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Extract From Report of the Ambassador in Germany (Dodd)97

2. Exclusion of Jewish Influence in Law Teaching. The association of law professors and teachers incorporated in the National Socialist Lawyers League held a three-day meeting in Berlin over the week-end of October 4 with a view to taking steps to eliminate Jewish influence in the teaching and interpretation of German law.

Opening with the quotation from Hitler’s Mein Kampf, that “in combatting the Jews, I am fighting for the cause of the Lord,” a certain Staatsrat Schmitt enumerated those qualities peculiar to the mentality of the Jews which rendered vitally necessary their exclusion from the domain of legal criticism and development, in particular, he said, that quality which has erroneously been described as a concrete and so-called objective outlook. Individualist Jewish tendencies which were encouraged in the past had been responsible for the building up of a legal edifice by the “guest population” to the point where it became a veritable temple of Judas, he said. “German law must be developed by Germans, in accordance with the German spirit, to meet German necessities,” the speaker declared; “therefore for the future, any critical, teaching or commentative work by Jew regarding German law is unthinkable.”

A message from Reichskommissar of Justice Frank was then read, laying down certain guiding principles which were immediately adopted and which may be cited as follows:

(1)
Publishing houses will refrain from bringing out new editions of Jewish legal works.
(2)
Legal works written by Jews are to be removed from the law divisions of all public or law libraries and are to be transferred to those sections of the library which serve the purpose of illustrating the influence and habits of the Jews. Such work, being merely the expressions of opinion of a foreign race respecting German ideas, have nothing to do with German legal science.
(3)
German lawyers in the future will quote from Jewish authors only in so far as these citations serve to throw light upon the mentality and outlook of the Jews.

To give effect to these principles, the association instructed the literary office of the Lawyers League to draw up a complete list of Jewish works which are to be proscribed.

After adopting these measures the conference returned to a vilification of Jewish mentality. Among other things it was stated that [Page 205] the Jewish jurist looked upon a civil case as a conflict between two enemy parties in which the community had no interest and in which the establishment of the truth was not the ultimate goal but might be merely an incidental result. The Jews were also blamed for having invented the theory of “legal treachery” which related to the divulgence of a secret act or measure forbidden by the “Versailles Dictate.” In particular the conference attacked Jewish criminal psychology which, as founded upon the theories of Freud and Adler concerning predestination, relative criminality, sexual repression, etc., was held to offend the sense of justice and moral conscience of Aryan peoples.

Julius Streicher, who was prevented from participating in the discussions owing to his attendance at the Harvest Festival on the Buekeberg, telegraphed the conference his greetings and best wishes.

Since writing the above account of the discussions as reported in the press, it has been learned that in fact a fairly lively exchange of views took place in the meetings, particularly as it appears that a very large proportion of the standard commentaries in certain legal fields, especially in commercial law and the law of conveyance, have been written by Jews. Some of the more serious law teachers apparently endeavored to make a case in favor of such well-known German-Jewish authors as Dernburg and Martin Wolff as well as a number of foreign Jewish authorities. A particularly heated discussion is: understood to have taken place over Julius Stahl, the Jewish anti-liberal constitutional writer who supported Bismarck’s conception of Prussian state authoritarianism. All of these Jewish authorities were shouted down, however, by the extremist elements in the meeting and consequently the standard texts of the future will appear without their contributions.

In a certain sense, the deliberations and the conclusions as reported above may be regarded as baying at the moon in that they failed to bring forth any concrete action or new measures against those Jewish lawyers who are still permitted to continue in practice, albeit under considerable difficulty. It may be said that a large proportion of the adult population have ceased to be impressed by the anti-Jewish hue and cry. Being for the most part indifferent or incompetent to express whatever sympathy they may now have for the Jews in their affliction, they have very little influence, however upon those extremist Party elements who are pushing the anti-Jewish campaign for their own ends and who moreover may be expected to derive support from the new generation which is being educated to regard the Jews as a menace to be suppressed with all the brutality at the command of the Party and State.

  1. Transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in Germany in his despatch No. 3095, October 14; received October 24.