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| G. Legal Opinion of Defense Witness Schmidt on the Responsibility
of Individual Members of the Managing Board of a Joint Stock
Corporation |
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TRANSLATION OF
DOCUMENT VON KNIERIEM 39 GENERAL DEFENSE EXHIBIT
280 |
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EXPERT LEGAL OPINION OF DR. WALTER SCHMIDT,
3 MAY 1948
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| Dr.
WALTER SCHMIDT |
3 May
1948 |
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| Attorney-at-Law and Notary Public |
Berlin-Charlottenburg
Lindenallee 7
Tel.:
979481 |
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I have been asked by the
defense in Case VI, Military Tribunals, Nuernberg (United States of America
versus Carl Krauch et al.), (I.G. Farbenindustrie A.G.), to give
an expert legal opinion on the following question:
What, in German
corporation law, is the significance of a distribution between the various
members of the Vorstand, of the functions of the Vorstand, with respect to the
responsibility of individual Vorstand members for their conduct of business?
I have been asked to give an expert legal opinion on this subject
because I have been working on the practical and theoretical problems connected
with commercial law, and especially with laws relating to stock corporations,
ever since I became an attorney, in 1919, and was made a partner of the well
known experts on international commercial law, Geheimer Justizrat Maximilian
Kempner and Justizrat Albert Pinner in Berlin. I should like to mention the
following literary accomplishments:
(1) contributed to the 5th edition
of Hachenburg's commentary on the law concerning Gesellschaften mit
beschraenkter Haftung (Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1926/27);
(2)
published a commentary on the decree on corporation law, dated 19 September
1931, in collaboration with Justizrat Dr. Albert Pinner and Dr. Heinz Pinner
(Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1932);
(3) contributed to Staub's
commentary on commercial law, vol. 2, Corporation Law, 14th edition (Walter de
Gruyter & Co., 1933);
(4) revised the articles of incorporation of
the Aktiengesell- […schaften] |
405 |
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