Supreme Court of East Germany

The Supreme Court of the German Democratic Republic (‹See Tfd›German: Oberstes Gericht der DDR) was the highest judicial organ of the GDR. It was set up in 1949 and was housed on Scharnhorststraße 6 in Berlin. The building now houses the district court in Berlin, Germany 2 Instance and the District Court Berlin-Mitte. In the early days, 14 judges made up the court. It was disestablished in 1990.^[1]

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (April 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

View a machine-translated version of the German article.
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Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Oberstes Gericht der DDR]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Oberstes Gericht der DDR}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2024)

Among the responsibilities of the court included

The conduct of criminal proceedings in the first body, in which the Supreme Public Prosecutor of the Republic because of the paramount importance of prosecuting cases before the Supreme Court raised
Cassation in civil and criminal matters
vocation against decisions of acquittal for annulment actions of Office for invention and patent system in patent invalidity matters.

Later other tasks were added, mainly due to the process of simplification which is attributable to the pace of DDR-Justiz.

Neither separate constitutional court nor special administrative, social and financial court systems existed in the GDR.

Presidents: Kurt Schumann (1949–1960, NDPD), Heinrich Toeplitz [de] (1960–86, CDU), Günter Sarge [de] (1986–1989, SED)
Vice President: Hilde Benjamin (1949–1953, SED); Vice President and Chairman of the College of Criminal Law: Walter Ziegler, (new 1st Vice President) Guenter Sarge (1977–1986)
Chairman of the College in civil, family and employment law: Werner Strasberg Mountain
General Prosecutors: Ernst Melsheimer (1949–1960, SED), Josef Streit (1962–1986), Guenter Wendland (1986–1989), Harri Harland (1989 / 1990), Hans-Juergen Joseph (1-6/1990);

[1]
Marshall, Tyler (1991-04-25). "COLUMN ONE : Germany's Judicial Nightmare : The east's system served the Communist Party more than the concept of justice. But in the sudden shift to western legal principles, courts are in a state of collapse". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-04-15.

52.532°N 13.373°E / 52.532; 13.373

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (April 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

View a machine-translated version of the German article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Oberstes Gericht der DDR]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Oberstes Gericht der DDR}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (June 2024)

Among the responsibilities of the court included

The conduct of criminal proceedings in the first body, in which the Supreme Public Prosecutor of the Republic because of the paramount importance of prosecuting cases before the Supreme Court raised
Cassation in civil and criminal matters
vocation against decisions of acquittal for annulment actions of Office for invention and patent system in patent invalidity matters.

Later other tasks were added, mainly due to the process of simplification which is attributable to the pace of DDR-Justiz.

Neither separate constitutional court nor special administrative, social and financial court systems existed in the GDR.

Presidents: Kurt Schumann (1949–1960, NDPD), Heinrich Toeplitz [de] (1960–86, CDU), Günter Sarge [de] (1986–1989, SED)
Vice President: Hilde Benjamin (1949–1953, SED); Vice President and Chairman of the College of Criminal Law: Walter Ziegler, (new 1st Vice President) Guenter Sarge (1977–1986)
Chairman of the College in civil, family and employment law: Werner Strasberg Mountain
General Prosecutors: Ernst Melsheimer (1949–1960, SED), Josef Streit (1962–1986), Guenter Wendland (1986–1989), Harri Harland (1989 / 1990), Hans-Juergen Joseph (1-6/1990);

[1]
Marshall, Tyler (1991-04-25). "COLUMN ONE : Germany's Judicial Nightmare : The east's system served the Communist Party more than the concept of justice. But in the sudden shift to western legal principles, courts are in a state of collapse". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-04-15.

52.532°N 13.373°E / 52.532; 13.373

Supreme Court of East Germany

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Responsibilities

Notable figures

References