Franz Schlegelberger

[Boby]

Any info of him????

I only have this:
Reichsjustizminister (m.d.F.d.G.b) in 1941/1942

Thanks in advance

[Georges JEROME]

23.10.1876 at Königsberg
Prof , dr jur, dr rel pol
richter /judge
1918 mitarbeiter u geheimer rat im justizminiterium /civil servant and secret counsellor in Justice Ministery
1931 oct staatssekretar in RJ ministerium
30.1.38 nsdap
1941 jan md F d Geschafte des RJ minister beauftragt
1942 august release by Hitler

Georges

[David Thompson]

Schlegelberger, Dr. jur. Franz (1875-1970) – assistant Judge, Königsberg; District Court Judge, Lyck 1904; Judge, Berlin 1908; assistant Judge, Berlin Court of Appeals autumn 1908; councillor at the Berlin Court of Appeals 1914-1918; assistant in the Reich Board of Justice 1 Apr 1918; Privy Government Councillor and department chief, Reich Board of Justice 1 Oct 1918; Ministerial Director (Ministerialdirektor) in the Reich Ministry of Justice 1927; State Secretary (Staatssekretär) for the Reich Justice Ministry 10 Oct 1933-29 Jan 1941; ordered to join NSDAP by Hitler 1938; acting Reich Justice Minister 29 Jan 1941-20 Aug 1942; signed Night and Fog (Nacht und Nebel) Decree authorization 7 Feb 1942; resigned from Reich Ministry of Justice 20 Aug 1942 {indicted by an American military tribunal in the "Justice Case" 4 Jan 1947 (NYT 5 Jan 1947:37:3); put on trial for "instituting and supporting procedures for the wholesale persecution of Jews and Poles" 27 Aug 1947 (NYT 28 Aug 1947:12:2; NYT 14 Oct 1947:5:6); convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity 3 Dec 1947 (NYT 4 Dec 1947:12:4), with the court noting: "We are under no misapprehension. Schlegelberger is a tragic character. He loved the life of an intellect, the work of a scholar. We believe that he loathed the evil that he did, but he sold that intellect and that scholarship to Hitler for a mess of political pottage and for the vain hope of personal security"; sentenced to life imprisonment 4 Dec 1947 (NYT 5 Dec 1947:9:1; LT 5 Dec 1947:3e); release for ill health announced 29 Dec 1950 (NYT 30 Dec 1950:8:7); released from American custody at Landsberg-am-Lech prison 4 Feb 1951 (LT 5 Feb 1951:6c); exonerated by Schleswig- Holstein denazification tribunal 1951; died 1970 (Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Countrol Council Law No. 10, vol. III, pps. 15-26 [Indictment], pps. 954-1201 [Opinion, Judgment and Sentences]; Holo Ency 1789-1790; Encyclopedia of the Third Reich pps. 836-7; Good Old Days pps. 29-30; "Hitler's Legacy" Biographical index; http://www.justiz.bayern.de/kastner_jp.htm).}

[Boby]

Thanks JEROME and David!

Regards

[Tamari]

Hello to all of you,

I would like to add specific information about Franz Schlegelberger's son Leutnant Dr. phil Günther Schlegelberger.

While Schlegelbergers younger son Hartwig (*1913) was an Oberstabsrichter at the Marinekriegsamt Berlin and had particpated in his function as an attorney general in numerous death sentences (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartwig_Schlegelberger), information about Günther Schlegelbergers military career were pretty rare.

(https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnt ... egelberger)

But then I had found in the interrogation report of Oberleutnant Murad Ferid (source: British National Archive KV-2-2138_2 Murad Ferid, pages 17 und 27) a passage that a Leutnant "Forename Unknown (FNU)" Schlegelberger is the son of Staatssekretär Schlegelberger. Due to the fact that Hartwig Schlegelberger was at that time a Naval lawyer, it was obvious that the Leutnant who was mentioned by Ferid must be Franz Schlegelberger's older son Dr. phil. Günther Schlegelberger.

Günther Schlegelberger was in 1944 second-in-command of the Frontaufklärungskommando 205 (FAK 205) in Slovakia which was subordinated to Frontaufklärungsleitstelle II Südost in Vienna and was led by Major Friedrich Brandt.

It seems that Schlegelberger later in the war had also belonged to FAK 206 in Budapest (later Györ) under the command of the old Abwehr warhorse Hauptmann Kurt Reinhard. On this position he acted as liaison man to Hungarian anti-soviet infiltration and stay-behind agents/ partisans (source: Biddiscombe, Perry: The SS-Hunter Battalions“, S. 117).

After the war Dr. Günther Schlegelberger had once again joined the Auswärtiges Amt (AA) and died on the 23rd of March 1974 in Panama-City, where he was accredited as the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Best regards

Robert

[Michael Miller]

Hello, Robert.

Belated thanks for sharing this fascinating information.

Best wishes,
~ Mike

[Tamari]

Hello Michael,

thank you for your kind regard.

There a more little treasures in these files regarding Abwehr's personell. In general, some interesting people had served with the Abwehr and its FAK and FAT: sons of (former) ambassadors, professors and doctors for archeology, law, economics, history and pre-war politicians and NS functionaries of the SA and the HJ.

Per example Hans-Albert Reinkemeyer (later officer in a FAT) had studied law in Poland and had a polish aquaintance before the war and became after the war an expert for the Soviet-Union within the Auswärtiges Amt of the Federal Republic of Germany and a personal friend of the late US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński.

Best regards

Robert.