Franz Gürtner

Wilhelm Canaris

Franz Gürtner, the son of a a locomotive engineer, was born in Regensburg, on 16th February, 1891. After being educated locally he studied law at the University of Munich. On the outbreak of the First World War he joined the German Army and served on the Western Front. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of captain.

Gürtner returned to legal work in 1919. He joined the German Nationalist People's Party (DNVP) and in 1922 he became the Minister of Justice in Bavaria. According to his biographer, Louis L. Snyder, he developed a close relationship with Adolf Hitler and did much to "promote his career". At the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 he became "Hitler's protector."

William L. Shirer, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1964), has pointed out: "From beginning to end he dominated the courtroom. Franz Gürtner, the Bavarian Minister of Justice and an old friend and protector of the Nazi leader, had seen to it that the judiciary would be complacent and lenient. Hitler was allowed to interrupt as often as he pleased, cross-examine witnesses at will and speak on his own behalf at any time and at any length - his opening statement consumed four hours, but it was only the first of many long harangues."

Gürtner also obtained Hitler's release from Landsberg Prison despite the opposition of the state attorney's office. Alan Bullock the author of Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952) has argued: While the Minister of the Interior, Franz Schweyer, was hostile and had already proposed Hitler's deportation to Austria, the new Minister-President, Knilling, and the Minister of Justice, Gürtner, saw in the Nazi movement a force to be put to good use, if it could only be kept in hand."

On 22nd September 1924, the Bavarian State Police submitted a report to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior recommending Hitler's deportation. "The moment he is set free, Hitler will, because of his energy, again become the driving force of new and serious public riots and a menace to the security of the State. Hitler will, because of his energy, again become the driving force of new and serious public riots and a menace to the security of the State. Hitler will resume his political activities, and the hope of the nationalists and racists that he will succeed in removing the present dissensions among the para-military troops will be fulfilled." Thanks to the intervention of Gürtner, the threat of deportation was averted.

Gürtner also came to Hitler's aid after the death of his niece, Geli Raubal. Officially, Geli killed herself on 18th September, 1931. She was aged 23 and had been having a sexual relationship with her uncle for over two years. The anti-Nazi press published stories suggesting that Adolf Hitler was romantically involved with Geli and that he had murdered her because she was expecting a child by a Jewish music teacher. There was no inquest, and only one doctor examined her body before it was released, taken out the country and buried in Vienna. One of the advantages of having the body taken across the frontier was that this would rule out any possibility of exhuming her for an inquest.

In June 1932 Chancellor Franz von Papen appointed Gürtner as Minister of Justice. According to Alan Bullock has pointed out: "Of its ten members, none of whom was a political figure of the front rank, seven belonged to the nobility with known right-wing views. Of the remainder, Professor Warmbold, the Minister of Economics, was connected with the great Dye Trust, I.G. Farben, the Minister of Labour, was a director of Krupps; while the Minister of Justice, Franz Gürtner, was the Bavarian Minister who had most persistently protected Hitler in the 1920s."

Gürtner held the post under Adolf Hitler. In this position he nominated all judges, public prosecutors, and officers of the law. In 1934 Gürtner played a role in legitimizing the Night of the Long Knives, when hundreds of critics of Hitler were executed. Gürtner demonstrated his loyalty to the Nazi regime by writing a law that legalized the murders committed during the purge. Gürtner argued it was "justified as a means of State defense." Gürtner even quashed some initial efforts by local prosecutors to take legal action against those who carried out the murders. Gürtner was also involved in writing the Nuremberg Laws.

In the opening months of the Second World War Gürtner set up a system of courts to try Jews and Poles in the occupied lands in the east. According to Gürtner Gürtner played an important role in giving "official sanction to any act of dictatorship". Hitler was "always insistent on strict legality, relied on his Minister of Justice to find legal grounds for his government's actions."

On 8th July, 1940, Lothar Kreyssig, sent a letter to Gürtner complaining about the treatment of the disabled and prisoners in concentration camps. "What is right is what benefits the people. In the name of this frightful doctrine - as yet, uncontradicted by any guardian of rights in Germany - entire sectors of communal living are excluded from [having] rights, for example, all the concentration camps, and now, all hospitals and sanatoriums."

Kreyssig then filed a charge against Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler for murder. On 13th November, 1940, Kreyssig was summoned by the Minister of Justice. Gürtner laid before him Hitler's personal letter that had started the euthanasia program and which constituted the sole legal basis for it. Kreyssig replied, "The Führer's word does not create a right." Gürtner dismissed Kreyssig from his post, telling him, "If you cannot recognise the will of the Führer as a source of law, then you cannot remain a judge."

In the opening months of the Second World War Gürtner set up a system of courts to try Jews and Poles in the occupied lands in the east. According to Gürtner Gürtner played an important role in giving "official sanction to any act of dictatorship". Hitler was "always insistent on strict legality, relied on his Minister of Justice to find legal grounds for his government's actions."

Franz Gürtner died in Berlin on 29th January, 1941.

Primary Sources

(1) Alan Bullock, Hitler: A Study in Tyranny (1952)

While the Minister of the Interior, Franz Schweyer, was hostile and had already proposed Hitler's deportation to Austria, the new Minister-President, Knilling, and the Minister of Justice, Gürtner, saw in the Nazi movement a force to be put to good use, if it could only be kept in hand.

(2) William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1964)

Franz Gürtner, the Bavarian Minister of Justice and an old friend and protector of the Nazi leader, had seen to it that the judiciary would be complacent and lenient. Hitler was allowed to interrupt as often as he pleased, cross-examine witnesses at will and speak on his own behalf at any time and at any length - his opening statement consumed four hours, but it was only the first of many long harangues.

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