He was born in Celle. He saw active service during WW I, he was an officer cadet in 1914, by 1915 he was a lieutenant and decorated before becoming a prisoner of war in Russia in October 1915. He returned to Germany in 1920 a convinced Communist to study law at Jena University, becoming a Doctor of law in 1922. From 1924 he worked as a lawyer in Kassel and also as a city councilor for the Volkisch-Social bloc. He joined the Nazi Party in July 1925.
In 1932 he was elected as a National Socialist delegate to the Prussian Landtag, and the next year to the Reichstag. Also in 1933 he was appointed ministerial secretary at the Prussian Ministry of Justice, becoming under-secretary in June 1933. In June 1934, Freisler was named under-secretary in the new Reich and Prussian Ministry of Justice. From 1939, he was instrumental in the creation of special courts for "courts-martial on the domestic front." He was present at the Wannsee Conference as representative for Franz Schlegelberger[?], the minister in the Reich Ministry of Justice. As President of the Volksgerichtshof[?] (People's Court) from August 1942 (replacing Otto Thierack[?]), the "Hanging Judge" presided over around 1,200 trials, nearly all ended with the death penalty.
He was killed during an air raid on Berlin.
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