The Most Famous
JUDGES from Germany
Top 4
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary German Judges of all time. This list of famous German Judges is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity.
1. Roland Freisler (1893 - 1945)
With an HPI of 72.50, Roland Freisler is the most famous German Judge. His biography has been translated into 41 different languages on wikipedia.
Karl Roland Freisler (30 October 1893 – 3 February 1945) was a German jurist, judge and politician who served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1935 to 1942 and as President of the People's Court from 1942 to 1945. As a prominent ideologist of Nazism, he influenced as a jurist the Nazification of the German legal system. He was appointed President of the People's Court in 1942, overseeing the prosecution of political crimes as a judge and became known for his aggressive personality, his humiliation of defendants and frequent use of the death penalty in sentencing. A law student at Kiel University, Freisler joined the Imperial German Army on the outbreak of the First World War and saw action on the Eastern Front, where he was wounded and taken prisoner of war by the Imperial Russian Army. On his return to Germany, he completed his law studies at the University of Jena and was awarded a Doctorate of Law in 1922. Freisler joined the Nazi Party in 1925, upon which he began defending Party members in court for acts of political violence. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Freisler was appointed State Secretary of the Prussian Ministry of Justice; two years later he became State Secretary in the unified Reich Ministry of Justice. Through his zealotry as well as his legal and verbal dexterity, he quickly established himself as the most feared judge in Nazi Germany and the personification of the Nazi ideology in domestic law. In 1942, representing Acting Reichsminister of Justice Franz Schlegelberger, Freisler attended the Wannsee Conference, the event which set the Holocaust in motion. In August 1942, Freisler succeeded Otto Georg Thierack as president of the People's Court. He presided over the show trials of the White Rose resistance group and perpetrators of the 20 July plot, and handed out over 5,000 death sentences in his three-year tenure. Freisler was killed in February 1945 during an American bombing raid on Berlin. Although the death penalty was abolished with the creation of the Federal Republic in 1949, Freisler's 1941 definition of murder in German law, as opposed to the less severe crime of manslaughter, survives in the Strafgesetzbuch § 211.
2. Fritz Bauer (1903 - 1968)
With an HPI of 65.09, Fritz Bauer is the 2nd most famous German Judge. His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.
Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He played an instrumental role in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann, and in bringing about the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.
3. Georg Konrad Morgen (1909 - 1982)
With an HPI of 60.59, Georg Konrad Morgen is the 3rd most famous German Judge. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Georg Konrad Morgen (8 June 1909 – 4 February 1982) was an SS judge and lawyer who investigated fellow SS men for corruption and crimes committed in Nazi concentration camps. He rose to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer (major). After the war, Morgen served as witness at several anti-Nazi trials and continued his legal career in Frankfurt. Morgen was known as a Blutrichter, or "blood judge", as a result of being one of the members of the judiciary authorised to issue the death penalty. A mistranslation of this may also be the reason that he earned the nickname 'The Bloodhound Judge', said to be for his determination and doggedness in pursuing cases.
4. Thomas Hoeren (b. 1961)
With an HPI of 43.33, Thomas Hoeren is the 4th most famous German Judge. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Thomas Hoeren (born on 22 August 1961 in Dinslaken) is a German law professor and a former Court of appeal judge with focus on Information and Media Law.
People
Pantheon has 4 people classified as German judges born between 1893 and 1961. Of these 4, 1 (25.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living German judges include Thomas Hoeren. The most famous deceased German judges include Roland Freisler, Fritz Bauer, and Georg Konrad Morgen. As of April 2024, 4 new German judges have been added to Pantheon including Roland Freisler, Fritz Bauer, and Georg Konrad Morgen.
Living German Judges
Go to all RankingsDeceased German Judges
Go to all Rankings
Roland Freisler
1893 - 1945
HPI: 72.50
Fritz Bauer
1903 - 1968
HPI: 65.09
Georg Konrad Morgen
1909 - 1982
HPI: 60.59
Newly Added German Judges (2024)
Go to all RankingsRoland Freisler
1893 - 1945
HPI: 72.50
Fritz Bauer
1903 - 1968
HPI: 65.09
Georg Konrad Morgen
1909 - 1982
HPI: 60.59
Thomas Hoeren
1961 - Present
HPI: 43.33
Overlapping Lives
Which Judges were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 3 most globally memorable Judges since 1700.
