Civil death

Civil death was originally a penalty for capital crimes, which was used in Europe in part to the 19th century. It consisted of the complete loss of legal capacity. Although the so punished lived purely biologically nor legally but his death was faked and he thus eliminated as a natural person. This included, for example, in addition to the loss of any property and the cancellation of an existing marriage and the loss of capacity. In later times, other forms of disenfranchisement were referred to as " civil death ".

Real death as a criminal sanction

Both the French Civil Code of 1804 (Art. 22 f ) and, for example, the Bavarian Penal Code of 1813 saw the imposition of civil death currently. The rules of the Civil Code in 1854 repealed by law. In Germany the Civil death was abolished by the constitutions adopted or developed in 1848 in the wake of the March Revolution ( for example, Article 9 of the Prussian constitution of 5 December 1848 § 135 of the Paulskirchenverfassung of 28 March 1849).

" Real death " in National Socialism

During the period of National Socialism, the status of Jewish citizens was called " civil death ". The Imperial Court allowed such as 1936, the UFA, the termination of a contract with the Jewish director Eric Charell, even though the contract allowed only one notice if Charell " not to carry out the work as a director in a position due to illness, death, or similar reason " is. The property " Jewishness " thus correspond, according to the imperial court in civil death (RG JW 1936, 2537 ).

Incapacitation as a " commoner death "

In Germany, the incapacitation because of the associated impairments in capacity was also often referred to unofficially as "bourgeois death," even though she was not connected to a deprivation of legal capacity in and came from the idea in the interest of the incapacitated.