Control Council Law No. 1 – Repealing of Nazi Laws

The Control Council Law No. 1 – Repealing of Nazi Laws (German: Kontrollratsgesetz Nr. 1 betreffend die Aufhebung von NS-Recht, short form: Kontrollratsgesetz Nr. 1) was a law enacted by the Allied Control Council for post-World War II Germany on 20 September 1945.

Description

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It repealed numerous pieces of legislation enacted by the Nazi regime. It also prohibited the application of any German enactment that could discriminate against any person based on their race, nationality, religious beliefs, or opposition against the NSDAP. Similar guarantees would later be included in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany and, to a lesser extent, the original Constitution of East Germany.

By repealing the Enabling Act of 1933, theoretically the Weimar Constitution was reestablished; however, the constitution stayed irrelevant on the grounds of the powers of the Allied Control Council acting as occupying forces.

Further denazification of the legislation was conducted in the following years.[1]

Text

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The official text of the law was in the three languages of the occupying forces, although a non-binding German translation was provided. Signatories for the occupying forces were Bernard L. Montgomery (British), Louis Koeltz (French), Vassily Sokolovsky (Soviet) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (American).

Fate of this law

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In the Federal Republic of Germany the law became defunct with the First Law for Repealing Occupying Forces Legislation (Erstes Gesetz zur Aufhebung des Besatzungsrechts) (BGBl. I p. 437) on 30 May 1955, with the previously repealed Nazi legislation staying invalid.

For the German Democratic Republic, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union repealed the law on 20 September 1955.[citation needed]

Explicitly repealed laws

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Implicitly repealed laws

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References

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  1. ^ Loewenstein, Karl (1 January 1948). "Law and the legislative process in occupied Germany: I". Yale Law Journal. 57 (5). ISSN 0044-0094.
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