Verbotsgesetz 1947

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The Verbotsgesetz 1947 (Prohibition Act 1947), abbreviated VerbotsG, is an Austrian constitutional law passed on 8 May 1945,[1] which banned the Nazi Party and provided the legal grounds for the process of denazification in Austria, as well as aiming to suppress any potential revival of Nazism.

The present version became applicable on 18 February 1947. The law, which was updated in 1992, prohibits Holocaust denial as well as the deliberate belittlement of any Nazi atrocities. Before 1992, some courts had interpreted the clampdown on reviving Nazi ideology as prohibiting Holocaust denial in particular, but since the law didn't explicitly prohibit such denials, there was considerable debate over the matter until the amendment.[2]

Provisions[]

According to Article I VerbotsG, the Nazi Party, its paramilitary organisations such as SS, SA, the National Socialist Motor Corps and National Socialist Flyers Corps, as well as all affiliated associations were dissolved and banned. To underpin the prohibition, the Verbotsgesetz itself, though constitutional law, comprises several penal provisions classifying any act of (re-)engagement in National Socialist activities (Wiederbetätigung) as a punishable offense. Section 3 h VerbotsG included in 1992 states that

whoever in a printed work, on broadcasting or in any other media,
or whoever otherwise publicly in a matter that it makes it accessible to many people,
denies, belittles, condones or tries to justify the Nazi genocide or other Nazi crimes against humanity

shall be punished with imprisonment for one year up to ten years, in the case of special perilousness of the offender or the engagement up to twenty years. All cases are to be tried by jury.[3]

The Austrian legal scholar and judge Wilhelm Malaniuk justified the admissibility of the non-application of the "nulla poena sine lege" with regard to the Verbotsgesetz: "Because these are criminal acts that violate the laws of humanity so grossly that such lawbreakers are not entitled to the guarantee function of the offense."[4]

Denazification and the Amnesties of 1947 and 1957[]

The 1945 law required all Austrian members of the Nazi Party or their subsidiaries such as the Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS) to register, forced their dismissal from administrative positions and certain high-level positions in the private sector, and barred them from gaining such employment. They were also ineligible to stand in the election of 1945. Fines could be levied based on assessments of individual involvement with the Nazi regime.

These efforts of denazification did not last long. With the public mood shifting from considering Austria as a perpetrator of Nazi aggression to one of its victims, calls to end the endless process of almost two years of self-reflection grew louder. French and American opposition managed to delay a first, partial amnesty until 1947. The changes, deemed the beginning of the end of denazification, abolished objective criteria such as early party membership in the assessment of individual guilt and instead called for a more subjective assessment of one's commitment to Nazi ideology. The assessments were also shifted to the local agencies wishing to hire the person in question, opening the process to conflicts of interest and favoritism.

A total amnesty was passed by parliament in 1952 but vetoed by the allied powers. When, in 1957, they relinquished this power, all efforts at denazification on the individual level were eliminated from the law. The following decades saw a return to power of many eager participants of the Nazi regime and its crimes in public office, industry, and culture. Thus, it did not surprise when the 1970 Kreisky cabinet included a total of six former Nazis as ministers.[5] While , minister of agriculture, SS-Untersturmführer, and SA member from 1933 resigned after being exposed by West Germany's Der Spiegel, Nazi party member no. 1,089,867 from 1932, Oskar Weihs, was immediately appointed to little public opposition.[6]

Application[]

In 1985 the Austrian Constitutional Court ruled that the remaining regulations are directly applicable in the country's legal system, binding every court and every administrative agency of Austria. Upon the 1992 amendment, the Austrian Supreme Court stated that any reasoning or argumentation concerning the Nazi genocide and the Nazi crimes against humanity is no admissible evidence.

Up to today numerous verdicts are handed down by Austrian courts based on the Verbotsgesetz, most notably the conviction of David Irving at the Vienna Landesgericht für Strafsachen on 20 February 2006.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Austrian state law gazette, 6 June 1945 (in German)
  2. ^ Brigitte Bailer-Galanda (1997). "'Revisionism' in Germany and Austria: The Evolution of a Doctrine". In Hermann Kurthen; Werner Bergmann; Rainer Erb (eds.). Antisemitism and Xenophobia in Germany After Unification. Oxford University Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-19-510485-4.
  3. ^ "Verbotsgesetz 1947: Bundesgesetzblatt für die Republik Österreich (Verbotsgesetz Novelle 1992)" (PDF). Rechtsinformationssystem des Bundes (in German). 19 March 1992. Retrieved 2018-09-05.
  4. ^ Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider in: NS-Prozesse und deutsche Öffentlichkeit - Besatzungszeit, frühe Bundesrepublik und DDR (2012), p 415; Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider „Das Volk sitzt zu Gericht“ (2006), pp 55; Malaniuk, Lehrbuch, p 113 and 385.
  5. ^ Moser, Karin (2005-12-19). "Kreiskys braune Minister". Der Standard (in German). Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  6. ^ Art, David (2005-12-19). The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria. Cambridge University Press. pp. 113–114. ISBN 978-1-139-44883-3.

External links[]

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