Walther Froelich

Walther Froelich also Froehlich, Frölich, Fröhlich (* July 27, 1880 in Berlin ; † December 31, 1945 in special camp No. 1 Mühlberg ) was a German judge and president of the administrative court of the League of Nations .

Life

The son of the secret medical councilor Max Froelich (1851–1928) passed the state exams in 1902 and 1907 with "good" in each case. In 1907 he became a court assessor. In 1909 he was appointed district judge at the Cologne District Court . He took part in the First World War as a reserve officer. In July 1920 he was promoted to district judge at the Cologne district court . He became a higher regional judge in Cologne in 1921. "As a lawyer, he defended German defendants during the so-called" Ruhrkampf "before French military courts in the Palatinate."

The Secret Judicial Councilor Froelich was a German judge at the mixed arbitration courts for many years. In December 1927 he was elected judge at the Administrative Court of the League of Nations . From 1930 to November 16, 1933 he was President of the Administrative Court of the League of Nations. In 1930 he received an honorary doctorate in law from the University of Cologne .

In mid-June 1930 he was seconded to the Reichsgericht as an assistant judge. On June 1, 1932, he was appointed Reich judge. He was in the IV. Civil Senate , IV. Criminal Senate , and for a long time in the III. Criminal Senate busy. In the Reichstag fire trial from September 21, 1933, he was involved as a judge. He is said to have "been pleasantly noticed by his objectivity in the Reichstag fire trial" and "[s] according to a whole basic attitude, Dr. Froelich rejected Hitler and his movement from the start. (...) It was thanks to him that the main defendants (...) were acquitted. ” Froelich's telephone conversations during the trial were tapped by the Gestapo . After the occupation of Leipzig by the Red Army , he was - like other Reich judges - arrested by the NKVD . He died in 1945 in the special camp in Mühlberg .

Paul Vogt recalled that he and the Reich judges Fröhlich and Wernecke had been questioned about the fire in the Reichstag.

Memberships

• 1919–1920 German People's Party
• April 9, 1933 to June 27, 1933 German National People's Party
• since February 14, 1934 in the NSRB
• since 1936 member of the committee for international law of the " Academy for German Law "

Honors

• April 20, 1938 Silver Medal of Honor
• October 26, 1938 Golden Loyalty Service Medal
• May 1, 1942 War Merit Cross, 2nd class

literature

• Friedrich Karl Kaul : “History of the Reichsgericht” , Volume IV (1933–1945), Berlin (East) 1971, p. 269.
• Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 442 f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dieter Deiseroth: Der Reichstagbrand: Trial and Rule of Law, in: Dieter Deiseroth (Ed.): The Reichstagbrand and the trial before the Reichsgericht, Berlin 2006, pp. 53, 54.
2. ^ Initiative group Lager Mühlberg e. V. (Ed.): Book of the Dead - Special Camp No. 1 of the Soviet NKVD, Mühlberg / Elbe , Mühlberg / Elbe, 2008, p. 73, ISBN 978-3-00-026999-8
3. ↑ Klaus-Detlev Godau-Schüttke : "The Federal Court of Justice - Justice in Germany -", Berlin 2005, p. 49.
4. ^ "Institution of an Administrative Tribunal" , Fourth annual report of the Permanent Court of International Justice (June 15th, 1927-June 15th, 1928), pp. 52, 53 ( PDF ( Memento of the original of February 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). In a report by Beria to Stalin et al. a. was based on a period of service from 1920 to 1930 and an appointment by Hindenburg, Ralf Possekel: Soviet camp policy in Germany, in: Sergej Mironenko / Lutz Niethammer / Alexander von Plato (eds.), Soviet special camps in Germany 1945 to 1950 , vol. 2 : Soviet documents on camp policy , Berlin 1998, p. 207. 
5. ^ "The Administrative Tribunal of the League of Nations" , Sixth annual report of the Permanent Court of International Justice (June 15th, 1929-June 15th, 1930), p. 49 ( PDF ( Memento of the original of February 8, 2015 on the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). 
6. ^ League of Nations Documents and Serial Publications, 1919-1946 Author Index, C.662.1933, p. 70 in this RTF document ; s. a. Reichstag election November 1933 .
7. ^ " Personalien ", Die Umschau - Illustrated weekly publication on the progress in science and technology, Volume 34 (1930) Issue 33, p. 673; Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung , year 35 (1930), column 1112.
8. ↑ Fritz Tobias : The Reichstag Fire - Legend and Reality , Rastatt 1962, p. 341.
9. ↑ Hubert Schorn: “Judges in the Third Reich. History and Documents ” , Frankfurt am Main 1959, p. 250.
10. ^ August Schäfer : The great dying in the Reichsgericht , Deutsche Richterzeitung 1957, pp. 249, 250.
11. ↑ Hans Mommsen : "The Reichstag Fire and Its Political Consequences" VfZ , Volume 12 (1964), Issue 4, p. 358 ( PDF ).