When it was founded in 1951, the Federal Constitutional Court became for many a symbol of a radical new beginning in the young Federal Republic. It was supposed to guarantee the new democratic order as the “guardian of the Constitution”.
For a long time, it was considered largely “unburdened” by the Nazi past, but a new study reveals a very different picture, writes ARD.
How it all began
The first judges were sworn in in 1951 in Bonn, and at the beginning the future role and importance of the court were relatively unclear, and the status of the judges was not considered particularly high. Today, this is completely different, the German public media outlet points out.
In 1951, 24 judges were to be appointed. When the candidates were selected, 60 percent of them declared in the questionnaires that they had been persecuted during the Nazi era. However, historian Eva Balz, one of the co-authors of the study, says that the number of victims was much lower - data was found for only nine people.
The rest were judges who had adapted to the Nazi regime and in some cases even actively participated in the injustices committed. Of the first 24 judges, three were members of the former National Socialist German Workers' Party, and five were among Hitler's stormtroopers.
Return and a new beginning
For the judges who had been persecuted, their appointment was tantamount to recognition and a chance for a new professional career. As the ARD notes, one particularly impressive example is Georg Fröhlich - he and his family survived the Nazis in a hiding place in the Netherlands under extremely difficult conditions.
His son was arrested and sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was killed at the age of 20. "This had a very serious impact on the family - his sister Sabine, for example, could not shake off the loss until her death," historian Balz told the ARD. However, after the war, Georg Fröhlich returned to Germany, driven by the desire to participate in the construction of a democratic state based on the rule of law.
Rudolf Katz was equally motivated, who emigrated because he was Jewish and later consciously returned to the "country of the perpetrators". For him, as for other emigrants, working at the Federal Constitutional Court is both a political and a moral project - behind it stands the conscious decision to make your contribution to building a new Germany.
The Willy Geiger case
On the other side are the judges who actively participated in Nazi crimes. The most famous case is that of Willy Geiger, reports the German public media. He was a member of both the former National Socialist German Workers' Party and the stormtroopers, in his dissertation he justified anti-Semitic work bans and as a prosecutor in the extraordinary tribunals he ruled in favor of death sentences.
These extraordinary tribunals were not ordinary, but political courts that were supposed to punish so-called enemies of the people. "Their sentences are often draconian - for people considered enemies of the people," says the historian. "In the case of Willy Geiger, an 18-year-old Pole was sentenced to death - for having an affair with a young German woman."
The Höpker-Aschoff case
The first president of the Constitutional Court, Hermann Höpker-Aschoff, was also burdened by his activities under Nazism. During the war, he worked for an institution involved in the economic plunder of the occupied territories in the east, as well as in the seizure of property from the Jewish population. But his Nazi past did not prevent his appointment, writes the German public media.
Such careers are not uncommon in post-war Germany. Many former Nazi officials are given public office because their professional experience outweighs their critical attitude towards the past.
It is particularly remarkable that the persecuted and burdened judges with a Nazi past have cooperated constructively. Georg Fröhlich and Willy Geiger were even friends, Balz told ARD.
Her research shows that at the time the Nazi past was hardly touched upon - and neither side had any interest in reviving the past. “The victims understand that they are returning to a society that has no interest in admitting their own guilt.”
"The "Unburdened Court" is a myth
The study concludes that the "unburdened" Federal Constitutional Court has not stood the test. "The court appears to be more heavily burdened with the Nazi past than previously known," the researchers found.
Nevertheless, it stands out compared to many other German services in the post-war period. “Through its activities, it tries to affirm liberal, democratic and pluralistic tendencies. This is its specific role in the 1950s and 1960s”, scholars note. Because despite the burden of individual judges, the court places important accents in its attitude towards the Nazi past. For example, by repeatedly ruling in favor of the persecuted or opposing attempts to downplay Nazi injustices.
Author: Max Bauer | Klaus Hempel (ARD)