German military law has a long history.
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In 1900 the German Empire established a single jurisdiction to try soldiers, with the Reichsmilitärgericht as the supreme court. During the First World War, German military law enabled military courts to try not only soldiers but also civilians held to have violated the military law. Especially well-known is the case of Edith Cavell, the English nurse court-martialled and executed in occupied Brussels in 1915 for having helped POW's escape - which was indeed a capital offence under the German military law of the time.
In the Weimar Republic (1919-1933), separate courts-martial (German: Militärgerichtsbarkeit) did not exist - but they were revived in the Third Reich by a special directive of May 12, 1933. The Reichskriegsgericht was established as the high court by another directive of September 5, 1936 on the following October 1. In World War II the court convicted not only Wehrmacht members but also civilians as the first and last resort for the crimes of:
Between 1939 and 1945 the Reichskriegsgericht was responsible for over 1,400 executions, including those of the Red Orchestra.
From 1910 until 1919 the Reichsmilitärgericht and from 1936 on the Reichskriegsgericht was based in a building on Witzlebenstraße in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. In 1943 the court was transferred to Torgau, where it was based until the end of the war. In 1951 the building became the temporarily base of the Berlin Kammergericht (appellate court), since 2005 it is a private estate.
Since 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany has no special military courts. Criminal acts committed by soldiers are tried in ordinary criminal courts by civilian judges.
Art. 96 para. 2 Basic Law (Grundgesetz) allows for the creation of specialised military courts in case of war and for soldiers sent abroad, subject to a federal law. Such a law has not been passed.
Smaller offences are being handled by disciplinary courts which are attached to the administrative court system. They may only pronounce disciplinary punishments, but no criminal sentences (e.g. no imprisonment, except 21 days of detention in the watch room).