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. As such, he should according to the Weimar Constitution have succeeded Paul von Hindenburg as the President of Germany upon the latter's death in August 1934 and thus the Head of State of Nazi Germany. The Law on the Head of State of the German Reich, passed by the Nazi-controlled Reichstag, prevented this (unconstitutionally) by combining the presidency with the chancellorship, making Adolf Hitler the undisputed Führer of Germany.

Born in the small town of Stolp in the Prussian Province of Pomerania (present-day Słupsk, Poland), Bumke's family background was middle class. His father was a doctor and his mother a factory owner's daughter. His brother Oswald Bumke (1877–1950) became a noted psychiatrist.

After studying law in Freiburg, Leipzig, Munich, Berlin and Greifswald, Bumke began his career as a judge in Essen. In 1907 he assumed an office in the Reichsjustizamt, precursor of the later Reich Ministry of Justice. In the same year he married Eva von Merkatz (1873–1947), aunt of the later Minister of Justice Hans-Joachim von Merkatz. The couple had two sons, which both were killed in World War II. Bumke himself served as an officer in World War I, achieving the rank of Hauptmann (Captain).

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