Trials of Nazi perpetrators conducted in German courts during the occupation period. I compare the trials of the three western zones to those of the Soviet zone, arguing that the results of these trials confound the expectations of transitional justice scholars. The trials in the west served in many ways to exculpate Nazi perpetrators, yet contributed to the democratization of western Germany by deradicalizing the judiciary, while the trials in the east initially served justice better, yet helped to consolidate the Stalinist dictatorship of the German Socialist Unity Party by articulating a moral justification for a new police state.
