## Facts

- Paul Schwarzkopf was born in 1886 in Prague, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
- After World War I, Prague became part of Czechoslovakia and Schwarzkopf acquired Czechoslovak citizenship.
- In 1925, he moved and became a naturalized citizen of Germany.
- In 1927, he relocated to Austria, became a naturalized Austrian citizen, and ended his German citizenship under German law.
- In October 1936, Schwarzkopf entered the United States as a quota immigrant and took up permanent residence.
- In 1938, Germany invaded and annexed Austria (the Anschluss). Schwarzkopf remained in the United States.
- Schwarzkopf declared an intention to become a U.S. citizen and later filed for naturalization; his application was pending when the United States entered the war with Germany.
- After Presidential Proclamation No. 2526 (Dec. 8, 1941), issued under the Alien Enemy Act (then 50 U.S.C. § 21), Department of Justice agents arrested Schwarzkopf as a German “alien enemy.”
- An Alien Enemy Hearing Board recommended internment, and the Acting Attorney General ordered Schwarzkopf interned.
- Schwarzkopf petitioned for habeas corpus, alleging he was not a “native, citizen, denizen, or subject” of Germany and therefore could not be detained as a German enemy alien.
- The government’s return relied in part on State Department letters expressing the view that Schwarzkopf should be regarded as German.
- The district court dismissed the writ and remanded Schwarzkopf to custody, determining from the papers (including the State Department letters) that he was a “citizen of Germany” within the meaning of § 21.

## Issues

1. Whether Schwarzkopf became a German national, for purposes of the Alien Enemy Act and the December 8, 1941 proclamation, merely because Germany annexed Austria in 1938.
2. Whether the district court could deny habeas relief on the papers by treating State Department views as controlling, without a proper opportunity to contest disputed matters bearing on nationality and enemy status.

## Decision

- The Second Circuit reversed the district court’s order dismissing the writ.
- The court held that Schwarzkopf was not shown to be a “native, citizen, denizen, or subject” of Germany within the meaning of the Alien Enemy Act and the proclamation, and therefore could not be interned as a German enemy alien on the annexation theory.
- The court directed that the writ issue and that Schwarzkopf be discharged from custody as a German enemy alien.
- The court also noted the district court’s “unusual” procedure in resolving the case from the petition, return, and State Department letters despite conflict in the submissions on the question of nationality.

## Legal Principles

- Enemy-alien detention under the Alien Enemy Act requires a sound legal basis to classify the detainee as a native, citizen, denizen, or subject of the hostile nation named in the proclamation.
- A change of sovereignty by annexation does not automatically require U.S. courts to treat persons residing outside the annexed territory as nationals of the annexing state for domestic detention purposes; the effect depends on clear action by the political branches.
- Recognition of territorial change for one set of dealings does not necessarily mean recognition for all legal consequences, especially where the consequence would expand detention authority under a wartime statute.
- In habeas corpus, executive or State Department statements about nationality may be considered, but they do not end the judicial task where the detainee contests the legal and factual basis for enemy status.
- When the legality of wartime detention turns on contested status (such as nationality), summary disposition on an undeveloped record is disfavored.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit held that Schwarzkopf’s Austrian nationality and residence in the United States were not converted into German enemy status simply by Germany’s 1938 annexation of Austria, and it reversed the denial of habeas corpus, ordering that the writ issue and that Schwarzkopf be released from internment as a German alien enemy.


United States ex rel. Schwarzkopf v. Uhl, 137 F.2d 898 (1943)