The essential factor in this development was that the practical course of the education of a judge in Germany to this very day brought about that only persons who were merely average lawyers decided to take up the judge’s profession.
If I may be permitted to do so, I would like to mention briefly how one becomes a judge in Germany. At the age of approximately 25, one becomes assessor; at this time one decides whether one wants to become a judge. If one does decide to become a judge, one remains for a number of years and at that time it was about 5 to 8 years—a so-called assistant judge, Hilfsrichter.
This means that one exercises the functions of a judge, to be sure, but one can be discharged any day. And then in the course of years one finally achieves being appointed a judge. It happened only very rarely that a person who had been sitting as an assistant judge for a number of years was not appointed judge.
Then when one finally became a judge one received an income of about 300 marks. A fairly good skilled worker in Germany earned twice as much. Therefore, one had to lead a very modest life. One was treated as a civil servant to the extent that every year a so-called qualification or efficiency report had to be written about every judge. In other words, a report had to be made as to the qualifications of the judge. The superior of the judge had to go to the court session in order, as we expressed it, to examine the judge; that is, to examine whether the judge was able or not.
Then, the judge waited for his next promotion which played a very decisive role for him and for his family in view of his small income. There was a scale of promotions from the local court to the district court, to the district court of appeal, and finally, to the Reich Supreme Court.
This briefly described course of training thus demonstrates that the judge in a quiet existence of a civil servant was employed only as a judge all the time, and this gave cause to the leading German jurists since 1906 to do something about it. The first precursor of this idea was a certain Adickes. These jurists tried to suggest a basic alteration of this course.
Adickes was followed by an Under Secretary Muegel, and he in turn during the Weimar Republic was followed by the then Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Schiffer who today is again Minister of Justice in the Russian zone of occupation. All were of the same opinion that his position of the judge had to be changed fundamentally and that this would be possible only by a very severe reduction of the number of judges.
If the prosecution is charging me I believe even in the indictment itself with the fact that I in very clear words desired to change this condition, or suggested changing this condition, by saying that not the salve of the drug store but the knife of the surgeon, was needed then I am in good company in so saying to the extent that my predecessor for these plans was Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Schiffer who by the way is fully Jewish. He expressed the following thoughts about this problem at the time, and I quote:
“The wound should not be covered up and smeared over, it must be cut, pressed out, and scraped out. The reform in the administration of justice which we need is not an enlargement or a reconstruction but a thorough reduction.”
These plans which were discussed in Germany for 50 years, and the execution of which failed every time, I now made my own. As can be seen from the memorandum, I was confronted, above all, with the problem as to what means could be used at all to bring about this reduction in the number of judges without reducing the quality of jurisdiction. The means which I suggested were also very closely allied to those means which had been suggested for 50 years. These means were as follows: First, the concept of the justice of the peace. I believe that I do not have to go into the details of this position because, first of all, I assume that the Tribunal is very familiar with this institution of a justice of the peace; and secondly, because I said something about it in the memorandum itself; and thirdly, because I discussed it in a lengthy article which will be submitted.