Curt Rothenberger
Curt Rothenberger | |
---|---|
State Secretary Reich Ministry of Justice | |
In office 20 August 1942 – 21 December 1943 | |
Preceded by | Franz Schlegelberger |
Succeeded by | Herbert Klemm |
Vice-president Academy for German Law | |
In office 3 November 1942 – 12 August 1944 | |
Preceded by | Carl August Emge |
President Hamburg Higher Regional Court | |
In office 1 April 1935 – 20 August 1942 | |
Senator for Justice Hamburg | |
In office 7 March 1933 – 1 April 1935 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 30 June 1896 Hamburg University |
Profession | Lawyer |
Military service | |
Allegiance | German Empire |
Branch/service | Imperial German Army |
Years of service | 1915–1918 |
Rank | Leutnant of reserves |
Battles/wars | World War I |
Awards | Hanseatic Cross |
Curt Ferdinand Rothenberger (30 June 1896 – 1 September 1959) was a German lawyer, judge and
Education and early career
Rothenberger was born in
In March 1920, Rothenberger passed the
Nazi jurist
Rothenberger was part of an unofficial group of lawyers within the Nazi Party, led by Hans Frank and Roland Freisler, whose aim was to transform the legal profession by installing loyal Party men in leading positions within the judiciary, thereby politicizing both the law and legal proceedings.[5] In March 1933, Rothenberger was appointed to the Hamburg Senate as the Senator (minister) for Justice and set about putting these ideas into practice, insisting that all judges had to be "100% National Socialist" and had to maintain the trust and confidence of the Party officials. Where this was not the case, the judges faced summary dismissal.[6] Jewish judges in Hamburg were removed from office as early as March 1933 under Rothenberger's orders.[7]
Rothenberger advanced to president of the appellate
Judicial reform plans
Rothenberger formulated many ideas regarding judicial reform. His goal was the "partification" of the judiciary by giving the Nazi Party close supervision of all judicial training. He sought a judiciary so attuned to the values and goals of the Party that it would uphold the its wishes in all judicial decisions.[10] In addition, he sought to expand the use of lay judges and people's courts at the expense of the professional judiciary at the local level. However, he argued that the dispensing of justice at the highest levels should remain in the hands of a proper, trained judiciary. In appeals cases, he advocated a greater reliance on the Führerprinzip by replacing multi-judge panels by a single judge.[11]
Rothenberger sent his ideas about judicial reform to prominent legal expert and head of the
Some officials, particularly those high in the Party organization such as Bormann, believed the reforms did not go far enough.[14] Others, however, saw Rothenberger's ideas as constituting unwarranted attacks on the judiciary. Hans Frank, the President of the Academy for German Law, a body which he had established in 1933, made a series of speeches in June 1942 at several universities defending the status quo as a protest against the Rothernberger proposals. As a result of this controversy, Frank was forced to resign from the Academy presidency on 20 August 1942.[15]
Reich Justice Ministry
In order to undertake the proposed changes, Hitler effectuated a total reshuffle of the highest judicial levels.
Under Thierack and Rothenberger, Party officials substantially increased their direct interference in judicial affairs. Local Gauleiter were consulted on judicial appointments and felt free to try and impose their will on judicial outcomes. In politically sensitive cases involving Party officials, the ministry inserted itself into supervising the judicial process, demanding daily communication updates from the trial courts. In other types of cases, the ministry critiqued the handling and sentencing of cases by the trial courts and often demanded harsher punishments.[18]
Thierack, after discussions with Hitler, concluded that "degenerate" inmates and serious offenders needed to be killed. How to distinguish between "reformable" and "incorrigible" offenders, and how to decide how these prisoners, once selected, should be murdered were issues that
were debated in several meetings in September 1942 between Rothenberger and high-ranking SS officials, including SS-
In an incident on the night of 3–4 September 1943, three death row inmates managed to escape from Plötzensee Prison during an air raid when the prison was badly damaged. In response, Rothenberger ordered the immediate execution of all current death sentences to forestall additional escapes. From the nights of 7 September to 12 September 1943, over 250 prisoners were hanged, including some whose pardon requests were still pending.[22]
Realising that the proposed reforms were causing too much friction at a time when the
Post-war life
Following the German surrender, Rothenberger was arrested in Hamburg by
Among the charges brought against Rothenberger were that he perverted and corrupted the justice system. He not only reproached and, in one case, removed subordinate judges for administering justice against Party officials, but he used his influence to achieve discriminatory actions favorable to Party officials and unfavorable to Poles and Jews.[28] At the conclusion of the trial, he was found guilty and was sentenced by the American military tribunal on 4 December 1947 to seven years imprisonment with credit for the time served in pre-trial detention.[29]
After being credited with additional time off for good behavior, Rothenberger was released from
Writings
- Der deutsche Richter (1943)[3]
- Sechzehn Monate Berlin (1944)
References
- ^ Schott, Susanne: (2001) Curt Rothenberger – eine politische Biographie. Online published doctoral dissertation, Halle, Martin-Luther-Universität, pp. 18–22.
- ^ Schott, Susanne: (2001) Curt Rothenberger – eine politische Biographie. Online published doctoral dissertation, Halle, Martin-Luther-Universität, pp. 26 –38.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-306-80793-0.
- ^ War Crimes Trials, Volume III, p.1107
- ^ Dietrich Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2 1933-1945, David & Charles, 1973, p. 46
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, p. 226
- ^ Frank Bajohr, Aryanisation in Hamburg: the economic exclusion of Jews and the confiscation of their property in Nazi Germany, Berghahn Books, 2002, p. 66
- ^ Hamburg University Professor Catalogue
- ^ Detlef Garbe, Between resistance and martyrdom: Jehovah's Witnesses in the Third Reich, Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2008, pp. 293–295
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, p. 372
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, pp. 372–373
- ^ a b Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, p. 369
- ^ ISBN 978-0-394-50321-9.
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, p. 432
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, p. 373
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, p. 370
- ^ ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8.
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, pp. 371–372
- ^ Wachsmann, Nikolaus (September 1999). "Annihilation through Labor: The Killing of State Prisoners in the Third Reich". The Journal of Modern History. 71 (3): 630.
- ^ Götz Aly, Peter Chroust, Christian Pross, Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and Racial Hygiene, JHU Press, 1994, p. 70
- ^ Wachsmann, Nikolaus (September 1999). "Annihilation through Labor: The Killing of State Prisoners in the Third Reich". The Journal of Modern History. 71 (3): 625, 630–632.
- ^ Brigitte Oleschinski: "Gedenkstätte Plötzensee" (PDF). Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand Berlin. pp. 18–19, 57. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-21. Retrieved 2023-02-20.
- ^ Orlow, The History of the Nazi Party Volume 2, pp. 373–374
- ^ War Crimes Trials, Volume III, pp.389, 1087, 1107
- ^ Schott, Susanne: (2001) Curt Rothenberger – eine politische Biographie. Online published doctoral dissertation, Halle, Martin-Luther-Universität, p. 161.
- ^ Giles MacDonogh, After the Reich, John Murray, 2007, p. 455
- ^ "Nazi Lawyer Tries Suicide". No. 20593. Derby Daily Telegraph. 25 August 1947. p. 8.
- ^ War Crimes Trials, Volume III, pp.1110, 1118
- ^ McLaughlin, Kathleen (5 December 1947). "4 German Judges Get Life Terms". The New York Times. p. 9.
- ^ "U.S. to Release Eight German War Criminals". No. 21013. New York Herald Tribune (European Edition). 17 August 1950. p. 3.
- ^ Schott, Susanne: (2001) Curt Rothenberger – eine politische Biographie. Online published doctoral dissertation, Halle, Martin-Luther-Universität, p. 180.
External links
- Newspaper clippings about Curt Rothenberger in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- Literature by and about Curt Rothenberger in the German National Library catalogue