3. The Presidents of the District Courts (with extra copies for the local courts)
For information:
1. The Chief Reich Prosecutor at the Reich Supreme Court and People’s Court
2. The Attorneys General
3. The Chief Public Prosecutors
Subject: Judges’ Letters
I will, can, and must not tell the judge who is called to preside over a trial, how to decide an individual case. The judge must remain independent in order to be able to carry the full personal responsibility for his decisions. I therefore cannot order him to use a certain legal interpretation but only try to convince him how he can help the nation by correcting or regulating with the aid of the law a life that has gotten into disorder or is ripe to be brought into order.
In this respect the profession of the judge and that of the physician are akin—he gives aid to the compatriot who asks him for help and thus prevents damage to the community. The judge, like a physician, must be able to eliminate the seat of a disease or perform operations like a surgeon.
This conception of the duties of the administration of justice has already been accepted by the German jurists to a great extent. Its practical conclusions, however, have not been fully applied yet in the field of the administration of justice.
To aid the judge in fulfilling his high duty in the life of our people, I have decided to publish the “Judges’ Letters.” They shall be distributed to all German judges and public prosecutors. These judges’ letters will contain decisions, which I consider to be especially worthwhile mentioning on account of result or argumentation. With these decisions I intend to show how a better decision could or should have been found; on the other hand good, and for the national community important, decisions shall be cited as examples.