Kurt Behnke

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Kurt Behnke (born February 18, 1899 in Stolp , Pomerania ; † December 10, 1964 in West Berlin ) was a German lawyer . During the time of National Socialism he was a representative of the Supreme Service Penal Authority at the Reich Service Criminal Police Office and commentator on the Reich Service Penalty Ordinance, which came into force together with the National Socialist Civil Service Act of 1937. After the war he became head of the civil service law department in the Federal Ministry of the Interior , played a key role in drafting the so-called Adenauer decree in 1950 and was president of the Federal Disciplinary Court from 1953 until his death .

Life

Behnke was the son of a vice principal . He finished his school career at a humanistic high school . From 1917 to 1918 he took part in the First World War as a soldier and then studied law at the universities of Greifswald and Berlin . After completing his legal clerkship at the Berlin Regional Court, he was an assistant judge at the Stettin District and Regional Court from 1922 to 1927. 1926 doctorate he became Dr. jur.

In 1928 Behnke joined the German Democratic Party , which he left in 1930. From 1928 he was legal advisor for the Schleswig administrative district and in 1929 for the Magdeburg administrative district . He then worked until 1932 as a research assistant in the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Industry. In 1932 he became a representative of the Supreme Service Criminal Authority at the Prussian Higher Administrative Court.

He had been married since 1930 and the couple had a daughter.

time of the nationalsocialism

As part of his work as a representative of the Supreme Service Criminal Authority , initially at the Prussian Higher Administrative Court, from 1937 at the Reichsdienststrafhof, Behnke contributed, according to the historian Dominik Rigoll , to "cleaning up the civil service of democrats" since the beginning of National Socialist rule. In 1937 he wrote a commentary on the Reich Service Punishment Act in which Behnke, although he was not a member of the NSDAP himself but was only involved in the National Socialist Welfare , made the standard "what he and other Nazi lawyers had previously practiced". Due to the loyalty of the civil servants to the National Socialist state, the Reich Service Punishment Regulations with Behnke's comment demanded that dealings with Jews be restricted to the extent that is officially unavoidable. Any contact going beyond this, such as the “use of Jewish doctors”, was to be punished as a “serious criminal offense”. In his comment, Behnke had compiled extreme decisions of the Nazi judiciary made on a racist basis and thus deprived officials of the option of pleading ignorance of these judgments in case they had to answer for anti-Jewish attitudes.

During the Second World War he worked from 1941 to 1945 in the central department of the Foreign Office / Defense at the Wehrmacht High Command .

post war period

After his captivity, Behnke worked as a judge at the Ansbach Administrative Court from 1947 to 1948 . In 1948 he became head of department in the economic administration of the United Economic Area, the so-called Bizone , which was occupied by the Americans and British . From 1948 to 1949 he served as President of the Senate at the Criminal Police Office in the Personnel Administration of the United Economic Area. After the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany , he was head of department for civil servants and personnel law in the Federal Ministry of the Interior from 1949 to 1953 . As head of the civil service law department, he played a key role in the specific drafting of the so-called Adenauer decree of September 19, 1950, which forbade members of the public service to be members of an organization that the federal government viewed as anti-constitutional. This resolution on the constitutional loyalty of civil servants and employees in the public service was also directed against neo-Nazi organizations, but placed the focus on membership in organizations that were viewed as communist, in addition to the KPD, the FDJ , the Kulturbund and the association of those persecuted by the Nazi regime ( VVN). The mere membership in one of these organizations should lead to dismissal from the public service without examining the individual case. Behnke opposed any differentiated approach in implementing the decree. According to Behnke in a meeting on November 27, 1950, the decree should be "implemented in such a way that as few as possible go through the mesh". Incidentally, the Federal Constitutional Court has “nothing to do with this matter”, since Articles 18 and 21 of the Basic Law refer “only to citizens as such”. The target group of the decree is about “state employees”, whose “basic rights are already restricted to the extent that their use contradicts public law loyalty”.

From 1953 to 1964 Behnke was President of the Federal Disciplinary Court and in this function had the reputation of a “strict judge”. On 2 December 1964, the Federal Minister of the Interior, requested Hermann Höcherl , the service court of the Federation in the Federal Court against Behnke because of "moral offenses", ie extramarital sexual relations, the initiation of disciplinary proceedings with the aim of removal from office and suspend him. The reason for the disciplinary measure was a feared blackmail by the Central Enlightenment Administration (HVA) of the MfS of the GDR , because there were clues for agents of the HVA in the vicinity of Behnke, in particular his secretary and lover. After a failed suicide attempt on December 3, 1964, Behnke hanged himself on the night of December 10, 1964.

Fonts

  • The equality of the countries in the German federal state . Legal and political dissertation, University of Greifswald 1926 (published under the title The equality of the states in German federal law: A constitutional study based on comparative law . Struppe & Winckler, Berlin 1926)
  • (Together with Friedrich Everling) The Prussian civil service penalty in the version valid from October 1, 1934: text edition with an introduction, notes and subject index . de Gruyter, Berlin 1934
  • Reich service penalty order of January 26, 1937: Commentary for practice . 2nd completely revised and expanded edition. C. Heymann, Berlin 1940
  • Federal Disciplinary Code (BDO) in the version valid from September 1, 1953 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1954

literature

  • The cabinet minutes of the federal government . Vol. 17. 1964. Edited by Josef Henke and Uta Rössel. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58127-0 (with short biography, p. 594)
  • Helmut Müller-Enbergs / Erich Schmidt-Eenboom : Kurt Behnke (1899–1964). Gehlen's failed hunt: a federal judge as an agent of the GDR State Security? In: Helmut Müller-Enbergs, Armin Wagner (ed.): Spies and news dealers : Secret service careers in Germany 1939-1989 Verlag Ch. Links Verlag, 2016, ISBN 9783861538721 , pp. 229–249
  • Dominik Rigoll: State Security in West Germany. From denazification to defense against extremists (= contributions to the history of the 20th century. Ed. By Norbert Frei . Volume 13). Wallstein, Göttingen 2013, ISBN 978-3-8353-1076-6 (also: Dissertation, Free University of Berlin, 2010)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Who is who? , Volume 14, Schmidt-Römhild, 1962, p. 79
  2. ↑ Entry at www.chroniknet.de
  3. ↑ a b c Gerhard Mauz: Death of a judge. In: Der Spiegel 51/1964. December 16, 1964, p. 34 , accessed January 24, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Rigoll: State Security in West Germany . Göttingen 2013, p. 64.
  5. ^ A b The Cabinet Minutes of the Federal Government . Vol. 17. 1964. Edited by Josef Henke and Uta Rössel. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, p. 594.
  6. ↑ Rigoll: State Security in West Germany . Göttingen 2013, p. 64.
  7. ↑ Rigoll: State Security in West Germany . Göttingen 2013, p. 102.
  8. ↑ Rigoll: State Security in West Germany . Göttingen 2013, p. 103f.
  9. ^ Müller-Enbergs / Schmidt-Eenboom: Kurt Behnke . P. 229ff.
  10. ^ Cabinet Minutes Online. 146th Cabinet meeting on December 9, 1964, F. Impeachment of the President of the Federal Disciplinary Court Behnke, note 1. Accessed on January 24, 2014 .
  11. ^ The Cabinet Minutes of the Federal Government . Vol. 17. 1964. Edited by Josef Henke and Uta Rössel. Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, p. 538.
personal data
SURNAME Behnke, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German administrative lawyer and ministerial official
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Stumble
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1964
Place of death Berlin (West)