Law Reich Government, under the Enabling Act

Lex van der Lubbe

Gesetz über Verhängung und Vollzug der Todesstrafe

Law on the Imposition and Execution of the Death Penalty

A two-paragraph law that made the death penalty of the Reichstag Fire Decree retroactive. Its § 5 was extended to acts committed between 31 January and 28 February 1933, which covered the fire itself, so that Marinus van der Lubbe could be sentenced to death for an act that had not carried that penalty when it was committed. It also allowed the Reich or a state government to order that a death sentence for a crime against public security be carried out by hanging.

Dated: Wednesday 29 March 1933
Published in: Reichsgesetzblatt Teil I, no. 28, Friday 31 March 1933, p. 151
Citation: RGBl. I S. 151
In force: 1 April 1933: the law names no date, so under Article 3 of the Enabling Act it took effect on the day after promulgation

On the day pages

Signed Day 59, Wednesday 29 March 1933

RGBl. I S. 151. Commons record

The text

Gesetz über Verhängung und Vollzug der Todesstrafe.

Law on the Imposition and Execution of the Death Penalty.

Vom 29. März 1933.

Of 29 March 1933.

Die Reichsregierung hat das folgende Gesetz beschlossen, das hiermit verkündet wird:

The Reich Government has enacted the following law, which is hereby promulgated:

§ 1 § 5 der Verordnung des Reichspräsidenten zum Schutz von Volk und Staat vom 28. Februar 1933 (Reichsgesetzbl. I S. 83) gilt auch für Taten, die in der Zeit zwischen dem 31. Januar und dem 28. Februar 1933 begangen sind.

§ 1 § 5 of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State of 28 February 1933 (Reich Law Gazette I, p. 83) also applies to acts committed in the period between 31 January and 28 February 1933.

§ 2 Ist jemand wegen eines gegen die öffentliche Sicherheit gerichteten Verbrechens zum Tode verurteilt, so kann die Regierung des Reichs oder des Landes, durch deren Behörden das Urteil zu vollstrecken ist, anordnen, daß die Vollstreckung durch Erhängen erfolgt.

§ 2 If a person has been sentenced to death for a crime directed against public security, the government of the Reich or of the state by whose authorities the sentence is to be executed may order that the execution be carried out by hanging.

Berlin, den 29. März 1933.

Berlin, 29 March 1933.

Der Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler

The Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler

Für den Reichsminister der Justiz Der Stellvertreter des Reichskanzlers von Papen

For the Reich Minister of Justice, the Deputy Reich Chancellor von Papen

About this text

The full text is given. Transcribed from the RGBl. scan (issue 28, p. 151); compared word by word with German Wikisource, which agrees with the gazette except for a misprint (‘Reichminister’) in the signature, and with documentArchiv.de, which omits the gazette reference ‘(Reichsgesetzbl. I S. 83)’ in § 1.

The English translation was made for this site and is not an official translation. The law’s popular name, ‘Lex van der Lubbe’, was not part of its title; it reflects the general understanding at the time that it was made for the Reichstag fire trial.

German laws and decrees are official works and not protected by copyright (§ 5 UrhG).

Terms

§ 5 der Verordnung … vom 28. Februar 1933: The article of the Reichstag Fire Decree that made high treason, arson, causing explosions and several other crimes punishable by death instead of life imprisonment.
31. Januar bis 28. Februar 1933: The window covered the Reichstag fire of 27 February. Making a penalty retroactive broke the principle ‘nulla poena sine lege’ in § 2 of the Criminal Code and Article 116 of the Reich Constitution.
Erhängen: Hanging. The usual method of execution in most of Germany was beheading; hanging was regarded as more dishonouring.

Sources

Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 Teil I, Nr. 28 (31. März 1933), S. 151 (Reichsministerium des Innern; scan on Wikimedia Commons)
Lex van der Lubbe (transcription) (Wikisource (German))
Gesetz über Verhängung und Vollzug der Todesstrafe (transcription) (documentArchiv.de)

Gazette scans: public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.