Erwin Bumke

Erwin Konrad Eduard Bumke (7 July 1874 – 20 April 1945) was the last president of the Reichsgericht, the supreme civil and criminal court of the German Reich, serving from 1929 to 1945.

Born in the small town of Stolp (today, Słupsk, Poland) in the Prussian Province of Pomerania, he had a family that was middle class.

After studying law in Freiburg, Leipzig, Munich, Berlin and Greifswald, Bumke began his career as a judge in Essen.

On 25 October 1932, the court under Bumke's leadership, declared the temporary removal of the Prussian state ministers' authority by a Reichskommissar, enacted by emergency decree (see Preußenschlag), to be valid.

According to an amendment to the Weimar Constitution passed in December 1932, Bumke should have become interim President if Hindenburg either died or was permanently incapacitated, holding the post until new elections.

This culminated in the passage of the Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich, passed just hours before Hindenburg died on 2 August.

All of these actions violated Article 2 of the Enabling Act, which stipulated that the president's rights and powers were to remain "unaffected" (or "undisturbed," depending on the translation).