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Befehlsnotstand
''Befehlsnotstand'' (English: Necessity to obey orders) is a German legal term that refers to a situation in which a certain action is ordered that violates law, but where the refusal to carry out such an order would lead to drastic consequences, specifically danger to life or body, for the person refusing to carry out the order. The concept of ''Befehlsnotstand'' was successfully used as a defense in World War II-related war crimes trials in Germany in the 1950s and 1960s but research into the subject since has proven that ''Befehlsnotstand'' as such did not exist, meaning German soldiers of the Wehrmacht or ''Schutzstaffel'' did not actually face drastic consequences if refusing such an order during the war. Refusing a lawful order did however result in consequences, with 23,000 German soldiers executed for refusing orders. Etymology ''Befehlsnotstand'' is a compound word, made up of the German words '' Befehl'' (command or order) and '' Notstand'' (emergency). The term has bee ...
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Nuremberg Defense
Superior orders, also known as just following orders or the Nuremberg defense, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether civilian, military or police, should not be considered guilty of committing crimes ordered by a superior officer or official. It is regarded as a complement to command responsibility. One noted use of this plea or defense was by the accused in the 1945–1946 Nuremberg trials. These were a series of military tribunals held by the main victorious Allies of World War II to prosecute, among others, prominent members of the political, military and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany. Under the London Charter of the International Military Tribunal that established them, the trials determined that the defense of superior orders was no longer enough to ''escape'' punishment but merely enough to ''lessen'' it. Apart from the specific plea of superior orders, discussions about how the general concept of superior orders ought to be used, or ought ...
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Necessity (criminal Law)
In the criminal law of many nations, necessity may be either a possible justification or an exculpation for breaking the law. Defendants seeking to rely on this defense argue that they should not be held liable for their actions as a crime because their conduct was ''necessary'' to prevent some greater harm and when that conduct is not excused under some other more specific provision of law such as self defense. As a matter of political expediency, states usually allow some classes of person to be excused from liability when they are engaged in socially useful functions but intentionally cause injury, loss or damage. For example, drunk drivers might contend that they drove their car to get away from being kidnapped (cf. '' North by Northwest''). Most common law and civil law jurisdictions recognize this defense, but only under limited circumstances. Generally, the defendant must affirmatively show (i.e., introduce some evidence) that (a) the harm they sought to avoid out ...
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Kaltenkirchen
(nicknamed ''Kaki''; or ''Kolenkarken'') is a town located 35 km north of Hamburg in Germany. It is part of the Segeberg district, in Schleswig-Holstein. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. History First mentioned in the 14th century, it flourished during the Industrial Revolution to accommodate the large number of working class, workers in Hamburg. During World War II, a temporary airfield protected the northern towns from bombing raids, but during the raids on Hamburg the airfield was destroyed and never rebuilt. Only open fields now remain where it was. A concentration camp was established here from August 1944 to April 1945 as a subcamp to the Neuengamme concentration camp. About 700 prisoners died here. There was talk of moving the Hamburg Airport to Kaltenkirchen in the 1970s, but this did not materialise. Attractions Kaltenkirchen station is well known in northern Germany as being the central node of the AKN Eisenbahn, AKN railway company (Altona, Hamburg, Altona - ...
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Political Prisoner
A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention. There is no internationally recognized legal definition of the concept, although numerous similar definitions have been proposed by various organizations and scholars, and there is a general consensus among scholars that "individuals have been sanctioned by legal systems and imprisoned by political regimes not for their violation of codified laws but for their thoughts and ideas that have fundamentally challenged existing power relations". The status of a political prisoner is generally awarded to individuals based on the declarations of non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International, on a case-by-case basis. While such statuses are often widely recognized by the international public, they are often rejected by individual governments accused of holding political prisoners, which tend to deny any bias in thei ...
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Stasi
The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive police organisations in the world, infiltrating almost every aspect of life in East Germany, using torture, intimidation and a vast network of informants to crush dissent. The function of the Stasi in East Germany (the GDR) resembled that of the KGB in the Soviet Union,⁠ in that it served to maintain state authority and the position of the ruling party, in this case the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). This was accomplished primarily through the use of a network of civilian informants (called Unofficial collaborator, unofficial collaborators) who contributed to the arrest of approximately 250,000 people in East Germany. It also had a large elite paramilitary force, the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, that served as its armed wing. ...
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Jack Koehler
John O. Koehler (June 11, 1930 – September 28, 2012) was a German-born American journalist and executive for the Associated Press, who also briefly served as the White House Communications Director in 1987 during the Reagan administration. Early life and education Koehler was born Wolfgang Koehler in Dresden, Germany, but fled the city to escape the invasion of Soviet troops into Germany towards the end of World War II. He soon found a position as a German language interpreter for the United States Army when he was a teenager. He emigrated to Canada after World War II and then immigrated to the United States in 1954. Koehler enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he worked in military intelligence. He legally changed his name to John Koehler after moving to the United States. Career Koehler took a position with the Associated Press as a foreign correspondent in Berlin and Bonn, West Germany. He then became the Associated Press' bureau chief in Newark, New Jersey. He rose to beco ...
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Bundeszentrale Für Politische Bildung
The Federal Agency for Civic Education (FACE, (''bpb'')) is a German federal government agency responsible for promoting civic education. It is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Thomas Krüger has served as president of the agency since 2000. The modern agency was established in West Germany in 1952 by the Adenauer government to counteract communism during the Cold War, but it has its roots in earlier government agencies dating back to the First World War. Objective In 1997 the objectives for bpb were specified, and these were officially defined in 2001. Its task is now to promote understanding of political issues, strengthen awareness for democracy and willingness to participate in political processes amongst the citizen. Furthermore, a committee of 22 members of the Bundestag is responsible for monitoring the effectiveness and political neutrality of the bpb. Bpb publishes (a magazine published quarterly) and (APuZ), a weekly topical journal of essay ...
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Schießbefehl
(; German language, German for "order to fire") was the term in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) for General order, standing orders authorizing the use of lethal force by the Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic, Border Troops to prevent (defection) at the Inner German border from 1960 to 1989. recommended guards use firearms to stop unauthorised border crossings in the direction of West Germany and procedure to conceal incidents from the public. Various orders were issued, and their instructions to prevent East Germans leaving were not officially legal until 1982 and in violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An estimated 300 to 400 people died at the Inner German border during its existence. After German reunification in 1990, East German leader Erich Honecker was indicted by the Berlin District Court on charges of mass murder stemming from the orders. However, his failing health and legal disputes over jurisdiction ...
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Inner German Border
The inner German border ( or ''deutsch–deutsche Grenze''; initially also , zonal boundary) was the frontier between the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. ''De jure'' not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was an irregular L-shaped line, long. It ran south from the Baltic Sea and then east to the border of Protection of Czechoslovak borders during the Cold War, Czechoslovakia. It was formally established by the Potsdam Agreement on 1 August 1945 as the boundary between the Allied-occupied Germany, Western and Soviet occupation zones of Germany. On the Eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed GDR borde ...
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Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails and other defenses. The primary intention for the Wall's construction was to prevent East Germany, East German citizens from Emigration from the Eastern Bloc, fleeing to the West. The Eastern Bloc, Soviet Bloc propaganda portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from "Fascist (insult), fascist elements conspiring to prevent the will of the people" from building a Communism, communist state in the GDR. The authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the ''Anti-Fascist Protection Ram ...
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German Reunification
German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the East Germany, German Democratic Republic and the integration of its re-established constituent federated states into the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany to form Germany, present-day Germany. This date was chosen as the customary German Unity Day, and has thereafter been celebrated each year as a national day, national holiday. On the same date, East Berlin, East and West Berlin, West Berlin were also reunified into a single city, which eventually Decision on the Capital of Germany, became the capital of Germany. The East German government, controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), started to falter on 2 May 1989, when the removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain. The border was still closely guarded, but the Pan-European Picn ...
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