The highest-ranking officials of the Nazi judicial system could not be tried:
Franz Gürtner, Minister of Justice, died in 1941;
Otto Georg Thierack, Minister of Justice since 1942, had committed suicide, as had
Reichsgericht President
Erwin Bumke;
Roland Freisler, the President of the
People's Court since 1942, was killed in a 1945
bombing raid on Berlin;
Günther Vollmer, the
Gauführer of Nazi jurists, had been killed in 1945. One who was alive but not tried was
Hans Globke, who played a significant role in drafting and interpreting the infamous
Nuremberg Laws and worked at the Reich Ministry of the Interior for the duration of the war. After the war ended Globke served as Chief of Staff for Adenauer in the West German Government from 1953 to 1963. He was still under scrutiny for his involvement with the Nazi Party when in 1963 East Germany held a show trial where he was convicted in absentia of War Crimes and sentenced to life in prison. However, East German law was not recognized in West Germany where Globke lived, so he ended up not serving any time. He died at age 74 in February 1973 at his home in the city of
Bonn. All convicts were found guilty on all charges brought before them, except Rothaug, who was found guilty only on count 3 of the indictment, while he was found not guilty on counts 2 and 4. However, the court commented in its judgment that: By his manner and methods he made his court an instrumentality of terror and won the fear and hatred of the population. From the evidence of his closest associates as well as his victims, we find that Oswald Rothaug represented in Germany the personification of the secret Nazi intrigue and cruelty. He was and is a sadistic and evil man. Under any civilized judicial system he could have been impeached and removed from office or convicted of malfeasance in office on account of the scheming malevolence with which he administered injustice. The public considered the sentences generally too low. Most of the convicts were released already in the early 1950s; some (Lautz, Rothenberger, Schlegelberger) even received retirement pensions in
West Germany. The guide to German law entitled
Das Recht der Gegenwart is still being published under the name Franz Schlegelberger (). ==In popular culture==