he controlof the judiciary is exercised in different ways. In today’s world, it is carried out by critical reporting in print, radio and television media. And in the courts, the parties in litigation T have the option of challenging the verdicts in high courts by filing an appeal. The following deals with a third possible way of control, which is the executive influence of the state on the judiciary. The German Constitution of St. Paul’s Church from 1849 declared this illegal. It says that the judiciary […] is exercised independently by the courts and that the judiciary of the cabinet and ministries is inadmissible.1 This tradition, which was ignored in the Nazi regime, is today guaranteed by the Grundgesetz of the Federal Republic of Germany (GG), ensuring that The judges […] are independent and only bound by the rule of law.2 A question arises in direct relation to German constitutional and judicial history, one which has not been fully answered, namely if and to what extent the judges of the highest courts of the Holy Roman Empire, the Aulic Council (Reichshofsrat, RHR), and the Imperial Chamber Court (Reichskammergericht, RKG), were protected from the ruler’s intervention and control of them.3 The RKGand the RHRhad consistently condemned cabinet jurisdiction by the sovereign.4 But what applied to the courts of the empire themselves? Were they protected from the emperor’s interventions? I have imperial control of the aulic council 1 Die deutschen Verfassungen, segment VI, art. X, § 175, p. 113. 2 GG, art. 97 I. According to German Judiciary Act 26 §, the judge is indeed subject to an administrative supervision (Dienstaufsicht) as far as his independence is not affected. 3 Subject of the research is therefore the interventions by the emperor, not those controls by the so calledVisitationskommissionen, which were intended for the RKG. These were always successfully rejected by the RHR; for this see Sellert, Wolfgang 1973 p. 83; Becker, Hans-Jürgen 1998 col. 927-928. 4 Examples in Pfeiffer, Burkhard Wilhelm 1831 pp. 241 f., 249-252 and 258. 58 Introduction
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