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The '''People's Court''' ({{lang-de|Volksgerichtshof}}, 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 1934 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 Nazi Germany. These crimes were viewed by the court as ''[[Wehrkraftzersetzung]]'' ("
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>
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