Nazi Justice in Freiburg

Nazi torchlight procession through what was then Adolf-Hitler-Straße:
The banner reads: Thank you, Führer. Yes!
On the left is the district court building.
Cover of the exhibition catalog published by Rombach Verlag.

Red Baron listened to a presentation on Nazi Justice in Freiburg by Dr. Thomas Kummle.

We participants entered the modern wing of Freiburg's district court (Amtsgericht) through an airlock.

The Amtsgericht in the 1930ies

While the new building fulfills all the requirements of the modern penitentiary system, the outer look of the court building on Holzmarkt has not changed over the years.

In this District Court, three branches of the Nazi justice carried out their inhumane work. In addition to the standard justice system, the Nazis established special courts (Sondergerichte). The Reich Court of War ruled on cases of desertion or undermining military morale (Wehrkraftzersetzung).

Euphemistically, the Nazis called their highest court in Berlin the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof), although it was not the people who administered justice. It was Roland Freisler who exercised ruthless, arbitrary justice to the point that being brought before the People's Court was tantamount to a capital charge, with most defendants being hanged.

Execution chamber with meat hooks in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin (©Ab Wondergem/Google Maps)

Especially after the assassination attempt on the Führer on July 20, 1944, the pig hooks in the Gestapo prison in Berlin-Plötzensee were never empty.

Well-known victims of this Nazi justice were the Scholl siblings. For their highly political trial, Freisler especially traveled to Munich. In an unnatural act of mercy, the students were not hanged from the gallows but guillotined.

Today's view of the large courtroom of Freiburg's district court,
where the trials of the Sondergericht took place.

Back to Freiburg and its Sondergericht. With the Nazis' seizure of power, numerous new criminal laws came into force. Therefore, the Reich Ordinance of March 21, 1933, established Special Courts. In particular, §16 of the ordinance stipulated that no appeal was possible against the decisions of a Sondergericht.

These Special Courts dealt with violations of the Malicious Acts Act (Heimtückegesetz), the People's Enemies Ordinance (Volksschädlingsverordnung), the War Economy Ordinance (Kriegswirtschaftsverordnung), and the Ordinance on Extraordinary Broadcasting Measures: 
§1: The deliberate interception of foreign broadcasts is prohibited. Violations are punishable by hard labor imprisonment.

Ordinance on Extraordinary Broadcasting Measures of September 7, 1939

When an offense against the Nazi regime was not covered by a law, it was treated by analogy with sometimes very far-fetched offenses.

Since 1933, the special courts have handed down a total of over 11,000 judgments.

In the following, I shall illustrate a case of broadcast crime (Rundfunkverbrechen).

Volksempfänger radio with a warning sticker on the tuning knob. Remember: Listening to foreign broadcasts is a crime against the national security of our people. At the orders of the Führer, it is punishable by severe hard labor imprisonment.

Otto Friedrich, 67 years old, from Offenburg, was accused of listening to the London radio station and the Swiss station Beromünster from September 1939 to November 1941.

As Dr. Kummle reported, Friedrich, who listened to foreign radio stations in his garden shed, had told a neighbor about Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland*. The "good" neighbor reported him to the police.
*The Führer's deputy and pilot, Rudolf Hess, flew in a Messerschmitt 110 to Scotland on May 10, 1941, to persuade the British government to make peace. He crashed, was taken to a hospital, and later became a prisoner of war.

Secret document on the Rudolf Hess affair

Friedrich was taken into protective custody on November 15, 1941.

Collecting evidence in the Friedrich case

An arrest warrant was issued against him on December 8, 1941.

On February 27, 1942, the Special Court at the Freiburg Regional Court sentenced Otto Friedrich to a total of

 

Three years in a hard-labor prison (Zuchthaus)

for listening to foreign radio stations and disseminating foreign radio news. For time served in pretrial detention, the sentence was reduced by two months. Friedrich's civil rights were revoked for a period of three years.

When, on December 1, 1944, the remainder of his sentence was suspended, Friedrich was not released but immediately arrested by the Gestapo. The broadcast criminal (Rundfunkverbrecher) was accused of having close ties to radical left-wing circles.

Friedrich died on April 30, 1945, in the Dachau concentration camp.

If time permits, Red Baron will report in future blogs about other outrageous sentences of Nazi justice in Freiburg.

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