Hello Captain GDW,

I just talked to my stepfather, 91, since 1933 till the end of war professional soldier with the army, about this.

He told me you had to have twelve years of service to qualify for life long allowance, in that the years of combat were counted double.

Just checked our Supreme Court cases to Art 131 and found one decision from 1953. The court did not elaborate as to when somebody was eligible for life long allowance in this ruling but declared that a ten year kind of waiting period for “younger” former civil servants, to give the governments, be the federal, state or local a chance to create a new, democratic civil service, before deciding what type of allowance for what period of time this person was eligible for, was consistent with the constitution. The Court had to deal with the problem also, that legally speaking, all civil service people alive were not employed by the various types of government after the capitulation anymore, because the Third Reich had ceased to exist as recognized subject of international law thus it had no more the legal position as an employer of his former civil servants. So what to do with these people who had find a new job as a civil servant in 1953; you can imagine this was a real legal mess.

But I want bother you with more of the legalese and have a nice day and to tell the honest truth I just don’t know what was decided in special cases.

Sincerely Yours
Volker Erich Kummrow