English source-aligned edition
Josef Altstötter
Josef Altstötter served as chief of the Civil Law and Procedure Division. The profile reconstructs the person’s function in Berlin, German Reich through documented office, decisions, supervision or operational conduct. It does not assign every crime committed by an institution or region to one individual.
Confirmed findings
- From 1943 Altstötter headed the Civil Law and Procedure Division of the Reich Justice Ministry. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage)
- He joined the SS on 15 May 1937 and rose to SS-Oberführer. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage)
- The tribunal found that he knew the SS’s policies and some of its crimes and, by retaining rank, contacts and honors, lent it the prestige of a senior official and jurist. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: tile.loc.gov, cited passage)
Place in the chain of responsibility
Responsibility must remain within the judgment: Altstötter was convicted for knowing SS membership, not for war crimes, crimes against humanity, Night and Fog, or particular racial judgments. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: tile.loc.gov, cited passage)
Key events and mechanisms
- He joined the SS on 15 May 1937. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage)
- In 1943 he became head of the Reich Justice Ministry’s Civil Law and Procedure Division. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage)
- On 4 December 1947 he was convicted on Count IV; he was released in December 1949. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: tile.loc.gov, cited passage)
The circle records authority, function and agency. Several profiles may describe different parts of the same persecution chain, so profile-level totals must not be added together.
Postwar accountability
US Military Tribunal III acquitted him on Counts II and III, convicted him on Count IV and imposed five years’ imprisonment with credit for pretrial confinement. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: tile.loc.gov, cited passage)
Limits of the evidence
No conduct covered by the acquitted counts or crimes of other SS members is attributed to him. No portrait was selected without verified rights to a specific file. (Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: nuremberg.law.harvard.edu, cited passage; Source: tile.loc.gov, cited passage)
Sources
The source set combines institutional, archival, trial or scholarly material from at least two independent publishers.