The anti-Nazi origins of militant democracy : Germany's Constitutional Tribunes / Samuel Miner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Miner, Samuel, Author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in constitutional law.

Cambridge studies in constitutional law

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional courts--Germany.

Constitutional courts.

Constitutional law--Germany.

Constitutional law.

Denazification--Germany.

Denazification.

Anti-Nazi movement--Germany.

Anti-Nazi movement.

Democracy--Germany.

Democracy.

National socialism--Germany--Influence.

National socialism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 350 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

This book examines a group of mostly Social Democratic resisters and emigres whose biographies from the Nazi seizure of power until the defeat and occupation of Germany caused a radical change in the constitutional politics of postwar West Germany. Most notably, they embraced the idea of a 'militant democracy' in which the free democratic order would be protected from democracy's supposedly self-destructive proclivities by banning extremist parties and organizations from the political arena and empowering what is arguably the strongest constitutional court in the world to review legislation, enforce militant democracy and generally act as a 'guardian of the constitution.' This was an antifascist response to popular support for the German dictatorship and its worst crimes. In the postwar, these anti-Nazis empowered courts to review legislation as a way to try Nazi war criminals and purge Nazi ideology from German law.

Contents:

Introduction

2 Emigration and the anti-totalitarian moment

3 Resistance, persecution, and the search for a popular front

4 Allied occupation policy and denazification

5 The first German Nazi-era trials and the continuities of German law

6 The rule of experts: preparing South German constitutions

7 The return of the political: the state constitutions in practice and the Basic Law

8 The establishment of the Federal Constitutional Court

9 The Lüth case

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 31 Jul 2026).

ISBN:

9781009775267