Almost 80 years after the fall of the Nazi regime, Germany finally looks set to remove the term “Reich” from its official vocabulary.

Terms like “Reich Government” and “Reich Minister of the Interior” still exist in German laws and regulations.

But now Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann has written to government departments urging them to examine their respective body of law for “possible adjustment requirements”.

The letter, addressed to departments such as the Federal Ministry of Health and Federal Ministry of Finance, reads: “An examination by my department has shown that the remaining need for adjustment — especially with regard to terms of Reich law –— concerns ten laws and 12 legal ordinances.

“These legal provisions should now be examined by the respective lead ministries for possible adjustment requirements and, if necessary, cleaned up in law consolidation laws.”

It is, of course, sometimes necessary to be able to use terms involving the term “Reich” when making historical references.

For example, the 1969 Law on the Promotion of Vocational Training contains a reference to the “Reichsminister” in the historical context of vocational training legislation.

But Buschmann is dealing with laws which hail from Nazi times and are still in force today.
Dr Lothar Scholz, vice-president of the German-Israeli Lawyers Association, told the JC: “The Federal Republic of Germany is the legal successor of the German Reich. Therefore, it is more than appropriate to document this linguistically in laws and regulations after more than 70 years.”