Rudolf Dix

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Rudolf Dix (born May 11, 1884 in Leipzig ; † April 17, 1952 Frankfurt am Main ) was a German lawyer and notary . From 1939 he carried the honorary title of judicial councilor .

From 1932 to 1933 he was President of the German Lawyers' Association (DAV). In the Third Reich, he was one of the most famous defense lawyers for political opposition. In the Nuremberg trials against the main war criminals he was the main defender of Reichsbank President and Reich Economics Minister Hjalmar Schacht and in the IG Farben trial of the IG Farben chairman, Hermann Schmitz . He was also the federal government's representative in the KPD trial before the Federal Constitutional Court .

Rudolf Dix was chairman of the supervisory board of Oranienburger Chemische Fabrik AG in Oranienburg and of "Hubertus" Grundstücks-Aktiengesellschaft in Berlin in the 1930s and 1940s .

Life

Origin, law degree and imperial colonial service

Thomas School in Leipzig (around 1900)

Rudolf Dix's ancestors came from the Thuringian region and were mostly general practitioners. He was born in 1884 as the son of the lawyer at the Reichsgericht Paul Dix in Leipzig. His father defended high-ranking representatives of the German labor movement before the Reichsgericht, including the later party chairman August Bebel ( SPD ) in an indictment under the Socialist Laws (1882) and Karl Liebknecht ( KPD ) in the so-called high treason trial (1907).

After graduating from high school in 1903 at the humanistic and ancient language Thomasschule in Leipzig , he studied law at the University of Zurich and passed the legal traineeship ( first state examination ) at the University of Leipzig . He then started his internship in the Kingdom of Saxony and was in 1907 at the Law Faculty of the University of Leipzig with the criminal dissertation The legal status of the defender for the accused to Dr. jur. PhD. He was then drafted as a one-year volunteer for military service with the Kurmärkische Dragoon Regiment No. 14 in Colmar , Alsace , and finally passed his assessor exam in Leipzig.

He then completed his legal assessor service in the Imperial Colonial Service in German East Africa . In the administrative seat of Douala of the German colony of Cameroon , he was then employed as a senior administrative officer in the function of a native judge. In 1913 he married Maria Kersten. During World War I he served as a reserve officer with the rank of lieutenant in the reserve in the Imperial Protection Force for Cameroon . He came first in 1916 in the colonial territory of Cameroon in British captivity and then until the war ended in the Swiss Brunnen SZ on Lake Lucerne interned . After 1918, he served as Councilor active in Demobilmachungsamt in Berlin that the Foreign Office was under.

Defense lawyer in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich

Dix settled in 1920 as a lawyer in a joint law firm with his brother Hellmuth Dix (born 1897) and the lawyers Ferdinand Bartmann, Joachim Lingenberg and Agnes Nath-Schreiber in Berlin . Dix was later also licensed as a notary.

He was involved in complex, mammoth lawsuits during the Weimar Republic as a defense attorney, in 1930 together with Max Alsberg and Martin Drucker in the so-called Ullstein trial and in 1932 together with Max Alsberg in the Katzenellenbogen trial and with Max Alsberg and Wolfgang Heine in the Caro-Petschek trial . In the Katzenellenbogen trial , he primarily tried to uncover the political background to the process. According to the legal historical investigations by Hubert Lang (2007), Dix stood out in the Caro-Petschek trial with “nationalistic tones in the language of the National Socialists” against the accessory prosecution. The German Lawyers' Association did not agree with this opinion.

The director of the DAV (from 1928 to 1933) Ferdinand Bartmann attributed the following character traits to Rudolf Dix: eloquence, charm, instinct, a sense of justice, foresight and persuasion. In addition, the lawyer Carl Haensel considered him in his obituary for a “competent speaker”, “cultivated lawyer” and “music expert”. Dix was very interested in science and art. For example, in 1921 he was one of the founding members of the conservative-revolutionary Nietzsche Society in Munich . Dix was already a member of the influential German gentlemen's club during the Weimar Republic , which pursued young conservative goals.

Board member in the German Lawyers' Association

At the German Lawyers' Conference in Stuttgart in 1927, he pleaded for a numerus clausus in the legal profession in order to maintain the freedom and quality of the profession. The legal profession represented different views (advocates: among others Rudolf Dix, Hodo von Hodenberg ; opponents: among others Max Alsberg, Max Friedländer ). After he was a member of the Berlin Bar Association and in April 1931 a seat on the board of the German Bar Association (DAV), he succeeded Martin Drucker's president in 1932 , until he was replaced in May 1933 by Hermann Voss , who was supported by the National Socialists has been. In 1932 he replied to Wilhelm Kube, member of the NSDAP, in a letter: “ Regardless of the ideological, political and racial position one takes on the Jewish question, one can only regret the human and political lack of culture that lies in such anti-Semitic attacks against my Jewish colleagues . ”But Dix also understood the profession of lawyer as an“ unofficial sovereign functionary ”and in 1933 recommended that his fellow Jewish lawyers withdraw from the DAV. In 1933 he called for a pact with National Socialism and paved the way for the Reichsfachgruppe Rechtsanwälte des Bundes Nationalozialistischer Deutscher Juristen (BNSDJ): “To help the people and the Reich get better, to establish the state in security and to establish the solidarity of the people through classes and create professions ”. The German translation of the Hilberg standard work The Destruction of European Jews from 1990 named him as the first president of the National Socialist Legal Guardian Association (NSRB, successor organization to the BNSDJ), which, however, must be interpreted as a translation error, as only Hans Frank and Otto Georg Thierack were in charge of the organization. In April 1933 he congratulated Adolf Hitler on winning the Reichstag election on March 5, 1933 . On April 20, 1939, Hitler, along with two other lawyers, awarded him the honorary title of Councilor of Justice .

Public defender at the People's Court

In the Third Reich, Rudolf Dix resigned all honorary legal positions. The National Socialists first tried to win him over to their ideology and threatened him with admission to a concentration camp after the unsuccessful attempts to convince him. Instead of adapting himself opportunistically, Dix was active in the Prussian economy, including as chairman of the supervisory board of Oranienburger Chemische Fabrik AG (from 1939) and of "Hubertus" Grundstücks-Aktiengesellschaft (from 1943). He also became a Finnish consul and consul general . In the 1940s he was in close contact with the former Finnish Prime Minister and Ambassador in Berlin Toivo Kivimäki (1940–1944), for whom he worked as an informant . As a liberal politician, Kivimäki rejected the military alliance Ryti-Ribbentrop Treaty between the Republic of Finland and the German Empire. In retrospect, he referred to Dix as a political opponent.

From 1934 Dix became one of the most important defense lawyers in Prussia. He represented several political and religious opponents in the Third Reich, including the Jesuits (such as the Roman Catholic diocesan priest Max Josef Metzger , who was sentenced to death in 1944 ) before the People's Court . In 1937 he was the defense lawyer for the Bishop of Meissen Petrus Legge . From 1942 to 1943 he had a mandate for the diplomat and resistance fighter Hans von Dohnanyi († 1945). He was also the legal advisor to the resistance fighter Helmuth James Graf von Moltke († 1945) and his wife Freya von Moltke .

Spokesman for the legal profession in the Nuremberg trials

Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals

Nuremberg trial, negotiating room

From 1945 to 1948 he was elected spokesman for the legal profession before the International Military Tribunal (IMG) in Nuremberg .

In the Nuremberg trial of the major war criminals , which began on April 30, 1946, he was the main defender of the former Reichsbank President and Reich Economics Minister Hjalmar Schacht , who was accused of "conspiracy" and "crimes against peace" . Already after the failed assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 , he stood by his side, because Schacht was threatened with indictment before the People's Court. In Nuremberg, Schacht chose another lawyer, Herbert Kraus , who specializes in international law, to assist Dix. In cross-examination with the American chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson , the defense strategy was designed to bring Schacht close to the early military resistance under National Socialism. The economic historian Christopher Kopper spoke of "building legends ". For example, the exonerating witness Hans Bernd Gisevius , a former resistance fighter, was appointed. In his interrogation, Schacht was the only defendant expressly not to be one of the National Socialist criminals. The economist and journalist Heinz Pentzlin blamed Jackson's poor evidence for the defense's positive record. Like Franz von Papen, Schacht was acquitted on all charges by a stalemate decision (2: 2) by the judges on October 1, 1946. For Dix this meant a great success, as 12 of the 23 other defendants were sentenced to death at the same time. The lawyer Haensel later interpreted his engagement in Nuremberg with "boldness" and "urgency". Since Schacht also had to go through a legal aftermath in the western zone due to public opinion , he successfully accompanied him until 1952 before the Bavarian and Württemberg judiciary chambers.

Flick process

Friedrich Flick

In the subsequent Flick trial (1947) he defended the entrepreneur Friedrich Flick . He had previously been commissioned by him to do this in the summer of 1946. Flick demanded from Dix ​​a "good quality and closed defense corps for industrial processes". He gave interpretations of facts. For example, Flick spoke of a “political necessity” in the case of corporate takeovers and justified Aryanizations by averting worse calamities. He also pointed out that he never received the Ilse reserve fields promised to him by the National Socialists. Dix also advocated Flick's thesis that it was not Flick who decided on the employment of Nazi forced laborers , but government agencies. In the plea , Dix finally tried unsuccessfully to question the national composition of the college of judges chaired by Charles B. Sears . Flick was sentenced to seven years imprisonment on December 22, 1947 for slave labor , abduction for slave labor, pillaging of the occupied territories and participation in crimes of the SS. A revision by a US law firm commissioned by Dix failed in the last instance in 1950 before the US Supreme Court because the American courts did not have jurisdiction.

IG Farben process

In the IG Farben trial (1948), he then defended the former chairman of the IG Farben board, Hermann Schmitz, as the successor to Otto Kranzbühler (from October 3, 1947) . His assistants were the lawyers Hanns Gierlichs and Günther Lummert (from May 4, 1948). Schmitz was sentenced to four years imprisonment in July 1948 for looting . During the historical review of the trial files, names were mixed up because his brother Helmuth Dix was defending the IG Farben board member Christian Schneider at the same time .

Activity in the Federal Republic

Dix then opened a public law firm in Frankfurt am Main. Rudolf Dix commented on the political scandal surrounding the head of the Federal Chancellery, Hans Globke , with: "If anyone is called to occupy a leading position in today's state structure according to his political and human attitude, it is a man like Globke." At the KPD - Prohibition trial before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, he was authorized representative of the federal government of Adenauer until his death .

Dix was an avid rider, hunter, and hiker. He suffered a mountain accident on the Biberkopf (Alps) and died of its consequences in 1952. Dix was buried in the Alps.

Fonts

Monographs

  • The legal position of the defense counsel in relation to the accused . Hahn, Leipzig 1907. (= also dissertation, University of Leipzig, 1907)
  • Unprejudiced diplomacy. Thoughts on reform . Verlag Das Buch, P. Altheer, Zurich 1918.

Editing

  • with Felix Bondi, Richard Graßhoff, Paul Marcuse, Ernst Wolff : Festschrift for the lawyer and notary, Justizrat Dr. jur. hc Albert Pinner on his 75th birthday by the German Lawyers 'Association, the Berlin Lawyers' Association, and the company Walter de Gruyter & Co. De Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1932.

Essays

  • The legal profession in business and legal life . In: Juristische Wochenschrift 1927, 9 ff.
  • Discussion of Feuchtwanger : The state and the liberal professions . In: Berliner Anwaltsblatt 1930.
  • The lawyer . In: Lawyer Gazette 1931.
  • Adolf Heilberg . In: Anwaltsblatt 1933, 1.
  • Total State and Free Advocacy In: Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung 1934, 243 ff.
  • with Keßler: The youth defender . In: German Law 1940, 2038–2041.
  • The judgments in the Nuremberg economic process . In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1949, 652.
  • Heinrich Dittenberger. Congratulations on your 75th birthday . In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1950, 138.
  • The questioning of the accused . In: Ernst Wolff (Hrsg.): Contributions to public law. German state departments for III. International Comparative Law Congress, London 1950 . De Gruyter, Berlin 1950.

Film documents

literature

Web links

Minutes of the Nuremberg Trials

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ferdinand Bartmann: Rudolf Dix . In: Anwaltsblatt 1952, 49.
  2. ↑ Ursula Herrmann (ed.): August and Julie Bebel. Letters of a marriage . Dietz, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-8012-0243-7 , p. 132.
  3. ↑ KPD PROCESS The end and the means . In: Der Spiegel , December 1, 1954.
  4. ↑ Richard Sachse , Karl Ramshorn, Reinhart Herz: The teachers of the Thomasschule in Leipzig 1832-1912. The high school graduates of the Thomas School in Leipzig 1845–1912 . BG Teubner Verlag, Leipzig 1912, p. 107.
  5. ↑ a b c d Dix, Rudolf . Website from koeblergerhard.de. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Carl Haensel: Rudolf Dix . In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1952, 654.
  7. ^ Carl Haensel : Rudolf Dix . In: Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 1952, 653.
  8. ↑ German Colonial Journal. Official Journal of the Reich Colonial Office 29–32 (1918), p. 187.
  9. ↑ a b Angelika Königseder: Law and National Socialist Rule. Berlin lawyers 1933–1945. A research project of the Berliner Anwaltverein eV Deutscher Anwaltverlag, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-8240-0528-X , p. 82.
  10. ^ Cécile Lowenthal-Hensel , Arnold Paucker (Ed.): Ernst Feder. Today I spoke to ... Diaries of a Berlin journalist 1926–1932 . Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-421-01572-4 , p. 347.
  11. ^ Hermann Reuss: Ferdinand Bartmann . In: Juristische Rundschau 1969, 459. doi: 10.1515 / juru.1969.1969.12.459a
  12. ↑ a b LA Berlin F. Rep. 29-02-06 No. 237/1 . Legal History Forum website. Retrieved April 24, 2013.
  13. ↑ Curt Riess : The Man in the Black Robe. The life of defense attorney Max Alsberg . Wegner, Hamburg 1965, p. 285.
  14. ↑ Hubert Lang (Ed.) Martin Drucker. Life memories. (1869-1947) . Biography Center, Fruchstal 2007, ISBN 978-3-940210-16-6 , p. 139.
  15. ↑ Richard Krummel : Nietzsche and the German spirit . Volume 3: Expansion and impact of Nietzsche's work in the German-speaking area up to the end of the Second World War. A bibliography for the years 1919–1945 . De Gruyter, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-11-015613-X , p. 71. (= monographs and texts on Nietzsche research, 40)
  16. ↑ Manfred Schoeps: The German gentlemen's club. A contribution to the history of young conservatism in the Weimar Republic . Dissertation, University of Frankfurt, 1974, p. 246.
  17. ↑ Hinrich Rüping : Lawyers in the Celle district during National Socialism . 2nd Edition. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8305-1735-1 , p. 60.
  18. ↑ LA Berlin F Rep. 290-02-06 No. 267/1 . Legal History Forum website. Retrieved May 10, 2013.
  19. ^ Fritz Ostler : The German lawyers. 1871-1971 . Juristischer Verlag Ellinghaus, Essen 1971, p. 397.
  20. ↑ Stefan König: On the service of law. Lawyers as criminal defense attorneys under National Socialism . De Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1987, ISBN 3-11-011076-8 , p. 15. (= also dissertation, FU Berlin, 1986)
  21. ↑ Hinrich Rüping: Lawyers in the Celle district during National Socialism . 2nd Edition. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8305-1735-1 , p. 147.
  22. ^ Raul Hilberg : The annihilation of the European Jews . Volume 3, S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1990, ISBN 3-596-24417-X , p. 1148.
  23. ↑ Udo Reifner : The Bar in the Third Reich. Anti-Semitism and the Decline of Liberal Advocacy . In: McGill Law Journal 32 (1986), p. 116. ( Digitized version  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note .; PDF ; 569 kB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / lawjournal.mcgill.ca  
  24. ↑ Announcements of the Reich Bar Association 1939, p. 97.
  25. ^ Oranienburger Chemische Fabrik, Aktiengesellschaft, Oranienburg . In: Chemische Apparatur 26 (1939), p. 136.
  26. ^ The large companies in the German Empire. Handbook of German stock corporations . 48th year (1943), Volume 5, Hoppenstedt, Berlin 1943, p. 4807.
  27. ^ A b Toivo Mikael Kivimäki: Suomalaisen poliitikon muistelmat . Söderström, Porvoo 1965, p. 141.
  28. ^ Roman lead stone : Augustinus Rösch. Life in resistance. Biography and documents . Knecht 1998, ISBN 3-7820-0794-8 , p. 174.
  29. ^ Klaus Philippi: Max Josef Metzger - Count Helmuth James von Moltke. Two victims of National Socialism. A comparison . epubli GmbH, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-8442-3717-7 , p. 176.
  30. ^ Elisabeth Chowaniec: The "Dohnanyi case". 1943-1945. Resistance, military justice, SS arbitrariness . Oldenbourg, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-486-64562-5 , p. 55. (= also dissertation, University of Hamburg, 1991; series of the quarterly books for contemporary history, 62)
  31. ^ Helmuth Caspar von Moltke and Ulrike von Moltke (eds.): Farewell letters, Tegel prison. September 1944 - January 1945. Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61375-3 , p. 588.
  32. ^ Annette Weinke : The Nuremberg Trials . Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-53604-2 , p. 38. (= Beck'sche Reihe, 2404)
  33. ↑ a b Drexel A. Speaker: Inside the Nuremberg Trial. A Prosecutor's Comprehensive Account . Volume 1, University Press of America, Lanham 1999, ISBN 0-7618-1284-9 , p. 126.
  34. ↑ a b Christopher Kopper: Hjalmar Schacht. The rise and fall of Hitler's most powerful banker . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-423-34608-5 , pp. 365-356.
  35. ^ Heinz Pentzlin: Hjalmar Schacht. Life and work of a controversial personality . Ullstein, Berlin et al. 1980, ISBN 3-550-07913-3 , p. 267.
  36. ^ Heinz Pentzlin: Hjalmar Schacht. Life and work of a controversial personality . Ullstein, Berlin et al. 1980, ISBN 3-550-07913-3 , p. 268.
  37. ^ Heinz Pentzlin: Hjalmar Schacht. Life and work of a controversial personality . Ullstein, Berlin et al. 1980, ISBN 3-550-07913-3 , p. 271.
  38. ^ Susanne Jung: The legal problems of the Nuremberg trials. Depicted in the trial against Friedrich Flick . Mohr, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-16-145941-5 , p. 38. (= contributions to the legal history of the 20th century, 8)
  39. ↑ Kim Christian Priemel: Flick. A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 , p. 629. (= dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2007)
  40. ↑ a b c d e Kim Christian Priemel: Flick. A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 , p. 630. (= dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2007)
  41. ↑ a b Kim Christian Priemel: Flick. A corporate history from the German Empire to the Federal Republic . Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8353-0219-8 , p. 644. (= Dissertation, University of Freiburg, 2007)
  42. ^ A b Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law no.10. Nuernberg October 1946 - April 1949. Volume 7, Part 1, Hein, Buffalo 1997, ISBN 1-57588-215-9 , p. 9 . (= Reprint, USGPO, Washington 1953)
  43. ↑ Klaus Gotto (ed.): The State Secretary Adenauer. Personality and political work of Hans Globke . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-12-912920-0 , p. 271.
  44. ^ Hans Kluth: The KPD in the Federal Republic. Your political activities and organization 1945–1956 . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 1959, ISBN 978-3-322-96239-3 , p. 303.
personal data
SURNAME Dix, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and notary
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1952