Filbinger affair

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The Filbinger affair or the Filbinger case in 1978 was a controversy about the behavior of Hans Filbinger (1913–2007) during the Nazi era and his handling of it as Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg. It began in February 1978 with Filbinger's injunction against the playwright Rolf Hochhuth, who had publicly called him a "terrible lawyer". As the case progressed, four death sentences were discovered that Filbinger had requested or passed as a military judge in the Navy in 1943 and 1945. He had previously denied three of them and then claimed to have forgotten them, but maintained that they were legal. In the face of growing public criticism, he lost the support of the CDU, of which he had been a member since 1951. He then resigned as Prime Minister on August 7, 1978. His attempts at rehabilitation, which continued until his death on April 1, 2007, and a controversial eulogy by Günther Oettinger for him kept the memory of the affair alive. It influenced the coming to terms with the past in the Federal Republic of Germany and the rehabilitation of the victims of the Nazi military justice system. Filbinger's behavior during the Nazi era is today seen as an example of the failure of many perpetrators and accomplices among the lawyers of the time.