The Chocolate Judge

In any other court, it might have seemed that the bench was having a little joke, but District Judge Karl Holzschuh of Darmstadt, Germany, meant every word he said. The defendant in the case was a 17-year-old boy who had just been convicted of stealing a motorcycle and roaring about the streets. The judge, however, had no intention of clapping him in jail. "You will never know the beauties of nature," said he, "if all you do is drive through it like a madman." The boy's sentence: a year-long membership in the local walking club.

In the past two years, Darmstadt has grown accustomed to such unorthodox punishments meted out by Karl Holzschuh. A kindly man of 46 with a fringe of yellow hair about his bald head, he is known throughout the district as the "Chocolate Judge" because he once sentenced a little girl, convicted of stealing chocolate, to donate a candy bar each week to an orphanage. More respectful Germans, however, have another name --"The Solomon of Darmstadt" -- for the man chiefly responsible for cutting the local delinquency rate by 40%.

The theory behind the judge's sentences is a simple one. Except for obvious criminals, says he, most young people "have simply gone astray and must get another chance. They must perform some good deed related to the bad." Before each trial, Holzschuh tries to get to know the defendant. He makes the accused talk about his interests, asks him about the books he reads. Then, when the judge has heard the case, he makes the punishment fit the crime. Among the cases he has handled:

P: A baker's apprentice who stole a small sum of money from his employer. Sentence: to bake a batch of Easter bunnies for the children in the Darmstadt hospital.

P: A 16-year-old boy convicted of robbing a younger boy in a swimming-pool locker room. Sentence: to help the younger boy with his school lessons for one year.

P: Two boys who had "borrowed" two motorcycles. Sentence: to buy a year's subscription to Die Bruecke, a magazine for released convicts, and to take it each month to the Darmstadt prison. "Each time you go there," said the judge, "just think how terrible it would be if the big gates closed behind you."

P: A 17-year-old employee of a Communist newspaper who was arrested for disturbing the peace in a Communist demonstration. Sentence: to read one "neutral" book each month and submit a report of it to the court. Result of the case: one new recruit to the anti-Communist cause.

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