People's Court (Germany)

The People's Court (German: Volksgerichtshof pronounced [ˈfɔlksɡəˌʁɪçt͡shoːf] ^ⓘ acronymed to VGH) was a Nazi tribunal established in 1934 to try political crimes such as treason. It became one of the most notorious instruments of state terror in the Third Reich, and is associated with summary justice, execution, and denial of civil and legal rights.

The court was created on 24 April 1934, in response to acquittals in the Reichstag fire trial, and building on precedents such as the Bavarian People's Court. Based on factors such as the stab-in-the-back myth, the Enabling Act, and the Führerprinzip, the court aimed to impose severe penalties on the Nazis’ enemies under a facade of legality.

Initially the court maintained some semblance of legal procedure but progressively abandoned all pretense of independence. During the 1936–1942 presidency of Otto Georg Thierack the court expanded its jurisdiction and openly declared itself a political weapon. With the start of World War II, prosecutions grew exponentially, and as the war turned against Germany sentences grew harsher, with the execution rate jumping from 5% to 46% under Judge-President Roland Freisler. After Freisler's death in an air raid, the court continued under Harry Haffner before dissolving in April 1945.

The People's Court rejected liberal legal principles, including judicial independence, due process, the right to appeal, and the right to counsel. It also operated on the principle of punishing "criminal mentality" rather than crimes defined in law and used a broad interpretation of “preparation for treason” to impose the death penalty for acts such as telling anti-Nazi jokes and listening to foreign radio stations.

Between 1937 and 1945, the court heard over 14,000 cases and condemned over 5,000 people to death. Victims included resistance members, communists, and those considered disloyal to the Nazi regime. The 1944 show trials of the participants in the plot to kill Adolf Hitler are infamous for Freisler’s attempts to berate and humiliate the defendants.

After the war, most People's Court judges escaped justice, and at least 29 People's Court judges and 69 prosecutors went on to work in the West German court system. However, in 1985, the West German Bundestag declared that the People's Court was an instrument of judicial murder and state terrorism, stating "The Volksgerichtshof was an instrument of state-sanctioned terror, which served one single purpose, which was the destruction of political opponents. Behind a juridical facade, state-sanctioned murder was committed", and in 1998 all judgments of the People’s Court were annulled by German Federal Law.

H.W. Koch states that three main features of Germany's history led to the creation of the People's Court:

In addition, whilst Hitler disliked laws and lawyers as a constraint on his freedom of action, he was also concerned to keep up a facade of legality to his actions, a process now known as autocratic legalism. He openly stated that, "we take recourse to democratic means only to win power," and that "what forces us to use such means is the constitution".