Wilhelm Crohne

This article deals with the lawyer Wilhelm Crohne. For other people see Wilhelm Crone .

Wilhelm Crohne (born July 14, 1880 in Berlin ; † April 26, 1945 ibid) was a German lawyer and Vice President at the People's Court in Berlin.

Life

After studying law, he began working as a court assessor in 1910 . From 1911 to mid-1913 he was a judge in the German administration in German East Africa . But he obviously had difficulties adapting to the mentality of the local residents. In a letter dated May 26, 1913, the Reich Colonial Office informed him that his activity was to be terminated, as he did not "understand how to empathize with the views and ways of thinking of the Negroes ".

In the First World War he took part in the rank of captain from 1914 to 1918 . After all, he was appointed to the district court judge in Berlin in 1915. Five years later he was appointed regional judge , and in 1924 regional court director.

In the late 1920s he became embroiled in ongoing political processes. He participated in the verdict against the magazine Die Weltbühne in the Weltbühne trial . In 1928, however, he was officially reprimanded because he had used the term “Polish hordes” in the text of the judgment and had characterized Carl von Ossietzky as “mean”.

In 1931 he became a member of the German People's Party (DVP). But he soon turned politically to the National Socialists and joined the NSDAP on September 1, 1932 ( membership no. 1,331,607).

In April 1933 he was appointed to the Prussian Ministry of Justice . On May 16, 1933, he took over the management of the criminal department as ministerial director. In 1933 he published an article in the magazine Preußische Justiz (later renamed German Justice ), meaning and tasks of special courts , with which he drafted guidelines for judicial policy in accordance with the requirements of the NSDAP ( special courts were not set up in the Nazi regime until 1934).

He particularly emphasized the tasks of the special courts in peacetime:

"In peacetime special courts are called upon to [...] work through the rapid and emphatic exercise of punitive power to ensure that restless minds are warned and removed and that the smooth running of the state machine is not disturbed."

In this context, he also set the standard in those cases in court where the evidence is to be assumed in favor of the defendant if there are legitimate doubts connected with the course of events:

“Certainly, the statement of fact continues to say: in dubio pro reo . In the application of the law, however, this sentence is preceded by the idea of ​​protecting the people and the state against the criminal. "

With this, Crohne had clearly committed to the NSDAP and the devaluation of the rule of law. So on April 1, 1935, he was appointed head of Department III for the administration of criminal justice and the penal system in the Reich Ministry of Justice . In addition, Crohne was since February 1937 chairman of the court for the decision of conflicts of jurisdiction .

When Martin Niemöller was on trial in 1938 , he had an interview with Joseph Goebbels . He noted in his diary of February 5, 1938 that Niemöller should receive a short but severe sentence.

In the same year, Crohne commented on the question of "racial criminal law" in the magazine Deutsche Justiz :

"Sexual intercourse with a person rendered sterile or with a prostitute is also a criminal offense, as the law not only seeks to protect German blood, but also German honor."

With regard to the so-called protective custody , he stipulated that the attorneys general would be determined by the Gestapo and that the courts would have to accept this instruction. This regulation then led to the practice that certain prisoners were arrested again by the Gestapo immediately after their imprisonment and sent to the concentration camp.

On his 60th birthday in 1940, the editors of the official gazette of the Reich Ministry of Justice honored Crohne with the words:

“As head of Department III of the Reich Ministry of Justice entrusted to him, Dr. Crohne made a special contribution to the National Socialist orientation of the criminal justice system. "

In November 1942 he moved to the People's Court in the position of vice-president. From January 29, 1943, the People's Court was able to deal with cases in which it was an allegation of undermining military strength . Crohne commented on this in an article in the magazine Der SA-Führer in 1944 :

“Be certain, comrades from the front, that the People's Court is on watch in close cooperation with the police in your home country to secure what has won your unparalleled bravery. [...] The homeland shows itself worthy of you in this war, and the few criminals who think differently are ruthlessly exterminated. "

When Roland Freisler was killed in a bomb attack on February 3, 1945 , Crohne temporarily took over the leadership of the People's Court and, among other things, the lead of the trial of the later judge of the Federal Constitutional Court Fabian von Schlabrendorff , whom he acquitted of the charge of high treason. On February 22, 1945, Crohne obtained a reorganization of the competences of the Senate. On March 12, 1945, Harry Haffner was appointed the new President of the People's Court by Hitler. On April 26, 1945, during the Battle of Berlin , Crohne committed suicide with his family in his Berlin apartment.

literature

• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Frankfurt / Main 2003.
• Günther Wieland : That was the People's Court. Berlin 1989.
• Klaus Bästlein: On the “legal” practice of the Schleswig-Holstein special court 1937–1945. In: Heribert Ostendorf (Ed.): Prosecution and waiver of punishment. Cologne 1992.
• Wilhelm Crohne: meaning and task of the special courts. In: Prussian Justice. 1933, pp. 384-85
• Wilhelm Crohne: The criminal justice system 1937 In: Deutsche Justiz 1938, Issue 1 from January 4th, p. 7 f.
• Wilhelm Crohne: The People's Court in the fight for the front. In: The SA leader (Munich). 1944/3, p. 6.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Dr. Crohne is 60 years old , note from the editorial team of the magazine Deutsche Justiz , in issue 29 of July 19, 1940, p. 834
2. ^ Wilhelm Crohne: Meaning and task of the special courts. In: Prussian Justice. 1933, p. 384.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Quotation from Ernst Klee : Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second, updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, p. 98
4. ^ Wilhelm Crohne: Meaning and task of the special courts. In: Prussian Justice. 1933, p. 385.
5. ^ Friedrich-Wilhelm von Hase : Hitler's revenge. The Stauffenberg assassination attempt and its consequences for the families of the conspirators , Holzgerlingen 2014, section: 2.5.3. The end of the People's Court
6. ^ Edmund Lauf: The People's Court and its Observer: Conditions and Functions of Court Reporting in National Socialism , Wiesbaden 1994, p. 19