The "Civil Death" of the Jews Justifies Breaking a Contract
Final Decision of the Reich Supreme Court in Berlin, June 27, 1936
Source: Juristische Wochenschrift , 1936, pp. 2529-2531 [Report from a German Law Journal]:
In a February 24 1933 contract, the defendant - stage manager and author Erich Th. (known as Eric Charell) - transferred all rights of his work "The Return of Odysseus" to the plaintiff [UFA, a leading German film company]. He also promised the plaintiff to work on the...script. A flat rate of 130,000 RM was agreed upon for the transfer of the rights, including Th.'s collaboration on the script.... In article 6 of the contract, it was agreed that should the contract not be maintained because of Th.'s becoming incapable of carrying out his directorial duties as a result of illness, death or similar causes', the plaintiff might withdraw and the defendant would be obliged to pay back the amount already received... At the closing of the contract it was known that Th. was non-Aryan (Jewish)... In a letter of April, 10 1933 [the plaintiff] withdrew from the contract...with the defendant, referring to the fact that Th. would not be able to carry out his directorial function... In the present complaint, the plaintiff demands the defendant refund the 26, 000 RM already received... The plaintiff was successful.
The Appeal Court ruled:
...The object of the contract...was the employment of a Jew as director...[and] the collaboration of that Jew as editor of the script. This function could not be fulfilled once Adolf Hitler became head of government on January 30 1933, when he laid down the legal foundation for the planned reconstruction of nation and Reich with the passage of the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933. Among the main points of the National Socialist party program of February 24, 1920 is...the suppression of harmful influences in the press and literature, on the stage, and in art and motion pictures. Regarding racial policy, this was connected to exclusion of Jews from all responsible positions in public life...[list of corresponding laws from July to November 1933]... Only Aryans are suited to be film producers and filmmakers, because only they may become members of the Film Chamber. If a non-Aryan is employed in a film as scriptwriter or director, public screening of the film is prohibited... A film on which a Jew has worked...is not recognised as a German film...
The Kammergericht in Berlin ruled on second appeal:
The legal measures were only taken after the plaintiff announced his withdrawal from the contract on April 5, 1933. However, the legislation was already anticipated at that time. In the last days of March, the popular movement urgently demanded the expunging of alien Jewry from public life. From a purely factual point of view, Th.'s direction of the planned film was still possible. However, an obstacle had now entered which made him incapable of fulfilling his directorial duties... A film produced in the German Reich in the summer of 1933 with Th.'s collaboration would in all probability become unusable... The deep upheaval in public opinion permitted absolutely no further employment of Jews... In a final judgement, the Reich Supreme Court ruled: ... The words "not capable" are not limited to psychological or physical inability... This is supported by the leading concept according to which (since seizure of power by the National Socialists) the individual's privileges are determined by race... According to the National Socialist Weltanschauung [Worldview] , only persons of German origin (and those made equal by law) in the German Reich are treated as having full legal value. The principal limitations of the former law concerning aliens are hereby renewed, and the idea of differentiating between persons with full rights and those with limited rights is also re-established. The degree of lack of rights was formerly equated with physical death if the judicial identity of the person was totally destroyed. The judicial terms "Civil Death" and "Monasterial Death" were coined as analogies to the physical death of a person. When article 6 of the script contract says that Th. is incapable of carrying out his directorial duties as a result of illness, death or similar causes', it is safe to regard the change in the legal status of the person as such a change. The change in legal status results from legally recognised racial policy viewpoints, and, in a manner similar to death or illness, they prevent him from fulfilling his directorial duties. The Reich Supreme Court also takes into consideration that his Jewishness was certainly known to the plaintiff at the time the contract was signed. ... Neither Th.'s Jewish religion nor his non-Aryan origin are decisive, but rather the significance of the racial change since the end of March, 1933...
...The Court concludes that the plaintiff, by virtue of the authority granted him in article 6 of the contract, rightly withdrew from his contract, because after the closing of the contract a cause rooted in Th.'s person arose that made it impossible for him to carry out the directorial duties on "Return of Odysseus". ________________________________________________________________
