Ministries Trial

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The Ministries Trial (or, officially, The United States of America vs. Ernst von Weizsäcker, et al.) was the eleventh of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).

This case is also known as the Wilhelmstrasse Trial, so-named because the German Foreign Office was located at the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin. The defendants in this case were officials of various Reich ministries, facing various charges for their roles in Nazi Germany and thus their participation in or responsibility for the numerous atrocities committed both in Germany and in occupied countries during the war.

The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal IV, were William C. Christianson (presiding judge) from Minnesota, Robert F. Maguire from Oregon, and Leon W. Powers from Iowa. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor; the chief prosecutor was Robert M. W. Kempner. The indictment was filed on November 15, 1947; the hearings lasted form January 6, 1948 until November 18 that year, and then the judges took a whole five months to compile their 833-page judgment, which they presented on April 11, 1949. The sentences were handed down on April 13, 1949. Of all the twelve trials, this was the one that lasted longest and ended last. Of the 21 defendants arraigned, two were acquitted, the others were found guilty on at least one count of the indictment and received prison sentences ranging from three years including time served to 25 years' imprisonment.

[edit] Indictment

The accused faced eight charges:

1. Crimes against peace by planning and waging aggressive war against other nations and violating international treaties;
2. Participating and organizing the formulations and execution of a common plan and conspiracy to commit aforementioned crimes against peace;
3. War crimes by being responsible for murder, ill-treatment and other crimes against prisoners of war and enemy belligerents;
4. Crimes against humanity: atrocities and crimes committed against Germans on the grounds of political, racial, or religious discrimination from 1933 to 1939;
5. War crimes and crimes against humanity by participating in or being responsible for atrocities and crimes committed against civilians in occupied countries;
6. War crimes and crimes against humanity through plundering and spoliation of occupied territories;
7. War crimes and crimes against humanity through participation in the ensalvement, deportation for slave labor, and ill-treatment of civilians in both Germany and occupied countries, as well as of prisoners of war;
8. Membership in criminal organizations (the SS or the NSDAP leadership corps)

All defendants pleaded "not guilty" on the counts they were indicted.

The tribunal dismissed count 2 due to lack of evidence, and also count 4, stating that this was beyond its jurisdiction because it concerned events prior to the war.

[edit] Defendants

Name	Function	Sentence
Ernst von Weizsäcker	Permanent Secretary of State in the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Ministry) under Ribbentrop until 1943, then ambassador to the Holy See; SS-Brigadeführer.	7 years' imprisonment; reduced to 5 years on December 12, 1949, released in October 1950.
Gustav Adolf Steengracht von Moyland	Successor of von Weizsäcker as Secretary of State in the Foreign Ministry (until 1945)	7 years' imprisonment; reduced to 5 years on December 12, 1949, released 1950
Wilhelm Keppler	Secretary of State; Hitler's advisor for economy	10 years' imprisonment; released 1951
Ernst Wilhelm Bohle	NS-Gauleiter, Secretary of State in the Foreign Ministry; head of the Auslandorganisation (foreign organization) of the NSDAP.	5 years' imprisonment
Ernst Wörmann	Secretary in the Foreign Ministry; head of the political division.	7 years' imprisonment; reduced to 5 years on December 12, 1949; released 1951
Karl Ritter	Liaison between Foreign Office and the High Command of the German armed forces.	4 years' imprisonment incl. time already served; released after the judgment.
Otto von Erdmannsdorf	Secretary in the Foreign Ministry; deputy to Wörmann.	acquitted
Edmund Veesenmayer	Plenipotentiary in Hungary	20 years' imprisonment; reduced to 10 years in 1951 and released the same year.
Hans Heinrich Lammers	Head of the Reich Chancellery	20 years' imprisonment; reduced to 10 years in January 1951 and released December 16, 1951.
Wilhelm Stuckart	Secretary of State in the Interior Ministry	Time already served (3 years and 10 months)1
Richard Walther Darré	Minister for Food and Agriculture	7 years' imprisonment; released 1950
Otto Meissner	Head of the Presidential Chancellery	acquitted
Otto Dietrich	Reichspressechef of the NSDAP and Secretary of State in the Propagandaministerium	7 years' imprisonment incl. time already served; released in 1950.
Gottlob Berger	Head of the SS-Hauptamt, SS-Obergruppenführer	25 years' imprisonment; reduced to 10 years in 1951; released the same year.
Walter Schellenberg	Second-in-command of the Gestapo, head of the SD and the Abwehr, and successor of Wilhelm Canaris as the head of the Combined Secret Services; SS-Brigadeführer.	6 years' imprisonment incl. time already served
Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk	Minister of Finance	10 years' imprisonment; released in 1951
Emil Johann Puhl	Vice-president of the Reichsbank	5 years' imprisonment incl. time already served
Karl Raschke	Director of the Dresdner Bank	7 years' imprisonment incl. time already served
Paul Körner	Secretary of State, deputy of Göring.	15 years' imprisonment; reduced to 10 years in 1951; released the same year.
Paul Pleiger	Head of the Hermann-Göring-Werke (confiscated steel plants employing slave laborers)	15 years' imprisonment; reduced to 10 years in 1951; released the same year.
Hans Kehrl	Secretary in the Ministry of Armament; head of the planning office	15 years' imprisonment; released in 1951

Note 1: Stuckart was tried again in 1950 before a denazification court and sentenced as a Mitläufer (follower) a fine of DM 50'000.

Herbert Ernst Backe, the former minister for agriculture who should also have been tried, committed suicide on April 6, 1947 while in custody awaiting the trial.

[edit] References

• Description from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
• Another description
• Transcript of a German radio broadcast from 1999 (in German).