THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE JUDGES’ LETTERS, 1 OCTOBER 1942
RICHTERBRIEFE [Judges’ Letters] Communications of the Reich Minister of Justice, Issue No. 1, 1 October 1942
Confidential
German Judges
According to ancient Germanic interpretation of the law, the leader of the nation has always been its supreme judge. When the leader therefore invests another person with the authority of a judge, this means that the latter not only derives his judicial power from the leader and is responsible to him, but also that leadership and judgeship have related characters.
The judge is therefore also the guardian of national self-preservation. He is the protector of the values of the nation and helps in the annihilation of the unworthy. He regulates those functions of life, which are considered diseases in the body of the nation. Justices vested with absolute authority are essential for maintaining a true national community.
On account of this task, the judge is the direct assistant of the leadership of the State. This position renders him prominent, but also shows the limits of his tasks which cannot, as a liberal doctrine assumed, lie in the supervision of the leadership of the State. For, if a state does not have an organization which grants the leadership to the best, the administration of justice cannot substitute this selection by its activity.
The judge is the embodiment of the wide-awake conscience of the nation. Any state is bound to fall if honesty and common sense do not form the standard of values in the national community. It is the task of the judge to see that this is done. In rendering judgment he must always show the people his adherence to this rule.
These tasks place the judge in the center of the administration of justice. They show the profession of judges as one of the earliest professions—to be compared with that of the farmer and the soldier. These tasks can only be fulfilled by men who are mentally free and honest, and who possess a high sense of responsibility, shouldering this responsibility gladly, and conforming by their inner and outer bearing to the picture of a judge as the German people see it. The judges must therefore become a corps of judges, which represent an elite of the nation. But this must not lead to the judge keeping aloof from the people; on the contrary he has to live with and among his people and know its needs and sorrows in order to be able to help.
Such a corps of judges will not slavishly cling to the letter of the law. It will not anxiously look for cover by the law, but aware of its responsibility, it will find within the bounds of the law a decision which shall be the best guide for the life of the community.