Published on 21 September 2016
The highest instance in the German judiciary was the German Supreme Provincial Court in Prague, with jurisdiction over the whole Protectorate. There were also the German provincial courts in Prague and Brno, with jurisdiction over Bohemia and Moravia respectively, which were subject to the Supreme Court. Unlike the Czech (protectorate) system, the local German court system had only three levels. A total of 12 German official courts were set up after 1939.
After the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, dual administration was established on its territory. On the one hand, there was the autonomous (i.e. “Czech”) administration based on the former Czechoslovak system; on the other hand, an occupation (i.e. German) administration was created, which was in fact superior. The German nationals living in the Protectorate were primarily subject to the occupation administration authorities, and the powers of the authorities of the autonomous administration did not apply to them. However, in many cases the Protectorate’s citizens (or second category citizens), which meant mostly Czechs, fell under the "custody" of the German authorities. Of course, these basic principles applied to judicial authorities, within which the dual administration survived even the reform of the Protectorate system, which introduced administration by command of the Reich into the autonomous system and by so doing actually unified the administration of the Protectorate. Throughout the German occupation, two judicial systems coexisted side by side: the “Czech” (based on the Czechoslovak system) and the German.
The German Protectorate judicial system was established a month after the beginning of the Nazi occupation. The legal basis for the establishment of the German judicial system in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the decree of 14 April 1939. The highest instance in the German judiciary was the German Supreme Provincial Court in Prague ((Deutsches Oberlandesgericht Prag) with jurisdiction over the whole Protectorate. There were also the German provincial courts (Deutsche Landesgerichte) in Prague and Brno, with jurisdiction over Bohemia and Moravia respectively, which were subject to the Supreme Court The lowest level (the first instance) consisted of the German district courts, which used the official designation Deutsches Amtsgericht. Unlike the Czech (Protectorate) system, the German judicial system consisted of only three levels; however, this is quite logical, considering the German majority living on the territory of the Protectorate.
In total, 12 German district courts were established (seven in Bohemia and five in Moravia), with their jurisdiction being defined by the jurisdiction areas of the Protectorate's regional (autonomous, Czech) courts. Some German courts included the area of jurisdiction of two regional courts. German district courts had a seat in the following towns:
A State Prosecutor’s Office was set up at every German district court. Trials were presided over by a single judge; there was no jury. The number of judges varied between individual courts, depending on the size of their jurisdiction area; in Olomouc there were three judges, for example, while in České Budějovice there were four. Only a German national who had passed judicial exams could become a judge. Such a judge was qualified to perform their office anywhere on the territory of the Reich. Court trials did not necessarily take place only at the seats of district courts, but also in other towns (in particular, those with a high ratio of Germans in the population).
It was mostly German nationals that were subject to the German judiciary in the Protectorate, and this also included those Czechs who managed to get German citizenship. In certain criminal matters, persons without German citizenship (mostly citizens of the Protectorate) were also subject to the jurisdiction of the German district courts. This concerned criminal offences for which exclusively German jurisdiction was applied and also private actions filed by German nationals. In other matters, citizens of the Protectorate were subject to the Protectorate (“Czech”) courts. German courts in the Protectorate were completely independent of the autonomous Protectorate judicial system, and their verdicts were announced "on behalf of the German people".
The competences of German courts in the Protectorate in the area of civil and criminal law were further extended by legislation between 1939 and 1940. A special regulation defined the position of Germany notaries, acting under the official title Deutscher Notar. In the area of civil law, German district courts dealt with disputes where at least one of the parties was a German national. Further, they dealt with distraint, bankruptcy and compensation proceedings filed by German nationals. Non-contentious proceedings were taken to German courts if the nationality of a person was determinate and this person was a German national. In this sense, German district courts dealt primarily with family law (divorce proceedings, guardianship, custody, the legal representation of minors), credit law and other disputes concerning requisitions and damage claims (distraints, receivership, forced sale auctions, bankruptcy, check law). They also dealt with cases concerning legal capacity. IIIn addition, land law (Bodenrecht) represented an important agenda for these courts. German district courts held land registers (Grundbücher) for the real-estate property of German citizens of the Protectorate.
A special department was established for matters of inheritance (Erbrecht) within the district courts. Their jurisdiction included matters of hereditary estates (Erbhöfe) under the Reich legislation on hereditary estates (Reichserbhofgesetz) of 1933. The aim of this law was to prevent the division of medium-sized farms (from 7.5 to 125 ha) in inheritance proceedings. This law applied the idea of “blood and soil” (Blut und Boden) promoted by the Reich minister and Nazi ideologist, Richard Walther Darré. The law embodied a strong racist principle. The initial sentence in the preamble of the act refers explicitly to the "Blut und Boden" principle: “By preserving old German hereditary customs, the Reich government wishes to preserve the peasantry as the source of the blood of the German nation.” And so the German district courts held the Hereditary Estate Register (Erbhöferolle). The courts paid special attention to these cases, as they were considered an important part of the “national struggle" in the Protectorate.
Besides German nationals, criminal matters handled by the German courts also concerned citizens of the Protectorate, i.e. Czechs and other groups. These were criminal offences against the German armed forces (the Wehrmacht), against German officials and the NSDAP, and against members of the SA, SS, NSKK and other Nazi organizations in the Protectorate. Serious criminal offences, including those of a political nature, were dealt with by German Supreme Courts, possibly the courts in the Reich (such as the People's Court under the presidentship of the notorious Roland Freisler). The jurisdiction of the district courts in criminal matters was thus limited to offences and was in principle limited to offenses and minor offenses, in particular theft and robbery and the aiding of these offences. In addition to imprisonment (up to one year), the judge of the German district court could impose pecuniary punishment, the loss of civil rights or the prohibition on holding public office, and also castration (Entmannung). By a decree of February 1940, district courts could sentence offenders to up to five years of imprisonment. The courts had their own prisons.
In 1941, the German judicial system in the Protectorate was reorganized via the Decree of the Minister of Justice of 13 March 1941, which amended the decree of April 1939. To the original twelve German district courts, the courts in Hradec Králové and Tábor were added. At the same time, the court in Německý Brod was relocated to Kolín, the court in Hodonín was moved to Uherské Hradiště and the district court in Straconice was moved to Klatovy. The jurisdiction areas of district courts were adjusted to align with the German civil administration of the time. Further, the jurisdiction areas of the district courts were no longer the same as those of the Protectorate regional courts, but were identical to those of the Oberlandrat (OLB), while the German district Court in Prague covered not only the Prague OLB, but also the Kladno OLB, and the court for the Zlín OLB resided in Uherské Hradiště. Due to these changes, some jurisdiction areas of German courts were moved, which affected, for example, the original area of the former German district court in Německý Brod, whose largest part from the spring of 1941 fell under the court in Kolín; but the districts of Polná and Štoky were under the jurisdiction of the district court in Jihlava. In some cases, the German district courts were housed in the buildings of the Oberlandrat, which was the case of Pardubice and Plzeň. The German court in Hradec Králové had its seat in the building of the local district court. In addition, the places outside district court buildings where court proceedings were held were specified. This newly defined system of German district courts survived the reformation of the Protectorate administration whose substantial part came into force in June 1942 - after the dissolution of over half of the existing Oberlandrates, the courts in the same areas remained. The German judicial system in the Protectorate was retained in this form until the end of the Nazi occupation.