Otto Stäcker

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Otto Stäcker (born February 14, 1886 in Uetersen ; † after 1970) was a German attorney general and participant in the Berlin conference, at which high-ranking lawyers were informed about the ongoing T4 campaign in 1941 .

Professional background

Otto Stäcker was a court assessor in 1913 and worked as a public prosecutor in 1915. On April 1, 1926, he became the first public prosecutor and in 1927 the district court director in Kiel . In 1926/27 Stäcker worked in the Reich Ministry of Justice . He continued his career as President of the Regional Court in Greifswald , where he worked from January 1, 1935. From April 1, 1935, Stäcker was attorney general in Stettin .

According to his own information, Stäcker joined the NSDAP in May 1933 .

Information about "euthanasia"

Stäcker was invited to the “Working Conference of the Higher Regional Court Presidents and Public Prosecutors” on April 23 and 24, 1941 in Berlin. Franz Schlegelberger chaired the conference in the Aviator House . Among the more than one hundred participants were all thirty-four higher regional court presidents , thirty-four general public prosecutors or their representatives, as well as Roland Freisler , Reichsgerichtspräsident Erwin Bumke , the president of the People's Court Otto Thierack and the two upper Reich attorneys at the Reichsgericht and at the People's Court as well as numerous officials from the Reich Ministry of Justice.

Backdated letter of authorization from Hitler

Schlegelberger announced that he would familiarize those present with "resolutions of the Fiihrer" that were important for their administration. Otherwise, let "it inevitable that judges and prosecutors call to serious damage of the judiciary and the state against measures, but they consider in good faith mistaken for illegal and sit innocently with the will of the leader in contradiction." Then, informed Viktor Brack and Werner Heyde on Hitler's letter of authorization and the camouflaged killing program with fake death certificates.

After this conference, during the National Socialist era, all reports and proceedings relating to the destruction of “life unworthy of life” were put down and new investigative proceedings were no longer initiated.

Stäcker's statements

On April 22, 1965, Fritz Bauer applied for the preliminary investigation to be opened against Franz Schlegelberger, three former high-ranking judicial officials, eleven presidents of the higher regional court and five public prosecutors, including Otto Stäcker, who was in office in Stettin in 1941.

Stäcker stated that he was confused, indignant and dismayed at the time. Because of Hitler's position of power, he viewed Adolf Hitler's decree as an order with a law-like effect. Inwardly, he had considered at the time to write down his opinion in a report.

In a personal statement, Stäcker protested against the immanent accusation of Fritz Bauer that the 'heads of the German judiciary' had lost all constitutional thinking at the time . “He overlooks the fact that the rule of law can only be put into practice if state power fully supports the law. [...] The judiciary [...] did not have the power to break Hitler's power. "

Stäcker's protective claim that any protest steps were "pointless and pointless" is refuted by the early termination of Action T4, which was ordered because of the unrest in the population and the protests of the churches.

terminating the proceeding

After Fritz Bauer's death, the proceedings were discontinued on May 17, 1970 by order of the Limburg Regional Court . The investigations against the legal leadership elite of the Nazi state remained hidden from the public and - according to Kramer's interpretation - were actually kept secret.

At that time Otto Stäcker was living as a pensioner in Steinfurt in the Münster administrative district .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut Kramer : “Higher Regional Court Presidents and General Public Prosecutors as Assistants in Nazi 'Euthanasia' - Self-exoneration of the judiciary for participating in institutional murder”, in: Kritische Justiz 17 (1984), no. 1, p. 37 note 84.
  2. ↑ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich, updated. Edition Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 594.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee: Documents on 'Euthanasia' , Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 , p. 218.
  4. ↑ Conference notes by Alexander Bergmann in: Ernst Klee: Documents on 'Euthanasia' , Frankfurt / M. 1985, ISBN 3-596-24327-0 , pp. 219 f.
  5. ↑ Ernst Klee: 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich , completely revised, new edition Frankfurt / M. 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 255.
  6. ^ Jörg Friedrich: The cold amnesty - Nazi perpetrators in the Federal Republic , Frankfurt / M. 1984, ISBN 3-596-24308-4 , p. 395 f.
  7. ↑ Quoted from Claudia Fröhlich: "Against the tabooing of disobedience" - Fritz Bauer's concept of resistance and the reappraisal of Nazi crimes , Frankfurt / M. 2006, ISBN 3-593-37874-4 , p. 369.
  8. ↑ Helmut Kramer: Higher Regional Court Presidents and General Public Prosecutors as assistants in Nazi “euthanasia” - the judiciary exonerated itself for participating in institutional murder. In: Kritische Justiz 17 (1984), no. 1, p. 38
  9. ↑ Helmut Kramer: “Higher Regional Court Presidents and General Public Prosecutors as Assistants in Nazi 'Euthanasia' - Self-exoneration of the judiciary for participating in institutional murder”, in: Kritische Justiz 17 (1984), no. 1, p. 41.
  10. ↑ Helmut Kramer: "Higher Regional Court Presidents and General Public Prosecutors as Assistants in Nazi 'Euthanasia' - Self-exoneration of the judiciary for participating in institutional murder", in: Kritische Justiz 17 (1984), no. 1, p. 43 with note 111.
  11. ↑ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich , updated. Edition Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 .
personal data
SURNAME Stacker, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Attorney General
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Uetersen
DATE OF DEATH after 1970