Bundestag Votes to Extend Statute of Limitations Until 1970

The Bundestag, lower house of West Germany’s Parliament, voted today to extend the period for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals for four and a half years. The present cut-off date for such prosecutions under the West German statute of limitations for prosecution of murder is May 8 this year. The Bundestag would extend the date to December 31, 1969. The vote was 344 to 96, with four abstentions.

The formula used in the measure was to provide that the statute base should be December 31, 1949, instead of May 8, 1945, the date of the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Allies. Under that formula, the limitation remains at 20 years, but the 20-year period is moved forward.

The measure approved by the Bundestag, which must now be approved also by the Senate and the Erhard’s Christian Democrats joined with the opposition Social Democrats at the first reading in the Bundestag on March 10, to abolish all termination dates for prosecution of Nazi war criminals. Another proposal was for the Bundestag Legal Committee to extend the cut-off date for 10 years. Both proposals were withdrawn before the vote today.

While no official reason was given for the withdrawal of the proposal to drop all bans to prosecution, members of the two parties expressed the view that it would have been impossible to muster a Bundestag majority for that proposal.

Immediately after the Bundestag voted to extend the statute of limitations, Minister of Justice Ewald Bucher submitted his resignation from the Cabinet. Mr. Bucher had insisted that the Cabinet reject extension of the statute, when the subject came up several months ago, and had afterward said he would resign if his stand were to be reversed by Parliament. He opposed prolongation of the cut-off date beyond May 8 of this year on “constitutional” grounds.