Louis Rudolph Franz Schlegelberger (23 October 187614 December 1970) was State Secretary in the German Reich Ministry of Justice (RMJ) who served as Justice Minister during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

. He was the highest-ranking defendant at the

Judges' Trial The Judges' Trial (; or, the Justice Trial, or, officially, ''The United States of America vs. Josef Altstötter, et al.'') was the third of the 12 trials for war crimes the United States, U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Ger ...

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 ...

Early life

Schlegelberger was born into a Protestant salesman's family in

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

. He graduated from the University of Königsberg – or according to documents from his trial the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

– in 1899 attaining the degree of Doctor of Law. In 1901 Schlegelberger passed the state law examination and became a court ''Assessor'' at the Königsberg local court. In 1904 he became a judge at the State Court in Lyck (now

Ełk Ełk is a city in northeastern Poland with 61,677 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is the seat of Ełk County in the Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship. It lies on the shore of Ełk Lake, which was formed by a glacier, and is surrounded by extensiv ...

). In early May 1908, he went to the Berlin State Court and in the same year was appointed assistant judge at the Berlin Court of Appeals (''Kammergericht''). In 1914 he was appointed to the ''Kammergericht'' Council (''Kammergerichtsrat'') in Berlin, where he stayed until 1918. On 1 April 1918 Schlegelberger became an associate at the Reich Justice Office. On 1 October of that year, he was appointed to the Secret Government Court and Executive Council. In 1927, he was appointed as Ministerial Director in the RMJ. Schlegelberger had been teaching in the Faculty of Law at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

as an honorary professor since 1922. On 10 October 1931 Schlegelberger was appointed State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice under Justice Minister

Franz Gürtner Franz Gürtner (26 August 1881 – 29 January 1941) was a German Minister of Justice in the governments of Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher and Adolf Hitler. Gürtner was responsible for coordinating jurisprudence in Nazi Germany and provi ...

and kept this job until Gürtner's death in 1941. He was also made a member of the

Academy for German Law The Academy for German Law () was an institute for legal research and reform founded on 26 June 1933 in Nazi Germany. After suspending its operations during the Second World War in August 1944, it was abolished after the fall of the Nazi regime on ...

and was the chairman of its Committee for Water Rights. On 30 January 1938 Schlegelberger joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's orders.

In the Nazi Party

Among Schlegelberger's many works in this time was a bill for the introduction of a new national currency which was supposed to end the

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 ...

to which the

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...

was prone. After Franz Gürtner's death in 1941, Schlegelberger became provisional Reich Minister of Justice for the years 1941 and 1942, followed then by Otto Thierack. During his time in office the number of

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

s rose sharply. He authored the bills such as the so-called Poland Penal Law Provision (''Polenstrafrechtsverordnung'') under which

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

were executed for tearing down German posters. Schlegelberger's attitude towards his job may be best encapsulated in a letter to Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery Hans Lammers: However, in a letter to Lammers dated 5 April 1942, Schlegelberger suggested some half-Jews be "spared" and given the choice between "evacuation" or sterilization: Upon his retirement from the position on 20 August 1942, Hitler gave Schlegelberger an endowment of RM 100,000; in 1944, Hitler allowed him to buy an estate with the money, something that only agricultural experts were entitled to under the rules in force at the time. This would later weigh against him at Nuremberg, for it showed that Hitler thought highly of Schlegelberger.

After the war

At the Nuremberg Judges' Trial Schlegelberger was one of the main accused. He was sentenced to life in prison for conspiracy to perpetrate

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s and

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

. In the reasons given for the

judgment Judgement (or judgment) is the evaluation of given circumstances to make a decision. Judgement is also the ability to make considered decisions. In an informal context, a judgement is opinion expressed as fact. In the context of a legal trial ...

, it says: At the end of the 1945–1947 trials Schlegelberger was sentenced to life in 1947, although in 1950 the 74-year-old Schlegelberger was released owing to incapacity. For years afterward, he drew a monthly pension of DM 2,894 (for comparison, the average monthly income in Germany at that time was DM 535). Schlegelberger then lived in

Flensburg Flensburg (; Danish language, Danish and ; ; ) is an independent city, independent town in the far north of the Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. After Kiel and Lübeck, it is the third-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein. Flensburg's ...

until his death on 14 December 1970.

In popular culture

While a relatively obscure character in the regime, Schlegelberger - and particularly his role in the establishment of the Nazi order - is widely considered the inspiration for the character Ernst Janning, prime defendant in the 1961 movie '' Judgment at Nuremberg'', played by

Burt Lancaster Burton Stephen Lancaster (November 2, 1913 – October 20, 1994) was an American actor. Initially known for playing tough characters with tender hearts, he went on to achieve success with more complex and challenging roles over a 45-year caree ...

Bibliography

* ''Das Landarbeiterrecht. Darstellung des privaten und öffentlichen Rechts der Landarbeiter in Preußen'', Berlin., C. Heymann 1907. * ''Kriegsbuch. Die Kriegsgesetze mit der amtlichen Begründung und der gesamten Rechtsprechung und Rechtslehre'' -Berlin, Vahlen 1918 (with Georg Güthe) * ''Freiwillige Gerichtsbarkeit'', Heft 43, Berlin 1935 Industrieverlag Spaeth & Linde * ''Gesetz über die Aufwertung von Hypotheken und anderen Ansprüchen vom 16. Juli 1925'', Berlin, Dahlen, 1925. (co-author: Rudolf Harmening) * ''Zur Rationalisierung der Gesetzgebung.'', Berlin, Vlg. Franz Vahlen, 1928 * ''Jahrbuch des Deutschen Rechtes.'', with Leo Sternberg, 26th volume, report about the year 1927, Vahlen, Berlin, 1928 * ''Das Recht der Neuzeit. Ein Führer durch das geltende Recht des Reichs und Preußens seit 1914'' with Werner Hoche, Berlin: Franz Vahlen 1932. * ''Rechtsvergleichendes Handwörterbuch für das Zivil- und Handelsrecht des In- und Auslandes – 4. Bd.: Gütergemeinschaft auf Todesfall – Kindschaftsrecht'', Berlin Franz Vahlen, 1933 * ''Die Zinssenkung nach der Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten vom 8. Dezember 1931'', with an introduction and brief comments by Dr. Dr. F. Schlegelberger, State Secretary in the Reich Justice Ministry, Franz von Dahlen, Berlin 1932 * ''Das Recht der Neuzeit. Vom Weltkrieg zum nationalsozialistischen Staat. Ein Führer durch das geltende Recht des Reichs und Preußens von 1914 bis 1934.'', Berlin: Franz Vahlen 1934. * ''Die Erneuerung des deutschen Aktienrechts, Vortrag gehalten am 15. August 1935 vor der Industrie- und Handelskammer in Hamburg, Verlag Franz Vahlen'', 1935 * ''Gesetz über die Angelegenheiten der freiwilligen Gerichtsbarkeit'', Köln, Heymanns 1952. * ''Das Recht der Gegenwart. Ein Führer durch das in Deutschland geltende Recht'' as publisher, Berlin and Frankfurt a. M., Franz Vahlen Verlag 1955 ** ''Das Recht der Gegenwart : ein Führer durch das in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland geltende Recht'' – 29. Aufl., Stand: 1 January 1998. – München : Vahlen, 1998 * ''Seehandelsrecht. Zugleich Ergänzungsband zu Schlegelberger, Kommentar zum Handelsgesetzbuch'', Berlin, Vahlen, 1959.(with Rudolf Liesecke) * ''Kommentar zum Handelsgesetzbuch in der seit dem 1. Oktober 1937 geltenden Fassung (ohne Seerecht). Annotated by Ernst Geßler, Wolfgang Hefermehl, Wolfgang Hildebrandt, Georg Schröder'', Berlin, Vahlen, 1960; 1965; 1966.

References

External links

*
Legal Order as Motive and Mask: Franz Schlegelberger and the Nazi Administration of Justice

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegelberger, Franz 1876 births 1970 deaths Jurists from Königsberg People from the Province of Prussia German people of Austrian descent Judges in the Nazi Party Justice ministers of Germany Government ministers of Nazi Germany Members of the Academy for German Law Holocaust perpetrators in Poland Nazis convicted of war crimes German people convicted of crimes against humanity German prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Judges convicted of crimes People sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals