II. COURT DECISIONS

Survey of decisions of the Supreme Administrative Court [Oberverwaltungsgericht]

Police in General (Rush-reprint)

Since the Law on the Secret State Police [Geheime Staatspolizei] of 30 November 1933 (GS.S. 419) became effective, decisions of the Office of the Secret State Police [Geheimes Staats Polizeiamt] can no longer be contested according to the provisions of the law on the Administration of Police. The only remedy against them is a complaint to the superior authority.

Legal status of the bureau of the Secret State Police according to the Law on the Secret State Police of 30 November 33.

On September 4 1934 the Association Secretary filed a suit against the Secret State-Police at the District-Administrative Court in Berlin. The association asserted that on 23 August 1934 their president had been informed by two officials of the office of the Secret State-Police that the assets of the association would be sequestrated for the purpose of an eventual confiscation.

With the decision of 1 November 1934 the District-Administrative Court decided to dismiss the suit.

The appeal of the plaintiff against this decision could not have any success.

The District-Administrative Court in this case dismissed the suit on the ground of the inadmissibility of such an action to this court. According to the principle of enumeration quoted by the judge of first instance a suit can be filed with the administrative courts only if legal provisions expressively rule to that effect. The right of legal redress as provided by the law relating to the Police-Administration applies according to the wording of this law only to the police orders issued by the ordinary police-authorities, i.e. the police-authorities of the community, the district, or the province. The sequestration order in question has not been issued by an ordinary police-authority; on the contrary it had been issued by the Office of Secret State-Police, the legal status of which has been provided by the Law of 30 November 1933.

With this law an authoritative status was given to the Secret State-Police which was basically different from the one at the time it was created, based on the Law of 26 April 1933. By virtue of this last-mentioned law, the Office of the Secret State-Police should act in political matters "at the side of or in the place of the ordinary police-authorities" and "should have the status of a Province-Police-Authority" . . . .

This legal status was changed, as the District-Administrative-Court properly recognized, when the "Secret State-Police" was created, An authoritative organization was created thus, the status of which is expressly determined by law to be exempt from the sphere of the Minister of Interior, otherwise competent in all Police matters.

Section 1, sub-section 1, sentence 1 and 2 of the Law of 30 November 1933 quotes:

"The Secret State Police is forming an independent branch of the interior administration. Its chief is the Prime Minister". The conception "interior administration" here is not used in the usual meaning of today according to which this word designates the specified affairs within the sphere of the Minister of the Interior-as for instance in comparison with the Administration of commerce or public instruction, etc. . . .

That the Secret State Police became an independent organization is clearly shown on one side by the fact that it is subordinated as a whole to the prime Minister, and then by the creation of special authorities designated with specific names.

Concluding from all this the legal status of the Office of the Secret State Police since the Law of 30 November 1933 became effective is the following: The office is part of a special authoritative organization, the "Secret State Police" which forms an independent branch of the Administration of the Prussian State. It has, like the Secret State Police as a whole, its special field as to the nature of its tasks: the management of affairs of the political police. Therewith the Characteristic signs are given of a "Special Police Authority" within the purview of Section 2, subsection 2 and section 8 of the Law relating of the Administration of the Police, an authority detached from the organization of the ordinary police-authorities entrusted with a special police task. It cannot be considered part of the limited circle of police authorities, i.e. State [Landes] authorities, Kreis or local authorities, pursuant to Section 2, sub-section 1 of the Law relating to Police-Administration, as in relation to them it figures rather as a central authority pursuant to the mentioned provisions of Section 3, sub-section 2 of the law of 30 November 1933.

From the thus signified character of the Office of the Secret State Police, which therefore doubtlessly forms a special-police authority, it can be concluded that its orders as mentioned before, are not subject to the provisions of the law relating to the Police-Administration in regard to means of redress. Neither does the law of 30 November 1933 provide for the contesting of a decision by a suit (filing an appeal) at the administrative court. Therefore the party affected by such orders has only the general legal remedy of a complaint to the supervisory authority.