The Criminal Registry in the German Empire: The ‘Cult of Previous Convictions’ and the Offender’s Right to be Forgotten

Abstract

In 1882 the criminal registry, a bureaucratic tool used to assemble information about the criminal biographies of German citizens, was implemented in all territories of the German Empire. This article demonstrates that the registry, evidence that states were accumulating ever more knowledge about the population, was from the beginning surrounded by critical reflection on its functioning. Worried about the scale of the work involved, in the interests of administrative efficiency bureaucrats wished the use of the registry to be curtailed. Prussian officials stressed that private parties should be denied access to the registry, while scholars pointed out that the registry was not intended to support forensic investigation. Journalists and worried citizens argued that the use of the registry in German courts was responsible for a culture of excessive suspicion. By portraying the emotional effects of the registry on German citizens, critics therefore sought to mobilize empathy for the ‘victims’ of the registry and started to demand a ‘right to be forgotten’. The Expungement Law of 1920 was designed as a solution to many of these problems and can be viewed as the endpoint of an important liberalizing process in German society. Yet, for many contemporaries the law was largely ineffective, for it did not combat social prejudices against citizens with a criminal record.