Wilhelm Kroner

Wilhelm Kroner (born August 14, 1870 in Aurich ; † October 15, 1942 in the Theresienstadt ghetto ) was a German lawyer. From 1925 to 1933 he was a councilor at the Prussian Higher Administrative Court , from 1921 to 1933 chairman of the Republican Judges' Association and from 1922 to 1933 editor , editor and co-author of the journal Die Justiz . He ran several times for the SPD for the Reichstag .

Private life

Stumbling block at the house, Hardenbergstrasse 31, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Kroner's father was a teacher and later a director of studies. He was married to Adelheid Kroner (née Simon, born August 1, 1887 in Bromberg, died October 4, 1942 in the Theresienstadt concentration camp). His three children, Ruth, Ernst and Adelheid, were able to flee Germany and survived in Switzerland. Wilhelm Kroner had lived with his family in an apartment in Kurfürstendamm 146 in Berlin since the 1930s. In May 1939, the Kroner couple had to leave their apartment on Kurfürstendamm and move to Wernerstraße 8 in Wannsee, where they lived in a room until their deportation on October 3, 1942.

Time until 1921

Wilhelm Kroner in 1896 Gerichtsassessor , 1905 Magistrate , 1910 Judge and 1911 county magistrate . His Jewish origin had an impact on the delayed promotion. For Prussia at that time was a secret cabinet order , according to which Jews should not take excellent position in the public service. He was one of the four judges who called for the establishment of the Republican Association of Judges. The appeal that appeared in the SPD party newspaper Vorwärts on December 30, 1921 , aimed at reforming the judiciary and against the anti-republican attitude of most judges in the Weimar Republic .

Journal Die Justiz

The magazine Die Justiz, magazine for the renewal of the German legal system, was the organ of the Republican Judges' Association. It was published by Dr. Walter Rothschild in Berlin-Grunewald. Other employees listed in the head were Gustav Radbruch , Hugo Sinzheimer and Wolfgang Mittermaier. From 1929 Robert Kempner was one of the main authors of the magazine. Wilhelm Kroner himself wrote many articles, not only on legal policy, but also on public law, for example on civil service law.

The commentary on the Ebert trial of December 24, 1924 in the Vossische Zeitung

In the press, Reich President Friedrich Ebert was repeatedly accused of having participated in the munitions workers' strike in 1918. Ebert had joined the strike leadership in order to be able to end the dispute, which also succeeded. The Magdeburg lay judge sentenced the editor Rothardt, who had written a newspaper article about it, for insulting President Ebert. The grounds for the judgment, however, contained the charge that Ebert had committed “treason in the criminal sense” in connection with the strike. This moved Wilhelm Kroner to his comment in the Vossische Zeitung of December 24, 1924, in which he expressed sharp criticism of the Magdeburg jury and its reasons for the verdict . Wilhelm Kroner was sentenced in the first instance to a fine of 3000 marks just six weeks after this publication. The judgment was overturned in the appeal court. The newspaper commentary by Kroner and its legal appraisal went down in the legal history of the Weimar Republic because of their political controversy.

Promotion to the council at the Prussian Higher Administrative Court

Kroner was appointed to the Council of the Prussian Higher Administrative Court on October 7, 1925. With a view to the start of the magazine Die Justiz, he applied for six months' leave of absence. The court president Bill Drews refused this. The promotion was heavily criticized from the right-wing political camp. From 1925, Kroner had to deal with a triple burden, as a judge at the PrOVG, as chairman of the Republican Judges' Association and finally as editor, editor and co-author of the magazine Die Justiz .

Death in the Theresienstadt concentration camp

In his capacity as an oppositional judge, Social Democrat and Jew, he was persecuted from 1933 during the National Socialist era . The Republican Association of Judges was officially dissolved on March 14, 1933 after it had forestalled a ban through formal self-dissolution. Wilhelm Kroner was dismissed from the judiciary in June 1933. His three children Ruth, Ernst and Adelheid emigrated to Switzerland. Wilhelm Kroner and his wife Adelheid were born on October 3, 1942 with the so-called “3. Große Alterstransport ”in a train overcrowded with 1,021 people to the Theresienstadt ghetto, where his wife Adelheid died on October 4, 1942 and Wilhelm Kroner on October 15, 1942 of the hardships and hardships they had suffered.

Commemoration

On May 8, 2012, Stolperstein 146 was laid for Kroner and his wife in front of their former home on Kurfürstendamm . Another stumbling block was laid on November 14, 2016 in front of the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg , Berlin-Charlottenburg , Hardenbergstrasse 31.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Kroner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Fonts

• On the intellectual attitude of the German judiciary, impressions. In: The Justice. Volume II, 1926/1927, p. 1 ff.
• Timeline. In: The Justice. Volume II, 1926/1927, p. 197 ff.
• Official duty and popular initiative. In: The Justice. Volume V, 1929/1930, p. 176 ff.
• On the verdict of the State Court of December 19, 1929. In: Die Justiz. Volume V, 1929/1930, pp. 270 ff.

literature

• For the 50th anniversary of the Prussian Higher Administrative Court. In: Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung . Volume 30, 1925, Issue 21, Col. 1605-1611.
• Liebmann, In: Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung. Volume 31, 1926, Col. 145. (for promotion to the PrOVG)
• Gotthard Jasper : Justice and Politics in the Weimar Republic. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte . Volume 30, 1982, issue 2, pp. 167–205 ( PDF; 1.7 MB )
• Birger Schulz: The Republican Association of Judges (1921-1933). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1982, ISBN 3-8204-7122-7 .
• Theo Rasehorn : Judicial criticism in the Weimar Republic, the example of the magazine “Die Justiz”. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-593-33546-8 .
• Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 219 ff.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, pp. 222, 228.
2. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 219 f.
3. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 222.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Stolperstein in front of Kurfürstendamm 146 from May 8, 2012.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 223.
6. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 220 f.
7. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 224 f.
8. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 225 f.
9. ↑ Theo Rasehorn: Wilhelm Kroner (1870–1942), the judge who shaped “The Justice”. In: Kritische Justiz (Ed.): Controversial jurists. Another tradition. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 1988, p. 228.