Guest lecture: Das Private vor Gericht. Verhandlungen des Eigenen im Zivil- und Strafrecht 1933-1945

The tension between private life and state regulatory power rarely becomes as clear as in court hearings. In legal proceedings, private matters must be disclosed, judicial investigations and decisions can restrict, destroy or permit individual interests and spaces. The way in which the Nazi legal system dealt with this access reveals the relationship of the National Socialist dictatorship to privacy and self-determination.

The research project presented here examines Nazi legal practice in three areas of private life: First, divorce proceedings form the core of the investigation. Second, the intervention of the regime in private property will be analysed, above all on the basis of seizure and foreclosure proceedings. The project investigates which properties were considered inalienable and what was removed from individual access in the name of 'community interest'. Third, it deals with the private expression of opinion as a persecutory offence of politicised Nazi justice. How far did the National Socialist intervention in private spaces and the intimate sphere of the thoughts of individuals go? The project approaches this question, of instance, by means of proceedings for violations of the 'Heimtückegesetz' (1934).

Image: 'Reichsgesetzblatt 1934', Part I, Page 1269.