Oswald Freisler (29 December 1895 – 4 March 1939) was a lawyer in

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

and the younger brother of

Roland Freisler Karl Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945) was a German jurist, judge and politician who served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1935 to 1942 and as President of the People's Court from 1942 to 194 ...

, who a few years after Oswald's death became the Judge President of the People's Court.

Life

Freisler attended the '' Gymnasium'' in

Aachen Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants. Aachen is locat ...

and

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, where in 1914 he passed his ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

''. He studied law in

Kiel Kiel ( ; ) is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein. With a population of around 250,000, it is Germany's largest city on the Baltic Sea. It is located on the Kieler Förde inlet of the Ba ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. In February 1924, he opened a law firm with his older brother

in Kassel. Oswald Freisler 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 ...

in 1927 and was a member of the National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals. From 1933, he was '' Gauführer'' in Kassel and 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 in the same year, he became president of the bar association in Kassel. In 1936, he took over the Berlin office of Jewish lawyer Johannes Werthauer, who left Germany in 1933 in order to teach at the Sorbonne. Although a Nazi, Freisler appeared as defence counsel in politically significant trials which the Nazis sought to use for propaganda purposes. He wore his Nazi Party badge in court, which led to confusion over the Party's role in the trials. In 1937, on behalf of the

Catholic Church 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 ...

, Freisler took over the defence of three co-defendants in the trial of Joseph C. Rossaint, a resistance fighter against National Socialism, and won an acquittal, much to the displeasure of the Nazi Party. In response,

Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...

asked

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 ...

to personally exclude Freisler from the party. On 30 April 1937, Goebbels observed with satisfaction, "Freisler expelled from the party by the Führer." In 1939, Freisler mysteriously committed suicide in Berlin after he had been accused of irregularities in the conduct of a defence. There are three versions of Freisler's death. One is that he defenestrated himself from his office, another is that the incident occurred in prison, and the third version is that he injected himself with an overdose of insulin.G. Buchheit. ''Richter in roter Robe.'' p. 277.

Publications

* ''Das System der Ehrenstrafen in der deutschen Vergangenheit und im geltenden Recht und die Frage nach seiner Existenzberechtigung.'' Göttingen 921 Law and political science dissertation from 1 November 1920

References

Bibliography

* Gert Buchheit. ''Richter in roter Robe. Freisler, Präsident des Volksgerichtshofes.'' München: List, 1968; pp. 12–13, 276–278 * Short biography in: Werner Schubert, Werner Schmid, Jürgen Regge. ''Akademie für deutsches Recht, 1933-1945: Protokolle der Ausschüsse''; Band 3, Familienrechtsausschuss, p. 43 {{DEFAULTSORT:Freisler, Oswald 1895 births 1939 suicides 1939 deaths Jurists from Lower Saxony Lawyers in the Nazi Party Members of the Academy for German Law Nazis who died by suicide in Nazi Germany People from Hamelin People from Kassel Roland Freisler