Ordinance against public pests
The Ordinance Against Public Pests , commonly referred to as the People's Pest Ordinance ( VVO ), was issued four days after the start of World War II on September 5, 1939 and was intended to provide the National Socialist judiciary with an effective instrument to protect the “inner front”. The individual offenses and punishments were deliberately set extremely broad, so that the death penalty could also be imposed for very minor offenses .
In addition to the VVO, a number of other war ordinances were issued, for example
- the " Ordinance on Extraordinary Broadcasting Measures " (September 1, 1939 (RGBl. IS 1683))
- the " War Economy Ordinance" (September 4, 1939 (RGBl. IS 1609ff))
- the " Ordinance to supplement the penal provisions for the protection of the military strength of the German people " (November 25, 1939 (RGBl. IS 2319)) and
- the “Ordinance against Violent Criminals” (December 5, 1939 (RGBl. IS 2378)).
The " War Special Criminal Law Ordinance " was already drawn up in August 1938 and came into force on August 26, 1939 when it was promulgated in the Reichsgesetzblatt .
The individual criminal offenses of the People's Pest Ordinance comprised "looting in the cleared area" (§ 1 VVO), "crimes in the event of a risk of flying" (§ 2 VVO) and "publicly dangerous crimes" (§ 3 VVO) and could all be punished with death.
Paragraph 4 of the VVO “Exploitation of the state of war as a tightening of punishment” was of particular importance: This meant that any criminal act could be punished with death if it was committed using the particular circumstances of the war. This construction gave the arbitrariness of justice a free hand. In court practice, the punishment was only determined to a limited extent on the basis of the respective offense. The deterrent effect of the judgment and the assessment of the perpetrator's personality were at least as relevant for the sentencing . The legal justification for this was the offender type theory , whose main field of application in legal practice was the People's Pest Ordinance. According to this, the judicial decision on whether a person corresponds to the type of " public pest " was decisive for a conviction on the basis of the People's Pest Ordinance .
Application in case law
Helga Grabitz judges that the VVO is a “law to overturn the Reich Penal Code ”, and that is exactly what the legislature meant.
The very broad scope of discretion of the People's Pest Ordinance presupposes that it was interpreted by the jurisprudence in the sense of the National Socialist leadership. An official justification for the VVO was not published, but the explanations given by the State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Roland Freisler, were of quasi-official significance for the courts. The undisputed purpose of the VVO was to "secure the national defensive struggle". This purpose was decisive for the interpretation of the VVO. From the title of the Regulation that led Supreme Court from that achieving an offense of VVO the respective offenders the perpetrators type of people pest must comply. Its “pest quality” could result from “the type of crime or from an assessment of the perpetrator's personality , especially from his previous life, his previous convictions, his criminal anti-community disposition or from the way in which he committed the offense, or from the circumstances in which he acted ”.
The individual facts
The offense of looting recorded in Section 1 was relatively precise. In 1939 "cleared area" was just a narrow strip on the western border. As air strikes increased, the definition of "voluntarily evacuated" was broadened. Anyone who took an object away from destroyed or damaged buildings or rooms was guilty of the looting regardless of the value. The distinction between theft and looting was blurred, but the perpetrator was labeled a "unscrupulous pest" and "ruthlessly eradicated from community life."
Most of the convictions based on the People's Pest Ordinance were based on Section 2 (“Crimes where there is a risk of flying”) and Section 4 (“Use of the state of war as an aggravation of punishment”).
While convictions according to § 2 for “crimes in the event of a risk of flying” were initially rare, these increased more and more in the course of the war and the intensified Allied air raids. Although § 2 according to the wording only crimes against " body , life or property acquired," the Court turned him much further, about even with coercion or sex offenses . If the offender succeeded in a property offense more easily through blackout and unlocked apartments and he was “aware” of this, then he had acted “taking advantage of the measures taken to avert the risk of aviation” and met the penalty criteria.
In § 3 arson "or any other publicly dangerous crime" was threatened with the death penalty , provided that this would damage the resilience of the German people. It neither enumerated concrete facts nor defined what is to be understood by damage to resistance. Again, the judges were given more discretion to criminalize unpopular people.
Finally, § 4 ("Exploitation of the state of war as a tightening of punishment") was the general catch-all offense of the entire National Socialist war criminal law. Any criminal offense could be punished with imprisonment or death if it was committed “taking advantage of the exceptional circumstances caused by the state of war” and if “this is required by the common sense of the people because of the particular reprehensibility of the crime”. Since, according to contemporary opinion, almost all areas of life were influenced by the “ total war ”, for example insulting a woman who was defenseless because of her husband's military service could represent an exploitation of the war. Concepts such as “ healthy public sentiment ” and “special reprehensibility ” were open to unlimited interpretation .
Section 5 contained a procedural provision for the "acceleration of the special court procedure". If “the perpetrator is concerned in the act or his guilt is otherwise evident”, the judgment had to be “carried out immediately without observing deadlines” in a procedure before the special courts . The main purpose of this regulation was the idea of deterrence .
Signatory
The ordinance was signed by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers for Reich Defense Hermann Göring , the Plenipotentiary for the Reich Administration, Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, and the Reich Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellery Hans Heinrich Lammers . The regulation was published in the Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, 1939 of September 6, 1939 No. 168, page 1679.
Repeal of the regulation
The ordinance was formally repealed by the Control Council Act No. 11 on "Repeal of Individual Provisions of German Criminal Law" of January 30, 1946 with effect from February 4, 1946.
All convictions based on the People's Pest Ordinance were overturned in 1998 by the law to repeal unjust judgments in the criminal justice system (NS-AufhG, Annex - No. 32) for violating elementary ideas of justice .
literature
- Gerhard Werle : Criminal law as a weapon: The ordinance against public pests of September 5, 1939 , JuS 1989, 952ff, ISSN 0022-6939 .
- Martin Hirsch , Diemut Majer, Jürgen Meinck: Law, Administration and Justice under National Socialism. Bund, Cologne 1984, p. 456 ff with texts of the regulations mentioned, examples of case law and commentary, ISBN 3-7663-0541-7 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Uwe Wesel , History of Law, 2nd edition 2001, p. 493.
- ↑ Hamburg judicial authority (ed.): "Of habitual criminals, pests of the people and anti-social". Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-87916-023-6 , p. 21.
- ↑ Gerhard Werle, Criminal Law as Weapon: The ordinance against public pests of September 5, 1939 , JuS 1989, p. 952 (954).
- ↑ RGSt 74, 321 (322).
- ↑ Hamburg Justice Authority (ed.): “Von Gewohngewrechern ...” ISBN 3-87916-023-6 , pp. 338/339.
- ↑ Gerhard Werle, Criminal Law as Weapon: The ordinance against public pests of September 5, 1939 , JuS 1989, p. 952 (955).
- ↑ E.g. in RGSt 74, 375.
- ↑ Hamburg Justice Authority (ed.): "Von Gewohngewrechern ..." ISBN 3-87916-023-6 , p. 22.
- ↑ RGSt 76, 381.
- ↑ Cf. Gerhard Werle, Criminal Law as Weapon: The Ordinance Against Volksschädlinge of September 5, 1939 , JuS 1989, p. 952 (954).