No sooner had the regimented millions of Berlin (see p. 18) tramped home from Tempelhof Field to soak their tired feet than they had real news to read in their papers. Dissatisfied with the results of the famed Reichstag Fire trial in which all but one of the five defendants were acquitted, the Nazi government announced the establishment of a new "People's Court" to take all cases of high treason from the penal division of the Supreme Court.
Immediately after the Reichstag trial, Nazi papers snorted that Chief Justice Wilhelm Bünger and his associates were "too legalistic, lacking the common touch." To be sure that nothing like this should hamper the People's Court, it was announced that of its five members, only two had to be lawyers. The other three were to be chosen by the Chancellor from among those "who have had special experience in fighting off attacks against the State."
The People's Court will have plenty of work. There is no appeal from its verdicts, and it must decree:
Death for all seeking to overthrow the Government, or the Constitution, by force or threats of force.
Death for all who attempt forcibly to detach any part of the Reich territory or deliver it to any foreign power.
Death for all who attempt to hinder the President, the Chancellor or any member of the Reich government from exercising his proper authority.
Death for all who try to obtain a State Secret, publish it, sell or attempt to sell it to a foreign power.
Death (or hard labor up to ten years) for all attempting to hamper the army or the police in doing their duty, or to influence them to this end through writings, pictures, radio messages or phonograph records.