Curt Joël

Walter Curt Joël, Kurt ( born January 18, 1865 in Greiffenberg, Silesia, † April 15, 1945 in Berlin) was a German lawyer, civil servant and politician.

Life and career

Joel was born into a Jewish family. After graduation, he took a degree in law at the universities of Jena, Freiburg im Breisgau and Berlin, which he in 1888 with the first in 1893 with the second legal state examination and awarded the degree of Dr. jur. finished. During his studies, he became in 1884 a member of the fraternity Teutonia Jena. He then joined as a junior barrister in the Prussian judicial service. Since 1899 he worked as a prosecutor in Hanover and at the Berlin Court of Appeal. He was appointed to the office of Justice as a lecturer Council and Privy Councillor in 1908 and appointed to the Privy Councillor in 1911. During the First World War was Joël Section Chief in the General Belgium. At the same time he was employed as head of the central police station in Brussels. In these roles, he was responsible for counterintelligence. In 1917 he received the appointment as Assistant Secretary in the Reich Justice Office.

During the period of the Weimar Republic Joël was regarded as so-called " gray eminence " or " central figure of the German judiciary ," because he held for many years in key positions in the administration of justice. After retiring from the national government, he withdrew from politics and went into retirement. Although he was born into a Jewish family, he was not persecuted by the Nazis. He spent his life at a so-called " protection Jew " in Silesia and Berlin.

Public offices

Joël belonged to no party and served from 1920 to 1931 as Secretary of State ( first Under Secretary ) in the Ministry of Justice. Following the resignation of Minister of Justice Erich Emminger he took over on April 16, 1924 to January 15, 1925 to de facto leadership of the Ministry, but was not implemented by Chancellor Wilhelm Marx Reich government. In the run by Chancellor Heinrich Brüning government, he assumed on 10 October 1931, the Office of the Minister of Justice, which he had already managed provisionally since December 5, 1930. On 30 May 1932 he resigned from the national government.