. NMT03-T0126
Volume III · Page 126
12. Retrospectiveness of penal laws and legal analogy — Dr. Aschenauer and Dr. Schilf. 13.
Types of perpetrators — Dr. Schubert.
14. Military penal law — Dr. Koessl.
15. Independence of judges and directive measures — Dr. Aschenauer and Dr. Schilf.
16. Law of pardon — myself.
17. Execution of sentence — Dr. Marx.
18. Lynch law — Dr. Orth.
19. Sterilization and Euthanasia — Dr. Orth and myself.
20. Conspiracy and Control Council Law No. 10 — Dr. Haensel, Dr. Doetzer, and Dr. Wandschneider.
May I now begin making my statement for the defendant Schlegelberger?
PRESIDING JUDGE BRAN: Do you have that in the translated form for us? We have it, thank you.
Defendant Schlegelberger¹
DR. KUBUSCHOK: If, in my statement concerning the defense in general² as I have just pointed out that the administration of justice in the National Socialist State cannot be judged separately but must be judged in the light of the whole administration of the Reich and its head, the dictatorship, I shall have to refer thus in defending the defendant Schlegelberger again and again to his personality, quite apart from dealing with the objective facts as propounded by the prosecution in order to judge and interpret actions in their proper light.
Franz Schlegelberger was, after many years of service to both the administration of justice and the jurisprudence, already Under Secretary when Hitler came to power. He kept this position until August 1942 when Hitler, according to his pronouncements wanted to build up a National Socialist administration of justice. Schlegelberger had always been dealing with civil law. We will outline this, his activity, in general. When in January 1941 after the death of the Minister of Justice Gaertner, he took over the administration of the Ministry of Justice as the then oldest Under Secretary according to rank, so to speak; only then did he, in this
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¹ Tr. pp. 4084-4089.
² The general opening statement on behalf of all defendants is reproduced immediately above, section. III B.
