People's Court (Germany): Difference between revisions

{{About|theNazi German Third ReichGermany's Volksgerichtshof|other similarly named entities|People's Court (disambiguation)}}

{{shortShort description|CourtInstrument of judicial murder in WW2Nazi Germany}}

The '''People's Court''' ({{lang-de|Volksgerichtshof}} {{IPA|de|ˈfɔlksɡəˌʁɪçt͡shoːf|audio=De-Volksgerichtshof.ogg|pron}}, acronymed to ''VGH'') was a ''{{lang|de|[[Sondergericht]]}}'' ("special court") of [[Nazi Germany]], set up outside the operations of the constitutional frame of law. Its headquarters were originally located in the former [[Prussian House of Lords]] in [[Berlin]], later moved to the former ''[[:de:Königliches Wilhelms-Gymnasium (Berlin)|Königliches Wilhelms-Gymnasium]]'' at Bellevuestrasse 15 in [[Potsdamer Platz]] (the location now occupied by the [[Sony Center]]; a marker is located on the sidewalk nearby).<ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.crimefilenews.com/2013/07/meet-peoples-court.html |title=Crime, Guns, and Videotape: Meet "The People's Court"] |access-date=2015-12-08 |archive-date=2017-01-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116222833/http://www.crimefilenews.com/2013/07/meet-peoples-court.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The court was established in 19331934 by order of [[Reich Chancellor]] [[Adolf Hitler]], in response to his dissatisfaction at the outcome of the [[Reichstag fire#Trial|Reichstag fire trial]] in front of the [[Reichsgericht|Reich Court of Justice]] (''Reichsgericht'') in which all but one of the defendants were acquitted. The court had jurisdiction over a rather broad array of "political offenses", which included crimes like [[black market]]eering, work slowdowns, [[defeatism]], and treason against theNazi Third ReichGermany. These crimes were viewed by the court as ''[[Wehrkraftzersetzung]]'' ("''the disintegration of defensive capability''") and were accordingly punished severely; the death penalty was meted out in numerous cases.

The court handed down an enormous number of death sentences under Judge-President [[Roland Freisler]], including those that followed the [[20 July plot|plot to kill Hitler]] on 20 July 1944. Many of those found guilty by the court were executed in [[Plötzensee Prison]] in Berlin. The proceedings of the court were often even less than [[show trial]]s in that some cases, such as that of [[Sophie Scholl]] and her brother [[Hans Scholl]] and fellow [[White Rose]] activists, trials were concluded in less than an hour without evidence being presented or arguments made by either side. The president of the court often acted as prosecutor, denouncing defendants, then pronouncing his verdict and sentence without objection from defense counsel, who usually remained silent throughout. The court almost always sided with the prosecution, to the point that, from 1943 on, being brought before it was tantamount to a death sentence. While Nazi Germany was not a [[rule of law]] state, the People's Court frequently dispensed with even the nominal laws and procedures of regular German trials and is therefore characterized as a [[kangaroo court]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=ÖNB-ALEX - Deutsches Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I 1867-1945|url=https://alex.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/alex?aid=dra&datum=19340004&seite=00000341|access-date=2021-07-14|website=alex.onb.ac.at}}</ref> In 1985, the West German Bundestag declared the People's Court to be an instrument of [[judicial murder]].<ref>German [[Bundestag]], 10th Term of Office, 118. plenary session. Bonn, Friday, 25 January 1985. Protocol, p. 8762: "The Volksgerichtshof was an instrument of state-sanctioned terror, which served one single purpose, which was the destruction of political opponents. Behind a juridical facade, state-sanctioned murder was committed." [http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btp/10/10118.pdf PDF] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603113802/http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btp/10/10118.pdf |date=3 June 2016 }}, accessed 3 May 2016</ref>

From 1934 to 1945, the court sentenced 10,980 people to prison and imposed the death penalty on 5,179 more who were convicted of high treason.<ref>Wachsmann, ''Hitler's Prisons: Legal Terror in Nazi Germany''. Yale University Press (2004), pp. 398-99.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hoffmann|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.becom/books?id=212hoVrF3B4C&pg=RA1-PA526&dqq=Schwanenfeld+Freisler&lrpg=&as_brr=3&client=firefoxRA1-a&hl=enPA526|title=History of the German Resistance, 1933-1945|date=1996|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-1531-4|language=en}}</ref> About 1,000 were acquitted.<ref>Räbiger, Rocco, [http://karlrobertkreiten.de/roland-freisler/geschichte-des-volksgerichtshofes.php ''Die Geschichte des Volksgerichtshofes''] (History of the People's Court) (in German) stating that in some 7,000 cases 18,000 defendants were convicted and 5,000 of those were sentenced to death; about 1,000 were acquitted.</ref> Prior to the [[Battle of Stalingrad]], there was a higher percentage of cases in which not guilty verdicts were handed down on indictments. In some cases, this was due to defense lawyers presenting the accused as naive or the defendant adequately explaining the nature of the political charges against them. However, in nearly two-thirds of such cases, the defendants would be [[Double jeopardy|re-arrested]] by the [[Gestapo]] following the trial and sent to a [[concentration camp]]. After the defeat at Stalingrad, and with a growing fear in the German government regarding defeatism amongst the population, the People's Court became far more ruthless and hardly anyone brought before the tribunal escaped a guilty verdict.<ref>Roberts, G., ''Victory at Stalingrad: The Battle That Changed History'', Routledge (2002), {{ISBN|0582771854}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 151-10-45, Volksgerichtshof, Hellmuth Stieff.jpg|[[Helmuth Stieff]] at the court.|thumb|upright]]

The accused were forced to wear shabby clothes, denied neckties and belts or [[suspenders]] for their pantstrousers, and were marched into the courtroom handcuffed to policemen. The proceedings began with Freisler announcing he would rule on "...the most horrific charges ever brought in the history of the German people." Freisler was an admirer of [[Andrey Vyshinsky]], the chief prosecutor of the [[Great Purge#Moscow Trials|Soviet purge trials]], and copied Vyshinsky's practice of heaping loud and violent abuse on defendants.

The accused were unable to consult their lawyers, who were not seated near them. None of them werewas allowed to address the court at length, and Freisler interrupted any attempts to do so. However, Major General [[Helmuth Stieff]] attempted to raise the issue of his motives before being shouted down, and Witzleben managed to call out "You may hand us over to the executioner, but in three months' time, the disgusted and harried people will bring you to book and drag you alive through the dirt in the streets!" All were condemned to death by hanging, and the sentences were carried out shortly afterwards in [[Plötzensee Prison]].

On 3 February 1945, Freisler was conducting a Saturday session of the People's Court, when [[USAAF]] [[Eighth Air Force]] bombers [[Bombing of Berlin in World War II#The largest American raid on Berlin|attacked Berlin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://100thbg.com/index.php?option=com_bombgrp&view=personnel&id=4475&Itemid=334 |title=100th Bomb Group Foundation - Personnel - Lt Col Robert Rosenthal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=100thbg.com |publisher=100th Bomb Group Foundation |access-date=December 5, 2016 |quote=Dec 1, 1944-Feb 3, 1945 - 418th BS, 100th BG (H) ETOUSAAF (8AF) Squadron Commander, 55 hours, B-17 Air Leader 5 c/m (combat missions) 45 c/hrs (combat hours) 1 Division Lead (Berlin Feb 3, 1945, shot down, picked up by Russians and returned to England) Acting Command 4 Wing Leads, Pilot Feb 3, 1945 - BERLIN - MACR #12046, - A/C#44 8379}}</ref> Government and [[Nazi Party]] buildings were hit, including the [[Reich Chancellery]], the Gestapo headquarters, the [[Nazi Party Chancellery|Party Chancellery]] and the People's Court. According to one report, Freisler hastily adjourned court and had ordered that day's prisoners to be taken to a shelter, but paused to gather that day's files. Freisler was killed when an almost direct hit on the building caused him to be struck down by a beam in his own courtroom.<ref name="JG">Granberg, Jerje. AP dispatch from Stockholm, reprinted as "Berlin, Nerves Racked By Air Raids, Fears Russian Army Most,", ''Oakland Tribune'', 23 February 1945, p. 1.</ref> His body was reportedly found crushed beneath a fallen masonry column, clutching the files that he had tried to retrieve.<ref name="GK">Knopp, Guido. ''Hitler's Hitmen'', Sutton Publishing, 2000, pp. 216, 220&ndash;222, 228, 250.</ref> Among those files was that of [[Fabian von Schlabrendorff]], a 20 July Plot member who was on trial that day and was facing execution.<ref>Will, George F. "Plot failed, but the spirit lived,", reprinted in ''The Anniston Star'', 19 July 1974, p. 4.</ref> According to a different report, Freisler "was killed by a bomb fragment while trying to escape from his law court to the air-raid shelter", and he "bled to death on the pavement outside the People's Court at Bellevuestrasse 15 in Berlin". [[Fabian von Schlabrendorff]] was "standing near his judge when the latter met his end."<ref name = "GK"/> Freisler's death saved Schlabrendorff,<ref>[[Joachim Fest]], ''Staatsstreich. Der lange Weg zum 20. Juli.'' Berlin 1994, {{ISBN|3-88680-539-5}}, p. 317.</ref> who– afterhe was later re-tried and, in a rare instance for the court's last nine months in existence, possibly motivated by fear of later reprisals, acquitted by its new acting president, [[Wilhelm Crohne]]. After the war Schlabrendorff became a judge of the [[Federal Constitutional Court]] of [[West Germany]].<ref>[[Christian Hartmann]], [https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bsb00019558/images/index.html?seite=36 "Schlabrendorff, Fabian Ludwig Georg Adolf Kurt Graf von"], ''[[Neue Deutsche Biographie|Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB)]]'', Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, {{ISBN|978-3-428-11204-3}}, p. 16.</ref> Schlabrendorff was later re-tried and, in a rare instance for the court's last nine months in existence, possibly motivated by fear of later reprisals, acquitted by its new acting president, [[Wilhelm Crohne]].

A foreign correspondent reported, "Apparently nobody regretted his death."<ref name="JG"/> Luise Jodl, the wife of General [[Alfred Jodl]], recounted more than 25 years later that she had been working at the [[Charlottenburg#Lietzow|Lützow]] Hospital when Freisler's body was brought in, and that a worker commented, "It is God's verdict." According to MrsLuise Jodl, "Not one person said a word in reply."<ref>Buchanan, William, "Nazi War Criminal's Widow Recalls Nuremberg,", ''Boston Globe'' report reprinted in ''The Daily Times-News'' (Burlington, N.C.), 20 December 1972, p. 1.</ref>

*1942 – [[Helmuth Hübener]]. Beheaded at the age of 17, he was the youngest opponent of the [[ThirdNazi ReichGermany]] executed as a result of a trial by the People's Court.

| image =

| born_year = 18931874

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| officeholder_sort = Thierack, Otto

| officeholder_sort = FreislerCrohne, RolandWilhelm

| term_start = 4 February 1945

In 1956 the German Federal High Court of Justice (''[[Bundesgerichtshof]]'') granted the so-called "Judges' Privilege" to those that had been part of the VolksgerichthofPeople's Court. This prevented the prosecution of the former VolksgerichthofPeople's Court members on the basis that their actions had been legal under the laws in effect duringat the Third Reichtime.

The only member of the VolksgerichthofPeople's Court ever to be held liable for his actions was Chief Public Prosecutor {{Interlanguage link|Ernst Lautz|de}}, who in 1947 was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment by a US Military Tribunal, during the [[Judges' Trial]], one of the "[[Subsequent Nuremberg Trials|subsequent Nuremberg proceedings]]". Ernst Lautz was pardonedreleased after serving less than four years of his sentence and was granted a government pension by West Germany. One People's Judge of [[Bremen]], [[Heino von Heimburg]] died 1945 a [[German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union|prisoner-of-war]] in the [[Soviet Union]].

Of the other approximately 570 judges and prosecutors, none were held responsible for their actions related to the VolksgerichtshofPeople's Court. In fact, many had careers in the West-German post-war legal system: