Denazification and the Following Development of Criminal Procedure Law in Western and Eastern Germany Between 1945 and 1990

The process of development of German criminal procedure law in the period from the moment of the end of the World War II (1945) until the moment of unification of Germany (1990) is analyzed within the frameworks of this article. The mentioned time frame is highly important for studying the history of the criminal proceeding of foreign countries because, firstly, its essential feature is denazification of the legislature and, secondly, the existence of two different variants of criminal procedure law (that of the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic. However, there are almost no researches of this period in our scientific literature. The author of the article, using German scientific sources, discloses the ways of how German criminal procedure law got rid of the legacy of the national socialism. The author also reviews and compares the changes that happened in the researched area of law in the period of «existence of the two Germanys». As a result of this analysis the author concludes that denazification of the criminal procedure law in Germany was executed by one common way from 1945 until 1949. Further social and political controversies that led to the forming of East and West Germany resulted in different development of this field in these two countries while the common frequency of the reforms was the same in both countries. Where West Germany chose the way of reforming the original criminal procedure law of 1879, East Germany designed a new criminal procedure law. Further development of the procedure in East Germany was connected to liberalization and the struggle with left radicalism and victimization. Meanwhile West Germany chose the acceptance of the Soviet procedure model forgetting many traditional institutions intrinsic to Germany legal proceeding. Based on these findings, the author distinguishes between stages of development of German criminal proceedings in the researched period. The author also suggests to divide it into periods.