Otto Georg Thierack

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–

(

September 2025

)

(

)

Otto Georg Thierack

Thierack in 1940

In office

20 August 1942 – 5 May 1945

Chancellor

Preceded by

(acting)

Succeeded by

(acting)

President of the

In office

20 August 1942 – 8 May 1945

Preceded by

Succeeded by

Office abolished

Judge President of the

In office

1 May 1936 – 20 August 1942

Preceded by

Wilhelm Bruner

Succeeded by

Personal details

Born

19 April 1889

Died

26 October 1946

(aged 57)

Otto Georg Thierack

(19 April 1889 – 26 October 1946) was a German

and politician.

Early life and career

[

]

Thierack was born in

. He took part in the

from 1914 to 1918 as a volunteer, reaching the rank of lieutenant. He suffered

a facial injury and was decorated with the

, second class. After the

war ended, he resumed his interrupted law studies and ended them in 1920 with

his

Assessor

(junior lawyer) examination. In the same year, he was hired as a

court

Assessor

in Saxony.

Joining the Nazi Party

[

]

On 1 August 1932, Thierack joined the

. After the

in 1933, he managed within a very short time to rise high in the ranks from a

prosecutor to President of the People's Court (

). The

groundwork on which this rise was built was not merely that Thierack had been

a Nazi Party member, but rather also that he had been leader of the

, the so-called

Rechtswahrerbund

Justice Minister of Saxony

[

]

Having been appointed Saxony's justice minister on 12 May 1933, it was

Thierack's job to "nazify" the administration of justice within the region.

After going through several mid-level professional posts, he became vice

president of the Reich Court in 1935,

and in May 1936 president of the

Volksgerichtshof

, which had been newly founded in 1934. He held this job,

interrupted as it was by two stints in the armed forces, until August 1942,

when he was succeeded in the position by

. On 20 August 1942,

he succeeded

as President of the

Reich Minister of Justice

[

]

Otto Thierack (right)

with Judge

at the end of August 1942

On 20 August 1942, Thierack assumed the office of

Reich Minister of Justice.

He introduced the

monthly

Richterbriefe

in October 1942, in which

were presented model – from the Nazi leaders'

standpoint – decisions, with names left out, upon

which German jurisprudence was to be based. He also introduced the so-called

Vorschauen

and

Nachschauen

("previews" and "inspections"). After this, the

higher state court presidents, in proceedings of public interest, had at least

every two weeks to discuss with the public prosecutor's office and the State

Court president – who had to pass this on the responsible criminal courts –

how a case was to be judged

before

the court's decision.

When he became Reich Minister of Justice in August 1942, Thierack saw to it

that the lengthy paperwork involved in clemency proceedings for those

sentenced to death was greatly shortened. In September of that year, he caused all those in custody who were "Jews,

Gypsies, Russians, Poles sentenced to over three years, Czechs, or Germans serving a sentence of over eight years" to

be classified as "asocial elements" and transferred to

to be

At Thierack's instigation, the execution shed at

in Berlin was outfitted with eight iron hooks in

December 1942 so that several people could be put to death at once, by

(there had already been a

there for quite a while). The mass executions began on 7 September 1943 but due to their rapidity some prisoners were

hanged "by mistake". Thierack dismissed these as errors and demanded that the hangings continue. Thierack was named

to continue as Minister of Justice in

. He served in the brief

but was

dismissed on 5 May 1945 by Hitler's successor,

Arrest and suicide

[

]

The

arrested Thierack after the end of World War II. Before he was brought to trial before the court at the

, Thierack committed

, by

himself.

References

[

]

Notes

(PDF)

. Battle of Britain International Ltd. 2005. p. 8

. Retrieved

3 May

2021

. 25 August 1942

. Retrieved

9 November

2025

Christian Zentner & Friedemann Bedürftig: The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, Da Capo Press, 1997, p. 3

Sarah Schädler: „Justizkrise“ und „Justizreform“ im Nationalsozialismus. Das Reichsjustizministerium unter

Reichsjustizminister Thierack (1942–1945), Tübingen 2009

(2012).

Heinrich Himmler: A Life

. p. 637.

(2002).

Backing Hitler: Consent And Coercion in Nazi Germany

. p. 177.

(PDF)

. Battle of Britain International Ltd. 2005. p. 8

. Retrieved

30 April

2021

Lebendiges Museum Online

(in German). 27 January 2025

. Retrieved

8 January

2026

Bibliography

Braun, Konstanze (2005).

Dr. Otto Georg Thierack (1889–1946)

. Rechtshistorische Reihe. Vol. 325. Bern/Frankfurt

a.M. [u.a.]: Peter Lang.

External links

[

]

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(in German)

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Preceded by

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1936 – August 1942

Succeeded by

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equivalent to a Reichsminister

(2–23 May 1945)

(Chief Minister, independent)

(NSDAP)

(independent)

(NSDAP)

(

)

In his capacity as

Reichskriegsminister

(1871–1945)

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[

]

[

]

[

]

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[

]

(1949–)

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This page was last edited on 11 April 2026, at 12:31

(UTC)

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