The Volksgerichshof (VGH) and Roland Freisler both had an important role in the criminal justice system of Nazi Germany. The VGH was meant to be a court for treason cases, but under Roland Freisler, its purpose was to remove those who did not obey the system of Nazi Germany. In Freisler’s mind, the law was bendable to what the Nazi Regime believed was right. Through Freisler, the law was no longer a system to serve justice, but rather, it became a weapon to punish the enemies of the German state.
On April 24th, 1934, the VGH was established by law for the Amendment of Criminal Law and Procedure. Upon its establishment, the VGH exclusively received jurisdiction over high treason and state treason from the Supreme Court (Reichsgericht). Attacks against the state were considered as high treason, and attacks against the state involving a foreign government were considered as state treason.
Besides those two categories, the VGH had jurisdiction over other tree categories of crime, of which nature overlapped. The other three categories were preparation for high treason, undermining national defense, and favoring the enemy. Acts like spreading anti-regime propaganda or even making political jokes could have been or had been included in the last two categories because of their uncertain nature.
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The VGH had no regards for precedents and acted as a perfect tool for the Nazi Regime. The law became whatever as Hitler and his followers saw fit, and the VGH enforced it with precision. There were no respect for regularity or standards of established law under the VGH, instead there were only terror as it carried out its punishments. On the prosecution of the July 20 plot defendants, Roland Freisler ordered that they would be dressed in oversized and shabby clothes, and then proceeded to constantly insult, interrupt them and denying their attempts to make any defense in the court. Freisler stripped the court of any formalities and standards, and then concluded it with the death penalty to the defendants.
Before becoming the head figure of the VGH, Roland Freisler was a lawyer, and a part of the extreme right-wing Völkisch-Sozialer Bund before joining the Nazi Party. As a supporter of the Regime, Freisler defended many Nazi members in court. With more successful defenses of Nazi members, he quickly ascended through the ranks. He became the state secretary in the Prussian Ministry of Justice after the Nazi seizure of power, and then served as state secretary in the Reich Justice Ministry until he was appointed as the president of the VGH in 1942. Freisler’s operations in the VGH was a demonstration of his views. He did not accept that laws were to have exclusively prospective effect.
