Career Under Hitler
In February 1933, Freisler was appointed department head in the Prussian Ministry of Justice. He was Secretary of State in the Prussian Ministry of Justice in 1933–1934, and in the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1934–1942. He represented the latter at the Wannsee Conference (20 January 1942), where he stood in for Minister Franz Schlegelberger, as regarding the detailed plans of the Final Solution, the murder of all European Jews.
Freisler's mastery of legal texts, mental agility and overwhelming verbal force combined well with strict adherence to the party line and the corresponding ideology, so that he became the most feared judge and the personification of the Nazis' "blood justice". Despite his undisputed legal competence, he was never appointed to cabinet. According to Uwe Wesel, this can be attributed to two factors. Firstly, Roland Freisler was regarded as a lone fighter and had no influential patron.
Secondly, he was compromised by his brother Oswald's actions. Oswald Freisler, though also a Nazi, appeared as the defense counsel in politically significant trials which the Nazis sought to use for propaganda purposes. Oswald even wore his Nazi Party badge in court, which confused the Party's role in these trials. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels accordingly reproved Roland Freisler and reported the incident to Hitler, who, for his part, decreed the immediate exclusion of Oswald Freisler from the party.
According to Guido Knopp, however, Goebbels was the only Nazi leader well disposed towards Freisler. In 1941, at a round-table discussion in the Führer's headquarters, Goebbels proposed Freisler to replace Reich Justice Minister Franz Gürtner, who had died. Allegedly, Hitler's dismissive retort was: "That old Bolshevik? No!" Uwe Wesel reports a similar remark by Hitler.
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