The offense of judicial bias has garnered attention in recent German legal history following radical political changes: after the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship and at the end of the GDR. Dirk Quasten compares the highest court's handling of the offense of judicial bias at these two turning points. The analysis of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) decisions reveals that adherence to the law ends where judges effectively sit in judgment of themselves. With the clear intention of preventing the criminalization of unlawful judgments during the National Socialist era, for example, the requirements for intent were raised to a level that rendered the legal provision effectively meaningless. The judicial processing of the Nazi era must be considered a failure. After reunification, the BGH continued its very restrictive approach, building on its own post-war jurisprudence.