Reich Justice Office
The Reich Justice Office was the highest judicial authority in the German Empire . It was set up in 1875 as Department IV in the Reich Chancellery and became independent on January 1, 1877.
It supported the Reich leadership , the Reichstag and the Bundesrat in the legislative process. The Reichsgericht , the Oberreichsanwaltschaft and the Imperial Patent Office all fell into his business area . The administration of the other courts and judicial authorities, however, was the responsibility of the states . A State Secretary presided over the Reich Justice Office .
Development, structure and organization
The decisive plans for the Reich Justice Office were prepared under Vice Chancellor Rudolph von Delbrück . The Reichstag dealt with the establishment of the Reich Justice Office through the deliberations for the Reich budget of 1875. The corresponding debate in the Reichstag took place on December 1, 1874. The budget title for the Reich Justice Office was approved by a majority.
Further deliberations in the Reichstag on November 7, 1876, concerned the status of an independent Reich Justice Office as the highest Reich authority. Above all, the management of the office by a state secretary was emphasized here. But business continued for the time being through the President of the Reich Chancellery, which also affected the drafts for the Bundesrat.
In this initial phase, the Reich Justice Office had only a small number of staff. In addition to the director, there were four lecturing councils and two “unskilled workers”, as well as four secretaries, calculators and registrars. Further personnel expenses were controlled by the State Secretary via a disposition fund, which enabled him to recruit auxiliary clerks, office secretaries and unskilled workers.
The first head of the previous Prussian Ministry of Justice, Undersecretary Heinrich Friedberg, presented the first business plan for the upcoming tasks when it came to the Reichstag on March 14, 1877, about the funds of the Reich Justice Administration. The personnel issues have also been clarified because lawyers from Saxony, Bavaria, Württemberg and Prussia have agreed to cooperate.
In the administration of justice in the Reich, the Reich Justice Office was in conflict with the administration of justice in the federal states, which were supported by the Bundesrat. There had been a similar development for the Reich Finance Administration, which was also able to rise step by step to become a higher authority over the institutions of the federal states. In the beginning, the focus of the work of the Reich Justice Office was on the development of the Reich Justice Laws.
The Reichsjustizamt had its seat in Berlin at Vossstrasse 4–5 in a three-storey building erected by senior building officer Mörner between 1877 and 1880. In the basement was the library, which was built after the library of San Marco in Venice. The offices were set up on the first floor. The State Secretary's apartment and reception rooms for visitors were on the upper floor.
The last head of the Reich Justice Office, Paul von Krause, was relieved of his office on February 13, 1919. This was followed by the State Secretary in the Reich Justice Office, Dr. Otto Landsberg (1869–1957). With the establishment of the Weimar Republic in 1919, the Reich Ministry of Justice emerged from the Reich Justice Office . Otto Landsberg also became the first Reich Minister of Justice in the Scheidemann cabinet .
List of State Secretaries
| State Secretaries of the Reich Justice Office | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name (life data) | Taking office | Term expires | |
| Heinrich Friedberg (1813–1895) | December 21, 1876 | October 30, 1879 | |
| Hermann von Schelling (1824–1908) | November 19, 1879 | January 31, 1889 | |
| Otto von Oehlschläger (1831–1904) | February 19, 1889 | February 2, 1891 | |
| Robert Bosse (1832-1901) | February 2, 1891 | March 24, 1892 | |
| Eduard Hanauer (1829-1893) | April 2, 1892 | April 30, 1893 | |
| Rudolf Arnold Nieberding (1838–1912) | July 11, 1893 | October 25, 1909 | |
| Hermann Lisco (1850-1923) | October 25, 1909 | August 5, 1917 | |
| Paul von Krause (1852–1923) | August 7, 1917 | February 13, 1919 | |
literature
- Robert Kuhn: German Minister of Justice 1877–1977 . Cologne 1977.
- Federal Ministry of Justice (Ed.): From the Reich Justice Office to the Federal Ministry of Justice. Festschrift for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Reich Ministry of Justice . With a foreword by Hans-Jochen Vogel. Bundesanzeiger Verlag, Cologne 1977, DNB 770445101 (476 pages).
Web links
References and comments
- ↑ “Laborers” meant assistants at the time; would nowadays be referred to as a research assistant .