Kammergericht
The Kammergericht (KG) is the Oberlandesgericht, the highest state court, for the state of Berlin. Its name differs from Germany's other state courts for historic reasons. There are no other courts called Kammergericht in Germany.
Overview
A Kammergericht was first mentioned in 1468 as the ducal court of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, when it adjudicated in the chambers (German: Kammern) of the prince-electors. As the supreme court of Prussia it was since 1735 based at the Baroque Collegienhaus in the present-day Kreuzberg district. The Kammergericht housed the supreme courts and judges of the different territories ruled in personal union by the royal House of Hohenzollern, without formally merging the different juridical systems. By this concentration in one locality the later unification of the juridical systems was prepared. The Collegienhaus is today part of the Jewish Museum Berlin.
After the establishment of the Oberlandesgerichte by the German Empire in 1877, the Kammergericht kept its name. It moved to its present location in a newly erected building at the Kleistpark in Schöneberg in 1913. In August 1944 the Kammergericht was the site of the show trial conducted by the Volksgerichtshof under Roland Freisler against the surviving conspirators of the 20 July plot. A few months later the court had to leave the building and cede it to the Allied Control Council. Here the Four Power Agreement on Berlin was signed on 3 September 1971. The Kammergericht was based at the former Reichskriegsgericht in Charlottenburg until it moved back to its former location in 1997.
The Kammergericht building is also the seat of the constitutional court of Berlin (Verfassungsgerichtshof) and the state's Attorney General (Generalstaatsanwalt).
Notable members
- Samuel von Cocceji, president 1723-1738
- Julius Eduard Hitzig
- E.T.A. Hoffmann
- Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder
External links
Media related to Kammergericht at Wikimedia Commons
Coordinates: 52°29′28″N 13°21′22″E / 52.491°N 13.356°E