New Books Network Douglas Morris, "Legal Sabotage: Ernst Fraenkel in Hitler's Germany" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Dec 25, 2025
Douglas Morris, a criminal defense lawyer and independent legal historian, dives into the story of Ernst Fraenkel, a lawyer who resisted the Nazis through legal means during a perilous time. Morris reveals how Fraenkel used law to defend persecuted individuals despite the oppressive regime. He discusses the concept of the 'dual state,' where the law coexisted with arbitrary violence. Fascinatingly, Fraenkel's illegal writings urged for socialist resistance, showcasing his strategic adaptability under a repressive system. Morris also touches on the survival luck and tactics that enabled Fraenkel's persistence.
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Dual State Explains Nazi Legal Dynamics
- Ernst Fraenkel's 'dual state' divides Nazi Germany into a prerogative state of arbitrary violence and a normative state of law institutions.
- The prerogative state dominated and gradually pulled the normative state toward arbitrariness and discrimination.
Violence Then Law To Remove Jewish Lawyers
- Nazis combined immediate violent intimidation with legal measures to expel Jewish lawyers from the profession.
- Legal instruments like the April 7, 1933 bar law made the purge systematic after the initial SA violence.
Quiet Courtroom Wins For Political Defendants
- Fraenkel quietly defended political prisoners, cross-examined witnesses, and won acquittals in local courts.
- He worked with two non-Jewish colleagues and avoided publicity to protect clients and himself.