Nuremberg, 20 November 1945: Six months after the end of the Second World War, a criminal trial begins in a bombed-out city, but in a largely intact palace of justice with a large prison attached. 24 major war criminals of the Nazi regime, including Martin Bormann, Karl Dönitz, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Wilhelm Keitel and Rudolf Speer, are tried before an international military tribunal. The four Allied victorious powers - England, France, Russia and the USA - thus achieve something previously unthinkable: an entire government team is put on trial.
"This had never happened before in this form," says legal historian Martin Polaschek. "For the first time, not only the perpetrators on the ground were prosecuted, but also those who gave orders and made political decisions - in other words, the architects of the system." The legal foundations were laid with the so-called London Statute: War of aggression, crimes against humanity and war crimes were defined as separate offences. The Allies thus created a supranational criminal law for the first time - a revolutionary step that later became the basis of international criminal law.
For the first time, not only the perpetrators on the ground were prosecuted, but also the architects of the system.
Despite these ground-breaking innovations, criticism was inevitable. Observers criticised the one-sided selection of defendants and spoke of "victor's justice". Crimes committed by the Allies - such as the bombing of civilian targets like in Dresden - were not part of the trial. In any case, the trial set standards - legally, morally and in terms of media history. It was meticulously documented, simultaneous translators made multilingual proceedings possible for the first time, and thousands of evidence documents revealed the crimes of the Nazi regime. Work was carried out under high pressure, because the fresher the offence, the more impressive the prosecution. "The Nuremberg Trial is a central source of contemporary history," says Polaschek. "It brought the extent of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime to light in a structured way for the first time." The indictment, the minutes and other documents have been preserved for posterity in four languages, each in 42 volumes.
A total of 13 trials from 1945 to 1949
The main trial from November 1945 to October 1946 was held against 24 defendants. It was the only one in Europe before an International Military Tribunal and ended with twelve death sentences, seven prison sentences and three acquittals.
In the following years, twelve further trials were held before national American tribunals against doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and SS officers. However, interest ebbed away with the beginning of the Cold War. Many perpetrators were not prosecuted, others found new roles - especially if their knowledge was useful in the emerging East-West conflict.
The Nuremberg trials remain a milestone. They established that no one can invoke a "necessity to obey orders" when committing crimes - and that even statesmen are not above the law. This principle still applies today, for example in the International Criminal Court in The Hague. "The signal from Nuremberg was clear," summarises Polaschek. "Even the commander is responsible - and no one should believe that his power and the actions associated with it guarantee him impunity."