Erich Emminger (25 June 1880 – 30 August 1951) was a German lawyer and

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

politician of the Center Party (Zentrum) and later of the

Bavarian People's Party The Bavarian People's Party (German: ; BVP) was a principally Catholic christian democratic political party in Bavaria during the Weimar Republic. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, it split away from the federal Centre Party and ...

(BVP). He served as

Minister of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

in the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

from 30 November 1923 until 15 April 1924 under

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Wilhelm Marx Wilhelm Marx (15 January 1863 – 5 August 1946) was a German judge, lawyer, and politician who twice served as chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic, from 1923 to 1925 and again from 1926 to 1928. He also briefly held the position of ...

Early life

Erich Emminger was born on 25 June 1880 in

Eichstätt Eichstätt () is a town in the federal state of Bavaria, Germany, and capital of the district of Eichstätt. It is located on the Altmühl river and has a population of around 13,000. Eichstätt is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Dioce ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. His parents were Johann Adolf Erich Emminger (1856–1909), a ''Gymnasialprofessor'', and his wife Marie Therese (1854–99), née Müller, daughter of an

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

notary. Emminger married Maria Schärft in 1906. Their children included Otmar Emminger, who became president of the

Deutsche Bundesbank The Deutsche Bundesbank (, , colloquially Buba, sometimes alternatively abbreviated as BBk or DBB) is the National central bank (Eurosystem), national central bank for Germany within the Eurosystem. It was the German central bank from 1957 to 19 ...

. Following his training as a lawyer at

Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...

, Emminger practiced law at Augsburg (1906–08) and

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

(1908–09). In 1909 he became a civil servant (state prosecutor and district judge). He participated in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

first as a voluntary soldier and later as a (

judge-advocate Judge-advocates are military lawyers serving in different capacities in the Military justice, military justice systems of different jurisdictions. Australia The Australian Army Legal Corps (AALC) consists of Australian Army, Regular and Austral ...

Political career

Emminger was a member of the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum) and, from 1913 to 1918 held a seat in the Imperial Reichstag for the constituency of Weilheim. In 1918, he joined the

(BVP) and represented it in the Weimar Reichstag 1920-33. Emminger was Minister of Justice in the first cabinet of Chancellor

, which took office on 30 November 1923. His tenure was defined by the passage of the three decrees of 22 December 1923, 4 January and 13 February 1924, which were based on the Marx

Enabling Act An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) for the delegation of the legislative body's power to take certain actions. For example, enabling act ...

(') of 8 December 1923. These significantly changed civil and criminal law and the judiciary system with an eye towards speeding up proceedings. The reform of 4 January became known as the so-called

Emminger Reform The Emminger Decree or Emminger Reform (, ''Lex Emminger'', or '; formally the ' (''Court Organisation and Criminal Justice Regulations'')) was an emergency decree in the democratic Weimar Republic by Justice Minister Erich Emminger ( BVP) on 4 ...

that among other things abolished the jury as

trier of fact In law, a trier of fact or finder of fact is a person or group who determines disputed issues of fact in a legal proceeding (usually a trial) and how relevant they are to deciding its outcome. To determine a fact is to decide, from the evide ...

and replaced it with the mixed system of judges and

lay judge A lay judge, sometimes called a lay assessor (law), assessor, is a person assisting a judge in a trial. Lay judges are used in some civil law (legal system), civil law jurisdictions. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and often require some legal ...

s in Germany's judiciary which still exists today. Jury courts (), formerly based on jurors, kept their name but were in fact replaced by lay judges. Since the reforms were successful, they were kept in place by later legislation once the enabling act had lapsed. Late 1923 was among the most tumultuous times of the

, bringing the peak of

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real versus nominal value (economics), real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimiz ...

and the ongoing

Occupation of the Ruhr The occupation of the Ruhr () was the period from 11 January 1923 to 25 August 1925 when French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr region of Weimar Republic Germany. The occupation of the heavily industrialized Ruhr district came in respons ...

. One of Emminger's main goals as a politician and lawyer became a revaluation of the currency to partially offset the adverse social consequences of hyperinflation. As a minister he prevented the planned revaluation ban () from becoming law and continued to fight for revaluation as a Reichstag delegate. Emminger left office on 15 April 1924 and his State Secretary, Curt Joël, took over as acting Minister of Justice. He remained a member of the judiciary committee () of the Reichstag and in 1927-31 served as chairman of the Central Board of the German-Austrian Working Group (), which worked towards a harmonisation of German and Austrian laws. He also contributed to a reform of the criminal law. Emminger was re-elected to the Reichstag in 1933 but the Nazi takeover ended his political activities. He worked as a judge at the State Supreme Court () of Bavaria in 1931-35 and then at the Provincial High Court (). From 1946 until his retirement in July 1949, he was there. Emminger died in Munich on 30 August 1951.

Publications

* ''Die Aufwertungsfrage im aufgelösten Reichstage'' (The Revaluation Question in the Dissolved Reichstag), 1924

References

* * * * * *

External links

*
Erich Emmminger at the ''Akten der Reichskanzlei'' online version (German)

Bio of Erich Emminger in a databank on (Imperial) Reichstag delegates (German)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emminger, Erich 1880 births 1951 deaths People from Eichstätt Politicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria German Roman Catholics Centre Party (Germany) politicians Bavarian People's Party politicians Justice ministers of Germany Members of the 13th Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic German Army personnel of World War I