Lorenz Roder

Lorenz Roder (born January 25, 1881 ; † 1958 ) was a German lawyer. He was best known as the defender of Adolf Hitler in the trial of the leaders of the Hitler putsch in November 1923 before the Munich People's Court in 1924.

Live and act

After studying law, Roder settled as a lawyer in Munich .

After the First World War he repeatedly defended right-wing activists in trials before the people's courts in Munich that existed in the first post-war years . In May 1923, for example, he defended some of the participants from the ranks of the National Socialist SA who took part in the “Storming of the Hotel Grünwald” in January 1923 in a trial before the People's Court I against accusations of breach of the peace. At that time, a large crowd had carried out a violent attack on a Munich hotel, in which the crowd suspected French officers (France had recently occupied the Ruhr area militarily), and in the process severely devastated the hotel, causing property damage of six million Reichsmarks .

After the failed Hitler putsch in November 1923, in which the NSDAP and several other right-wing extremist organizations tried to seize state power in the German Reich by violent means from Munich, Roder became legal advisor to three of the ringleaders of the overthrowing company: Adolf Hitler , Wilhelm Frick and Ernst Pöhner . In December 1923 he helped persuade Hitler , who was then on a hunger strike , to stop this venture. In the great trial of 1924 (" Hitler Trial "), Roder represented the aforementioned three people before the Munich People's Court.

At the time of National Socialism , Roder was appointed Judicial Councilor in 1938. During the Second World War , Roder acted as defense counsel for Kurt Huber , a member of the White Rose resistance group , before the People's Court .

In 1948, as part of the denazification, a ruling chamber classified Roder as a minor offender.

literature

• Lothar Gruchmann (ed.): The Hitler-process 1924. wording of the trial before the People's Court of Munich . Munich: de Gruyter, Saur 1997. 4 vol., Especially vol. 4, p. 1649. ISBN 978-3-59811355-0 (Contains a short biography of Roders).
• Sönke Zankel : With leaflets against Hitler: the resistance group around Hans Scholl and Alexander Schmorell . Cologne: Böhlau 2008. p. 474. ISBN 978-3-412-20038-1