I do not think I need to enter into any details here as to what it would have meant if that doctrine had been recognized. In the practice of the judges it would have meant separation from all legal provisions; the Party program could have been applied at random everywhere. It would, so to speak, have been the roof law under the protection of which, according to the wishes of those extreme National Socialists, legal life would have developed. It was my aim to point out that such a construction would not be necessary at all, that the existing laws would also do justice to the fact that Germany was now a state under National Socialist government. I must point out that the law adapts itself automatically to changed conditions of life and ideologies, and from that the standard and the speed of legal changes are decided. I intended to put in the place of the revolutionary changes of law, advocated by Freisler, an evolutionary development of law. I based myself on the principle of the interior change of the legal system, a principle which, for the first time, I propounded already in 1929 in one of my works where I also elucidated that principle. That was at a time when one could really not say that I might have based my arguments on the National Socialist thought. The compromise laws, which had already been promulgated, I mentioned intentionally without evaluating them. That was how I had argued against that thesis, and I believe had refuted it. I also used the opportunity to give my views concerning other important topical questions as well. I turned against the interference with the carrying out of sentences which I considered inadmissible. Due to previous incidents, I warned the judges against currying favor with high Party officers. I appealed to the pride of the judges and the consciousness of their independence. I also found reason to turn against it that some jurists in an absolutely inconsiderate manner, placed their own egotistic endeavors in the foreground, and did not show any understanding whatsoever for the sound idea of a true people’s community. Generally, I used a tactic which I had employed repeatedly: I committed the high Party leaders to adhere to many of their good words which they had probably spoken without reflection. I reminded them that Hitler during his first speech before the Reichstag had declared the independence of the judges as necessary. I pointed out that Frank[161] had mentioned the internal value of justice; and, that Goering, in public, had spoken against interference with the administration of justice. Q. What was your relationship with Hitler?