Q. Yes.
A. At this time, in Nuernberg. I was born at Dresden; the date of birth is 19 August 1894.
Q. So that I can afford the Court the opportunity to acquaint itself with your particular research field, may I ask you briefly to describe to us your field of research as professor of law.
A. My work since 1923 has dealt with the fields of constitutional law, international law, and the law by the League of Nations, general constitutional law, and philosophy of law.
Q. May I ask you, just by way of example, to mention your own publications—those of a scientific nature.
A. Well, that is rather a lot; but publications which concern this subject here, I could mention—Law and Calculability, on the foundations of law and state; another publication on The Relation of the Constitution of the Reich to the League of Nations; then in the textbook which Anschuetz and Thoma edited on German Constitutional Law, my work about The Equality of the Citizens before the Law; and above all, my own version of The German Constitutional System, of the year 1930.
Q. Concerning the first problem, the German constitutional law, that is the subject on which I wish to start. My first question will open the direct examination. Is it correct that Hitler in the order of the so-called Third Reich was the supreme law giver?
A. Yes, that is correct, although that was not so from the very beginning of that era. That only happened in the course of events. But at the latest, if you’d like me to mention a date, that occurred when the offices of Chancellor and Reich President were united in him; that is to say, 1 August 1934.[141] That is the latest date.
Q. It was like this then—Hitler’s authority developed gradually until it reached its final culmination?
A. Yes, that is correct. If I may add this, one must say that the development under Hitler followed a development which occurred prior to his own era.