dciu was I Ians IVaiik.'^ I'lic old jurisprudence of concepts, based on strict rules of law nuist go, to be replaced bv the good of the people, hence there is a return to natural law." .\ccordingl\’, legislation is suspect: it nia\' not correspond to the natural feelings of the people which are based on the Volk, land, labor, honor and the state. The people, organized is the N'SD.VP and its spokesman is the I’uhrer. Mis voice is the supreme law. lie is the fundamental organizing thought. Thus, in Nazi theory law must nor be wbar is dictated by an o\ erclass, but emerge from the naturalh’ healthy feelings of the people who are racialK defined, l.aw as a tool of the rewolution is stressed. Law has :s The leader as I'iihrer is the guiding thought of the \c)lk. full authoritN because it is the healthy natural feeling of the \ oik. 1 have set this short account of Nazi hnv in the context of the need for authoritx', but I coidd equally have set it in m\' first conclusion: the importance of know ing legal histor\ to understand today's law and in making tomorrow's law. Almost all of the main themes of Nazi doctrine can be traced back to Ciarl I'riedrich \on Sa\ igny in uSiq when the first edition appeared of his small book, I oni Bcntf miscrcr /.fit flir iifsftzgfhmig mid Rfchts-i'issfiisclhift."^' Lhere are perhaps also traces of Rudolph tonJhering, Dcr Kmiipf urns Rccbt. Sa\ igiu’ claimed that from the earliest recorded time law is the 'Spirit of the People,' '\olksgeist,' and grows with the people as does 2*i 24 For an account of Germanic law from a Nazi perspective see Bechert, in Frank, Handbuch, pp. 7iff. For the need for a new German private law code see Hedemann, Volksgesetzbuch. 25 On the artificiality of concepts see, e.g. Lange, Lage. See also Loewenstein, Third Reich,' p. 781. 26 See e.g., Kier, in Frank, Handbuch, pp. 23ff.; Frank, Angesicht, pp. 238. 27 For Lange, Lage, p. 19, statute law under National Socialism will become more 'Volkstumer.' 28 See e.g. Frank, Handbuch, pp. i3f.; Frank/4r7g^es/c/7f, p. 430: "The lawmaker declares his lawmaking will emerge out of the necessities and needs of the whole Volk. The fate of the peopies' community is more important to the lawmaker than the fate of an individual.": cf. p. 431. 29 See the quotation from Freisler, in Loewenstein, 'Third Reich,' p. 803. 30 I have used the second edition (Heidelberg, 1828). 173
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=