Popular Justice in Europe (18th-19th Centuries)

In 1960, an article appeared in the weekly «Die Zeit» entitled: Keine Volksjustiz! (No Popular Justice!). Just a few days before, on January 16, Chancellor Adenauer, in a televised speech, encouraged German people to exercise self-justice against neo-Nazis who spread walls and synagogues with swastikas («Wenn ihr irgendwo einen Lümmel erwischt, vollzieht die Strafe auf der Stelle»). According to Adenauer, they deserved a good hiding («eine Tracht Prügel»), because this would be the right punishment («Das ist die Strafe, die er verdient»). The journalist in «Die Zeit» found Adenauer’s encouragement very dangerous for a state founded on the rule of law, and condemned what he called «private sentencing» «justice based on hidings»...