Roland Freisler

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Roland Freisler

Dr. jur. Roland Freisler in 1944, President of the People's Court and Vice President of the International Chamber of Law
800px-Flag of Germany (1935–1945).svg.png President of the People's Court
In office
20 August 1942 – 3 February 1945
Nominated by Adolf Hitler
Appointed by Heinrich Himmler
Preceded by Otto Thierack
Succeeded by Wilhelm Crohne (acting)
Harry Haffner
Born 30 October 1893(1893-10-30)
Celle, Province of Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died 3 February 1945 (aged 51)
⚔ Berlin, Free State of Prussia, German Reich
Resting place Waldfriedhof Dahlem, Berlin, Germany
Birth name Karl Roland Freisler
Political party NSDAP
Other political
affiliations 		Völkisch-Sozialer Block
Spouse(s) ∞ 1928 Marion Russegger
Relations Oswald Freisler (brother)
Children 2
Alma mater University of Jena
Occupation Judge, lawyer
Military service
Allegiance  German Empire
Service/branch Iron Cross of the Luftstreitkräfte.png Imperial German Army
Balkenkreuz.jpg Heer
Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps (NSKK).jpg NSKK
Rank Leutnant d. R. (Imperial Army)
Major d. R. (Wehrmacht)
NSKK-Brigadeführer
Battles/wars World War I
Awards Iron Cross

Karl Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945) was a German officer of the Imperial German Army as well as jurist and judge who served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1934 to 1942 and President of the People's Court from 1942 to 1945. He was also was Major of the Reserves of the Wehrmacht (honorary rank) and, as of 1942, NSKK-Brigadeführer (brigadier general) of the National Socialist Motor Corps.

Life

Reich Minister of Justice Thierack accompanies Dr. Roland Freisler to his inauguration celebrations in August 1942
Freisler, Roland III.jpg
Freisler, Roland (1942).jpg
Freisler, Roland.jpeg

Roland Freisler was born on 30 October 1893 in Celle, Lower Saxony, the son of Julius Freisler (1862–1937) from Klantendorf, diplom engineer (as of 19 December 1891[1]), teacher (Studienrat) in Celle, then Hameln, in 1896 at the port authority in Duisburg, later professor at the Royal Building Trade School in Kassel, and his wife Charlotte Auguste Florentine Schwerdtfeger (1863–1932). Roland was baptized a Protestant on 13 December 1893. He had a younger brother, Oswald (1895–1939), Dr. jur., lawyer and notary in Kassel, and another brother who was a doctor.

In 1932, long-time NSDAP member Roland Freisler ran for the Prussian House of Representatives. This marked the beginning of his political career in Berlin, which culminated in his Presidency of the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof) in 1942. Freisler lived in his villa in Dahlem, Berlin, with his wife, who was almost 17 years his junior, and his two sons Harald and Roland. Little is known about the family's private life. His wife Marion (b. 10 February 1910 in Hamburg) did not appear in public. Despite her husband's early involvement in the party, she did not become a member of the NSDAP.

As a National Socialist ideologist, Freisler is said to have influenced Germany's legal system in that respect, and he was said to have attended the so-called Wannsee Conference. As President of the People's Court in 1942, he oversaw the prosecution of political crimes, becoming known for his aggressive personality, the humiliation of defendants, and frequent sentencing with the death penalty for crimes against the State, such as treason.

Although the death penalty was abolished with the creation of the Federal Republic of West Germany on 23 May 1949, Freisler had defined murder in German law in 1941, which survives today in the Strafgesetzbuch § 211.

Chronology

  • 1897 Elementary school in Kassel
  • 1901 Wilhelms-Gymnasium in Kassel
  • 1903 Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Aachen
    • 1912 Abitur as best of his class
  • 1912 to 1914 Studied at the University of Kiel
    • In Jena, Freisler was a temporary member of the student association SBV! Alemannia Jena in the Schwarzburgbund. He was expelled from it after a veteran member (Alter Herr) and Freisler tried to convert the Alemannia into a Wingolf student association.
  • 1914 War volunteer with the Replacement Battalion of the 1. Ober-Elsässisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 167, leader of a reconnaissance troop (Spähtruppe) in 1915, became Russian prisoner as Fahnenjunker (Officer Candidate), learned to speak Russian fluently
    • promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of the reserves (Leutnant der Reserve) during his time as POW
  • 1917 to 1920 Camp commissar (Lagerkommissar) responsible for the food supply of his camp near Moscow
    • After the October Revolution and the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, the camps were handed over to German self-government.
  • 1920 Return to Germany, continuing his studies at the University of Jena
  • 1921 Doctorate ("Summa cum laude") with the dissertation "Grundsätzliches über die Betriebsorganisation" (“Fundamentals of business organization”)
  • 1921 Lawyer clerk (Referendar) for the lawyers Dr. Alfred and Dr. Theodore Dellevie
  • October 1923 Major or 2nd state law examination (2. Staatsexamen / Assessorexamen)
    • formed 1923 in Kassel together with Karl Weinrich, Dr. Wilhelm Paulmann, Dr. Karl Schaumlöffel, Max Köhler, Fritz Lengemann, Rudolf Likus, Heinrich Messerschmidt and Heinrich Moog formed the nucleus of the regional NSDAP
  • November 1923 Lawyer in Karlsbad
  • 1924 court assessor[2] at the Homberg district court for six months
  • Spring 1924 Reichstag candidate for the völkisch-social bloc
  • 1924 Freisler opened a law firm in Kassel with his brother Oswald. The brothers divided their cases in such a way that Oswald handled civil law and Roland handled criminal law and also defended National Socialists who were accused of criminal offenses. During this time he also became friends with Hitler's lawyer, Hans Frank.
  • 9 July 1925 Member of the NSDAP (No. 9,679)
    • 1924 until 1933 city councilor in Kassel (as of 1925 for the NSDAP)
  • 1928 Member of the "Association of National Socialist German Legal Professionals" (Bund Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Juristen; BNSDJ)
    • renamed "National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals" (Nationalsozialistischer Rechtswahrerbund, NSRB) in 1936
  • 24 November 1930 Sentenced to a fine of 300 RM for insulting the Kassel police chief
  • 1932 to 1933 Member of the Prussian State Parliament for constituency 19: Hesse-Nassau (NSDAP)
    • there May 1932 to March 1933 Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Constitutional Questions
  • 1933 to 1945 Prussian State Council ex officio
  • 1933 to 1945 Member of the election review court at the German Reichstag
  • February 1933 Head of the personnel department in the Prussian Ministry of Justice, Ministerial Director (Ministerialdirektor)
  • 1 June 1933 State Secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Justice
  • 3 October 1933 Member of the Academy of German Law, where he took over the management of the criminal law department[3]
    • He was also member of the "Reich Federation of German Civil Servants" (Reichsbund der Deutschen Beamten; RDB)
  • 1933/1934 Editor of the magazine "Deutsche Justiz Rechtspflege und Rechtspolitik" (“German Justice, Legal Administration and Legal Policy”)
  • 1 April 1934 to 1942 State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice, at the same time head of the “Combat Sabotage” department
  • 20 January 1942 Participant in the Wannsee Conference

Death

On the morning of 3 February 1945, Freisler was conducting a Saturday session of the People's Court when United States Army Air Force bombers attacked Berlin. The Court was hit while Freisler was still collecting up his files and papers before making his way to the air raid shelter. He was killed under falling masonry. Deutsche Justiz Rechtsplege und Rechtspolitik wrote on 16 February 1945 (issue no. 3) on the complete cover:

“In the terrorist attack of 3 February on the Reich capital, the President of the People's Court, NSKK-Brigadeführer Dr. jur. Roland Freisler, has fallen. Dr. Freisler, who was 52 years old, had been a member of the NSDAP since 1925 and was a recipient of the Golden Party Badge. He was a member of the German Reichstag and a Prussian State Councilor. Dr. Freisler was known as a tireless champion of National Socialist German law in the widest circles of the German people. [...] With Roland Freisler, the German legal system has lost one of its most outstanding pioneers [...]"[4]

Marriage

On 24 March 1928, Dr. Freisler married his finacée Marion Edith Virginia Russegger (1910–1997), daughter of Bernhard Adolf Cajetan Russegger from Pleiske, Merchant in Hamburg and Bremen, and his wife Cornelia, née Pirscher. They had two sons:

  • Harald (b. 1 November 1937)
  • Roland (b. 12 October 1939)

After the war, Marion Freisler returned to her birth name, Russegger, and moved to Munich. She not only received the usual widow's basic pension from the war victims' pensionas of 1950, but since 1974 the Free State of Bavaria has granted her an additional "damage compensation" of 400 marks more per month. Marion died on 21 January 1997 and was buried in her parents' grave in the Dahlem forest cemetery on Hüttenweg in Berlin, where Roland Freisler was also buried anonymously.

Awards, decorations and honours

Honours

  • Honorary citizen of Kassel in 1935

Writings (excerpt)

  • Das Werden des Juristen im Dritten Reich. Part I. Berlin 1933.
  • Gedanken zum Erbhofrecht. 1933.
  • Das Deutsche Strafrecht (Magazine). Ab 1933.
  • Grundzüge eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Strafrechts. Denkschrift des Zentralausschusses der Akademie für Deutsches Recht. 1934 (höchstwahrscheinlich nur teilweise Beiträge).
  • Together with Franz Gürtner (Reich Minister): Das kommende deutsche Strafrecht, Allgemeiner Teil. 1934
  • (Publisher): Denkschrift des Zentralausschusses der Strafrechtsabteilung der Akademie für Deutsches Recht über die Grundzüge eines Allgemeinen Deutschen Strafrechts. Berlin 1934.
  • Together with Ludwig Grauert (head of the police department of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior): Das neue Recht in Preußen (Sammlung). Berlin, 1st volume 1934, 2 volume 1935.
  • Gedanken zur Technik des werdenden Strafrechts und seiner Tatbestände. 1935.
  • Deutsches Strafrecht. Strafrecht, Strafrechtspolitik, Strafprozess. Berlin 1935.
  • Zur Neugestaltung des Strafverfahrens. Berlin 1935.
  • Die Aufgaben der Reichsjustiz entwickelt aus der biologischen Rechtsauffassung. In: Deutsche Justiz, Heft 13. 29 March 1935, pp. 468–470.
  • Zusammen mit Reichsminister Franz Gürtner: Das neue Strafrecht. Grundsätzliche Gedanken zum Geleit. Berlin 1936.
  • Zur Abschlußtagung der amtlichen Strafrechtskommission. In: Zeitschrift Deutsche Justiz, hrsg. vom Reichsjustizministerium, Nr. 42. 16 October 1936, p. 1550.
  • Zur Befreiung des Rechtsdenkens. In: Zeitschrift Deutsche Justiz, hrsg. vom Reichsjustizministerium, Nr. 42. 16 October 1936, pp. 1568–1574.
  • Vom alten zum neuen Ehescheidungsrecht. Kritik, Vorschlag, Begründung. Berlin 1937.
  • Der Ehrenschutz im neuen deutschen Strafverfahren (= Beiträge zur Rechtserneuerung, 4). Gemeinschaftsarbeit von Roland Freisler …, Berlin 1937.
  • Rechtsstaat. In: Erich Volkmar, Alexander Elster, Günther Küchenhoff (Hg.): Die Rechtsentwicklung der Jahre 1933 bis 1935/36 (Handwörterbuch der Rechtswissenschaft, Band VIII: Der Umbruch 1933/1936), Berlin/Leipzig 1937, pp. 567–577.
  • Nationalsozialistisches Recht und Rechtsdenken (Schriften des Reichsverbandes Deutscher Verwaltungsakademien). Berlin 1938.
  • Leitfaden für die Helfer der Ermittlungshilfe. Berlin 1938.
  • Die Wiedergeburt strafrechtlichen Denkens. Berlin 1940.
  • Die Idee des Reiches. In: Deutsche Justiz. Rechtspflege und Rechtspolitik. Amtliches Blatt der deutschen Rechtspflege, 102. Jahrgang, Heft 9. 1 March 1940, pp. 253–256.
  • Psychische Grundlage der Polengreuel, dargestellt an der Entwicklung des polnischen Volksgeistes. In: Deutsche Justiz, Heft 29. 17 May 1940, pp. 557–563.
  • With Justus W. Hedemann: Deutsches Gemeinrecht im Werden. Von Decker, Berlin 1940.
  • With Justus W. Hedemann (Hrsg.): Kampf für ein deutsches Volksrecht: Richard Deinhardt zum 75. Geburtstage. Von Decker, Berlin 1940.
  • Kriminologie – unentbehrliche und gleichwertige Grundlage erfolgreicher Strafrechtspflege. In: Deutsches Strafrecht. 7/8 (1942), pp. 97–107.
  • Das deutsche Polenstrafrecht (in 3 parts). In: Deutsche Justiz, published by Reichsjustizministerium, Part I in Nr. 51/52. 19 December 1941, pp. 1129–1132, Part II. 9 January 1942, pp. 25–32, Teil 3 in Heft 3 vom 16. Januar 1942, pp. 41–46.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Roland Freisler
  2. ↑ In the German legal system, the obsolete designation Gerichtsassessor was held by judges or federal prosecutors, whose employment status today would be "on probation". Attainment of the second state legal qualification (the so-called "Competence to the Justiceship") was always a pre-requisite. The appointment took place with the intention that the Gerichtsassessor would be employed later in his lifetime as a judge. The Gerichtsassessor usually held this designation for one year after receiving his Certificate of Appointment, before being appointed as a judge.
  3. ↑ The Academy for German Law (Akademie für Deutsches Recht), which wants to publish a new national code in the National Socialist spirit, is the central office for the work on the transformation and further development of German law in the sense of the National Socialist worldview and instrument of legal conformity during the National Socialist era. It was founded on 26 June 1933 in Munich and proclaimed on 2 October 1933 by the Reich Commissioner for the Coordination of the Judiciary, Hans Frank, at the German Lawyers' Day of the National Socialist Lawyers' Association in Leipzig. Through the Reich Law of 11 July 1934, it became a public corporation with its headquarters in Munich.
  4. ↑ Der Tod Freislers
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