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German Federal Court to Act on Case of Hamburg Anti-semitic Tract

January 21, 1959
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The Supreme Court of West Germany will review a pamphlet written by Freidrich Nieland and published by Adolf Heimberg of Hamburg to determine whether it violates Federal law and shall be confiscated as anti-Semitic propaganda, it was announced here today by Dr. W. Guede, Federal Attorney General, after a conference with Hamburg authorities.

The refusal of the Hamburg Supreme Court to permit prosecution of the author and the printer on the grounds that the pamphlet did not violate Bonn legislation against dissemination of material inciting to race hatred, has aroused a storm of protest in Hamburg and throughout the rest of Germany. However, their acquittal in the Hamburg city court bars further prosecution for Nieland and Hamburg.

The main point to be presented to the Federal Supreme Court here will be the passage in the Nieland pamphlet stating: “No Jew must sit in any important position, be it in government, political party, banking or elsewhere.” It will be asked to rule whether the passage constitutes a violation of the constitutional guarantee of equal rights for all.

(In Hamburg, the local Senate and the city’s judicial administration is preparing to investigate the past of Enno Budde, chairman of the court which refused to permit the prosecution of the printer and the author of an anti-Semitic pamphlet. Charges raised in the Senate included the fact that in 1935 Budde wrote an anti-Semitic article calling for “cleansing the Aryan race. ” It is anticipated that Budde will be asked to resign from the bench.)

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