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Blind in the Right Eye: Weimar as a Test Case*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Moshe Zimmermann
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Extract

The most frightening debacle of democracy is not caused by a revolution or a coup d'etat but by the creeping process of delegitimization, in which the Giant's leap (“Quantensprung”) is hardly conceivable. The most notorious example to date is the Weimar Republic, as the German Reich was called between 1918/9–1933. This example has served as a constant warning for all democratic systems since then, and is therefore always present and relevant.

It is not for a social or cultural historian to intervene in a purely professional discussion of jurists or legal historians concerning the question of constitution, law and democracy. His aim is to concentrate on the complex relationship between the social and cultural contexts and the constitutional text and subtext.

Type
Research Article
Information
Israel Law Review , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Summer 1998 , pp. 395 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1998

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Footnotes

**

Richard Michael Koebner Professor of German History, Faculty of Humanities, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

References

1 For historical analyses cf.: Schulze, Hagen, Weimarer Demokratie 1917–1933 (München, 1983)Google Scholar (concerning the constitution, pp. 86–104); Kolb, Eberhard, Die Weimarer Republik (München, 2nd ed., 1988)Google Scholar; Peukert, Detlef, Die Weimarer Republik (Frankfurt, 1987) 219–226 Google Scholar; Moeller, Horst, Weimar. Die unvollendete Republik (München, 4th ed., 1994)Google Scholar (“Beispiel der Justiz”, pp. 173–179).

2 Stolleis, Michael, The Law Under the Swastika. Studies in Legal History of Nazi Germany (Chicago, 1998) 5.Google Scholar

3 Cf., Sinzheimer, Hugo and Fraenkel, Ernst, Die Justiz in der Weimarer Republik. Eine Chronik (Berlin, 1968)Google Scholar; Jasper, Gotthard, “Justiz und Politik in der Weimarer Republik”, (1982) VfZ 167–205 Google Scholar; Hattenhauer, H., “Zur Lage der Justiz in der Weimarer Republik”, in Erdmann, K.D. and Schulze, H., eds., Weimar, Selbstpreisgabe einer Demokratie (Düsseldorf, 1984) 169–176 Google Scholar; Huber, Ernst R., Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789 (Stuttgart, Bd. 6, 1981, Bd. 7, 1984)Google Scholar; Angermund, Ralph, Deutsche Richterschaft 1919–1945 (Frankfurt, 1991).Google Scholar

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9 The Law, valid for only 5 years, was prolonged for a further 2 years (until 23 July 1929) and substituted shortly afterwards by a watered down version, just as the Republic was entering its final crisis.

10 Hannover, supra n. 8, at 53–104.

11 Müller, supra n. 7, at 21–22.

12 Hannover, supra n. 8, at 107–112.

13 Rasehorn, Theo, “Rechtspolitik und Rechtssprechung” in Bracher, , Funke, and Jakobsen, , eds., Die Weimarer Republik 1918–1933 (Düsseldorf, 1987) 412 Google Scholar; Schulz, Birger, Der Republikanische Richterbund (Frankfurt, 1982) 65–69.Google Scholar

14 Hannover, supra n. 8, at 145–151; Broszat, Martin, Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar (Leamington Spa, 1987).Google Scholar

15 H. Moeller, supra n. 1, at 176, refers to Zarnow, Gottfried, Gefesselte Justiz (Munich, 1931–1932)Google Scholar, which was an overall attack against the alleged “blindness in the left eye”.

16 Manvell, Roger and Fraenkel, Heinrich, Doktor Goebbels (London, 1968) 82.Google Scholar This warning was repeated by the member of the Reichstag Goebbels in 5 February 1931. See, Deuerlein, Ernst, ed., Der Aufstieg der NSDAP in Augenzeugenberichten (München, 1974) 347–348.Google Scholar

17 I. Müller, supra n. 7, at 29; Deuerlein, ibid., at 327–339.

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19 “Es würde nicht etwa die Politik juridifiziert, sondern die Justiz politisiert”; “Mißbrauch der Justizförmigkeit”. Carl Schmitt, (1929) ibid., at 97–100.

20 Kempner, Robert M., Der Verpaßte Nazi-Stopp (Frankfurt, 1983).Google Scholar

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22 Gumbel, Emil, Zwei Jahre politischer Mord (Berlin, 1921)Google Scholar; idem., Denkschrift des Reichsjustizministers zu ‘Vier Jahre politischer Mord’ (Berlin, 1924); idem., Vom Fememord zur Reichskanzlei (Heidelberg, 1962).

23 Müller, supra n. 7, at 25.

24 Ibid., at 28.

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26 Gumbel, Emil, Vier Jahre, 92.Google Scholar

27 Blasius, supra n. 25, at 106.

28 Müller, supra n. 7, at 30–31; Herbert, Ulrich, Best. Biographische Studien über Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft 1903–1989 (Bonn, 1996) 112–119.Google Scholar

29 Heiber, supra n. 21, at 81.

30 Münch, Ingo von, ed., Gesetze des NS-Staates (Paderborn, 1994) Doc. 1, 25–27, 45–48, 55.Google Scholar

31 Stolleis, supra n. 2.

32 Cf. Friedrich, Jörg, Freispruch für die Nazi-Justiz (Reinbek, 1983) 54–58.Google Scholar

33 Stolleis, supra n. 2, at 155–166.

34 Weber, Petra, Carlo Schmid 1896–1979 (München, 1996) 613–618.Google Scholar