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Advocacy: the Courage Component by John Lawrence, President, CLANT

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Advocacy: the Courage Component by John Lawrence, President, CLANT CRIMINAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION NORTHERN TERRITORY (CLANT) Advocacy: The Courage Component By John Lawrence, President, CLANT hen I first started work as which illustrate the component Wan advocate, which was in in action. I was recently floored the equivalent now of Summary when I read an amazing Prosecutions here in Darwin, I illustration of this component. read all the books and articles I could which “taught” the “Art of An area of history which has Advocacy”. As you would expect always interested me is Weimar some are better than others and Germany, being the period of I benefited in some way from all Germany’s history from 1919 of them. Mind you Ian Barker to 1933. In January 1919 in QC’s words of advice still ring in the small eastern German my ears when he told me at my town of Weimar a democratic admission dinner how I was to constitution for the new German become an advocate. He said Republic was agreed. That the thing you do now is go down phase of German history lasted to the Magistrates Court for three only15years. In 1934a certain John Lawrence, or four years and have buckets Adolph Hitler made himself of proverbial poured all over President and proclaimed The CLANT President you. No amount of reading and Third Reich. learning can better experience communist defendants charged More specific to our profession is as a way to learn how to be an with crimes committed against the history of the German legal advocate. Nazi party members, being system and how it performed crimes of violence committed through that period and One thing that struck me from in beer halls and on the streets subsequently in the new Third most of the books and articles on of volatile Berlin. He also Reich. That story is not a good advocacy which I read was that prosecuted privately Nazi’s, story but like so much of history most of them stressed courage specifically brown shirts for it does present lessons for all as an important component for similar crimes committed by for the future. Within that story an advocate. I didn’t quite “get them against communists and there is the story of Hans Litten, it” when reading about it but others. as soon as I started preparing Advocate. cases and presenting them One trial in particular made Hans Hans Litten was a Prussian in court before Magistrates Litten famous, sealed his fate whose family were prominent and against more learned and illustrates this component and privileged. His father was and experienced opponents I of an advocate of which he had the Dean of the Law School at realised how necessary a part of no shortage. the armoury it was. And what’s Konigsburg. His mother’s family more it’s not something you consisted of Lutheran Pastors The trial was called “The Eden merely need at the beginning of and University Professors. Dance Palace” trial and it was your learning. It is something held in Berlin in May 1931. you need at all times. It’s not an In 1931 Hans Litten was running aspect of advocacy, like some, his own criminal practice in Four Nazi brown shirts were which through experience you Berlin. He was 27 years of age charged with attempted murder thereby become less reliant. and had been a lawyer for all and other crimes of violence. That courage component is of 2Vz years. He was fiercely The particulars were that they required at all times if you choose political, left and furiously anti- had entered the Eden Dance to continue to be an advocate. Nazi. He was involved in the Palace, which was a notorious major criminal trials which flowed beer hall for communists and the There is no shortage of examples from the turbulent politics of the like, situated in the working class historical and contemporary time. He would often defend suburb of Charlottenburg, Berlin. 2/2009 —Page 14 CRIMINAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION NORTHERN TERRITORY (CLANT) When in there they shot three Briener Street” reports published in the various people who were injured but German newspapers. The first not killed. The state prosecuted The description as employee questions actually asked of Mr and Hans Litten joined forces to was deliberately demeaning Hitler were from the Presiding privately prosecute. In those as old Adolph in those days Judge Ohnesorge. Following days this was Litten’s bread and described himself as “a writer” to those Hans Litten stood up and butter. What was different here distance himself from the gritty cross-examined Hitler for three was that Litten used his power party politics. hours. The main issue that Litten to subpoena witnesses. pursued was the sham of Hitler’s At the bottom of the document claim that the Nazi party was a The politics of the time need was a signature: political party operating legally. to be understood to appreciate He questioned him on the role Litten’s stratagem. This was “Litten. Advocate” of a group of Nazi henchmen a period when the Nazis were known as “Rollo Commandos ”, rising in the polls. Thanks in It was dated April 17,1931. The a term from the frontlines of the main to the depression trial was on 8 May 1931. World War 1 that had come to which mangled German society refer to small groups of Nazis worse than most the Nazis had So there you have it: Hitler was whose task was to kill political emerged from being crackpots 42 and the leader of a surging opponents. The four defendants to potentials. Hitler realized he Nazi party based largely on his were members of such a Rollo could win the popular vote and, own oratory and ability to speak. Commando. having been bitten in Munich Litten was 27, a lawyer of 214 in 1923 with his unsuccessful years experience and willing to Hans Litten pursued Hitler putsch and short jail sentence, bring the Fuhrer into the witness relentlessly. He used publications insisted that the Nazi party box so that he could cross­ from Goebbels that talked about was acting legally within the examine him. violence and physical retribution Republic’s Constitution. No to the Nazi party’s enemies. At jack boots, whips or uniforms at And it happened. The trial was times the reports have Hitler’s this stage. Mr Hitler was seen in the Berlin Court House of answers being described as in 1931 in a suit and tie. “Trust Moabit, being in the North West “shouting” and “Mr Hitler, red me I’m legal” was his message. District of Berlin and the busiest with rage”. He could see the middle class criminal court in Germany. This would hop into bed with him if he was Litten’s world. Mr. Hitler and Other witnesses followed Mr were able to sell this message. a Stenographer, which illustrates Hitler and the verdicts were And ultimately of course they his anxiety, turned up. It was for three of the defendants not did. Meanwhile his rabid storm massive news. Thousands guilty of attempted murder but troopers were on the streets thronged the streets around guilty of breach of the peace and killing, maiming and destroying the court house. Nazi storm trespass. The other defendant their political opponents. troopers fought with communists was acquitted of everything. in the streets. Mr. Hitler snuck The three defendants were each Hans Litten used The Eden in the back door with his cronies sentenced to 214 years jail. Palace trial to expose the lie wearing a blue suit and tie. that the Nazi party was a legal Of course that’s not really the political party. The component And yes, he hopped the witness point. Hans Litten’s employment we are talking about here brought box and 27 year old Hans Litten of the component sealed his about this stunning hand written had a go. Can you imagine in fate. document by Hans Litten. your wildest dreams standing up to cross-examine Adolph His mother, Irmgard Litten, wrote “In the name of the private Hitler? Can you imagine being her son’s biography and called it prosecutors I request able to stand up? But Litten “A Mother Fights Hitler in the the summonsing of the did and he went for it. There is UK”. In it she makes two chilling following witnesses: no official transcript of the trial comments: like we enjoy now. The reports The party employee of the cross-examination are “Hitler’s first victims Adolph Hitler, Munich 45 from the various stenographic were Germans”, and the 2/2009 —Page 15 CRIMINAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION NORTHERN TERRITORY (CLANT) Kafkaesque Line “My son a marked man and he knew all stored in his photographic was arrested on the night it. But he remained in Berlin memory, and lecturing in a wide of the Reichstag Fire”, practising advocacy until his range of subjects. arrest and incarceration in The Reichstag Fire was on 27 various concentration camps. His dedication to his fellow February 1933. By that time During that period he was prisoners and his passion for the Hitler was Chancellor but not beaten and tortured. He refused life of the mind were also forms yet President or Fuhrer. The to give information about his of resistance, humane, stubborn next day Hitler issued a decree former communist clients. To and unrewarded. suspending all civil liberties and avoid answering questions he declaring a state of emergency. attempted to take his own life On 5 February 1938 after The game was up and Germany by slashing his wrists only for enduring five years of torture and became thereafter lawless.
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