Editing Walter Simons (section)

==President of the ''Reichsgericht''==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-01157, Walter Simons.jpg|left|thumb|Simons at the [[Palace of the Reich President]] in 1925]]
On 1 October 1922, Simons was appointed president of the ''[[Reichsgericht]]'' at Leipzig on the suggestion of ''Reichspräsident'' [[Friedrich Ebert]]. After Ebert's death in 1925, Simons temporarily served as [[President of Germany (1919–1945)|acting head of state]] before the swearing in of [[Paul von Hindenburg]].<ref name=Bio/>

Simons himself was suggested as a potential candidate for Reichspräsident after the [[1925 German presidential election|first round of voting]] had failed to yield an outright winner. However, he refused to be nominated.

From 1922 to 1926, Simons was president of the ''I. Zivilsenat'' and from 1926 to 1929 president of the ''III. Strafsenat''. He was also president of the [[State Court for the German Reich]]. He was attacked by the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] for his criticism of judges being members of the SPD or the ''Republikanischen Richterbund'', an association of judges which was close to the party. Simons opposed a separate ''Reichsverwaltungsgericht'' (administrative court) and was highly critical of the ''Kartellgericht'' established in 1923 at the ''Reichswirtschaftsgericht'', accusing it of inappropriate hostility towards [[cartel]]s.<ref name=Bio/>

After a conflict with president Hindenburg and the government of [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]] concerning the appointment of members of the board of directors at the [[Reichsbahn]] in 1928, Simons resigned in 1929.<ref name=Bio/>