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The Judicial System of the Nazi Party
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
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The Origin of Party Courts. When Hitler reëstablished the NSDAP organization in the spring of 1925, he built it up rather systematically, with several divisions to which separate tasks were assigned. The SA were the “troops,” intended for protection and order (as the Nazis saw it). The office of the Reichsschatzmeister was the finance division of the party, and the Organization Department had the job implied in its name. The Investigation and Adjustment Committees (Untersuchungs- und Schlichtungsausschüsse), briefly called USCHLA, finally, were the beginning of a now elaborate judicial system within the party, consisting of a hierarchy of local and district courts and a supreme court. As the party membership increased rapidly and the problem of its internal consolidation became pressing, the work of the USCHLA piled up. At first, the USCHLA was a rather loose organization, its members working as trusted representatives, so to speak, of the local and district party leaders each of whom had three on his staff. Their judicial competence and procedure was established for the first time in a set of Directions (Richtlinien) decreed by Hitler in August, 1929. After 1933, the Führer ordered the present Chief Party Justice, Walter Buch, to change the USCHLA into a regular party judicial system. New and amplified Directions were consequently decreed on February 2, 1934, defining the respective competences of the state and party courts, and assigning to the latter all matters affecting the party organization.
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- Foreign Government and Politics
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- Copyright
- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1944
References
1 They used to be called USA. The new designation originated with Chief Part. Justice Walter Buch, who explains: “The former designation ‘USA’ reminded me too vividly of the United States. I wished to avoid that because I like to be un equivocal. A judge cannot opalesce in all possible colors. From the beginning, he must endeavor to avoid all misunderstandings and let no doubts even be raised.”. See his article “Wesen und Sinn der Parteigerichtsbarkeit,” Zeitschrift der Akademie für deutsches Recht, Vol. 3, p. 202 (Feb. 20, 1936).
2 Buch, op. cit., p. 201.
3 Ibid., p. 202. Herr Buch gives the following simple examples of when and why the party courts function, or when they leave the field to the state courts: (1) A citizen steals. The state punishes him. He is also a member of the NSDAP. It is clear that he cannot be counted one of “the best of the nation.” Therefore, he will have to confront the party court. (2) A citizen is punished by the authorities because he is caught fishing where it is verboten. The party is not involved in this matter, and the party court will take no action. (3) A party member refuses to take part in party activities. The state will not be concerned about that, but the party court will hold him responsible because he violates the higher duties of party membership. For the full text of the Directions, with amendments to July 1, 1937, and annotations, see Haidn, C. and Fischer, L. (eds.), Das Recht der NSDAP (Munich, 1937), pp. 695–732.Google Scholar
4 Fabricius, Hans, Organisatorischer Aufbau der NSDAP (in Lammers, H. H., and Pfundtner, Hans, eds.), Grundlagen, Auf bau und Wirtschafisordnung des nationalsozialistischen Staates, Vol. I, No. 7 (Berlin, 1939 ed.), pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
5 Koellreutter, Otto, Deutsches Verfassungsrecht (Berlin, 2nd ed., 1936), p. 158Google Scholar; also 3rd ed. (1938), p. 162; and Krug, Karl, Strafrecht und Strafverfahren, in the series ed. by Lammers, and Pfundtner, , cited above, Vol. II, No. 41 (1936), pp. 46–47.Google Scholar
6 Buch, op. cit., p. 201.
7 Quoted in Fabrieius, op. cit., p. 13.
8 Ibid.
9 Buch, op. cit., p. 202.
10 Text in Rappard, William E.et al., Source Book on European Governments (New York, 1937), pp. 67–68.Google Scholar
11 The law provides also for a special S.A. jurisdiction. The S.S., N.S.K.K. (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrerkorps, or automobile drivers' corps), and the Hitler Youth organization also have their own courts of various names which deal mostly with cases of disobedience. If they come across dishonorable acts of party members, they automatically pass them on to the party courts. See Buch, op. cit., p. 203; also Directions, Paragraph 14, and annotations in Haidn and Fischer, op. cit., pp. 701–702, 705, 709–713.
12 Stuckart, Wilhelm, Nationalsozialismus und Staatsrecht (in the series ed. by Lammers, and Pfundtner, , cited above, Vol. I, No. 15 (1936), pp. 37, 38.Google Scholar
13 Koellreutter, op. cit., 2nd ed., p. 156; 3rd ed., p. 159. See, further, Huber, Ernst Rudolf, Verfassungsrecht des Grossdeutschen Reiches (Hamburg, 1939; this is the 2nd edition of his Verfassung, published in 1937), pp. 289–297.Google Scholar (Quoted henceforth as Verfassungsrecht.)
14 Huber, Ernst Rudolf, Wesen und Inhalt der politischen Verfassung (Hamburg, 1935), p. 86.Google Scholar
15 Ibid.
16 Stuckart, op. cit., pp. 37, 38.
17 See also Fabricius, op. cit. (2nd ed.), p. 30; Buch, op. cit., p. 203.
18 Buch, op. cit., p. 203. Members of the Reichstag are under the jurisdiction of the various party courts, in accordance with their rank in the party. See Haidn and Fischer, op. cit., p. 708.
19 Ibid.
20 Fabricius, op. cit. (1936 ed.), pp. 25, 26, 30.
21 Buch, op. cit., p. 203.
22 Fabricius, op. cit. (1936 ed.), p. 12.
23 Buch, op. cit., p. 203.
24 According to Decree No. 52 in “Der Parteirichter,” Vol. 3, p. 49, as cited in Haidn and Fischer, op. cit., p. 702.
25 Fabricius, op. cit. (1939 ed.), p. 14.
26 Koellreutter, op. cit. (3d ed.), p. 182.
27 Decree of the Deputy Führer, May 7, 1935, quoted in Haidn and Fischer, op. cit., p. 740.
28 Buch, op. cit., p. 203.
29 See his biography in the 1936 Reichstagshandbuch (Berlin, 1936), and in Schmidt-Pauli, Edgar von, Die Männer um Hitler (Berlin, rev. ed., 1933), pp. 158–160.Google Scholar
30 Heiden, Konrad, A History of National Socialism (London, 1934), pp. 221, 241.Google Scholar According to the Reichstagshandbuch for 1936, he joined the party in 1922.
31 Fabricius, op. cit. (1936 ed.), p. 30; Buch, op. cit., p. 202. It is reported that Chief Party Justice Buch was present on Hitler's famous trip to Wiessee during the purge of June 30, 1934 (see Schumann, op. cit., p. 449, and Heiden, Hitler (New York, 1936), pp. 369, 372–374); but the drastic punishments meted out at that time do not appear to have been ordered by the regular party courts. It will be recalled that they were legalized afterwards by cabinet decree (Reichsgesetzblatt, 1934, Vol. 7. No. 71, p. 529). Schuman (op. cit., p. 460), without further explanation, refers to a “special party court martial, dominated by the SS” in Munich, which expelled SA members.
32 Buch, op. cit., p. 202.
33 The president of the Party Supreme Court has decreed that the Deput. Führer and the Reich Minister of the Interior are to be notified of the more severe judgments against party members who are civil servants. See his Decree No. 48 in “Der Parteirichter,” Vol. 3, p. 27, cited in Haidn and Fischer, op. cit., p. 723. See also the German Civil Service Act of January 26, 1937, Sec. I, paragraph 32 (2)3, translated by James K. Pollock and Alfred V. Boerner (Chicago, 1938); also the questionnaire to be filled out at time of appointment to the civil service, where exclusion from the party is considered equal to “conviction in court.” See Anhang zum deutschen Beamtengesetz of June 29, 1937 (text edited by Beyer, Rudolf, Leipzig, 2nd ed., 1937), p. 209.Google Scholar
34 Buch, op. cit., p. 202.
35 Ibid.; also Huber, Ernst Rudolf, Verfassung (Hamburg, 1937), p. 166.Google Scholar
36 Huber, op. cit., p. 166; also his Verfassungsrecht, p. 299.
37 Fabricius, op. cit. (1936 ed.), p. 30; for details concerning appeals, ibid., pp. 30–31, and Directions, Paragraphs 30–34.
38 Haidn and Fischer, op. cit., p. 740.
39 Buch, op. cit., p. 203.
40 Quoted in Fabricius, op. cit. (1939 ed.), p. 13.
41 Buch, op. cit., p. 203. For a discussion of Nazi concepts of honor, see Buch, Walter, Des nationalsozialistischen Menschen Ehre und Ehrenschutz (Munich, 1939).Google Scholar This pamphlet is a reprint from the publication of the Party Supreme Court, “Der Parteirichter.”
42 Ibid.
43 Koellreutter, op. cit. (2nd ed.), p. 177.
44 Stuckart, op. cit., p. 38.
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