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Authors: Michael Stolleis
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Historical Introduction
The Judicial System and the Courts in the Weimar Republic
I. The revolution of 1918 and the Constitution of 1919 (the so-called Weimar Constitution) transformed Germany from a monarchy into a republic. Germany became a democratic state with a strong presidency (modeled after the American presidency) and a chancellor at the head of a bicameral parliament (the Reichstag as the popularly elected lower house and the Reichsrat as the upper house representing the interests of the Länder , the states). The former Länder (Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Saxony, and especially Prussia) continued to exist, and together with the Reich they formed a federal state.
The structure of the legal system that had evolved between 1871 and 1918 was essentially retained. In Germany, as in France and Italy (and in contrast to the Anglo-American legal tradition), law codes have historically played a dominant role in the legal system. After the revolution of 1919, these law codes remained in force: the Civil Code of 1900, the Penal Code of 1871, and the Laws of Procedure. The function of the courts was merely to “apply” the rules laid down in the codes. The German legal system has significantly less judge-made or common law than the Anglo-American legal system.
The structure of the courts comprised three levels. The highest appellate court was the Reichsgericht (for civil matters and criminal cases, and after 1927 also for litigation involving labor law). At the middle level were the Oberlandesgerichte in the federal states. The lower courts for civil and criminal cases were the Amtsgerichte and Landgerichte, the local and regional courts. Specialized courts also existed for specific areas of the law, for example tax law (Reichsfinanzhof) and social law (Reichsversicherungsamt, Reichsversorgungsgericht). Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Verwaltungsgerichte (AdministrativeCourts) were set up to handle disputes between citizens and the state. Their function was to examine the lawfulness of administrative acts by the government with regard to its citizens. The most important of these courts was the Preußische Oberverwaltungsgericht in Berlin. At that time there was no supreme administrative court at the federal level. There was also no administrative court with comprehensive jurisdiction comparable to the U.S. Supreme Court or the modern-day German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court). The powers of the Staatsgerichtshof, created after 1919, were limited.
Most of the judges who staffed the courts during the Weimar Republic had come to office before 1914. They were politically conservative and assumed a stance of “reserved loyalty” toward the republic. In political trials they were accused of rendering “class justice,” and there was a good deal of truth to the charge.
The Nazi Era
II. The Nazi regime initially took over traditional law, the courts, and the judges en bloc. But already during the first months of 1933 there were dramatic and ominous signs that the regime was abandoning the traditional Rechtsstaat , the state based on the rule of law: Jewish judges, notaries, and lawyers were dismissed; criminal laws were stiffened; the principle “no punishment without law” was abolished; political enemies were sent to concentration camps. The mass killing of political rivals and others in June 1934 went unpunished; Hitler proclaimed a law that declared these murders “acts of national self-defense and as such lawful.”
In the fall of 1933 the Reichsgericht acquitted several communist functionaries from involvement in the Reichstag fire for lack of evidence. In response, an angry Nazi government set up a Volksgerichtshof (the notorious People’s Court) in April 1934 to deal with political cases and staffed it with National Socialists. The Volksgericht was essentially a revolutionary tribunal, a quasi-legal instrument of terror to persecute and intimidate political opponents of the
The Judicial System and the Courts in the Weimar Republic
I. The revolution of 1918 and the Constitution of 1919 (the so-called Weimar Constitution) transformed Germany from a monarchy into a republic. Germany became a democratic state with a strong presidency (modeled after the American presidency) and a chancellor at the head of a bicameral parliament (the Reichstag as the popularly elected lower house and the Reichsrat as the upper house representing the interests of the Länder , the states). The former Länder (Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden, Saxony, and especially Prussia) continued to exist, and together with the Reich they formed a federal state.
The structure of the legal system that had evolved between 1871 and 1918 was essentially retained. In Germany, as in France and Italy (and in contrast to the Anglo-American legal tradition), law codes have historically played a dominant role in the legal system. After the revolution of 1919, these law codes remained in force: the Civil Code of 1900, the Penal Code of 1871, and the Laws of Procedure. The function of the courts was merely to “apply” the rules laid down in the codes. The German legal system has significantly less judge-made or common law than the Anglo-American legal system.
The structure of the courts comprised three levels. The highest appellate court was the Reichsgericht (for civil matters and criminal cases, and after 1927 also for litigation involving labor law). At the middle level were the Oberlandesgerichte in the federal states. The lower courts for civil and criminal cases were the Amtsgerichte and Landgerichte, the local and regional courts. Specialized courts also existed for specific areas of the law, for example tax law (Reichsfinanzhof) and social law (Reichsversicherungsamt, Reichsversorgungsgericht). Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Verwaltungsgerichte (AdministrativeCourts) were set up to handle disputes between citizens and the state. Their function was to examine the lawfulness of administrative acts by the government with regard to its citizens. The most important of these courts was the Preußische Oberverwaltungsgericht in Berlin. At that time there was no supreme administrative court at the federal level. There was also no administrative court with comprehensive jurisdiction comparable to the U.S. Supreme Court or the modern-day German Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court). The powers of the Staatsgerichtshof, created after 1919, were limited.
Most of the judges who staffed the courts during the Weimar Republic had come to office before 1914. They were politically conservative and assumed a stance of “reserved loyalty” toward the republic. In political trials they were accused of rendering “class justice,” and there was a good deal of truth to the charge.
The Nazi Era
II. The Nazi regime initially took over traditional law, the courts, and the judges en bloc. But already during the first months of 1933 there were dramatic and ominous signs that the regime was abandoning the traditional Rechtsstaat , the state based on the rule of law: Jewish judges, notaries, and lawyers were dismissed; criminal laws were stiffened; the principle “no punishment without law” was abolished; political enemies were sent to concentration camps. The mass killing of political rivals and others in June 1934 went unpunished; Hitler proclaimed a law that declared these murders “acts of national self-defense and as such lawful.”
In the fall of 1933 the Reichsgericht acquitted several communist functionaries from involvement in the Reichstag fire for lack of evidence. In response, an angry Nazi government set up a Volksgerichtshof (the notorious People’s Court) in April 1934 to deal with political cases and staffed it with National Socialists. The Volksgericht was essentially a revolutionary tribunal, a quasi-legal instrument of terror to persecute and intimidate political opponents of the
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