The Leipzig war crimes trials were held in 1921 to try alleged German war criminals of the First World War before the German Reichsgericht (Supreme Court) in Leipzig, as part of the penalties imposed on the German government under the Treaty of Versailles. Twelve people were tried (with mixed results), and the proceedings were widely regarded at the time as a failure. In the longer term, they were seen by some as a significant step toward the introduction of a comprehensive system for the prosecution of international law violations.
Background During the First World War the Allied leaders came up with a new concept, that once victory was achieved, defeated enemy leaders should face criminal charges for international law violations made during the war. On 25 January 1919, during the Paris Peace Conference, the Allied governments established the Commission of Responsibilities to make recommendations to that effect. As a result, articles 227–230 of the Treaty of Versailles stipulated the arrest and trial of German officials defined as war criminals by the Allied governments. Article 227 made provision for the establishment of a special tribunal, presided over by a judge from each of the major Allied powers—Britain, France, Italy, United States and Japan. It identified the former Kaiser Wilhelm II as a war criminal, and demanded that an extradition request be addressed to the Dutch government, which had given him asylum in the Netherlands since his abdication in November 1918. Article 228 allowed the Allied governments to try alleged German war criminals in military tribunals. In violation of the legal principle of double jeopardy, Allied prosecutions could proceed even in cases where the accused had already been tried, convicted and sentenced in court-martial proceedings under German military law. The German government was required to comply with any extradition order issued by the Allied powers to that effect.
Following the conclusion of the treaty, the Allied governments began their legal and diplomatic efforts to arrest the former Kaiser. On 28 June 1919, the day the treaty was signed, the President of the Paris Peace Conference addressed a diplomatic note to the Dutch government demanding the extradition of the former Kaiser, a very near relative of the Dutch royal family. On 7 July the Dutch Foreign Office replied that extraditing him would violate the Netherlands' policy of neutrality.Foreign Relations of the United States, 1919: Paris Peace Conference, vol. 13, pp. 374–375 Eventually the issue of trying Wilhelm was dropped, and he remained at his Dutch estate of Huis Doorn until his death on 4 June 1941.
In anticipation of further Allied action, the German National Assembly established a Central Bureau for the Defence of Germans Accused of War Crimes. On 4 October 1919, at a meeting in Berlin, Johannes Goldsche of the Prussian Bureau of Investigation reported that his office had compiled some 5,000 detailed dossiers on Allied war crimes, which could be made immediately available to defence counsel in the event of prosecutions being brought against German soldiers. The bureau had also investigated Allied allegations of German war crimes, but in this case was not planning to make its findings public for fear of possible repercussions from the Allies.De Zayas (1989), p. 9.
On 3 February 1920, the Allies submitted a further list of 900 names of alleged war criminals to the German government. The Germans refused to extradite any German citizens to Allied governments, and suggested instead trying them within the German justice system, i.e. at the Reichsgericht in Leipzig. This proposal was accepted by the Allied leaders, and in May 1920 they handed the Germans a reduced list of 45 accused persons. Not all these people could be traced, and in other cases there was difficulty in finding credible evidence.The Leipzig Trials, 1921, p. 9.Yarnall 2011, pp. 184–85. In the end, only twelve individuals from the lists were brought to trial. Another three people who were not on any list were tried by Reichsgericht before the other cases began: Dietrich Lottmann, Paul Niegel, and Paul Sangerhausen. The three men were charged with plunder for acts of looting committed in during the Rape of Belgium.Gerd Hankel: Die Leipziger Prozesse. Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen und ihre strafrechtliche Verfolgung nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Hamburg 2003, S. 71.
Trials The trials of Lottmann, Niegel, and Sangerhausen were held in January 1921. All three men were found guilty. Lottmann was sentenced to five years in a civilian prison, Niegel was sentenced to four years in a civilian prison, and Sangerhausen was sentenced to two years in a civilian prison.
The other trials were held before the Reichsgericht (comprising seven judges) in Leipzig from 23 May to 16 July 1921.
Heynen Sergeant Karl Heynen, who was charged with using corporal punishment, including his fists and rifle butt, against 200 British and 40 Russian POWs, who were under his command as forced labourers at the Friedrich der Grosse coal mine at Herne, in Westphalia. Heynen further stood accused, of having driven a British POW named Cross insane through various cruelties, including throwing the POW into a shower bath with alternating hot and cold water, for half an hour. It was further alleged that, after a British POW named MacDonald had escaped and been recaptured, that Heynen had hit MacDonald with his rifle butt, knocked him down and kicked him. Also, on 14 October 1915, Heynen stood accused of having threatened the POWs under his command with summary execution if they did not immediately return to work during an attempted strike action. Heynen had already been court-martialed and convicted for these same offences and had been sentenced to fourteen days' "detention in a fortress", which was suspended until the end of the war. At the insistence of the British Government, double jeopardy was set aside and Heynen was retried for the same offences. He was acquitted for his actions during the strike, as the court ruled that POWs were entitled to complain but not to refuse to follow orders, but convicted of fifteen other incidents of unnecessary brutality.Yarnall (2011), pp. 185–188.
In passing sentence, the court declared, "One cannot help acknowledging that this is a case of extremely rough acts of brutality aggravated by the fact that these acts were perpetrated against defenceless prisoners against whom one should have acted in the most proper manner, if the good reputation of the German Army and the respect of the German Nation as a nation of culture was to be upheld... There can be no question of detention in a fortress in view of the nature of his offences, especially those committed against prisoners who were undoubtedly sick. On the contrary, a sentence of imprisonment must be passed." Even though imprisonment in a regular jail was considered degrading to military honour, Heynen was sentenced to ten months in a civilian prison.
Müller Captain Emil Müller was a former commandant of the POW camp at Flavy-le-Martel, which had, long before his arrival, turned into, "a large cesspool", where 1,000 British POWs had been held. He proved he had tried very hard to improve conditions at the camp and was hamstrung from doing more by military bureaucracy. His lawyer showed how a dysentery outbreak that killed 500 POWs happened after his command had ended. The court considered nine instances of deliberate personal cruelty to be proven, as well as an additional case in which Müller allowed a subordinate to mistreat a POW, other cases of breaches of regulations, as well as two cases of verbal abuse. He was sentenced to six months in a civilian prison, including time served.Yarnall (2011), pp. 188–190. The term "command responsibility" was first used in this trial.ICLR report on the Leipzig War Trials , lawreports.co.uk; accessed 28 December 2015.
Neumann Private Robert Neumann, who had guarded Allied POWs who were forced labourers at a chemical factory at Pommerensdorf, also stood accused on unnecessary brutality. In some cases, Neumann demonstrated that he only followed orders from Sergeant Heinrich Trinke, who could not be found for trial. In other cases, Neumann was found to have physically abused POWs under his own initiative. The court considered twelve out of the seventeen charges against Neumann to be proved. In passing sentence, the court declared, "The accused kicked, struck, or otherwise physically ill-treated prisoners who were under his charge and were his subordinates. He did this deliberately and intended that his blows should hurt the prisoners. In doing this he had absolutely no justification." He was sentenced to six months in a civilian prison, with the four months he had already spent awaiting trial counting as part of his sentence.Yarnall (2011), pp. 190–191.
Dover Castle
Kapitänleutnant Karl Neumann of U-boat , who had torpedoed and sunk the British hospital ship in the Mediterranean Sea on 26 May 1917, stood accused of war crimes on the high seas. He proved he had only followed orders from his superiors in the Imperial German Navy. The Imperial German Government had accused the Allies of violating Articles X and XI of the Hague Convention of 1907 by using hospital ships for military purposes, such as transporting troops, and had decreed on 19 March 1917 that U-boats could sink hospital ships under certain conditions. The court held that Kapitänleutnant Neumann had believed the sinking to be a lawful act and found him not guilty of war crimes.
Llandovery Castle
Oberleutnant zur See Ludwig Dithmar and Oberleutnant zur See John Boldt, two junior officers who had served on the submarine in World War I, were put on trial for war crimes during the trials for their involvement in the sinking of Canadian hospital ship on 27 June 1918 off the coast of Ireland. Dithmar and Boldt were accused of machine-gunning the survivors of Llandovery Castles sinking while they were in lifeboats, during what was the deadliest Canadian maritime disaster of World War I. A total of 234 medical personnel, soldiers and sailors died during the sinking and subsequent ramming and machine-gunning of the lifeboats by the crew of U-86, while only 24 people in a single lifeboat survived the sinking. During the trials, Dithmar and Boldt were both found guilty of war crimes and were sentenced to four years in prison, though these were later overturned on appeal based on the argument that both men were only following orders and their commanding officer, Kapitänleutnant Helmut Brümmer-Patzig was solely responsible. Brümmer-Patzig had fled to the Free City of Danzig before the trials started and was never prosecuted. In spite of the appeal judgement, the original decision is still considered precedent and was eventually codified in the Rome Statute as part of international criminal law.
Ramdohr Max Ramdohr was charged with crimes against civilian non-combatants during the Rape of Belgium. He was found not guilty.
POW massacres Lieutenant-General Karl Stenger, the former commander of the 58th Infantry Brigade, stood accused of having ordered Major Benno Crusius in August 1914 to subject all French POWs to summary execution. Crusius stood accused of two separate massacres of French POWs, at Saarburg on 21 August 1914 and in a forest near Sainte-Barbe on 26 August 1914. Stenger denied that he had issued any such orders, and was found not guilty of war crimes.