Third Realm - Politics - Law

Law

Further information: Law of Germany, Reichstag (Weimar Republic), and Reichsrat (Germany)

On 20 August 1934, civil servants were required to swear an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler; a similar oath had been required of members of the military several weeks prior. This law became the basis of the Führerprinzip, the concept that Hitler's word overrode all existing laws. Any acts that were sanctioned by Hitler—even murder—thus became legal. All legislation proposed by cabinet ministers had to be approved by the office of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, who also had a veto over top civil service appointments.

Most of the judicial system and legal codes of the Weimar Republic remained in use during and after the Third Reich to deal with non-political crimes. The courts issued and carried out far more death sentences than had occurred before the Nazis took power. People who had been convicted of three or more offences, even petty ones, could be deemed a habitual offender and jailed indefinitely in a state prison. People such as prostitutes and pickpockets were judged to be inherently criminal and a threat to the racial community. Thousands were arrested and confined indefinitely without trial.

Although the regular courts could handle political cases and even issue death sentences for these cases, a new type of court, the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court), was established in 1934 to deal with cases of political importance. This court handed out over 5,000 death sentences from its formation until its dissolution in 1945. The death penalty could be issued for offences such as being a communist, printing seditious leaflets, or even making jokes about Hitler or other top party officials. Political offenders who were released from prison were often immediately re-arrested by the Gestapo and confined in a concentration camp. The Gestapo was in charge of investigative policing to enforce National Socialist ideology. They located and confined political offenders, Jews, and others deemed undesirable.

In September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. The Laws for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour prohibited marriages between Jews and people of Germanic extraction; extramarital relations between Jews and Germans; and the employment of Jewish women under the age of 45 as domestic servants in German households. The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of Germanic or related blood were defined as citizens. Thus Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship. The wording of the law also opened the door for the Nazis to deny citizenship to anyone who was not supportive enough of the regime. A supplementary decree issued in November defined as Jewish anyone with three Jewish grandparents, or two grandparents if the Jewish faith was followed.