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68-473: The Weimar constitution created a semi-presidential system in which power was divided between president, cabinet and parliament . The president was directly elected under universal adult suffrage for a seven-year term, although Germany's first president, Friedrich Ebert , was elected by the Weimar National Assembly rather than the people. The intention of the framers of the constitution

136-499: A Reichsexekution under Article 48 to send troops into the two states to remove the Communists from the governments. Ebert later granted Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno considerable latitude under Article 48 to deal with Germany's hyperinflation . It was a more controversial use of the power because it was not clear that the constitutional article was meant to be used to handle economic issues. There were twelve governments while Ebert

204-578: A Socialist premier. But while the president's term of office was for seven years, the National Assembly only served for five. When, in the 1986 legislative election , the French people elected a right-of-centre assembly, Socialist president François Mitterrand was forced into cohabitation with right-wing premier Jacques Chirac . However, in 2000, amendments to the French constitution reduced

272-532: A clearly unconstitutional move, refused. With virtually all his support lost, Schleicher resigned on 28 January. Given Germany's continued economic and political instability and under pressure from his advisors, President Hindenburg consented to appoint Adolf Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hindenburg dissolved the Reichstag on 1 February, and in the election of March 1933 , the Nazi Party won only 44% of

340-651: A continuation of the Prussian High Tribunal . The judiciary was characterised by monarchical conservatism. Particularly in the area of criminal law, critical voices were in the minority at the court during the Empire, as they were in other state institutions at the time. In 1912, for example, the court ruled that the publication by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of a brochure that was aimed at civil servants and called on them to vote for

408-542: A fiscal authority, commercial matters and labour law). There was no separate labour court system until 1926. The Reichsgericht was also responsible for state liability law. As vested competencies, the Reichsgericht decided on civil law appeals of final judgments and complaints against orders of the higher regional courts (courts of appeal). Until 1934, the Reichsgericht ruled in the first and last instance on

476-457: A fixed term. Modern definitions merely declare that the head of state has to be elected, and that a separate prime minister that is dependent on parliamentary confidence has to lead the legislative. There are two distinct subtypes of semi-presidentialism: premier-presidentialism and president-parliamentarism. Under the premier-presidential system, the prime minister and cabinet are exclusively accountable to parliament. The president may choose

544-468: A president-parliamentary system, the prime minister and cabinet are dually accountable to the president and the legislature. Reichsgericht 51°19′59″N 12°22′11″E  /  51.33306°N 12.36972°E  / 51.33306; 12.36972 The Reichsgericht ( German: [ˈʁaɪçs.ɡəˌʁɪçt] , transl.  Reich Court or National Court ) was the supreme criminal and civil court of Germany from 1879 to 1945, encompassing

612-411: Is a parliamentary republic ), Portugal , Romania , São Tomé and Príncipe , Sri Lanka , Turkey ( de facto between 2014 and 2018, until the constitutional amendment to switch the government to presidential from parliamentary ), and Ukraine (since 2014; previously, between 2006 and 2010). Under the president-parliamentary system, the prime minister and cabinet are dually accountable to

680-462: Is a national comrade; a national comrade is a person of German blood. Those outside the national community are not within the law." The disenfranchisement of the Jewish population was carried out through civil law channels, with the support of the Reichsgericht . Its legal tools were reinterpretation and the leeway for interpretation. Following the collapse of National Socialism, the Reichsgericht

748-466: Is called " cohabitation ", a term which originated in France after the situation first arose in the 1980s. Cohabitation can create either an effective system of checks and balances , or a period of bitter and tense stonewalling, depending on the attitudes of the two leaders, the ideologies of themselves/their parties, and the demands of their supporters. The distribution of power between the president and

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816-633: Is used in: Guinea-Bissau , Mozambique , Russia , and Taiwan . It was also used in Ukraine (first between 1996 and 2005; then from 2010 to 2014), Georgia (from 2004 to 2013), South Korea under the Fourth and Fifth republics, and in Germany during the Weimar Republic . In a semi-presidential system, the president and the prime minister may sometimes be from different political parties. This

884-599: The Reichsgericht were prevented from continuing their work. In the period that followed, the Reichsgericht did not oppose the Nazi takeover or the regime's numerous illegal acts. Instead it became deeply entangled in the National Socialist justice system , for example when it sentenced the Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe to death on the basis of the retroactively applied Law on Imposition and Enforcement of

952-482: The Reichsgericht wrote: The court is in agreement with the verdict that, given the fundamental importance of the racial question in the National Socialist state, the education of young people of Aryan descent to become members of the national community conscious of their kind and race, forms an integral part of the educational process and that this education is not guaranteed if the foster mother but not

1020-493: The Reichsgericht . When the measure was implemented on 1 April 1939, the Reichsgericht became the supreme court of appeal for Austrian civil cases. Although partial reforms were made to Austrian substantive law , the Austrian General Civil Code remained the decisive private law code. Meanwhile, the 8th Civil Senate was established at the Reichsgericht , to which all legal matters concerning Austria,

1088-588: The Social Democratic Party (SPD) the first Reich president by a vote of 379 to 277. The first regular presidential election was to have taken place when the Weimar Constitution came into effect in August 1919, but the continuing turmoil in the Republic caused the Reichstag to postpone it repeatedly, until in late 1922 it extended Ebert's term to 30 June 1925. The change required amending Article 180 of

1156-554: The Sudeten German territories and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were assigned whenever the jurisdiction of the first five senates was not applicable. It was dissolved due to understaffing before the Reichsgericht was abolished. In civil law, the Reichsgericht handed down decisions – for example on marriage and contract law – that affected the status of Jews under the National Socialist government. In 1935

1224-511: The Weimar Republic , the court continued in its conservative path, especially in the area of criminal law. In the judgments it handed down on 21 December 1921 in the trial of three participants in the right-wing Kapp Putsch , there was only one conviction – Traugott von Jagow  [ de ] , the interior minister under the putsch government, who was sentenced to the minimum penalty of five years' imprisonment. The criminal proceedings against two co-defendants were dropped because, according to

1292-407: The prime minister and the president is not explicitly stated in the constitution, but has evolved as a political convention based on the constitutional principle that the prime minister is appointed (with the subsequent approval of a parliament majority) and dismissed by the president. On the other hand, whenever the president and the prime minister represent the same political party, which leads

1360-455: The state . It differs from a parliamentary republic in that it has an executive president independent of the legislature ; and from the presidential system in that the cabinet , although named by the president, is responsible to the legislature, which may force the cabinet to resign through a motion of no confidence . While the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and Finland (from 1919 to 2000) exemplified early semi-presidential systems,

1428-691: The Death Penalty in the Reichstag fire trial . The acquittal of the other four defendants was one of the reasons why the Reichsgericht was stripped of its jurisdiction in matters of treason in 1934 by the law that established the People's Court . Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938 led to the dissolution of the Supreme Court of Justice in Vienna and the transfer of its jurisdiction to

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1496-520: The German Reich". With the ruling, the Reichsgericht adopted the racist subversion of the private law system that was crystallising in the legal literature of the time and was catalysed by the Kiel School. One of its most important representatives, the legal philosopher Karl Larenz , wrote in 1935, just a few months before the judgment was handed down: "A person is only a legal comrade if he

1564-432: The Reichstag had the power to make a government resign without the burden of being sure that a new one could be formed. Friedrich Ebert and Paul von Hindenburg (initially) both attempted to appoint chancellors who were able to build coalitions that had the confidence of the Reichstag. Thirteen of the twenty Weimar governments (not counting Hitler's) were nevertheless minority cabinets when they took office. The president

1632-559: The Republic ( Brüning I and Brüning II , Papen , and Schleicher ) are called presidential cabinets because presidential decrees more and more often replaced the Reichstag's legislation. Under Brüning, the Social Democrats, out of fear that the Nazi Party would gain strength if there were another election, tolerated the government by not supporting motions that sought to revoke the decrees, but after Franz von Papen became chancellor in 1932, they refused to do so. Although he

1700-642: The SPD was offensive. In its verdict of 12 October 1907 in the high treason trial against Karl Liebknecht , the Reichsgericht stated that the unconditional obedience of soldiers to the emperor was a central provision of the Constitution of the German Empire . Liebknecht had argued that imperial orders were null and void if they were intended to violate the constitution. He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for acts preliminary to high treason. In

1768-578: The authority to examine laws for their validity, which led to the previously recognised mark-for-mark principle (par value principle) being abandoned due to the extremely high rate of inflation. After Adolf Hitler came to power, the Law on Admission to the Bar forced Jewish and Social Democratic judges (including Senate President Alfons David  [ de ] and Reichsgericht justice Hermann Grossmann  [ de ] ) to resign, and Jewish lawyers at

1836-430: The cabinet, they tend to exercise de facto control over all fields of policy via the prime minister. However, it is up to the president to decide how much autonomy is left to said prime minister. In most cases, cohabitation results from a system in which the two executives are not elected at the same time or for the same term. For example, in 1981, France elected both a Socialist president and legislature, which yielded

1904-427: The candidate who received the most votes – whether or not it constituted a majority – was elected. A group could nominate a substitute candidate in the second round in place of the candidate it had supported in the first. The president could not be a member of the Reichstag at the same time. The constitution required that on taking office the president take the following oath: The requirements and responsibilities of

1972-461: The compatibility of state and national laws. Throughout its life, its major rulings tended to be conservative. They included the conviction of Karl Liebknecht for high treason in 1907, the lenient treatment of the men charged in the 1920 Kapp Putsch and support of the Nazi's antisemitic racial laws . The Reichsgericht was abolished following Germany's defeat in World War II . The court

2040-438: The confusion produced by mixed authority patterns. It can be argued that a semi-presidential republic is more likely to engage in democratic backsliding and power struggles , especially ones with a president-parliamentary system. Advantages Disadvantages In a premier-presidential system, the prime minister and cabinet are exclusively accountable to the legislature. Non-UN members or observers are in italics. In

2108-572: The constitution. Due in large part to the ongoing political violence during the early years of the Republic, Ebert used Article 48 on 136 occasions, although he always based invoking the act on agreements between himself, the government and parliament. In October 1923, when the Communist Party of Germany entered the Social Democratic-led governments of Saxony and Thuringia with hidden revolutionary intentions , Ebert used

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2176-474: The court, they had not played a leading role in the coup attempt. None of the leaders of the putsch was ever brought to trial. In the 1921 Leipzig war crimes trials which took place before the Reichsgericht , only a few German war criminals were punished. Many cases were dropped, and of the few convictions, the verdicts against two members of the navy for sinking an English hospital ship were later secretly overturned. On 23 November 1931, Carl von Ossietzky

2244-632: The death of President Hindenburg , Adolf Hitler , who was already chancellor , assumed the powers of the presidency as Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Chancellor"). In his last will in April 1945, Hitler named Karl Dönitz president, thus briefly reviving the presidential office until just after the German surrender in May 1945. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany established

2312-615: The emperor on the recommendation of the Bundesrat , then during the Weimar era by the Reich president on the recommendation of the Reichsrat . The prerequisites for appointment were qualification for the office of judge and having reached the age of 35. The Reichsgericht was a court of general jurisdiction. It ruled on criminal and civil cases (civil disputes, legal acts of the state as

2380-698: The foster father is of Aryan descent. In 1935, in a further development of the law, the Reichsgericht recognised even before the Nuremberg Laws were passed that if a marriage partner was Jewish, it was grounds for annulling the marriage, although a formal legal basis for such terminations was not created until the Marriage Act enacted in 1938. On the interpretation or reinterpretation of contracts with Jews, it ruled that "the National Socialist worldview requires that only those of German origin (and those legally equal to them) be treated as legally valid in

2448-479: The government, and when it passed Papen again called for a new election. Following the November 1932 election in which the Nazi Party's share of the vote slipped to 33%, Papen resigned under pressure from Kurt von Schleicher . In January 1933, when Schleicher found out that Papen and Hitler were plotting to remove him, he went to Hindenburg to ask for a state of emergency. Hindenburg, out of reluctance to make such

2516-632: The individual occupation zones . In 1950, the newly established Federal Court of Justice ( Bundesgerichtshof ) took over the tasks of the Reichsgericht for the Federal Republic of Germany . Former judges of the Reichsgericht were among the first judges in the court. In 1952, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that the Reichsgericht had ceased to exist on 30 October 1945. In the German Democratic Republic ,

2584-505: The inside, but he governed within the letter of the Weimar Constitution if not always its spirit. In March 1930 he appointed Heinrich Brüning chancellor after Hermann Müller 's government collapsed. In July, when the Reichstag rejected Brüning's budget bill, Hindenburg adopted it by decree and, when the Reichstag reversed the action, he dissolved it. The years that followed saw an explosion of legislation by decree. Hindenburg used Article 48 109 times from 1930 to 1932. The last four cabinets of

2652-463: The interim president. Under Article 45, the president could be removed from office prematurely by a popular referendum initiated by the Reichstag. To require such a referendum, the Reichstag had to pass a motion supported by at least two-thirds of votes cast in the chamber. If the proposal was rejected by voters, the president would be deemed to have been re-elected and the Reichstag would be dissolved. The Reichstag had authority (Article 59) to impeach

2720-493: The investigation and decision in cases of high treason and treason if the crimes were directed against the emperor or the state. From 1920, with the implementation law for Article 13 §2 of the Weimar Constitution , the Reichsgericht also ruled on the compatibility of state and Reich law. With the exception of its jurisdiction in matters of treason, the Reichsgericht was purely an appellate court. Its task

2788-410: The length of the French president's term to five years. This has significantly lowered the chances of cohabitation occurring, as parliamentary and presidential elections may now be conducted within a shorter span of each other. The incorporation of elements from both presidential and parliamentary republics can bring certain advantageous elements; however, it also creates disadvantages, often related to

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2856-501: The most seats in the new election and allow him to set up an authoritarian government. In the July election , the Nazis, with 37% of the vote, had the most seats of any party in the Reichstag. By two decrees from Hindenburg, Papen dissolved the newly elected Reichstag and suspended elections beyond the constitutionally mandated 60 days. The Communist Party presented a motion of no confidence in

2924-403: The office of Federal President ( Bundespräsident ), which is a chiefly ceremonial post largely devoid of political power. The governmental structure established by the Weimar Constitution was a mix of presidential and parliamentary systems, with a strong president as a kind of "replacement emperor" ( Ersatzkaiser ). Hugo Preuss , who wrote the initial draft of the constitution, intended

2992-515: The parliament or the president. It effectively brought an end to democracy in the German Reich. On 1 August 1934, Hitler's government issued the " Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich ", which stated that upon Hindenburg's death (which occurred the next day), the offices of president and chancellor would be merged and held by Hitler . Hitler from then on styled himself Führer und Reichskanzler ("Leader and Chancellor") and did not use

3060-563: The parties of the centre and left united behind Wilhelm Marx of the Centre Party . Hindenburg won a plurality in round two (45%) to become Germany's second president. The decision of the Communist Party of Germany to run their candidate, Ernst Thälmann , in the second round was widely considered to have thrown the election to Hindenburg. Many on the right hoped that once in office Hindenburg would destroy Weimar democracy from

3128-710: The periods of the German Empire , the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany . It was based in Leipzig . The Reichsgericht began its work on 1 October 1879, the date on which the Imperial Judiciary Acts came into effect. The acts standardised court types and procedural rules across the newly formed German Empire and established judicial independence and unrestricted access to the courts. The court's jurisdiction included both criminal and civil cases. It handled appeals, charges of treason and, after 1920,

3196-420: The president and to the parliament. The president chooses the prime minister and the cabinet, but must have the support of a parliamentary majority for his choice. In order to remove a prime minister, or the whole cabinet, from power, the president can either dismiss them, or the parliament can remove them through a vote of no confidence . This form of semi-presidentialism is much closer to pure presidentialism. It

3264-484: The president before the State Court for the German Reich , the court which handled disputes between state bodies. The Reichstag could only do so on a charge of wilfully violating German law. The move to impeach had to be supported by a two-thirds majority of the Reichstag members at a meeting with at least two-thirds of the members present. On 11 February 1919, the Weimar National Assembly elected Friedrich Ebert of

3332-424: The president to be above political parties and a counterweight to the Reichstag. He wanted the office to be a block to the "parliamentary absolutism" that he feared might otherwise develop. Preuss' decision to have a president as head of state was influenced by constitutional scholar Robert Redslob and sociologist Max Weber . The constitution did not require that a vote of no confidence be constructive – that is,

3400-476: The president were laid out in Section III (Articles 41–59) of the Weimar Constitution. The Weimar Constitution granted the president sweeping powers in the event of a crisis. If "public order and security [were] seriously disturbed or threatened", Article 48 gave the president the power to "take the necessary measures to restore public safety and order". The permissible steps included the use of armed force,

3468-416: The prime minister and cabinet, but only the parliament may approve them and remove them from office with a vote of no confidence . This system is much closer to pure parliamentarism. This subtype is used in: Burkina Faso , Cape Verde , East Timor , France , Lithuania , Madagascar , Mali , Mongolia , Niger , Georgia (2013–2018), Poland ( de facto , however, according to the Constitution , Poland

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3536-399: The prime minister can vary greatly between countries. In France , for example, in the case of cohabitation, the president oversees foreign policy and defense policy (these are generally called les prérogatives présidentielles , presidential prerogatives) and the prime minister is in charge of domestic policy and economic policy . In this case, the division of responsibilities between

3604-495: The right to reverse any such measures. The Weimar Constitution did not provide for a vice presidency. Article 51 stated that if the president died or left office prematurely, a successor would be elected. During a temporary vacancy, the powers and functions of the presidency passed to the chancellor. A December 1932 constitutional amendment made the president of the Reichsgericht (Germany's highest civil and criminal court)

3672-524: The suspension of many of the civil rights guaranteed by the constitution and forcing a state government to cooperate if it failed to meet its obligations under the constitution or federal law. Most importantly, the president could issue emergency decrees which had the same legal force as laws passed by parliament. Per Article 50, all presidential decrees had to be counter-signed by the chancellor or competent national minister. The Reichstag had to be informed immediately of any measures taken under Article 48 and had

3740-504: The term "semi-presidential" was first introduced in 1959 in an article by journalist Hubert Beuve-Méry , and popularized by a 1978 work written by political scientist Maurice Duverger , both of whom intended to describe the French Fifth Republic (established in 1958). Maurice Duverger 's original definition of semi-presidentialism stated that the president had to be elected, possess significant power, and serve for

3808-530: The title "Reich President". The law making him head of state was unconstitutional since it violated Article 2 of the Enabling Act, which stated that "the rights of the President remain unaffected". Amid widespread fraud and voter intimidation, the law was approved by a popular referendum on 19 August. In his Final Political Testament written just before he committed suicide on 30 April 1945, Hitler split

3876-426: The two offices he had merged, although the act was unconstitutional under Articles 41 and 51 of the Weimar Constitution, which was technically still in effect. Karl Dönitz , who had been appointed president, ordered Germany's military (not political) surrender a few days later. He had by then appointed Ludwig von Krosigk as head of government (chancellor), and the two attempted to form a government at Flensburg . It

3944-531: The view that the judiciary during the Weimar Republic was "blind in its right eye". The Reichsgericht made some groundbreaking decisions in the field of civil law during the period. Revaluation case law, for example, which developed under the impact of German hyperinflation and the Great Depression , was nothing short of revolutionary. The Reichsgericht for the first time granted itself

4012-469: The vote. With the aid of the major parties except the SPD and KPD – all of whose members, along with 26 from the SPD, were forcibly kept from the chamber – the Nazis were able to command the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the Enabling Act and amend the constitution with the claim of legality. The act gave the chancellor and his cabinet the power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of

4080-417: Was directly elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of seven years. Re-election was not limited. The presidency was open to all German citizens who had reached 36 years of age. The direct election of the president occurred under a form of the two round system . If no candidate received the support of an absolute majority in the first round of voting, a second round was held at a later date. In that round,

4148-738: Was dissolved by the Allies in 1945 and was not re-established. The last president, Erwin Bumke , committed suicide two days after the US Army entered Leipzig. Beginning on 25 August 1945, 39 judges of the Reichsgericht (more than one third of the total staff) were arrested by the NKVD (the Soviet secret service). The four survivors were released between 1950 and 1955; the others had starved to death or died of disease. Provisional supreme courts were formed in

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4216-400: Was headed by a president and a number of senate presidents and counsellors ( Reichsgerichtsräte ). The number of civil and criminal senates was determined by the chancellor until 1924, at which point the minister of justice took over the task. During the imperial period, the president of the Reichsgericht , the presidents of the senates and the members of the Reichsgericht were appointed by

4284-465: Was not recognised by the Allied powers and was dissolved when its members were arrested by British forces on 23 May at Flensburg . † denotes died in office. Semi-presidential system A semi-presidential republic , or dual executive republic , is a republic in which a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet , with the latter two being responsible to the legislature of

4352-665: Was president (six of them minority when they took office) and three Reichstag elections. Ebert's presidency ended with his death in February 1925. The election to replace him was held in March and April 1925. After the first ballot did not result in any candidate securing a majority of the votes, the right-wing parties successfully pushed for their first round candidate, Karl Jarres of the German People's Party , to be replaced by World War I Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, while

4420-610: Was sentenced to 18 months in prison for espionage in the Weltbühne trial because an article published in his magazine had revealed the secret and illegal rearmament of the Reichswehr . Since violence from the right was not countered as forcefully as that from the left – some verdicts in the trials of the right-wing Feme murders in particular justified the accusation – the Weltbühne trial and others like it contributed to

4488-423: Was suffering from the onset of senility, Hindenburg stood for re-election in 1932 with the support of the pro-republican parties, who thought that only he could prevent the election of Adolf Hitler . Hindenburg won the election in the second round with 53% of the vote to Hitler's 37%. In June he replaced Brüning as chancellor with Franz von Papen and dissolved the Reichstag. Papen hoped that the Nazi Party would win

4556-450: Was that the president would rule in conjunction with the Reichstag (legislature) and that his extensive emergency powers would be exercised only in extraordinary circumstances. The political instability of the Weimar period and an increasingly severe factionalism in the legislature, however, led to the president occupying a position of considerable power, legislating by decree and appointing and dismissing governments at will. In 1934, after

4624-528: Was to ensure uniformity of jurisdiction throughout the territory of the German Empire . A national civil code had not yet been codified, and the civil law systems of the individual states were not harmonised with one another. The General State Laws for the Prussian States , for the Rhineland , Baden , Saxony and uncodified common law all applied side by side. Critics saw the Reichsgericht as

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