National Socialist Legal Guardian Association

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The National Socialist Legal Guardian Association (NSRB) was the professional organization of lawyers in the National Socialist German Reich from 1936 to 1945 with its seat in Berlin . The organization emerged from the Association of National Socialist German Jurists (BNSDJ) , which existed under this name from 1928 to 1936.

history

In 1928 the Association of National Socialist German Jurists (BNSDJ) was founded as an organization within the NSDAP by Hans Frank . In his diary in August 1942, Hans Frank claimed that the Führer had made him leader of the National Socialist Lawyers' Association in 1926 . Frank tried hard to develop the Juristenbund into a large organization. Originally, the Lawyers' Association consisted mainly of lawyers. The federal government later covered all lawyers. In 1929 the Bund had 90 members, at the end of 1931 701 and at the end of 1932 1,374 members. On April 25, 1933, Frank was appointed by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg as " Reich Commissioner for the Harmonization of Justice and for the Renewal of the Legal System". This made Frank one of the most influential lawyers during the National Socialist era .

Frank strove for the institutional elimination of all professional associations of lawyers and their incorporation into the BNSDJ, which is called "Gleichschaltung". To this end, in May 1933 he lifted the obligation to become a member of the NSDAP if one wanted to become a member of the BNSDJ. This enabled lawyers not belonging to the NSDAP to join this association. These lawyers 'associations that joined were among others the German Lawyers' Association , the German Association of Judges (DRB) and the Republican Association of Judges . The former joined the BNSDJ on their own initiative. The DRB, which welcomed the elimination of the Weimar Republic , joined the BNSDJ on May 25, 1933, within which it initially remained until it finally dissolved at the end of 1933. The much smaller Republican Association of Judges anticipated a ban by self-dissolution on March 14, 1933. Many of the judges of the Republican Judges Association have been arbitrarily retired as a result of the Restoration of the Civil Service Act . The association of the same name, which organized the German Lawyers' Conference , also dissolved; the German Jurists Day planned by him for autumn 1933 was canceled. The BNSDJ was no longer a pure party organization, but stood alongside the organization of the party. With the co-ordination and the incorporation of the legal professional associations, the number of members of the BNSDJ rose steeply. In 1935 it had around 70,000 members, including 16,348 judges and public prosecutors, 14,575 legal clerks, 11,774 young lawyers, 1,145 business lawyers, 10,385 administrative lawyers, 9,886 lawyers, 5,828 notaries and lawyers and 409 university professors. In 1936, after being renamed the National Socialist Legal Guardian Association (NSRB), the organization had around 85,000 members. In 1939 there were around 101,000.

In October 1933 the BNSDJ organized its 4th Reichstagung and the subsequent events as large legal conferences in Leipzig under the name "Deutscher Juristentag". There Frank u. a. the Academy for German Law . In 1934 it was legally founded. Hans Frank was president of the academy until 1942 and head of the committee for legal philosophy .

Like the predecessor organization BNSDJ, the NSRB was initially headed by the “Reichsrechtsführer” and head of the Academy for German Law, Hans Frank. From 1942 he was replaced in this position by Otto Thierack . Walter Raeke was the Reich specialist group leader for lawyers . The university professorial group was headed by the ambitious Carl Schmitt , whom Waldemar Gurian referred to in a magazine article written while in exile in Switzerland as the “crown lawyer of the Third Reich”. Schmitt was in May 1934, the editor of the 1933 by Hans Frank captured and acquired by the publisher CH Beck under duress - "Aryanised" - German Lawyers newspaper (DJZ) that was before 1933, one of the most respected law journals. Frank remained in these functions until the end of 1936. At that time he came into conflict with the SS and lost both functions and other public offices.

There was no obligation for lawyers to be a member of the NSRB, but a lack of membership was understood as an indication of a lack of National Socialist sentiments. Since the NSRB as a professional organization, in consultation with the Reich Ministry of Justice, decided on important professional functions for lawyers, it could mean a disadvantage for a lawyer not to be a NSRB member. The Reich Ministry of Justice decided, for example, "in agreement" with the BNSDJ or NSRB on the admission of a lawyer to the courts and on the filling of other important positions in the judiciary and in legal organizations such as the Reich Bar Association .

The association's publication organ was the journal German Law .

With the Control Council Act No. 2 of October 10, 1945, the Legal Guardian Association was banned by the Allied Control Council and its property was confiscated.

literature

  • Angelika Königseder : Law and National Socialist Rule. Berlin lawyers 1933–1945 . Deutscher Anwaltverlag , Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-8240-0528-X .
  • Michael Sunnus: The Nazi Legal Guardian Association: (1928–1945). On the history of the National Socialist legal organization. ( Legal history series . Volume 78). Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-631-42734-4 .
  • Folker Schmerbach: The "Hanns Kerrl Community Camp" for trainee lawyers in Jüterbog 1933–1939 . Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-16-149585-4 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ cf. Stanislaw Piotrowski: Hans Frank's diary. Polish Science Publishing House. Warszawa 1963, p. 374: Entry by Hans Frank from August 18, 1942, sheet 969
  2. ↑ Birger Schulz: The Republican Association of Judges (1921-1933). Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-8204-7122-7 , pp. 173f.
  3. ^ Michael Sunnus: The NS-Rechtsswahrerbund: (1928-1945); on the history of the National Socialist legal organization , Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-631-42734-4 , p. 25.
  4. ^ Peter Landau: The German jurists and the National Socialist German Juristentag in Leipzig 1933. In: Journal for modern legal history. 1993/1994, pp. 373-390.
  5. ↑ Stefan König: On the service of law: lawyers as criminal defense lawyers under National Socialism . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-11-089432-7 .