Decorated on the French front in World War I. Joined the Nazi Party in 1922. Minister of Justice in Hitler's first government. As minister of justice in the State of Bavaria during the Weimar era, he helped arrange a light sentence for Hitler after the failed putsch of 1923 and applied influence to lift the ban imposed on the Nazi Party after the putsch trial. As Minister of Justice of the Third Reich, he was instrumental in applying the policy of Gleichschaltung to the judicial system. Controlled judicial and prosecution appointments and merged the judges' professional organisation with a corresponding Party entity. Subsequently, he sought to clothe the regime's actions in legal garb.
