The legal system of Germany in 1933–1945: mentality in the categories of a concrete order

Abstract

The essence of any legal system in the concrete state depends on what is actually recognized in it as the main source of law.

The sources of the national-socialist law traditionally were the types of standard legal thinking. The best-known model of such standardization is mentality [in the categories] of a concrete order (konkretes Ordnungsdenken ,with its aim as not so far to excuse a crime but rather to publicly “glorify” a criminal as a result of which the latter seemed a superman (Übermensch) to himself and the others. It was such type of thinking that was subject to formation, which, in turn, stemmed from three proceeding sources, that is: theory of probability, Maurice Hauriou’s theory of judicial institutionalism and theory of judicial Neo-Hegelianism. Within the above mentioned theories, the author attempts to analyze the conception of subhuman combining it with such methods of enforcement as the general clauses relating to the legal system of the Third Reich that derives from the Holy Vehmic courts (Femgericht) (also spelt Feme), the tribunal system in Germany during the late Middle Ages.

After the analysis having been done the author came to the conclusion that the legal system and political ideology of the Third Reich was aimed at the formation of the standard national mentality that defined people’s behavior in the direction desired for German Nazism.