Preußisches Obertribunal

The Preußisches Obertribunal, abbreviated PrObTr (Prussian Supreme Tribunal), was between 1703 and 1879 either the sole or one of the supreme courts of the Kingdom of Prussia. The court played a significant role in shaping Prussia's legal system and had major influence on the administration of justice in the kingdom.

It was founded by Frederick I in 1703 as the Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin (Superior Court of Appeals in Berlin) and underwent several reorganizations. In 1748, the court was formally disestablished and integrated into the Kammergericht, where it became the Kammergericht's fourth senate. In 1782, the tribunal was separated from that court and named Geheimes Obertribunal (Secret Supreme Tribunal). In the wake of the German revolutions of 1848–1849, it was renamed to Obertribunal (Supreme Tribunal), before it was disestablished in 1879 and succeeded by the Reichsgericht – then the sole supreme court of the German Empire.

Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin (1703–1748)
The Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin (Superior Court of Appeals in Berlin) was founded in 1703 by Frederick I, after the king had obtained a limited privilegium de non appellando. The privilegium generale de non appellando limitatum, which had been granted by Leopold I on 16 December 1702, allowed Prussia to establish a supreme court, whose decisions could not be appealed to the two supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire – the Reichskammergericht and the Aulic Council. The privilegium was limited to cases involving not more than 2,500 gold guilders. The court, at least initially, had local jurisdiction for the Prussian provinces of Farther Pomerania, the Duchy of Magdeburg, the Hochstift Halberstadt (a Hochstift), the Duchy of Cleves, the County of Mark and the Fürstentum Minden.

In 1716, the court was merged with Orange-Tribunal (Orange Tribunal), which had responsibilities for Meurs, Lingen und Teklenburg.

With an order (Patent) dated 18 May 1748, the Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin was abolished together with all other superior courts in Berlin (except the Geheimer Justizrat [the Secret Judicial Council] and the Ravensburger Appellationsgericht [the Ravensburg Court of Appeals]) with a view to form a single supreme judicial institution for the whole of Prussia.

Fourth senate of the Kammergericht (1748–1782)
Under the date 31 May 1746, the Prussian king obtained an unlimited privilegium de non appellando (a privilegium generale de non appellando illimitatum) for Prussia from Francis I. This resulted in the establishment of a new supreme court in 1748, which at first remained unnamed. This court consisted of four senates (panels), the first three senates being mainly built out of the former Kammergericht (Chamber Court), while the fourth was chiefly formed out of the former Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin. Quickly, the first three senates became again known as the Kammergericht, while the superior forth senate emerged as the Tribunal (Tribunal).

In 1772, the fourth senate was renamed to Geheimes Obertribunal (Secret Supreme Tribunal). At this time, only two supreme courts of Prussia remained, the Secret Supreme Tribunal and the Ostpreußisches Tribunal zu Königsberg (the East Prussian Tribunal at Königsberg), which, however, was soon – probably in 1774 – subordinated to the Geheimes Obertribunal.

Sole Prussian supreme court (1782–1815)
On 30 November 1782, the Geheimes Obertribunal was separated from the Kammergericht. The Kammergericht was subordinated to Geheimes Obertribunal and the Geheimes Obertribunal gained local jurisdiction for the whole of Prussia. The Kammergericht continued its duties with three senates: The Kriminaldeputation (the criminal deputation), the Instruktionssenat (the court of appeal for the Kurmark) and the Oberappellationssenat (the court of appeal for the four high courts of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, i.e. the Instruktionssenat of the Kammergericht, the Altmärkisches Obergericht, the Uckermärkisches Obergericht [until 1789] and the Neumärkische Regierung). The Secret Supreme Tribunal thereby became the supreme Prussian court of appeal in the third instance and heard appeals against decisions by the Oberappellationssenat of the Kammergericht and the other high courts of the Prussian provinces.

The Secret Supreme Tribunal was directly subordinate to the Prussian Department of Justice or, from 1808 onwards, to the Prussian Ministry of Justice.

One of Prussia's supreme courts (1815–1849)
Due to the Congress of Vienna, Prussian made huge territorial gains in 1815. Prussia now consisted no longer of one unified area of law, but three: The area of French law in the Left Bank of the Rhine and the Duchy of Berg, the area of the ius commune in New Western Pomerania and Regierungsbezirk Ehrenbreitstein and the Prussian law region in the rest of Prussia. This fragmentation in the law resulted in the formation of new supreme appellate courts, thus ending the supremacy of the Tribunal. At this time, five Prussian supreme courts existed:
 * 1) the Rheinischer Revisions- und Kassationshof (the Rhenish Court of Appeal and Cassation) – competent for the area of French law,
 * 2) the Revisionshof zu Berlin (Berlin Court of Appeal) – competent for the ius commune-area of the right bank of the Rhine-territory of the Regierungsbezirk Koblenz,
 * 3) the Oberappellationsgericht zu Greifswald (the Court of Appeal at Greifswald) – competent for the ius commune-area of New Western Pomerania,
 * 4) the Oberappellationsgericht zu Posen (High Court of Appeal at Posen) – competent for the Prussian law-area of the Province of Posen and
 * 5) the Geheimes Obertribunal – competent for all other Prussian law-territories of the kingdom.

In 1833, the outstanding position of the Geheimes Obertribunal within the Prussian legal system was, however, fortified once more: Due to an ordinance dated 14 December 1833, it (re-)gained the sole responsibility to decide certain nullity appeals (Nichtigkeitsbeschwerden) and appeals on points of law (Revisionen) in civil disputes whose subject-matter reached the amount of the appeal.

During the period of the Vormärz, the Geheimes Obertribunal, however, lost its appellate jurisdiction in certain criminal cases of a political nature by virtue of a Cabinet Order dated 25 April 1835. These cases were reassigned to the Kammergericht (in its capacity as Geheimer Justizrat).

Sole Prussian supreme court again (1853–1867)
The German revolutions of 1848–1849 resulted in the promulgation of the Prussian constitutions of 1848 and 1850 which, inter alia, contained programmatic statements about the organisation of the courts (Article 91 of the 1848 constitution and Articles 92 and 116 of the 1850 constitution). Article 92 of the Constitution of 1850 proclaimed: "Artikel 92: Es soll in Preußen nur Ein [sic] oberster Gerichtshof bestehen. Article 92: There shall be only One Supreme Court in Prussia" Before the envisaged unification of the Prussian supreme courts was set into motion, the Geheimes Obertribunal was first renamed to Obertribunal (State Tribunal) by virtue of an ordinance dated 2 January 1849 to take into account the new principle of publicity (Öffentlichkeitsgrundsatz) in German procedural law. Then the unification was brought to life by a law dated 17 March 1852, which in its Section 1 merged the two remaining supreme courts of Prussia, the Rheinischer Revisions- und Kassationshof and the Obertribunal into a new court – again named Obertribunal. The merger of the courts came into effect on 1 January 1853. The other Prussian supreme courts, the Revisionshof zu Berlin, the Oberappellationsgericht zu Greifswald and the Oberappellationsgericht zu Posen had already been disestablished earlier.

Establishment of a short-lived second Prussian Supreme Court (1876–1874)
After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin (Superior Court of Appeals in Berlin) was formed to hear appeals from the new Prussian provinces: Schleswig-Holstein (including Saxe-Lauenburg), Hanover, Hesse-Nassau and the Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont. This new court was, however, short-lived and in 1874 it was merged into the Tribunal.

Decline and abolishment (1870–1879)
In 1870, the Reichsoberhandelsgericht was established in Leipzig as a court of the North German Federation and later of the German Empire. As a result, the Prussian Supreme Tribunal lost its final appellate jurisdiction concerning commercial and promissory notes law.

On 30 September 1879, the Prussian Supreme Tribunal was abolished in consequence of the establishment of the Reichsgericht, which – after the entry into force of the Reichsjustizgesetze – was now the sole supreme court of the German Empire.

Collection and publication of decisions
Following a cabinet order dated 19 July 1832, the Obertribunal had to give reasons for all its decisions, but its reasoned decisions generally remained unpublished. This was rectified in 1836 or 1837, when a state publication series for the decisions of the court was installed named Entscheidungen des Königlichen Obertribunals (Decisions of the Royal Supreme Tribunal; often abbreviated to PrObTrE). At first, only private law decisions were published (because the court had no competencies for criminal law), but after it gained the respective subject-matter jurisdiction, decisions concerning criminal law were also published beginning in 1849. Of its criminal cases, the 1859 Rose-Rosahl case (PrObTrE 42, 36) concerning the interplay of Error in persona and incitement – and factually the accidental murder of a 17 year old student – is especially famous. According to the German legal scholars Fritjof Haft and Jörg Eisele, hardly any other decision has influenced the discussion of (German) criminal law scholarship more than this decision by the Tribunal.

In the PrObTrE approximately 500 of the courts most important decisions were published. The series had major influence on contemporary Prussian jurisprudence.

Other important judges

 * Wilhelm Bornemann
 * Karl Friedrich Eichhorn
 * Georg Friedrich Puchta
 * Hermann von Schelling
 * Carl Gottlieb Svarez
 * Benedikt Waldeck