In substance, this edict constituted a complete repudiation of the rule that criminal statutes should be definite and certain and vested in the judge a wide discretion in which Party political ideology and influence were substituted for the control of law as the guide to judicial decision.
Section 90 (f) of the Penal Code, as enacted on 24 April 1934, provided:
“Whoever publicly, or as a German staying abroad, causes serious danger to the reputation of the German nation by an untrue or grossly inaccurate statement of a factual nature, shall be punished by confinement in a penitentiary.”
The act was amended on 20 September 1944 as follows:
“In especially serious cases a German may be punished by death.”[601]
By the act of 28 June 1935 it was provided:
“Whoever publicly profanes the German National Socialist Labor Party, its subdivisions, symbols, standards, and banners, its insignia or decorations, or maliciously and with premeditation exposes them to contempt shall be punished by imprisonment.
“The offense shall be prosecuted only upon order of the Reich Minister of Justice who shall issue such order in agreement with the Fuehrer’s deputy.”[602]
By the law of 28 June 1935 it was provided:
“If the main proceedings show that the defendant committed an act which deserves punishment according to the common sense of the people but which is not declared punishable by the law, then the court must investigate whether the underlying principle of a penal law applies to this act and whether justice can be helped to triumph by the proper application of this penal law. (Article 2 of the Penal Code.)”[603]