Franz Gürtner Franz Gürtner ( 26 August 1881 – 29 January 1941 ) was a German Minister of Justice in Adolf Hitler ' s cabinet , responsible for coordinating jurisprudence in the Third Reich . Detesting the cruel ways of the Gestapo and SA in dealing with prisoners of war , he protested unsuccessfully to Hitler , nevertheless staying on in the cabinet , hoping to reform the establishment from within . Instead , he found himself providing official sanction and legal grounds for a series of criminal actions under the Hitler administration . Biography . Gürtner was born in Regensburg , the son of a locomotive engineer . After secondary school in Regensburg , he attended the University of Munich where he studied law . During World War I , he served on the western front and in Palestine , receiving the Iron Cross ( first and second class ) . After the war , Gürtner pursued a successful legal career , being appointed Bavarian Minister of Justice on 8 November 1922 , a position he held until his nomination by Franz von Papen as Reich Minister of Justice on 2 June 1932 . A member of the German National People ' s Party , Gürtner was sympathetic to right - wing extremists such as Hitler . During the 1924 Beer Hall Putsch trial , Hitler was allowed to interrupt the proceedings as often as he wished , to cross - examine witnesses at will , and to speak on his own behalf at almost any length . Gürtner obtained Hitler ' s early release from Landsberg Prison , and later persuaded the Bavarian government to legalize the banned NSDAP , and allow Hitler to speak again in public . After serving as Minister of Justice in the cabinets of Papen and Kurt von Schleicher , Gürtner was retained by Hitler in his post , and made responsible for coordinating jurisprudence in the Third Reich . Though a bureaucrat of the old school and a non - Nazi conservative , Gürtner nonetheless merged the association of the German judges with the new National Socialist Lawyers Association , and provided a veil of constitutional legality for the Nazi State . At first , Gürtner also tried to protect the independence of the judiciary and at least a facade of legal norms . The ill - treatment of prisoners at concentration camp s in Wuppertal , Bredow and Hohnstein ( Saxony ) , under the jurisdiction of local SA leaders , provoked a sharp protest from the Ministry of Justice . Gürtner observed that prisoners were being beaten to the point of unconsciousness with whips and blunt instruments , commenting that such treatment " reveals a brutality and cruelty in the perpetrators which are totally alien to German sentiment and feeling . Such cruelty , reminiscent of oriental sadism cannot be explained or excused by militant bitterness however great . " The protest proved to be in vain , for Hitler pardoned all those SA leaders and camp guards who were sentenced in the Hohnstein trial . Gürtner also complained about confessions obtained by the Gestapo under torture , but this practice , too , was upheld by Hitler . In 1933 , Gürtner came into conflict with one of his subordinates , Roland Freisler , over the issues of " Rassenschande " , or sexual relationship between an Aryan and a non - Aryan , which Freisler wanted immediately criminalized . Gürtner , in a meeting , pointed out many practical difficulties with Freisler ' s proposal . This did not , however , stop the passing of the Nuremberg Laws two years later , criminalizing it . Despite these initial efforts to limit the brutality of the Nazi regime , Gürtner also played a role in legitimizing it . In the weeks following the Night of the Long Knives , a purge of SA officers and conservative critics of the regime that resulted in perhaps hundreds of executions , he demonstrated his loyalty to the Nazi regime by writing a law that added a legal veneer to the purge . Signed into law by both Hitler and Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick , the " Law Regarding Measures of State Self - Defense " retrospectively legalized the murders committed during the purge . Gürtner even quashed some initial efforts by local prosecutors to take legal action against those who carried out the murders . Gürtner thus varied his role as Justice Minister by alternately protecting the regime and protesting against it . By the end of 1935 , it was already apparent that neither Gürtner nor Frick would be able to impose limitations on the power of the Gestapo , or control the SS camps where thousands of detainees were being held without judicial review . During World War II , the feeble resistance of the Ministry of Justice was weakened still further , as alleged criminals were increasingly dealt with by the Gestapo and SA , without recourse to any court of law . Instead of resigning , Gürtner stayed on , even going as far as joining the Nazi Party in 1937 . He found himself providing official sanction and legal grounds for a series of criminal actions , beginning with the institution of " Ständegerichte " ( drumhead courts - martial ) that tried Poles and Jews in the occupied eastern territories , and later for decrees that opened the way for implementing the Final Solution . A district judge and member of the Confessing Church , Lothar Kreyssig , wrote to Gürtner protesting ( correctly ) that the T4 program was illegal ( since no law or formal decree from Hitler had authorised it ) ; Gürtner promptly dismissed Kreyssig from his post , telling him , " If you cannot recognise the will of the Führer as a source of law , then you cannot remain a judge . " Gürtner died on 29 January 1941 in Berlin .