Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

Background

Document

Dismissal letter from the Berlin transit authority (Document)

A letter written by the Berlin transit authority (Berliner Verkehrs Aktiengesellschaft) to Viktor Stern, informing him of his dismissal from his post with their agency as of September 20, 1933. This action was taken to comply with provisions of the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.

On April 7, the German government issued the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service (Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums), which excluded Jews and political opponents from all civil service positions. 

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Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in January 1933. On April 7, 1933, his government enacted the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. 

The title of the law was designed to make the legislation seem unremarkable. Opponents of the Weimar Republic—Germany’s government from 1918 to 1933—claimed that the government bureaucracy had lost its professionalism. They argued that this lack of professionalism had been caused by democratic compromises between political parties in the German parliament (Reichstag). They believed that unqualified candidates had been appointed to the civil service as a reward for political loyalty and not because of their ability. The new government under Hitler claimed the law would restore the professionalism of the civil service by identifying these political appointees and removing them from their posts.

In fact, the law served as part of the Nazis’ effort to align the civil service with their aims. This process of alignment was called Gleichschaltung (synchronization). The new law allowed the Nazis to remove their opponents, whether real or imagined, from public service. 

Under Article 3 of the law, the Nazis were able to remove Jews from their civil service positions. Under Article 4, they were able to remove those officials who, according to the Nazis, could not be expected to always defend the Nazi state. And finally, under Article 6, civil servants could be forced into retirement in order to simplify the administration and reduce expenses. 

President Paul von Hindenburg, who had been the commander-in-chief of the German armed forces during World War I, insisted on exempting from removal or retirement certain categories of people. They included: 

• those who entered state service before August 1914, when Germany entered World War I; 
• those who had served at the front during the war years (1914–1918); and
• those who had lost a father or son in the war. 

After President von Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, these exceptions were revoked. 

The Law in Prussia

In the administration of justice for Prussia, the impact of the law was substantial. Prussia was Germany’s largest state. Of 6,560 judges, prosecutors, and officials in the Ministry of Justice, 420 were removed: 

• 128 because they were Jewish (Article 3);
• 100 because they were considered politically unreliable by the Nazis (Article 4); and
• 192 to simplify and reduce costs to the administration (Article 6).  

This reflected about 6 percent of all Prussian officials active in the administration of justice in 1933. The vast majority of civil servants kept their jobs. 

Significance of the Law

The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service was a key piece of legislation in the transition from German democracy to Nazi dictatorship. It allowed the Nazis to bar Jews and remove political opponents from the civil service. This was the first major piece of Nazi legislation targeting Jews simply because they were Jewish. 

Translation of Primary Source

(Excerpt translated from Reichsgesetzblatt I, 1933, p. 175.)1Footnote 11                  

The Reich Government has enacted the following law, promulgated herewith:

Article 1

1. To restore a national professional civil service and to simplify administration, civil servants may be dismissed from office in accordance with the following regulations, even if there are no grounds for such action under the prevailing law.

2. For the purpose of this law the following are to be considered civil servants: those officials employed directly and indirectly [for example, at state universities or state hospitals] by the Reich, those officials employed directly or indirectly by the German states (Länder) [for example Prussia or Bavaria], officials of the local community administrations or community organizations, officials of public corporations as well as of institutions and enterprises of equivalent status. These provisions also apply to officials of social insurance organizations, who currently have the rights and obligations of civil servants. 

3. Civil servants who are in interim retirement are included as civil servants for the purposes of this law. 

4. The Reich Bank and the Reich Rail Authority will be empowered to make similar regulations to this effect.

Article 2

1. Officials who have entered the civil service since November 9, 1918, who do not have the required or customary education prerequisites or other qualifications are to be dismissed from the civil service. Their salaries will continue to be paid for a period of three months following their dismissal.

2. They will have no claim to provisional payments, pensions, or survivors’ benefits, nor will they retain their official rank and title nor be permitted to wear official uniforms or display emblems of office.

3. In the event of need, especially in cases where they are caring for dependents without means, they can be granted a pension, which can be revoked at any time, of up to one third of the base salary of the position they last held. There will be no subsequent insurance in accordance with the national social security system.

4. These provisions (Article 2 subsections 2 and 3) apply also to those officials specified under Article 2 subsection 1 who retired before the provisions of this law came into effect. 

Article 3

1. Civil servants who are not of Aryan descent are to be retired; if they are honorary officials, they are to be dismissed from their official status.

2. Article 1 does not apply to civil servants who were already appointed by August 1, 1914, who fought at the front for the German Reich or its Allies in the World War, or whose fathers or sons fell in the World War. Other exceptions may be permitted by the Reich Minister of the Interior in coordination with the Minister concerned or with the highest authorities in the states (Länder) with respect to civil servants working abroad. 

Article 4

Civil servants whose previous political activities afford no assurance that they will, at all times, give their unconditional support to the national state, can be dismissed from the civil service. Their salaries will continue to be paid for a period of three months following their dismissal. After such time, they are to receive three fourths of their pension and corresponding survivor’s benefits.

Article 5

1. If official need requires it, every civil servant must accept transfer to another office in the same or an equivalent career path, even if such transfer is to a position of lower rank and pay level. They will receive reimbursement of the prescribed relocation costs. In the case of transfer to an office of lower rank and salary, the civil servant shall retain his previous job title and salary.

2. In place of transfer to a position of lower rank and pay, the official concerned may request early retirement within one month.

[…]

Berlin, April 7, 1933

Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler
Reich Minister of the Interior Frick
Reich Minister of Finance Graf Schwerin von Krosigk