“Orders in matters of the Secret State Police are not subject to the review of the administrative courts.” (2107-PS)
Concerning the power of the GESTAPO to act outside the law, the Nazi jurist, Dr. Werner Best, states:
“It is no longer a question of law but a question of fate whether the will of the leadership lays down the ‘right’ rules, i.e., rules feasible and necessary for police action—the ‘police’ law suitable for and beneficial to the people. Actual misuse of the legislative power by a people’s leadership—be it a harmful severity or weakness—will, because of the violations of the ‘laws of life,’ be punished in history more surely by fate itself through misfortune, overthrow and ruin, than by a State Court of Justice.” (1852-PS)
The great power of the GESTAPO was “Schutzhaft”—the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings on the theory of “protective custody.” This power was based upon the law of 28 February 1933 which suspended the clauses of the Weimar Constitution guaranteeing civil liberties to the German people, including Article 114 thereof, which provided that an abridgement of personal liberty was permissible only by authority of law. (2499-PS)
In April 1934 the Reich Minister of the Interior issued a decree (which was not made public) stating that in view of the stabilizing of the national situation it had become feasible to place restrictions upon the exercise of protective custody and providing for limitations upon its exercise. (L-301; 779-PS)
The GESTAPO did not observe such limitations, and the practice of taking people into protective custody increased greatly in 1934. The GESTAPO did not permit lawyers to represent persons taken into protective custody and, in one instance, counsel were themselves placed in protective custody for trying to represent clients. Civil employees were investigated and taken into protective custody by the GESTAPO without knowledge of their superiors. (775-PS)
As of 1 February 1938, the Reich Minister of the Interior rescinded previous decrees relating to protective custody, including the decree of 12 April 1934, and issued new regulations. These regulations provided that protective custody could be ordered:
“* * * as a coercive measure of the Secret State Police against persons who endangered the security of the people and the State through their attitude, in order to counter all aspirations of enemies of the people and State”;
that the GESTAPO had the exclusive right to order protective custody; that protective custody was to be executed in the State concentration camps; and that the GESTAPO, which authorized release from protective custody, would review individual cases once every three months. The Chief of the Secret Police was given authority to issue the necessary regulations. (1723-PS)
The importance of this power of protective custody was set forth in Das Archiv, 1936, in the following language: