Walter Hartz
Walter Hartz (born May 14, 1903 in Elmshorn ; † February 12, 1994 in Schleswig ) was a German lawyer and judge , most recently President of the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court in Schleswig.
Live and act
In the empire
Hartz was born in Elmshorn in 1903 as the youngest of five sons. The father had a barber shop there and also ran a tobacco and stamp trade.
In 1904 the family moved to Kiel , where the father tried an egg wholesale business. In 1906 the family moved to Neumünster , where the father took over representation for margarine factories and sold cheese recipes to German farmers in German South West Africa .
At Easter 1909 Hartz started school, namely in the newly built first boys' middle school, today's Wilhelm Tanck School.
At the end of July / beginning of August 1914, the eleven-year-old Hartz experienced the outbreak of the First World War while visiting relatives in Elmshorn on vacation . Again returned to Neumuenster he heard in the squares of the city, the carefree slogans with which the young soldiers garrisoned in Neumünster 163er went to war. Soon, however, the relatives were disturbed by attacks by the franc tireurs in Belgium .
War uses of the Hartz brothers
A few days after their silver wedding anniversary on September 24, 1914, the Hartz parents learned of their son Georg's wounding . Hartz writes in his "Memoirs":
"The 163er had initially belonged to the siege army of Antwerp and after the breakup of the Battle of the Marne marched in forced marches to the right wing of the German western army in northern France to extend the front in the so-called ' race to the sea ' to the west. In a battle near Ribécourt near Noyon , Georg was hit on the right knee by a shrapnel ... "
In early summer 1915, the brother was Theo to Braunschweig for Inf. Reg. 92 retracted. He came to the Western Front and took part in the heavy fighting in Champagne . In the spring of 1916 he went on vacation and was completely changed in character. The happiest of the Hartz brothers had grown quiet and serious. Soon after his return to the front, his regiment was transferred to the Eastern Front. After an unsuccessful assault on June 25, 1916 near Zaturce , he was initially considered missing. He is listed on the regiment's roll of honor as having died on June 25, 1916.
The oldest Hartz brother Willy was not drafted. He was an electrician at the naval shipyard in Kiel and indispensable.
Brother Alfred was only able to serve as a garrison because of a heart defect and came to Neubreisach as a soldier , where he worked in the office.
In the autumn of 1917 Walter Hartz took the train several times from Neumünster to Rickling and walked to Fehrenbötel to “ hamster ” with friends. Lessons were often canceled at school when the upper classes went out to collect leaf hay. In the last winter of the war there was no more coal and the school could not be heated.
In the winter half of 1917/18 Hartz went to confirmation class and was confirmed in March 1918. Hartz did not pass the entrance exam to enter the upper secondary school . He was accepted into the Untersekunda, which extended his school stay by a year.
In the Weimar Republic
Hartz had made good friends in Untersekunda, through whom he got into the youth movement " Wandervogel " in 1919. He was active there until well into his studies and made it up to the Gauführer.
At the Abitur in March 1922, Hartz was exempted from the oral exam and received a good Abitur certificate.
In early May 1922, Hartz enrolled in economics at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and heard introductory lectures in both economics and law . In the second semester, he switched entirely to studying law. He studied with Wedemeyer , Pappenheim, Radbruch and Jellinek , among others .
During the first semester break, Hartz worked as a student trainee at the “ Prosper III ” colliery in Bottrop , where he was used as a “Gedingeschlepper”.
Thanks to Reinhard Todsen, the son of Flensburg's mayor Hermann Bendix Todsen , Hartz received a monthly student grant of eleven Swedish kronor , which a Stockholm ladies' group gave to needy German students.
In the summer semester 1923 and winter semester 1923/24 Hartz studied law in Freiburg im Breisgau a . a. with Heinrich Hoeniger , with Nadler and v. Schwerin . He also heard lectures by the Germanist Witkop .
In the summer semester of 1924 Hartz studied again in Kiel and was accepted into the newly opened Bergmann-Haus in the Hotel Bellevue. He belonged to a working group with Kuhlgatz, Dahm, Wessel and Rissom.
The benefactor Bergmann, a sugar manufacturer from Vienna , set up a student exchange with the Consular Academy in Vienna for the winter semester of 1924/25 . Hartz heard Hans Kelsen and Othmar Spann there : "the two greatest contrasts that one could imagine".
Through Othmar Pentz, Hartz became a member of the Sudeten German university guild "Thule" under the direction of Josef Lob.
Hartz spent the seventh semester in Kiel again and then registered for the exam on February 4 and 5, 1926.
In February 1926 Hartz was assigned as a trainee lawyer for three months to the public prosecutor's office at the district court in Kiel . During this time, on March 6, 1926, his father died. The tense financial situation eased through the maintenance subsidy that Hartz received as a trainee lawyer and through a job as an assistant to Professor Jellinek.
Hartz went through the usual training stations: after the public prosecutor's office, six months “small” district court in Neumünster; then district court Kiel, six months civil chamber , three months criminal chamber ; then six months "big" district court ( voluntary jurisdiction ), also in Kiel. This was followed by six months as a lawyer and finally six months at the Higher Regional Court in Kiel until February 1929. After submitting the two assignments (practical and theoretical), Hartz passed the second exam in the Reich Ministry of Justice in Berlin on August 29, 1929 .
In the early summer of 1927 Hartz got engaged to Ingeborg Meßtorff and passed his doctoral exam in December 1927 - he had written the dissertation on the subject of "The tarifiability of apprentice compensation".
After the second state examination in law, Hartz got a paid position at the district court in Kiel. The increasing political unrest of the time penetrated into the courtrooms. The criminal courts had much to do with the ongoing, often bloody brawls between political opponents. More interesting and of more general importance was a case pending before the civil chamber of the Kiel Regional Court in 1932 , in which Hartz acted as rapporteur . The SPD history workshop reported about it:
“In 1932 Adolf Hitler initiated a lawsuit against VZ and its editor-in-chief Kurt Wurbs. Wurbs wrote in March 1932 that Hitler was preparing for civil war . The NSDAP defended itself against this by applying to the local court for an injunction to cease making this claim. By means of an affidavit on his “peaceful intentions”, Hitler succeeded in maintaining this order. The VZ lawyer , Wilhelm Spiegel , wanted to summon him personally to the following main hearing . In his place, however, SA chief Ernst Röhm appeared and claimed that there could be no question of preparing for a civil war. The court followed this claim and ignored Spiegel's references to the increasing street terror , especially from the SA . The National Socialists won the trial. "
Hartz had married on May 10, 1930 in Neumünster. Ernst Kracht , then district administrator in Heide, was the bride's uncle. The daughter Renate was born on March 4, 1932.
On October 1, 1932, Hartz was appointed to a local court council in the Schleswig-Holstein city of Altona (today Hamburg's Altona district ). This period also fell seizure of power by the National Socialists .
In the time of National Socialism
Their daughter Elisabeth was born on March 4, 1934, and their son Peter on January 12, 1936.
The Röhm Putsch occurred at the end of June / beginning of July 1934 . Hartz wrote about it:
“We also experienced the Röhm Putsch during this time. I was really shocked when my good and so calm friend, then a district judge in Altona, justified the undoubtedly numerous murders that were committed on this occasion . He believed that in a revolution like the National Socialist one, some forces would find themselves in influential positions which would deviate dangerously from the general line of the party. In order not to endanger the success of the revolution, they would have to be eliminated by force if necessary. That is a necessary self-cleaning of the party. This was evidently the attempt at an explanation that the party leadership had secretly spread. I couldn't quite understand how my otherwise clever friend could calm down with this apology. "
Hartz had not yet become a party member at the time and said he could afford it because he already had a judicial position. He wrote:
“We non-party comrades did not have to fear harassment because of our restraint. However, it was expected that one would take part in general events, for example the marches on May 1st , in which the authorities also took part, or in the collection campaigns for the children's aid organization . The judges even appeared in robes and with a collection can in the streets. Otherwise, however, we were able to live in peace, undisturbed in our way, and also had reason to recognize the unmistakable positive results of the first years after 1933, such as the rapid elimination of the terrible unemployment, the establishment of the Wehrmacht , the construction of roads and motorways, and the general upswing in general the economy, and the restoration of orderly conditions. The inhuman measures against the Jews , which were not only removed from all civil service and judicial posts, but were also banned from practicing law and doctors, and also made it increasingly impossible to work in the private sector, gave cause for concern. "
In 1935 Hartz saw the first signs of Menièr's disease , a disease of the inner ear characterized by attacks of dizziness ( vertigo ), hearing loss and phantom noises ( tinnitus , "ringing in the ears"). Hartz became numb on the left side, but the symptoms that were troubling him disappeared.
In 1937 the Greater Hamburg Law was passed . As a result, Altona was separated from Schleswig-Holstein and beaten to Hamburg . Rothenberger was the Senator of Justice in Hamburg . He was considered a sharp National Socialist. Hartz did not want to work under such supervision. He was transferred to the Lübeck Regional Court .
On September 18, 1938, the fourth child (and third daughter) Regine was born in Lübeck.
Hartz became a member of the NSDAP during this time - after some pressure from his new district court president - backdating to 1937 . Hartz wrote about it:
“As early as November 1938 there was reason to be indignant about what happened under the protection and with the silent tolerance of the party leadership. In the Reichskristallnacht from 9./10. On November 1st, the synagogues throughout the empire were allegedly destroyed and set on fire, and Jewish shops and private homes were barbarically devastated. Nobody was held accountable for this action carried out by the SA and the SS . One could express one's indignation at these incidents with impunity. The responsible authorities only responded by declaring that it had been a regrettable but understandable discharge of popular sentiment against the Jews and that the perpetrators had remained unknown. These were not good signs for the further path that the Nazis would go and made us very thoughtful. "
At the turn of 1938/39 Hartz was again as assistant judge to the Court of Appeal brought (OLG) in Kiel. Because they wanted to keep and promote him there, the family moved to Kitzeberg . In February 1940 Hartz became an OLG council in Kiel.
In September 1940, Hartz looked after the district courts of Ratzeburg and Mölln , which had just been orphaned due to the war , while his family was relaxing in the Black Forest . Nothing came of the planned vacation with the family in Hinterhäuser . Hartz was called back to Kiel, received a position order to Marburg and was called up there as a senior war administrator with the rank of lieutenant colonel for use in the staff of the military commander for Belgium and northern France in Brussels . He worked there from November 1940 to September 1944.
In the Federal Republic of Germany
Hartz became an OLG councilor in Kiel in 1948. From December 19, 1950 to July 13, 1952, Hartz was a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe , and from 1952 to 1968 President of the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court in Schleswig. For many years he was the deputy chairman of the joint examination office of the states of Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein and was known as "the sun of Schleswig" because of his benevolence towards the examinees. Hartz lived in Schleswig in retirement.
evaluation
“The new man in Schleswig was probably one of the most prominent chief presidents after the war in Schleswig-Holstein: He was highly regarded in the judiciary and legal profession and was known for knowing the personal details of his judges very well. His judgments were precise and hard on the matter, without missing solidarity with his 'subordinates'. As a conservative lawyer, coming to terms with the past was simply not an issue for him. For him, all that counted were the achievements shown and the personal commitment. Therefore, he supported former judges of the special court in Kiel without hesitation , provided they performed well. He maintained excellent contacts with the political leaders of the Ministry of Justice . The interaction between him and Praetorius in personnel matters worked extremely well. He also put his stamp on the judiciary as far as public representation was concerned: Self-confident but modest demeanor, abstaining from any political statement, in order to ensure the 'independence' of the '3rd To make violence 'clear. "
Works
- The tarifiability of the apprentice remuneration. Inaugural dissertation to obtain the doctorate of the high law and political science faculty of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Borna-Leipzig: Universitätsverlag by Robert Noske 1928.
- The judicial review right with regard to the ordinances of the Belgian general secretaries during the German occupation 1940–1944 , in: Otto Bachof , Martin Drath , Otto Gönnenwein , Ernst Walz (ed.): Research and reports from public law. Memorial for Walter Jellinek , Munich: Olzog 1955, pp. 433–443.
- For the 25th anniversary of the Federal Fiscal Court. Constitutional tax law in the light of case law - yesterday, today and tomorrow , in: Der Betrieb , 1975, pp. 2004–2010.
- Memoirs , 1977 (unpublished, family-owned)
- CEGES / Center d'Études et de Documentation: Documents Dr. Walter Hartz, Military Administration , October 2009 ( online version )
literature
- Klaus-Detlev Godau-Schüttke: I only served the law. The “renazification” of the Schleswig-Holstein judiciary after 1945 , Baden-Baden: Nomos 1993.
- Peter Godzik : funeral address for Dr. Walter Hartz , February 17, 1994 ( online version ).
- Schleswiger Gesellschaft Justiz + Kultur eV (Ed.): 1948–1998. 50 years of the Schleswig-Holstein Higher Regional Court in Schleswig. Essays and Memoirs , Schleswig 1998.
- Klaus-Detlev Godau-Schüttke: The Federal Court of Justice - Justice in Germany (Justice Critical Book Series) , Berlin: Tischler 2005.
- Stefan Martens (ed.): France and Belgium under German occupation 1940–1944. The holdings of the Federal Archives-Military Archives Freiburg. Arranged by Sebastian Remus. Préface de Martine de Boisdeffre et de Hartmut Weber , Stuttgart (Thorbecke) 2007, (Instrumenta, 7), ISBN 3-7995-7271-6 ( online version ).
- Kirsten Peters: L'influence de l'administration militaire allemande sur les changements de personnel au sein de la magistrature belge (1940-1944) , in: Dirk Heirbaut, Xavier Rousseaux and Alain Wijffels (eds.): Histoire du droit et de la justice / Justitie - en rechts - geschiedenis. Une nouvelle génération de recherches / Een nieuwe onderzoeksgeneratie , Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses universitaires de Louvain 2010, p. 61-76 ( online version ).
- Klaus-Detlev Godau-Schüttke: Biographical highlights on past -political burdens on Schleswig-Holstein legal lawyers , in: Advisory Board for History (ed.): Democratic History (Yearbook for Schleswig-Holstein, Volume 27) , Malente: Society for Politics and Education Schleswig-Holstein eV 2016, pp. 187–212 ( online version ).
- Claus Godbersen: On the history of presidential furniture, in: Schleswig-Holsteinische Werbung 2/2019, pp. 83–84 ( online version )
Web links
- Literature by and about Walter Hartz in the catalog of the German National Library
- Entry in the Federal Archives ( online )
- Portrait of Walter Hartz
Individual evidence
- ↑ Report on the school anniversary ( online )
- ↑ Based on experiences with Franktireurs in the war of 1870/71, there was great fear of surprise attacks; When the Germans believed they would be shot, they retaliated against the civilian population. At the end of August 1914, fear had increased so much that the German army broke out into atrocities of war. The fall of Leuven ultimately turned into a moral and propagandistic catastrophe for the Central Powers : the term " Rape of Belgium " was coined. Hartz wrote about this in his “Memoirs” and thus made his legal position clear: “I saw monuments there in the Second World War that were erected to honor those perpetrators who were rightly shot after such illegal acts.” (P. 13 )
- ↑ Entry on Max Pappenheim in the Kiel directory of scholars ( online )
- ↑ Biography Josef Lob ( online )
- ^ Main page SPD history workshop , page Schleswig-Holsteinische Volkszeitung , section Hitler trial ( online )
- ↑ Hartz reported on his experiences in Brussels in his article The judicial right of examination against the regulations of the Belgian general secretaries ... , 1955, pp. 433–443.
- ↑ Information on Wolfgang Praetorius ( online at Landtag.ltsh.de )
- ↑ Godau-Schüttke described an example of this: “In April 1951 Burmeister was temporarily reinstated as a judge; In 1953 he received a post at the Itzehoe Regional Court. He passed his trial period at the OLG Schleswig with flying colors. The brittle, always focused on performance, the President of the Higher Regional Court, Hartz, was enthusiastic about Burmeister's performance as an auxiliary judge (that's the legal name): '[He] is one of the best auxiliary judges in recent years [...]. [...] also due to his character values [Burmeister] deserves promotion soon. ' Thereupon, in 1955, Burmeister was appointed by Prime Minister von Hassel to the higher regional judge. Neither Hartz nor von Hassel took offense at the fact that he was an SS judge. So they did not question what tasks he had performed in the ' main office of the SS court '. "In: Biografische Schlaglichter ... ( online version ), 2017, p. 204.
- ↑ I only served the law ... , 1993, p. 77.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hartz, Walter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hartz, Walther |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German lawyer and judge |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 14, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Elmshorn |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 12, 1994 |
| Place of death | Schleswig |