Editing Ministries Trial (section)

{{Short description|Trial}}
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[[File:Theodor von Hornbostel testifies for the prosecution during the Ministries Trial.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Theodor von Hornbostel testifies for the prosecution during the Ministries Trial]]
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The '''Ministries Trial''' (or, officially, the '''''United States of America vs. Ernst von Weizsäcker, et al.''''') was the eleventh of the twelve trials for [[war crime]]s the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in [[Nuremberg]] after the end of [[World War II]]. These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the [[International Military Tribunal]], but took place in the same rooms at the [[Palace of Justice (Nuremberg)|Palace of Justice]]. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "[[subsequent Nuremberg trials]]" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).

This case is also known as the '''Wilhelmstrasse Trial''', so-named because both the [[Reich Chancellery]] and the [[German Foreign Office]] were located at the [[Wilhelmstrasse]], a street in Berlin that was often used as a [[metonym]] for overall German governmental administration. The defendants in this case were officials of various ''[[Nazi Germany|Reich]]'' ministries, facing various charges for their roles in [[Nazi Germany]] and thus their participation in or [[command responsibility|responsibility]] for the numerous atrocities committed both in Germany and in occupied countries during the war.

The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal VI, were [[William C. Christianson]] (presiding judge) from [[Minnesota]], Robert F. Maguire from [[Oregon]] and [[Leon W. Powers]] from [[Iowa]]. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was [[Telford Taylor]]; the chief prosecutor was [[Robert Kempner]]. The [[indictment]] was filed on 15 November 1947; the hearings lasted from 6 January 1948 until 18 November that year. Five months later, on 11 April 1949, the judges presented their 833-page judgment. Sentences were handed down on 13 April 1949. Of all the twelve trials, this was the one that lasted longest and ended last. Of the 21 defendants [[arraignment|arraigned]], two were acquitted, and 18 others were found guilty on at least one count of their indictments and received prison sentences ranging from three years to 25 years. In addition, one defendant, [[Ernst Wilhelm Bohle]], pleaded guilty, becoming the only defendant to do so in the [[subsequent Nuremberg trials]].