KONTINUITET ZAPADNONEMAČKOG PRAVOSUĐA S TREĆIM RAJHOM
CONTINUITY OF THE WEST GERMAN JUDICIARY WITH THE THIRD REICH

Summary/Abstract: With the adoption of the Basic Law on May 24, 1949 in the Bundestag, West Germany was formed from the three western occupation zones. After the initial denazification in early 1948, the US military government ordered its swift end and limited its own jurisdiction. In parallel with that, a campaign for the release of convicted criminals and the step-by-step takeover of the Nazi functional elite is launched. In the mid-1950s, only twenty percent of the leading positions in the „new“ state were held by opponents of the Nazi regime. It was similar in the Ministry of Justice. Prosecutors, judges and lawyers returned to their previous positions. Between 1952 and 1962, between 68 and 77 percent of Germany’s judicial staff were Nazi judges. More than 6,656 verdicts were handed down in Allied and German courts, of which 30% were sentenced to six months, 60% to less than one year and 90% to less than five years. Only 15% of all charges and 17% of convictions were for murder (between 17 and 20 million civilians). There is no data on the distribution of the sentence served. Since the beginning of the Cold War, amnesties and individual and mass releases have alternated on a conveyor belt.

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