content

The KWVO was one of the so-called drawer regulations that had been drafted by the ministerial bureaucracy long before the start of the Second World War, such as the regulation on extraordinary broadcasting measures (RundfunkVO) of September 1, 1939, the regulation against public pests (VVO) of September 5, 1939 or the ordinance against violent criminals of December 5, 1939. It was the legal instrument of the National Socialist judiciary and administration to secure deep armaments and to protect the so-called home front . In terms of content, the ordinance introduced war taxes, froze the prices of goods and services, fixed wages, removed surcharges for overtime, Sunday, holiday and night work and led to the lifting of the working time limit. The KWVO became known as the central norm of the war economic crimes of the special courts and punished surreptitious trade , hamsters , black slaughter, food card fraud and ticket fraud.

War economic crimes

Prosecuting these crimes should ensure calm and discipline on the so-called home front . This “war criminal law” had the following intention: “Serious crimes call for severe punishments! Against serious criminals in times of war, the permitted death penalty is generally required! ”As a legal asset, the KWVO was intended to punish“ war-damaging behavior ”, as Section I explains, which initially only contained Section 1. The motive was the leadership's fear of revolution in the face of social unrest such as in the turnip winter of 1917 during the First World War . The scope of punishment in Section 1 ranged from prison sentences of 1 day to the death penalty for those who "destroy, remove or withhold raw materials or products that are essential to the population's vital needs and thereby maliciously endanger the supply of these needs". The scope here was deliberately extremely broad, so that the death penalty could be imposed for even very minor offenses. In March 1942, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had declared war on war economic criminals in an article reprinted throughout the Reich in the weekly magazine “Das Reich”, with reference to the “Ordinance to Supplement the War Economy Ordinance” issued on March 25, 1942; the public prosecutor's offices had also received instructions to punish violations ruthlessly in the future. Courts intervened in the sentencing considerations in war economy stuff out back: the alarming words of Goebbels had gone through all the newspapers and everyone who to a greater extent then the rationing sabotage, may have to face the harshest penalties. The Freiburg Special Court, for example, shows the increasing importance of war economic crimes. A quarter of the files concern war economic crimes. The steady increase in the proportion of special court proceedings resulted from the start of regular heavy air raids and the associated supply problems. In order to counter the expanding black market , the special courts demonstratively took action against war economic crimes more often. This resulted in a reduced conviction rate for prison sentences because the prosecutor no longer carefully selected the cases that were prosecuted.

Black slaughter

The special courts have often dealt with black slaughtering and passed death sentences because meat has been illegally withdrawn from state management.

Food stamps

Food and raw materials were rationed. Anyone wishing to purchase them had to be able to show entitlement to purchase : the food stamps and vouchers. Brand forgery, manipulation, double use, incorrect accounting of the brands; all of this was rated as "war-damaging behavior". In the event of such a threat to the food supply, the subjects of negotiation were sausage, tallow, oil, fats, milk, eggs, butter, cheese, grain, flour, animal feed, coffee, tobacco, spirits, soap, shoes, fabrics, clothes, paper, metal and Petrol. In the emergency, the population quickly became a matter for the special court. Brands were also non-transferable and were broken down into individual foods. Therefore, it was often with food stamps on the black market bartering operated. Anyone who tried to do barter deals with the brands was also a criminal offense and was a case for the special court. It goes without saying that anyone who tried to make barter transactions without brands or who supplied third parties with goods without brands was a criminal offense. In 1943, the Nöthling case caused a sensation in Berlin , in which breaches of state made known by prominent representatives of the Nazi state had no consequences.

Black market crime and counterfeiting were precarious as early as the First World War. The food supply was initially ignored by the state agencies of the state of siege , the Deputy General Command . Hesitant measures in 1915/16 such as the issue of food stamps or the creation of usury offices could not cope with this milieu and were maintained well into the post-war years. Usury courts had to judge price gouging and surreptitious trading in a simplified, accelerated procedure.

War taxes

In addition to income tax , a war surcharge of 50 percent was levied, which was applied to all taxpayers with an income of over RM 2,400 . The war surcharge was limited to a maximum of 15 percent of income, and income tax and war surcharge together could not exceed 65 percent. Furthermore, the sparkling wine tax was reintroduced and other alcoholic beverages (for example 10-14 pfennigs per liter on beer, depending on the region) were added. The federal states and municipalities had to pay contributions from their taxes and duties.

War wages

The bonuses for Sunday, public holiday and night work set by the KWVO were reversed in 1940. The Reich Labor Ministry had to admit that the workers in the armaments industry boycotted the provisions of the KWVO . Robert Ley interpreted the enforced improvements as evidence of the socialist character of the German Reich, which had to assert itself against the threat to capitalist England. Section 20 stipulated that the Reich Minister of Labor could make provisions on working hours that differ from the existing provisions and permit exceptions to existing occupational health and safety regulations. In 1952, the Federal Constitutional Court (1 BvL 3/51) clearly demonstrated the functionality of the KWVO based on the shop closing regulation:

“Based on this, the ordinance on shop closing was issued on December 21, 1939, later in the version of January 9, 1942 (RGBl. 1939 I p. 2471, 1942 I p. 24). According to Section 1 of this ordinance, the time during which open sales outlets must be closed for business transactions is determined by official order; The owners of open sales outlets are obliged to keep their shops open during the sales period (Section 1) (Section 2). Sections 8 and 9 authorize the Reich Labor Minister to issue implementing and supplementary regulations in agreement with other Reich Ministers involved and to determine the point in time at which this ordinance ceases to apply. The implementing provisions can be found in the decree of the Reich Minister of Labor of December 21, 1939 (RArbBl. 1940 I p. 8, supplemented by several directive decrees, cf. most recently RArbBl. 1943 I p. 314). In it u. a. stated that the ordinance on shop closing of December 21, 1939 pursued the purpose of eliminating the irregularity and arbitrariness in the field of shop closing that had often occurred as a result of the war. The business hours should be adapted to the changed conditions caused by the war (blackout, shortage of goods, etc.). For this purpose, the legal basis must be created to shorten the sales time that was previously permitted by law and to oblige the business owners to keep the sales outlets open during the permitted sales time. Since the conditions within the Reich differed as a result of the war conditions, the powers from the ordinance on shop closing are transferred to the higher administrative authorities, namely in Prussia the district president, otherwise the Reich governors ( state governments ). "

Post war history

The KWVO survived the collapse and was only finally replaced by the Economic Criminal Law in 1949. In the food sector, at least in the first two post-war years in the western zones , the organization of the “ Reichsnährstand ” was considered indispensable for maintaining supplies for the population. On January 22, 1950, food rationing was lifted. On the question of whether the KWVO is typically National Socialist law, Elisabeth Selbert (1946) can be quoted: “One can in no way consider an emergency offense that sometimes does not go beyond mouth robbery as a war economic crime , but we have to ask ourselves whether we do not make sense and The purpose of the punishment should include ... "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Exclusive jurisdiction existed from 1940 according to § 13 No. 4 of the ordinance on the jurisdiction of the criminal courts, the special courts and other procedural regulations of February 21, 1940 (Reichsgesetzbl. I pp. 405, 407)
  2. ↑ Quoted from Klaus-Detlev Godau-Schüttke , in: Justizalltag im “Third Reich”, INFORMATION on Schleswig-Holstein's ZEITGESCHICHTE issue 35, April 1999, p. 43.
  3. ↑ See for example the Freiburger Zeitung of March 28, 1942.
  4. ↑ See Reichsgesetzblatt 1942 I, p. 147 f.
  5. ^ Lower Saxony Ministry of Justice: On the theory and practice of the special courts - using the example of the Bremen special court (1940–1945). Lecture by Senate Councilor Dr. Hans Wrobel on June 28, 2001 on the occasion of the traveling exhibition: “Justice under National Socialism. Crimes in the Name of the German People ”in the Oldenburg Regional Court, p. 17f.
  6. ↑ Michael Hensle: "Broadcasting Crimes" before National Socialist Special Courts. A comparative study of judgment practice in the Reich capital Berlin and the southern Baden province. Diss. TU Berlin 2003, p. 211.
  7. ↑ Main State Archives Dresden, Article Deputy General Command of the XII. Army Corps ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2013 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 / www.archiv.sachsen.de
  8. ↑ Achim Fuchs, article "Deputy General Command, 1914–1918 / 1939–1945", in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
  9. ↑ Helmut Braun, article "War and forced economic agencies, 1915-1924", in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns
  10. ↑ www.Justiz.bayern.de: OLG Bayreuth: History of the Bayreuth Palace of Justice. 30 November 2009
  11. ↑ Götz Aly : Hitler's People's State . Robbery, Race War and National Socialism. 5th edition. S. Fischer , Frankfurt 2005, ISBN 3-10-000420-5 , p. 69 .
  12. ↑ Five pfennigs more for a Krügerl . In: Das kleine Volksblatt . September 10, 1939, p. 1 ( ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online [accessed May 7, 2020]).
  13. ^ Appeal by the Reichsleiter of the German Labor Front, printed in the Völkischer Beobachter (November 20, 1939) on DGDB
  14. ↑ BVerfGE 1, pp. 283, 287
  15. ^ Ordinance on shop closing of December 21, 1939, later in the version of January 9, 1942 (RGBl. 1939 I p. 2471, 1942 I p. 24).
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Benz , “Forced Economy and Industry. The problem of offsetting transactions using the example of the Kassel spinning fiber process of 1947 ”in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 1984, pp. 422, 426 ( PDF ).
  17. ↑ State Parliament Information System Hessen: 5th session - Wiesbaden, August 20, 1946, 9 a.m. , minutes of the constitutional committee (5th session), p. 114 in Wiesbaden, in August 1946. (PDF 138 kB)

Web links

Wikisource: War Economy Ordinance  - Sources and full texts
Wikisource: Ordinance supplementing the War Economics Ordinance  - sources and full texts