Oswald Freisler (29 December 1895 in Hamelin – 4 March 1939 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) was a lawyer in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

and the brother of the Judge President of the People's Court,

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 ...

Life

Freisler attended the '' Gymnasium'' in Aachen and Kassel, where in 1914 he passed his '' Abitur''. He studied law in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. In February 1924, he opened a law firm with his brother

in Kassel. Oswald Freisler joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

in 1927 and was a member of the

National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals The National Socialist Association of Legal Professionals (German: ''Nationalsozialistischer Rechtswahrerbund'', or NSRB) was the professional organization of German legal professionals ( lawyers, judges, public prosecutors, notaries and lega ...

. From 1933, he was ''

Gauführer ''Gauführer'' was an early paramilitary rank used by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) between 1925 and 1929. Translated as "SS-region leader", the ''SS-Gauführer'' had command of several ''SS-Stafflen'' which were in turn commanded by an ''SS- Staff ...

'' in Kassel and a member of the

Academy for German Law The Academy for German Law (german: Akademie für deutsches Recht) was an institute for legal research and reform founded on 26 June 1933 in Nazi Germany. After suspending its operations during the Second World War in August 1944, it was abolished ...

, and in the same year he became president of the bar association in Kassel. In 1936, he took over the Berlin office of Jewish lawyer Johannes Werthauer, who left Germany in 1933 in order to teach at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

. Although a Nazi, Freisler appeared as defence counsel in politically significant trials which the Nazis sought to use for propaganda purposes. He wore his Nazi Party badge in court, which led to confusion over the Party's role in the trials. In 1937, on behalf of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, Freisler took over the defence of three co-defendants in the trial of Joseph C. Rossaint, a resistance fighter against National Socialism, and won an acquittal, much to the displeasure of the Nazi Party. In response, Joseph Goebbels asked

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

to personally exclude Freisler from the party. On 30 April 1937, Goebbels observed with satisfaction, "Freisler expelled from the party by the Führer." In 1939, Freisler mysteriously committed suicide in Berlin after he had been accused of irregularities in the conduct of a defence. There are three versions of Freisler's death. One is that he defenestrated himself from his office, another is that the incident occurred in prison, and the third version is that he injected himself with an overdose of insulin.G. Buchheit. ''Richter in roter Robe.'' p. 277.

Publications

* ''Das System der Ehrenstrafen in der deutschen Vergangenheit und im geltenden Recht und die Frage nach seiner Existenzberechtigung.'' Göttingen 921 Law and political science dissertation from 1 November 1920

References

Bibliography

* Gert Buchheit. ''Richter in roter Robe. Freisler, Präsident des Volksgerichtshofes.'' München: List, 1968; p. 12–13, 276–278 * Short biography in: Werner Schubert, Werner Schmid, Jürgen Regge. ''Akademie für deutsches Recht, 1933–1945: Protokolle der Ausschüsse''; Band 3, Familienrechtsausschuss, p. 43 {{DEFAULTSORT:Freisler, Oswald 1895 births 1939 suicides 1939 deaths Jurists from Lower Saxony Lawyers in the Nazi Party Members of the Academy for German Law Nazis who committed suicide in Germany People from Hamelin People from Kassel Roland Freisler