History of the authorities: After the National Socialists seized power, special courts were added to the existing criminal courts on the basis of the decree of the Reich government of 21 March 1933 (RGBl. I p. 136). The legal basis for this was Chapter II of Part Six of the 3rd Ordinance of the Reich President of 6 October 1931 on Securing the Economy and Finance and Combating Political Violence (RGBl. I p. 565). The special courts were formed for the Higher Regional Court districts and were composed of a chairman and two assessors. The special court rulings were not subject to appeal. By decree of 27 March 1933 on the formation of special courts (Bad. Justizministerialblatt Nr. 6 vom 28.3.1933, p. 47), Mannheim was designated as the seat of the special court for the Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court district. The public prosecutor's office at the Mannheim Regional Court was the prosecuting authority. The registry of the Mannheim Regional Court was also the registry of the Special Court. The allocation of business to the Special Court was made by the President of the Long Court. With effect from 1 November 1940, a separate special court was formed at the Freiburg Regional Court for the districts of Freiburg, Constance, Offenburg and Waldshut. The jurisdiction of the special courts was generally governed by the following provisions:1. § 8 of the Law against Betrayal of the German National Economy of 12.6.1933 (RGBl. I p. 360);2nd Ordinance of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State of 28.2.1933 (RGBl. I p. 83);3rd Ordinance of the Reich President for the Defence against Insidious Attacks against the Government of the National Survey of 21.3.1933 (RGBl. I p. 135);4. law against insidious attacks on state and party and for the protection of party uniforms of 20.12.1934 (RGBl. I p. 1269);5. law for the guarantee of the right peace of 13.10.1933 (RGBl. I p. 723);6. law for the protection of the party uniforms of 13.10.1933 (RGBl. I p. 723);6. law for the protection of the party uniforms of 20.12.1934 (RGBl. I p. 1269) 134 b Reichsstrafgesetzbuch according to the ordinance of the Reich government of 24.9.1935 (RGBl. I p. 136);7. § 134 a Reichsstrafgesetzbuch according to the ordinance of the Reich government of 5.2.1936 (RGBl. I p. 97);8. ordinance of 20.11.1938 (RGBl. I p. 1632) for crimes that belonged to the jurisdiction of the jury court or a lower court if immediate conviction appeared necessary;9th Ordinance on Extraordinary Broadcasting Measures of 1.9.1939 (RGBl. I p. 1683);10. § 1 of the War Economy Ordinance of 4.9.1939 (RGBl. I p. 1609);11. § 1 of the Ordinance Against Popular Pests of 5.9.1939 (RGBl. I p. 1679);12. §§ 1, 2 of the Ordinance Against Violent Criminals of 5.12.1939 (RGBl. I p. 2378);13. § 239 a Reichsstrafgesetzbuch;14. Law against road theft by means of car traps of 22.6.1938 (RGBl. I p. 651);15. § 5 of the War Special Criminal Law Ordinance of 17.8.1938 (RGBl. I p. 1455): according to decree of the Reich Ministry of Justice of 27.5.In 1940, after the jurisdiction of the Wehrmacht courts to convict civilians for criminal offences under § 5 of the War Special Criminal Law Ordinance had been transferred to the general courts, the prosecuting authorities were instructed to bring charges before the Special Court in all significant cases.16Furthermore, charges could be brought before the Special Court for violations of the Act Implementing the Four-Year Plan of 29 October 1936 and of the Ordinance on Penalties and Criminal Proceedings for Violations of Price Regulations of 3 June 1939. History: The establishment of the special court in Mannheim as a department of the regional court there was not without difficulties. The frequent change of court referees had an effect on the conduct of official business. This had a negative effect not least on file management. The office was located in Heidelberg during the war. The court partially met in Karlsruhe. As a result of the district events, the special court files were partially destroyed. Many files were sent to other judicial authorities at the end of the war. During the occupation of the court building in Heidelberg in the spring of 1945, the files of the special court registry were thrown into the cellar, all lacings were loosened and so disordered that the context of the individual case-related documents no longer existed. Some of the files were outsourced by the occupying power in various places. In the summer of 1948, the written material was successively returned to the public prosecutor's office at the Mannheim Regional Court and, from 1976 onwards, several partial deliveries were made to the General State Archives. Order and distortion: The present collection is divided into two main parts. The first part lists the procedural and investigative files. From the years 1933 and 1934, only the reference files of the trial files have survived; of the investigation files, with a few exceptions, the years 1933 to 1935 are completely missing. Since, however, the process and investigation registers recorded in the second part of the finding aid have been preserved, at least the activity of the court can be reconstructed. The entries in the register are shown in a selection in this finding aid (cases for which no files are available). 1976 Mr. Wilhelm Steinbach began with the title entries. The completion or revision was carried out by the undersigned.Karlsruhe, in January 1993Manfred Hennhöfer[slightly revised version of the preface from 1993] Conversion: In 2015, the indexing data were converted to fonds 507 and processed into the available online finding aids. For technical reasons, the structure of the data and the structure of the data records had to be changed. However, the content of the indexing information was retained in its entirety. Alexander Hoffmann was responsible for the conversion and data import, while Dorota Wendler and the undersigned, Karlsruhe, were responsible for editorial work related to the import. In February 2016, Dr. Martin Stingl, published references to the literature: Hans Wüllenweber: Special dishes in the Third Reich. Forgotten crimes of justice. Frankfurt a.M. 1990.Christiane Oehler: The jurisdiction of the special court Mannheim 1933¿1945. Berlin 1997.Homepage of the Arbeitskreis Justiz Mannheim e.V.: http://www.akjustiz-mannheim.de/ .
