Transfer to the second class of the soldier's class
The transfer to the second class of the soldier class was a military punishment that could be pronounced against soldiers between 1808 and 1921, initially in Prussia and later in all other German states. It was considered a particularly severe honor penalty and was used with NCOs and men; NCOs were demoted at the same time. Instead, officers were removed from service, losing all of their acquired rights.
The punished had forfeited their soldiers' honor, even if they had not lost their civil rights as a result of the sentence . This made it possible to subject those affected to corporal punishment ( Stäupen , abolished in 1872), which had otherwise been banned in the Prussian army since 1806. Soldiers of the second class of the soldier's class lost their pension entitlements, were to be separated from their comrades as far as possible and placed under special supervision. The punishment was given indefinitely. Rehabilitation could only take place on special request and required the consent of the sovereign, in the case of members of the Navy, that of the German emperor . Only then was promotion to the rank again possible.
Outwardly, the punished were recognizable by the loss of the national cockade on the headgear as well as all external decorations that could be revoked (service awards etc.). Before withdrawing special awards (e.g. for bravery), the approval of the lord of the country had to be obtained. The measures also extended to all those who were not rehabilitated after completing their military service.
history
The transfer to the second class of the soldier's status was considered one of the heaviest military sentences in Prussia since 1808, even before demotion and milder prison sentences ( fortress or barracks arrest ). It was often given along with a prison sentence. Tougher sanctions were only expulsion from the armed forces (after any previously served forced labor or prison sentence) or the death penalty.
With the introduction of the military penal code for the German Reich in 1872, it was possible to transfer to the second class of soldiers in all German army contingents and in the navy .
According to § 37:
1) A transfer to the second class of the soldier's status must be recognized in addition to the loss of civil rights if the duration of this loss does not exceed three years.
2) The following can be recognized on transfer to the second class of the soldier's class :
1) in repeated relapses,
2) if the conviction is due to theft, embezzlement, robbery, extortion, stolen goods, fraud or forgery of documents, even if the loss of civil rights does not occur.
Furthermore, according to §. 39:
The transfer to the second class of the soldier's rank results in the permanent loss of medals and decorations by legal means, the person convicted of this punishment is also not allowed to wear the military cockade and not to assert claims for benefits insofar as these can be denied by a judge's verdict.
A special sanction was the possible execution of corporal punishment. This was abolished in 1808 in the course of the Prussian army reform for all other Prussian military members ("freedom of the back"), since the abolition in 1806 , the gauntlet was not even for soldiers of the second class of the soldier's class more accomplished. The arbitrary execution of the corporal punishment remained forbidden, it could only be carried out after the previous order of the regimental or battalion commander, with a minimum of ten and a maximum of 30 strokes of the stick. The military court order of corporal punishment had been forbidden since 1848, but it was still allowed as a disciplinary measure against soldiers of the second class. Only the disciplinary code for the Prussian Army of October 31, 1872 finally lifted the punishment.
According to the Reich Military Law of May 2, 1874 (Section 50) , one-year volunteers who were convicted lost their status as one-year volunteers and had to complete full, multi-year military service.
The resumption in the first class of the soldier's status took place only on special request and required the consent of the sovereign, in the case of the Imperial Navy that of the German emperor. She could be searched for twice, in exceptional cases three times. This was possible at the earliest one year after the completion of the additional sentence (e.g. imprisonment). In addition, the punished person must have regained any previously revoked civil rights in the meantime. If rehabilitation was refused, the punished person remained permanently in the second class of the soldier's class and was subject to certain sanctions even after leaving the military (e.g. a ban on wearing the national cockade on civilian clothes).
The transfer to the second class of the soldier class was abolished as a military punishment in the Weimar Republic . Instead, pursuant to Section 44 (2) of the Defense Act of March 23, 1921, those convicted of this kind of dismissal were recognized.
In the time of National Socialism , the transfer to the second class of the soldier's status as a military punishment was not revived - contrary to an erroneous opinion that is still circulating today. Rather, according to Section 13 of the Defense Act of May 21, 1935, soldiers punished could be denied military status; those affected were considered "unworthy of defense " and were expelled from the armed forces . Since 1936, condemned soldiers could be transferred to so-called special departments in order to regain their full military worth there if necessary. During the Second World War , the suspended special departments were replaced by the probation battalions . The so-called educators or probationers were considered in the official sense as only "conditionally worthy of defense", but not as "second class soldiers".
In the GDR , soldiers of the National People's Army who had committed criminal offenses could be transferred to the Schwedt military prison to serve a prison sentence . The term of imprisonment had to be served up, a transfer to the second class of the soldier's class was unknown as a punishment.
The Bundeswehr also does not know the transfer to the second class of the soldier's class. Rather, soldiers lose their legal status as soldiers and are dismissed from service if a court sentences them to imprisonment of more than one year.
See also
literature
- Axel Janda: The development of military criminal law and military criminal jurisdiction with special consideration of the abuse of subordinates in the Imperial German Navy (Diss.jur.) . University of Cologne, Cologne 1981.
- Manfred Messerschmidt: The Wehrmacht Justice 1933-1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 978-3-506-71349-0 .
- Gerhard von Scharnhorst: Private and official writings. Volume 5. Head of Military Reorganization (Prussia 1808-1809) . Ed .: Johannes Kunisch. Böhlau, Cologne Weimar Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20066-4 .
- Martin Schröder: Corporal punishment and the right to punishment in the German protected areas of Black Africa . LIT, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-8258-7574-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Criminal Code for the Prussian Army of 1845, in: Compilation of all laws enacted for the former Kingdom of Hanover in the period from September 20, 1866 to October 1, 1867, ordered by Obergericht-Rath C. Nordmann, Volume 2: Criminal Law and criminal trial, Hanover 1868, pp. 344ff , Google.books
- ^ Military Criminal Code for the German Reich of June 20, 1872 , according to: documentarchiv.de
- ↑ Reich Military Law of May 2, 1874 , according to: reader.digitale-sammlungen.de
- ↑ Army and Navy, Military Criminal Law, Dr. jur. M. Schlayer (Ed.), Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 1904, p.169ff , Google.books
- ↑ Defense Act of May 21, 1935 , according to: documentarchiv.de
- ↑ Messerschmidt, Wehrmachtjustiz , p. 324ff