On 26 June 2002 the international criminal code was adopted in Germany after a unanimous vote of the Bundestag (Deutscher Bundestag, 2002).1 Following the ratification of the Rome Treaty, the new rule adapted the German criminal law to the statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It seemingly introduced new legal categories, ‘crimes against humanity’ (§ 7) and ‘war crimes’ (§ 8–12), which – unlike ‘genocide’ – were unknown in West German criminal law since 1949. But in fact, this was a reintroduction rather than an introduction ex nihilo, for German courts had already been given the ability to punish these crimes under Allied occupation (1945–49).