Personal Addresses of Berlin Judges

[Berlin]: Strafgefängnis Berlin-Tegel, 1935.

295 by 210 mm (11 ¹⁄₂ by 8 ¹⁄₄ inches).

Original wrappers; [2] 120 pp. Printed by prison labor. In German.

Overall very good. Wrappers merely good; they are partially torn at the spine; grease pencil notation ​“Herrn LgR Dr. Pellmann” on the cover. ​“LgR” stands for ​“Landgerichtsrat” (i.e. Judge).

This book describes the bureaucratic structure of the Berlin ​“Landgericht”. The Landgericht is similar to American superior courts. Today, the Landgericht addresses major cases, defined as civil cases with at least 5,000 Euros in dispute, and criminal matters with the possibility of prison sentences over four years.

Of great interest is the index of all judges, their home addresses, and personal telephone numbers [​“Verzeichnis der Wohnungen der richterlichen Beamten…”]; pp. 105–118. Given the book’s rarity, this information may otherwise be unobtainable to those researching justice and the judicial system during German National Socialism.

Judge Dr. Pellmann is listed in the book and presumably this was his personal copy. Dr. Pellmann is also listed as entry 82 in Yesterday Hitler’s Bloodstained Judges, Today Bonn’s Legal Élite, presented at the International Press Conference on May 23, 1957 in Berlin. From that report we learn that Dr. Pellmann sentenced five Frenchmen to death for ​“alleged crimes against Nazi special laws.” The condemned were executed in August 1944. There was no recourse against Dr. Pellmann, who after the war became director of the courts in Düsseldorf.

Exceedingly rare and apparently only one copy worldwide. No copies in OCLC. One copy in KVK, at the Library of the German Supreme Court (“Bundesgerichtshof”).