DOCUMENTS OF GERMAN POLITICS
[Dokumente der deutschen Politik]
" Edited by
Reg. Rat Paul Meier-Benneckenstein Vol. 3
GERMANY'S ROAD TO FREEDOM
1935
Compiled by Dr. Axel Friedrichs 1937
Publishers Junker & Duennhaupt Berlin. Page 305.
A law which originates from the rule: Nulla poena sine lege regards only such an action as illegal which violates an existing clause of a punitive law. Whatever is not forbidden and threatened with punishment is to be considered to be permissible. Such a law follows from the conception of formal wrong. National Socialism substitutes for the conception of formal wrong the idea of factual wrong: it considers every attack against the welfare of the people's community, every violation of the requirements of the life of a nation as wrong. Therefore wrong may be committed in the future in Germany even in cases when no law threatens it with punishment. Even without the threat of punishment every violation of the goals of life which the community sets up for itself is a wrong. As a result, the law gives up all claim to be an exclusive source for the determination of right and wrong. What is right may be learned aside from the law from the thought about right which stands behind the law and may not have found a perfect expression in it. The law certainly continues to be the most important source for the determination of the right; because the leaders of a people announce their will in the law. However, the legislator is aware of the fact that he cannot give exhaustive regulations for all the situations in life; therefore he entrusts the judge with tilling the remaining gaps. Maybe I can best explain our concepts to you by means of a simile: as the commander-inchief conducts a battle with his orders, in the same way the legislator conducts the fight against crime by means of the punitive code. Every commander-in-chief will be faced with situations in which he has to trust that his subordinate leaders, within the frame of the entirety of his intentions, will supplement his will by individual orders which they have to give independently, even if within the frame of the whole. In such situations the commander-in-chief will give one order only: Act according to the situation ! Similarly, the legislator will find situations in life in which he has to trust that the judge will make the right decision by
2549-PS
himself within the frame of the entirety of the goals which were set by the legislation. In such cases in the fight against the criminal, the legislator can give one order only to the judge on the way: Act according to the situation! He can give to the judge only the assignment to find the punishment which he deems to be appropriate when he directs his glance upon the whole and when he interprets the existing regulations not literally but according to their spirit and basic thoughts.
Extract from a book, on the punishment of wrongful acts against the welfare of the community, whether or not they have been formally identified in criminal law
Authors
Axel Friedrichs (Dr., book editor (1935))
Axel Friedrichs
- Additional details not yet available.
Documents of German Politics (Dokumente der Deutschen Politik, serial)
Date: 1935
Literal Title: "Documents of German Politics" . . . "Germany's Road to Freedom"
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2549
Citation: IMT (page 255)
HLSL Item No.: 450371
Notes:"Germany's Road" was published in 1935 and then republished in "Documents" in 1937.