Karl Sack (9 June 1896 – 9 April 1945) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and member of the resistance movement during World War II.

Life

Karl Sack was born in Bosenheim (now

Bad Kreuznach Bad Kreuznach () is a town in the Bad Kreuznach district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a spa town, most well known for its medieval bridge dating from around 1300, the Alte Nahebrücke, which is one of the few remaining bridges in th ...

. He studied law in Heidelberg where he joined a Burschenschaft ( Burschenschaft Vineta) and after a time in legal practice became a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

in Hesse. He married Wilhelmine Weber and had two sons. In 1934, Sack joined the newly established Reichskriegsgericht (Reich Military Court) where he quickly rose to a senior position. He was able to delay proceedings against Army Commander-in-Chief Werner von Fritsch who had been falsely accused of homosexuality by the Gestapo in an attempt to discredit him for his opposition to Hitler's attempts to subjugate the German armed forces. In the autumn of 1942, Karl Sack became Judge Advocate General of the Army. During the Second World War, Sack maintained contacts within the resistance circles in the military, including Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, Major General Hans Oster and Hans von Dohnanyi, as well as with others within the

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' (German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. A ...

(German military intelligence). He was part of the attempt to assassinate Hitler on

20 July plot On 20 July 1944, Claus von Stauffenberg and other conspirators attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler, Führer of Nazi Germany, inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters near Rastenburg, East Prussia, now Kętrzyn, in present-day Poland. The ...

and after that failed attempt he was arrested on 9 August 1944. In the very last days of the war, he was brought before an SS drumhead court-martial presided over by Otto Thorbeck. He was sentenced to death and hanged two days later at Flossenbürg concentration camp. Sack had been slated for the role of Justice Minister within a planned post-coup civilian government. In 1984, Sack's role as a member of the resistance was remembered with a bronze plaque placed in the former Reichskriegsgericht in Berlin-Charlottenburg. There was some opposition to this honour as Sack favoured a far-reaching interpretation of what constituted

desertion Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or post without permission (a pass, liberty or leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with unauthorized absence (UA) or absence without leave (AWOL ), which ar ...

, which ostensibly could have led to unwarranted death sentences. In Bosenheim, a suburb of Bad Kreuznach, a street has been named in his honour.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sack, Karl 1896 births 1945 deaths People from Bad Kreuznach People executed by Nazi Germany by hanging 20th-century German judges German People's Party politicians German conservatives in the German Resistance Executed people from Rhineland-Palatinate People who died in Flossenbürg concentration camp Executed members of the 20 July plot Resistance members who died in Nazi concentration camps People from Rhineland-Palatinate executed in Nazi concentration camps People who were court-martialed

Life

See also

Further reading

External links