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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Among the institutional elements of civic cohesion, the civil service—national, state, and local—has stood out for generations as one of the most influential forces in German life. Though never the actual “governor of Germany,” it was universally rec-ognized as the instrument of government. Its devotion and efficiency were not only highly regarded by the community, but also looked upon by foreign observers as Germany's greatest contribution in the field of political organization and as an encouraging example for the whole world.
1 Finer, Herman, The Theory and Practice of Modern Government (London, 1932), Vol. II, p. 1499Google Scholar. See also my review of this book: 94 Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 301–307 (1933)Google Scholar.
2 Blachly, Frederick F. and Oatman, Miriam E., The Government and Administration of Germany (Baltimore, 1928), p. 406Google Scholar; Merriam, Charles E., The Making of Citizens (Chicago, 1931), p. 200Google Scholar; Wells, Roger H., German Cities (Princeton, 1932), pp. 3, 261 ffGoogle Scholar; Finer, loc. cit., Vol. II, p. 1499. Finer has apparently modified his previous contention that the German pre-war civil service “was responsible to nothing but its own conscience” (The British Civil Service, London, 1927, p. 9Google Scholar). Here Finer has certainly been a victim of a widespread misunderstanding. As I have pointed out elsewhere (“Berufsbeamtentum in England,” 89 Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Staatswissenschaft, 459Google Scholar), the executive power since the advent of the German Rechtsstaat in the course of the nineteenth century was no longer allowed to rise above the law, but its exercise was definitely subject to the law. Thus the theory of German administrative law has always stressed its function as a protection of the citizen from arbitrary (though perhaps benevolent) action of administrative bodies rather than giving plein pouvoir to public authorities for the sake of authority alone. In this regard, the New Deal in Germany seems to initiate certain changes.
3 Merriam, loc. cit., p. 200. See also Koellreutter, Otto, “Volk und Staat in der Verfassungskrise”, in Berber, Fritz (ed.), Jahrbuch für Politische Forschung (Berlin, 1933), p. 31Google Scholar: The German civil service “has, in long tradition, given to the German state its specific features.”
4 See for a brief review of the general situation as contrasted with that in the United States, Marx, Fritz Morstein, “Verwaltungsreform in den Vereinigten Staaten”, 38 Verwaltungsarchiv, 82 ffGoogle Scholar. A comprehensive analysis of the German civil service in the early constitutional period is presented in Wilhelm, Theodor, Die Idee des Berufsbeamtentums (Tübingen, 1933)Google Scholar. See also the able discussion in Dorn, Walter L., “The Prussian Bureaucracy in the Eighteenth Century”, 46 and 47 Political Science Quarterly, 75 ff., 403 ff., and 259 ff. (1931 and 1932)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 Friedrich, Carl L., “The German and the Prussian Civil Service”, in White, Leonard D. (ed.), The Civil Service in the Modern State (Chicago, 1930), p. 385Google Scholar.
6 As, for instance, the British civil service in the (mutatis mutandis) corresponding phase of development during the post-war period.
7 White, Leonard D., Trends in Public Administration (New York and London, 1933), p. 341Google Scholar.
8 Thus it is not an exaggeration to say that a lasting reconsolidation after the turnover of November, 1918, did not occur before the civil service had placed itself “on the basis of hard facts”—a then famous slogan in Germany. See Marx, Fritz Morstein, “Die Verfassungs- und Verwaltungsrechtsentwicklung in den drei Hansestädten Hamburg, Bremen, und Lübeck, 1918–1928”, 16 Jahrbuch des Öffentlichen Rechts, 52 ff. (1928)Google Scholar.
9 Art. 130 of the Weimar constitution. For references on this provision, see Anschütz, Gerhard, Die Verfassung des Deutschen Reichs vom 11. August 1919, 14th ed. (Berlin, 1933), p. 602Google Scholar. This latest (and presumably last) edition represents the standard work on the Weimar constitution. See also my review of the volume in 27 American Political Science Review, 646–647 (1933)Google Scholar.
10 Cf. Sec. 10 of the National Civil Service Act: “Every civil servant is obliged to fulfill conscientiously, according to the constitution and the laws, the duties of the office conferred upon him and to prove himself in his behavior inside and outside the office worthy of the esteem which his profession requires.” The different state civil service acts contain corresponding provisions, often copied literally from Sec. 10 of the national act. Concerning disciplinary procedure, cf. Brand, A., Die Preussischen Dienststrafordnungen vom 27. Januar 1932, 2nd ed. (Berlin, 1932)Google Scholar. A new Landesdienststrafordnung was promulgated in Saxony on June 19, 1933 (Gesetzblatt, p. 93); see Ender, , “Das neue sächsische Dienststrafrecht”, 62 Juristische Wochenschrift, 1636 ffGoogle Scholar. The draft of a new Reichsdiemtstrafordnung has already passed the Federal Council (Reichsrat) and will presumably receive reconsideration by the Hitler cabinet. Among the general treatises on German civil service law, mention may be made of Brand, A., Gesetz über die Rechtsverhältnisse der Reichsbeamten, 3rd ed. (Berlin, 1929)CrossRefGoogle Scholar: Arndt, Adolf, Das Reichsgeamtengesetz, 4th ed. (Mannheim, Berlin, Leipzig, 1931)Google Scholar; Brand, A., Das Beamtenrecht (Die Rechtsverhältnisse der Preussischen Staats- und Kommunalbeamten), 3rd ed. (Berlin, 1928)Google Scholar. See also Finer, , Modern Government, Vol. II, p. 1375 ff.Google Scholar, and Friedrich, loc. cit., p. 385 ff. (with extensive bibliography).
11 “In his official activity, the civil servant must pursue the common good, and not only be impartial but even not endanger his impartiality nor give occasion for distrust of his impartiality.” Arndt, loc. cit., p. 33, bases this statement on a careful condensation of recent disciplinary decisions of the National Supreme Disciplinary Court, the Prussian Supreme Administrative Court, and the Disciplinary Division of the Kammergericht. See National Supreme Disciplinary Court, in Schulze, Alfred and Simons, Walter, Die Rechtsprechung des Reichsdisziplinargerichtshofs (Berlin, 1926), p. 141 ff., 146 ff., 148 ff., and 279 ff.Google Scholar; Entscheidungen des Preussischen Oberverwaltungsgerichls, Vol. 76 (1922), p. 473 ff.Google Scholar, Vol. 79 (1925), p. 436 ff.; Entscheidungen des Grossen Disziplinarsenats des Kammergerichts in Disziplinarverfahren gegen Preussische Richter und Notare (Berlin, 1927), p. 133Google Scholar.
12 Marx, Fritz Morstein, “Verwaltungsrecht in England”, 36 Verwaltungsarchiv, 438–439 (1931)Google Scholar.
13 The basis of these “fundamental rights” is laid down in Article 130 of the Weimar constitution: “All civil servants are guaranteed freedom of political opinion and freedom of association.” As a matter of terminology, we are here concerned only with civic “rights,” in contrast to those constitutional provisions which circumscribe the immediate official status of civil servants, e.g., the guaranty of life tenure.
14 “The office embraces the whole personality of the civil servant. Never is he only a private citizen.” Prussian Supreme Administrative Court: 56 Juristische Wochenschrift, 2867 (1927)Google Scholar.
15 National Supreme Disciplinary Court, in Schulze and Simons, loc. cit., p. 73 ff., 85 ff., 86 ff., and 404 ff. For further references, see Arndt, loc. cit., p. 35.
16 For one of the most instructive presentations of the controversial subject of party activity of civil servants, see Gerhard Anschutz and Glockner, Karl, Die politische Betäligung der Beamten (Bühl, 1930)Google Scholar. Those aspects which, in the light of theory and practice, represent actual law are brought together in Anschütz, loc. cit., p. 23, in the following restatement: “It is incontestable that a civil servant never violates his official duty if he merely agrees with a creed of revolutionary character without joining the party in question or making his revolutionary creed conspicuous through actions. It is incontestable, too, that the profession of such a creed is only permitted within the special limitations resulting from the official position of the civil servant. Furthermore, it is incontestable that every action of a civil servant in support of a revolutionary creed or movement, especially of the party in question, be it through contributions or other material support, be it through participation in party work or acceptance of party offices, represents always a disciplinary offense.” It has been a noteworthy inconsistency of Weimar democracy that it refrained from rigidly suppressing as illegal those political parties which, according to the government, had given sufficient proof of aiming at the overthrow of government by force. Instead, the government was satisfied to issue temporary bans against the participation of civil servants in those parties. Thus the well-known decree of the former Prussian state cabinet of June 25, 1930, contains the following passages: “With regard to the development of the National Socialist German Workers' party and the Communist party of Germany, both parties must be considered as organizations aiming at the overthrow of the present government by violence. A civil servant who participates in such an organization or supports it by action or otherwise thereby violates the bond of loyalty toward the state which results from his position as civil servant, and is guilty of an offense against civil service discipline. It is, therefore, forbidden to all public officers to participate in those organizations or to support them by action or otherwise.”
17 Cf. in this context also Art. 39 of the Weimar constitution: “Civil servants and members of the armed forces need no leave for the performance of their duties as members of the Reichstag or of a state diet. If they become candidates for election to these legislative bodies, leave must be granted them for the amount of time necessary to prepare for their election.” The national act of July 21, 1922, put distinct restrictions on the “freedom of political opinion” of civil servants only in so far as their official activities were concerned. It stated, however, in very broad terms that a civil servant must “abstain from all activities which are incompatible with his position as an official of the Republic,” thereby also pointing to the behavior of civil servants outside the office. Cf. the extracts given in Friedrich, loc. cit., p. 399.
18 Cf. Finer, , Modern Government, Vol. II, p. 1499Google Scholar; Wells, loc. cit., p. 261–262; Merriam, loc. cit., pp. 200–201.
19 Merriam, ibid.
20 Cf. Marx, Fritz Morstein, in 18 Arckiv des Öffentlichen Rechts, 280 ffGoogle Scholar. Agreeing, Rolf Stödter, Öffentlichrechtliche Entschädigung (Hamburg, 1933), p. 254Google Scholar. See also Fleiner, Fritz, Institutionen des Deutschen Verwaltungsrechts, 8th ed. (Tübingen, 1928), p. 94Google Scholar, who emphasizes that Germany did not cease to be a Beamtenstaat after the transformation into a republic. Cf. also my review of the book in 87 Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Staatsuiissenschaft, 379 ff. Finer, , Modern Government, Vol. I, p. 227Google Scholar, cites my Variationen über Richterliche Zuständigkeit zur Prüfung der Rechtmässigkeit des Gesetzes (Berlin-Grunewald, 1927)Google Scholar as evidence for the contention that “democracy has, or ultimately will, cause its [German bureaucracy's] corruption.” My Variationen, however, do not contain any suggestion of that sort. Cf. Marx, Fritz Morstein, in 23 Archiv des Öffentlichen Rechts, 369 ff. (1933)Google Scholar.
21 This general situation and its implications is ably discussed in Köttgen, Arnold, Das Deutsche Berufsbeamtentum und die parlamentarische Demokratie (Berlin and Leipzig, 1928)Google Scholar. For a briefer survey, cf. Marx, Fritz Morstein, “Civil Service and Democracy”, 4 Amerika-Post, 277 ff. (1932)Google Scholar, and “Training Municipal Officials in Germany After Entry into the Service”, 13 Public Management, 334 ff. (1931)Google Scholar.
22 Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, 22nd ed. (München, 1933), p. 196Google Scholar.
23 Hitler, loc. cit., p. 364.
24 Hitler, loc. cit., p. 309. See also Müller, , Beamtentum und Nationalsozialismus, 4th ed. (München, 1933), p. 9 ffGoogle Scholar. Hitler has, however, talked in very strong terms on the “arrogant” mental attitude of the higher civil service in pre-war times; loc. cit., p. 352.
25 Hitler as a youth became “thoroughly sick” of the idea of entering the civil service; loc. cit., p. 6. His antipathy against the public service as a profession was “fundamental”; loc. cit., p. 7.
26 It may be recalled that this opposition had resulted in governmental decrees against the participation of civil servants in the National Socialist party; see note 16 supra.
27 A National Socialist minister has recently stated in public that when he took office in March, 1933, he found but eighteen members of his party in his department, with a total personnel of more than two thousand officials.
28 Wells, loc. cit., p. 253, has already drawn attention to the fact that during the tenure of Minister Frick in Thuringia in previous years many a head “rolled in the sand.” But party patronage and “restoration” are terms with fluent border-lines.
29 Cf. Finer, , Modern Government, Vol. I, p. 226Google Scholar; Marx, Fritz Morstein, 23 Archiv des Öffentlichen Rechts, 369 ff. (1933)Google Scholar.
30 Comparative government reveals that the degree to which such a responsibility is actually realized corresponds to the severity of the emergency rather than to the social traditions of a country. Cf. Gulick, Luther, “Politics, Administration, and the New Deal”, 169 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 55 ff. (Sept., 1933)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
31 Köttgen, Arnold, “Aufgabe und Verfassungsrechtliche Stellung des Berufsbeamtentums im modernen Staat”, in Berber, Fritz (ed.), Jahrbuch für Politische Forschung, (Berlin, 1933), p. 128Google Scholar.
32 Act of July 14, 1933 (Reichsgeselzblatt, I, p. 479)Google Scholar.
33 Sec. 2 of the act of July 14, 1933.
34 Friedrich, Carl J., “The Development of the Executive Power in Germany”, 27 American Political Science Review, 203 (1933)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
35 Proclamation of National Minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick; Hamburger Tageblatt, No. 279 (November 11, 1933).
36 Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich of March 24, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblalt, I, p. 141Google Scholar).
37 Gesetz zur Wiederherslellung des Berufsbeamtentums of April 7, 1933 (Reichgesetzblatt, I, p. 175Google Scholar), as amended by the “cabinet acts” of June 23, July 20, and September 22, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 389, 518, and 655Google Scholar), with five ordinances for its enactment of April 11, May 4, May 6, July 18, and September 29, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, pp. 195, 233, 245, 515, and 697Google Scholar). The second ordinance has been amended by two further ordinances of July 7 and September 28, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, pp. 458 and 678Google Scholar). See Gorter, Albert, Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums mit den Durchführungsbestimmungen und ergänzenden Vorschriften des Reiches und der Länder (München, 1933)Google Scholar; Seel, Hanns, Erneuerung des Berufsbeamtentums (Berlin, 1933)Google Scholar; Seel, Hanns and Krause, Arthur B., Der Behördenangestellte im Neuen Reich (Berlin, 1933)Google Scholar; Heyland, Carl, “Das Reichsgesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums vom 7. April 1933”, 62 Juristische Wochenschrift, 1164 ff.Google Scholar; Hoche, , “Die Durchführungsvorschriften zum Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums”, 38 Deutsche Juristen-Zeitung, 720 ff.Google Scholar
38 Gesetz zur Änderung von Vorschriften auf dem Gebiete des allgemeinen Beamten-, des Besoldungs- und des Versorgungsrechts of June 30, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 433Google Scholar). See Fischbach, Oskar G., Das Reichsgesetz zur Änderung von Vorschriften auf dem Gebiete des allgemeinen Beamten-, des Besoldungs - und des Versorgungsrechts (Berlin and Leipzig, 1933)Google Scholar; Seel, Hanns, Die Neuordnung des Beamtenrechts (Berlin, 1933)Google Scholar; Heyland, Carl, “Reichsgesetz zur Änderung von Vorschriften auf dem Gebiete des allgemeinen Beamten-, des Besoldungs- und des Versorgungsrechts vom 30. Juni 1933”, 62 Juristische Wochenschrift, 1977 ff. and 2547 ff. (1933)Google Scholar.
39 The exact date is November 9, 1918, pointing to the revolutionary overthrow of the old régime.
40 Sec. 2 of the act.
41 See the ordinance of May 6, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 245Google Scholar).
42 According to one of the official press releases (chosen at random) of the Hamburg state cabinet, out of 69 recently removed officials, not more than two were dismissed as “party book-officials”. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, No. 238 (August 29 1933).
43 Sec 3 of the act..
44 The exact date is August 1, 1914, pointing to the beginning of the war.
45 The privilege extends to those who, during the World War, actually fought at the front, or whose fathers, sons, or husbands were killed in action. It applies also to those who have participated in military engagements as members of the post-war voluntary corps or against the foes of the National Revolution. See the ordinance of May 6, 1933.
46 Under the act of December 24, 1925, an exceptional power of removal was granted against those public servants “che, per ragioni di manifestazioni compuite in ufficio o fuori di ufficio, non dana piena garanzia di un fedele adempimento dei loro doveri o si pongano in condizioni di incompatibilità con le generali direitive politiche del Governo,” Legge No. 2300 (Leggi e Decreti del Regno d'Italia, 1926, p. 3Google Scholar).
47 See the ordinance of May 6, 1933.
48 Sec. 4 of the act. See also the ordinance of May 6, 1933.
49 Heyland, loc. cit., p. 1166.
50 Sec. 6 of the act.
51 According to one of the official press releases (see note 42 supra), out of 69 public officers recently removed under the Restoration Act, not less than 47 were retired under section 6 of the act.
52 According to the same press release (see note 51 supra), out of 69 recently removed public officers, only four were retired as “non-Aryans,” while not more than 16 were dismissed as politically unreliable. See also note 45 supra.
53 Seel, , Erneuerung, p. 32Google Scholar.
54 Sec. 5 of the act.
55 The civil servant, however, for the time being keeps his existing title and salary, and is allowed to ask to be put on pension instead.
56 No. 3 (II) of the ordinance of April 11, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 195Google Scholar). A sample of the questionnaire is to be found as the annex to the ordinance of May 6, 1933.
57 See the ordinance of May 6, 1933.
58 Sec. 7 (I) of the act.
59 See the ordinance of May 6, 1933.
60 Henceforth women must be at least 35 years old before they may be appointed as public officers for life (Sec. la (II) of the National Civil Service Act as amended by the act of June 30, 1933). Women civil servants must be dismissed in case of their marriage if their economic future appears to be permanently guaranteed by the family income. (Sec. 1 (II) of the act on Legal Position of Women Civil Servants of May 30, 1932 (Reichgesetzblatt, I, p. 245Google Scholar) as amended by the act of June 30, 1933. As far as the salary of women civil servants is concerned, their claim to equal pay under the Weimar constitution (Art. 128) has been set aside (Sec. 6b, Chap. III, of the act of June 30, 1933.
61 Sect, la (I) of the National Civil Service Act as amended by the act of June 30, 1933. And since the civil servant must prove himself in his “whole mode of life” worthy of his profession (Arndt, loc. cit., p. 38), “non-Aryans” or persons married to a “non-Aryan” may no longer be appointed as civil servants; civil servants of “Aryan” parentage who marry a person of “non-Aryan” descent must be dismissed (Sec. la (III) of the National Civil Service Act as amended by the act of June 30, 1933). See also the regulations defining “non-Aryan” parentage, issued by the national minister of the interior on August 8, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 575Google Scholar).
62 Sec. 6 (II) of the act of June 30, 1933.
63 Müller, loc. cit., p. 52, explains (from the National Socialist point of view) that similar conflicts “always result” in damage to “the authority of the state.”
64 Müller, loc. cit., p. 53.
65 Decree of the national minister of the interior of July 14, 1933. In the same line are other recent regulations. For instance, civil servants have never been permitted to carry emblems or badges of political character while in service. Cf. Brand, , Reichsbeamtengesetze, p. 103Google Scholar, and Arndt, loc. cit., p. 45. However, according to a decree of the Hamburg state cabinet of May 12, 1933, “emblems or badges or uniforms of the National Socialist German Workers' party or of the Steel Helmets are not considered as such.” See also a decree of the Hamburg state cabinet of March 29, 1933, which forbids civil servants “to belong to any Marxist (i.e., Social Democratic or Communist) organizations.” Cf. the following extract from a decree of the national minister of the interior of July 17, 1933: “The professional interests of the civil servants will be pursued by the state itself. Petitions of civil servants or of civil service organizations concerning questions of salary, classification, career, etc., are therefore not only unnecessary but also inadmissible.”
66 Spengler, Oswald, Jahre der Entscheidung. I: Deutschland und die Weltgeschichtliche Entwicklung (München, 1933), p. ixGoogle Scholar.
67 NSBO., i.e., Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellen-Organisation.
68 Merriam, loc. cit., p. 200, correctly observes that the German civil servants, even during the post-war era, “have helped to perpetuate in actual practice the German philosophical theory of Der Staat as the supreme human institution for the accomplishment of man's highest purposes.”
69 See Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (note 36 supra); Ersles Gleichschaltungsgesetz of March 31, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 153Google Scholar); Reichsstatthaltergesetz of April 7, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 173Google Scholar), as amended by the acts of April 25 and May 26, 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, pp. 225 and 293Google Scholar).
70 Seel, Hanns, Der Beamte im Neuen Staat (Berlin, 1933), p. 10Google Scholar.
71 Seel, , Der Beamte, p. 11Google Scholar.
72 Ibid., pp. 10, 19.
73 Ibid., p. 9 ff.
74 Cf. Goldberg, Otto, Die Politischen Beamten im Deutschen Rechte, insbesondere im Reich, in Preussen und Sachsen (Dresden, 1932)Google Scholar.
75 Seel, , Der Beamte, pp. 11–12Google Scholar.
76 Addressing the 11 Reichsstatthalter on July 6, 1933, Chancellor Hitler has stressed the necessity of leaving the management in economic life to the competent. “In der Wirtschaft,” he urged, “darf nur das Können ausschlaggebend sein” (Hamburger Anzeiger, No. 156, July 7, 1933). Here, however, the emphasis is on business only, not on the performance of public functions.
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