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Germany's New Civil Service Act

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Fritz Morstein Marx
Fritz Morstein Marx
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Extract

Prior to the National Revolution of 1933, one of the foremost postulates guiding the conduct of German civil servants was that of political neutrality. The permanent public personnel—national, state, and local—was to consider itself, in the apt formulation of the Weimar constitution, “servants of the whole people, not of a party.” Although imprudent legislative and executive measures taken during the republican era weakened rather than strengthened the principle of neutrality, it was effectively upheld by the disciplinary courts. Indirectly, the professional tenet of non-partisanship facilitated German bureaucracy's identification with a broadly conceived constitutionalism. At a time when the National Socialist vote had become the largest in national elections, organizers for the new creed still made least headway among the government personnel. Statistics published in 1936 disclose the fact that less than four per cent of all civil servants joined the national Socialist party before Hitler's rise to the chancellorship. As the incoming Reich cabinet was not slow to recognize the “impossibility” of large-scale displacements, it resorted to transitional regulations in order to weed out overtly heterogeneous elements.

Type
Public Administration
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 31 , Issue 5 , October 1937 , pp. 878 - 883
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1937

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References

1 Thus, Dr.Frank, Hans (Reich Minister without portfolio), Mitteilungsblatt des Bundes Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Juristen und des Reichsrechtsamts der NSDAP, No. 2, p. 37 (1935)Google Scholar.

2 Cf. Marx, Fritz Morstein, “German Bureaucracy in Transition,” in this Review, Vol. 28, pp. 467 ff. (June, 1934)Google Scholar.

3 Decree of the National Minister of the Interior of May 11, 1936.

4 Deutsches Beamtengesetz of January 26, 1937 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, p. 39Google Scholar).

5 Thus, Reichsstatthalter Karl Kaufmann, Hamburger Fremdenblatt, No. 291, October 19, 1936 (evening edition).

6 The Reichsdienststrafordnung and the two Durchführungsverordnungen have become effective July 1, 1937, together with the Deutsches Beamtengesetz. (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, pp. 71, 669, 690Google Scholar. Application of the lawt o the permanent personnel of local authorities has been regulated in two subsequent ordinances (ibid., pp. 729, 730). Cf. also the Police Officers Act of June 24, 1937 (ibid., p. 653), the ordinance on outside activities of civil servants (ibid., p. 753), and the special rules on appointment and dismissal procedure (ibid., pp. 769, 771).

7 This term, in the phraseology of recent German legislation, extends to all basic units of local government, urban and rural. On the Local Government Act of 1935, cf. Wells, Roger H., “Municipal Government in National Socialist Germany,” in this Review, Vol. 29, pp. 652 ff. (1935)Google Scholar.

8 In the language of the act, “Treue bis zum Tode”—an expression borrowed from the vocabulary of the soldier.

9 The formulation suggests that the psychological effect of the oath would decrease in proportion to the frequency of its repetition. The act makes clear that no such repetition will occur in the course of the civil servant's career, regardless of promotion into higher offices or a transfer even from one local authority to another or from a municipal position to one in a central department or vice versa.

10 According to the first Durchführungsverordnung, however, if a civil servant invokes a regulation adopted by party authorities against an order coming from his superior, the latter must examine with particular care the possibilities of overcoming the discrepancy.

11 The first Durchführungsverordnung provides that they be released from the duty of official secrecy for this purpose, unless important reasons of state stand in the way.

12 This rule, too, is not laid down in the act itself, but in the first Durchführungaverordnung.

13 One of the affiliated organizations is the National Association of German Civil Servants.

14 The Civil Service Act leaves this entire field to the Reichsdienststrafordnung.

15 The procedure is regulated in the first Durchführungsverordnung. The system of political reporting is superintended by the Substitute of the Leader in Party Affairs, Rudolf Hess.

16 In the words of Reichsstatthalter Karl Kaufmann, loc. cit. (supra, note 5).

17 The act has 184 sections.

18 Koenig, , “Zur Rechtsprechung des Reichsgerichts über die Fürsorgepflicht im Arbeits- und Beamtenrecht des nationalsozialistischen Staates,” Verwaltungsarchiv, Vol. 42, p. 220 (1937)Google Scholar.

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