Hilde Benjamin ( Lange; 5 February 1902 – 18 April 1989) was an
East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
judge and Minister of Justice of the
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
. She is most notorious for presiding over the East German
show trial
A show trial is a public trial in which the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of both the accusation and the verdict to the public so th ...
s of the 1950s, which drew comparisons to the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
's
Volksgericht show trials under Judge
Roland Freisler
Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945), a German Nazi jurist, judge, and politician, served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1934 to 1942 and as President of the People's Court from 1942 to 1945.
As ...
. Hilde Benjamin is particularly known for being responsible for the politically motivated prosecution of
Erna Dorn and
Ernst Jennrich
Ernst Jennrich (15 November 1911 – 20 March 1954) worked as a gardener with an agricultural/horticultural cooperative in East Germany. He was a family man with four young sons. He did not smoke or drink: he could not even shoot straight. Overni ...
. In his 1994 inauguration speech German President
Roman Herzog
Roman Herzog (; 5 April 1934 – 10 January 2017) was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as the president of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first president to be elec ...
cited Hilde Benjamin as a symbol of
totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...
and
injustice
Injustice is a quality relating to unfairness or undeserved outcomes. The term may be applied in reference to a particular event or situation, or to a larger status quo. In Western philosophy and jurisprudence, injustice is very commonly—but n ...
, and called both her name and legacy incompatible with the
German Constitution
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
and with the
rule of law
The rule of law is the political philosophy that all citizens and institutions within a country, state, or community are accountable to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. The rule of law is defined in the ''Encyclopedia Britannica ...
.
[Andrea Feth: ''Hilde Benjamin: 1902–1989,'' in ]
Neue Justiz
', 2/2002, p. 64 ff.
Life
Childhood and education
Hilde Lange was born in
Bernburg
Bernburg (Saale) is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, capital of the Salzlandkreis district. The former residence of the Anhalt-Bernburg princes is known for its Renaissance architecture, Renaissance castle.
Geography
The town centre is situated ...
,
Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
, and grew up in Berlin, in to a middle class and liberal minded
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
family, the daughter of the engineer Heinz Lange and his wife, Adele. Growing up in the culturally inclined liberal ambience of a middle-class family awakened in her an early interest in
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
and
German literature
German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...
: this would stay with her throughout her life.
In 1921 she successfully completed her school career at the
Fichtenberg High School in
Steglitz on the south side of
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
.
She was among the first women to study the
law of Germany
The law of Germany (german: das Recht Deutschlands), that being the modern German legal system (german: Deutsches Rechtssystem), is a system of civil law which is founded on the principles laid out by the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of G ...
, which she did at Berlin,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
, and
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
from 1921 to 1924.
Politics and early career
Afterwards, she worked as a practicing attorney in Berlin-
Wedding
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
for the
Rote Hilfe
The Rote Hilfe ("Red Aid") was the German affiliate of the International Red Aid. The Rote Hilfe was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany and existed between 1924 and 1936. Its purpose was to provide help to those Communists who had bee ...
, a Communist aid organization. In 1926 she married the medical doctor, Georg Benjamin, the brother of writer
Walter Benjamin
Walter Bendix Schönflies Benjamin (; ; 15 July 1892 – 26 September 1940) was a German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist.
An eclectic thinker, combining elements of German idealism, Romanticism, Western Marxism, and Jewish mys ...
and of her friend, the academic
Dora Benjamin. Georg and Hilde's son,
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
was born at the end of 1932.
In 1926 she quit the moderate left-wing
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
and in 1927 joined her husband in the
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. Because of her political convictions, she was
forbidden to practice law after 1933. Briefly jobless, with her husband removed to
a concentration camp (from which, on this occasion, he was released later in the year) directly after the
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire (german: Reichstagsbrand, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of ...
, she returned for a time to live with her parents along with her small son: she then obtained a position providing legal advice for the Soviet trade association in Berlin. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, she was forced to work in a factory from 1939–45. Her Jewish husband was killed at the
KZ Mauthausen
Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with nearly 100 further subcamps located throughout Austria and southern Germany ...
in 1942.
Post war in the German Democratic Republic
After the war, she joined the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...
(SED) in 1946 and was vice president of the
Supreme Court of the German Democratic Republic
The Supreme Court of the German Democratic Republic (german: Oberstes Gericht der DDR) was the highest judicial organ of the East Germany, GDR. It was set up in 1949 and was housed on Scharnhorststraße 6 in Berlin. The building now houses the ...
(GDR) from 1949 to 1953. In that capacity, she assisted with the Waldheim Trials and presided over a series of show trials against those identified as political undesirables, such as
Johann Burianek and
Wolfgang Kaiser, as well as against
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The group reports a worldwide membership of approximately 8.7 million adherents involved in ...
.
Her behavior and statements from the bench and regular
death sentences
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
earned Hilde Benjamin the nicknames, "Red Hilde", "The Red
Freisler," and, "The Red
Guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...
."
[ John O. Koehler (1999), ''Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police'', page 60.]
From 1949 to 1967 she was a member of the
Volkskammer
__NOTOC__
The Volkskammer (, ''People's Chamber'') was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (colloquially known as East Germany).
The Volkskammer was initially the lower house of a bicameral legislature. The upper house ...
and from 1954 to 1989, a member of the
Central Committee
Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...
of the SED. In 1953, she succeeded
Max Fechner as
Minister of Justice
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...
. GDR leader
Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in ...
asked her to resign in 1967, ostensibly for health reasons.
Benjamin was instrumental in authoring the penal code and the code of penal procedure of the GDR and played a decisive role in the reorganization of the country's legal system. From 1967 to her death, she held the chair for the history of the judiciary at the ''Deutsche Akademie für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaft'' in Potsdam-Babelsberg. She died in
East Berlin
East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...
in April 1989.
Recognition
Benjamin received several awards in the GDR: in 1962 the
Patriotic Order of Merit
The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...
, in 1977 and 1987 the
Order of Karl Marx
The Order of Karl Marx () was the most important order in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The award of the order also included a prize of 20,000 East German marks.
The order was founded on May 5, 1953 on the occasion of Karl Marx's 135th ...
, in 1979 the title of Meritorious Jurist of the GDR (''Verdiente Juristin der DDR''), and in 1982 the
Star of People's Friendship
The Star of People's Friendship (german: Stern der Völkerfreundschaft), Star of Nations' Friendship, was an order awarded by the German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Ge ...
.
Literature
* Andrea Feth, ''Hilde Benjamin – Eine Biographie'', Berlin 1995
* Marianne Brentzel, ''Die Machtfrau Hilde Benjamin 1902–1989'', Berlin 1997
* Heike Wagner, ''Hilde Benjamin und die Stalinisierung der DDR-Justiz'', Aachen 1999
* Heike Amos, ''Kommunistische Personalpolitik in der Justizverwaltung der SBZ/DDR (1945–1953) : Vom liberalen Justizfachmann
Eugen Schiffer
Eugen Schiffer (14 February 1860 – 5 September 1954) was a German lawyer and liberal politician. He served as Minister of Finance and deputy head of government from February to April 1919. From October 1919 to March 1920, he was again deputy h ...
über den Parteifunktionär
Max Fechner zur kommunistischen Juristin Hilde Benjamin'', in: Gerd Bender, Recht im Sozialismus : Analysen zur Normdurchsetzung in osteuropäischen Nachkriegsgesellschaften (1944/45-1989)'', Frankfurt am Main 1999, Seiten 109–145.
* ''Zwischen Recht und Unrecht – Lebensläufe deutscher Juristen'', Justizministerium NRW 2004, S. 144–146
References
External links
*
FemBiographie: Hilde Benjaminat ddr-im-www.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Hilde
1902 births
1989 deaths
People from Bernburg
People from the Duchy of Anhalt
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Members of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
People from East Berlin
Justice ministers of Germany
Members of the Provisional Volkskammer
Members of the 1st Volkskammer
Members of the 2nd Volkskammer
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
Democratic Women's League of Germany members
Women government ministers of East Germany
Female members of the Volkskammer
Female justice ministers
20th-century German judges
East German judges
German women judges
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit
20th-century women judges
East German women