Summation of the Lawyers for Both Parties in the Trial Court (Frankfurt am Main Regional Court)
“The parties argued the case in contentious fashion.”[1]
On May 11, 1953, Henry Ormond, the attorney for the plaintiff, and I.G. Farben’s lawyers, Alfred Seidl, Hellmuth Dix, and Jakob Wilhelm Flesch, representing the defense, delivered their final summations in Wollheim v. I.G. Farben. While Henry Ormond’s speech is available in written form, that of the three I.G. Farben lawyers is not accessible. To understand their line of reasoning, therefore, we have to fall back on contemporary accounts such as those analyzed by Joachim Rumpf in his dissertation on the Wollheim lawsuit.[2] Ormond needed three and one-half hours for his closing argument; the summation of the opposing side lasted two and one-half hours.
(SP; transl. KL)