Succedaneum (pronounced suhk-si-dey-nee-uhm)
(1) Something used as a substitute, especially any
medical drug or agent that may be taken or prescribed in place of another (obsolete).
(2) One who takes the place of another.
1635–1645: From the New Latin succēdāneum, a noun use of the neuter singular of the Classical Latin
succēdāneus (succeeding, following
after; acting as substitute), the construct being suc(cēdō) (succeed,
follow) + -āneus (the composite adjectival
suffix). The notion of a succedaneum exists
in many contexts and there are descriptions which are exactly synonymous and
some which are merely similar or functionally overlap to some extent surrogate,
backup, understudy, replacement, stand-in, locum, alternate, deputy,
expediency, proxy, stopgap, body-double, sub, makeshift, fill-in, delegate,
temporary, assistant, nominee, replica, successor and substitute. Succedaneum is a noun and succedaneous is an
adjective, the noun plural is succedanea.
Lindsay Lohan body-doubles: The Parent Trap (1998) (left) and Irish Wish (2023 (right).
The understudy is a term from the performing arts
(theatre, ballet, opera et al) and describes someone who rehearses a part and is
available to perform if the designated character becomes unavailable (illness,
injury, tantrum, death etc). In some
cases an understudy may become a replacement if a temporary substitution
becomes permanent. A backup is essentially
the same concept as an understudy but is used more generally. Locum was a seventeenth century adoption of
the Medieval Latin locum tenens
(literally “one holding a place”) and has evolved as a class-based description
of “a temporary replacement”, being by convention restricted to the professions
(doctors, dentists, lawyers, vets etc (and for historic reasons the clergy))
whereas a replacement plumber is simply a replacement. A body-double is used in film &
television production to take the place of an actor for a variety of reasons (dangerous
stunt work, scheduling conflicts, nudity scenes etc). Alternates are usually those appointed to
some sort of deliberative body, typically a judge appointed to some sort of
enquiry or tribunal expected to last a long time, the idea being that in the
case the primary judge becomes unavailable (illness, injury, tantrum, death
etc), the matter may proceed without interruption. In this context a nominee is someone
nominated to fulfill some role which is for whatever reason (ex-officio, inheritance etc) in the gift
of the nominator. A proxy is particular
example of a nominee who is authorized to exercise some right (usually a vote
or votes) on behalf of the nominator. A
stopgap or makeshift is a description of something or someone temporarily
substituted until a permanent arrangement is made. A delegate is an appointment
made to exercise authority held by another but also carries the special value
in that the extent of the delegation can be split. In granting authority to a delegate, the delegated
authority can be restricted to a single instance with all other matters
reserved for the delegator. In many
cases a deputy or assistant will be able to exercise all or some of the authority
held by the higher office but there are no set rules and things will vary from place
to place. As successor is simply a
replacement and such situations the word substitute usually isn’t applied.
The issue of the appropriateness of the notion of
succedaneum in legal proceedings was explored in the hearings of the International
Military Tribunal (IMT) during the first trial of the leading Nazis at Nuremberg
(1945-1946). The first matter considered
was whether others could be substituted if a preferred defendant wasn’t available
for trial (ie they were dead or missing).
Because of the teleological nature of the trial insisted on by the
Americans (who were providing the bulk of the resources and paying most of the
bills) which was best served by a thematic approach to the choice of defendants,
at least one representative of each defined area of interest was needed. In the case of the army and navy that was
simple because senior officers were to hand and the matter of the air force was
fudged by indicting Hermann Göring (1893–1946; leading Nazi 1922-1945 and
Reichsmarschall 1940-1945) although his role as notional head of the Luftwaffe’s
and indeed its role in the war received very little attention during the trial;
given the Allies carpet bombing campaign had laid waste to German cities which indisputably were
treated as civilian targets, it wasn’t something on which the prosecution
wished to dwell although the opening address did include the admission the
Germans not alone in reducing European cities to rubble and that “… the ruin that
lies from the Rhine to the Danube shows that we have not been dull pupils”. Despite that prosecutorial gesture however,
it was make clear to counsel the defense of tu quoque (best translated as “you
did it too” (literally “and you also”)) would not be permitted.
The defendants in the dock listening to Kaltenbrunner’s cross-examination, Nuremberg, 1946.
Dead or missing however were three of the most notorious figures from the security apparatus: Heinrich ("Gestapo") Müller (1900-1945 (presumed); head of the Gestapo 1939-1945), Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1939-1942) and Heinrich Himmler (1900–1945; Reichsführer SS 1929-1945). However it was unthinkable a trial of the Nazis could be conducted without the Gestapo and the SS being represented so Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903–1946; head of the Reich Security Main Office 1943-1945) was substituted and it proved a wise choice because of all the defendants, he was the one with absolutely no defense, his guilt established beyond any doubt by the wealth of documents signed in his own hand (his cross-examination a remarkably brief 2½ days). He was a trained lawyer and simply denied everything although given the evidence his protests didn’t convince even the others in the dock. He also wasn’t happy about the use of succedaneum, saying more than once he was not prepared “…to be an ersatz for Himmler” although that did him no good and he was condemned to hang.
Dead too was Dr Joseph Goebbels (1897-1975; Nazi
propaganda minister 1933-1945) but the trial was not simply about the armed
conflict which was fought between 1939-1945; the Americans in particular wanted
the trial to be a platform to explore the role of propaganda in totalitarian
societies and the way it was exploited by the Nazis in the 1930s. Goebbels however had been a dominant figure in
propaganda and the only official from the ministry of any status who could be
found was Hans Fritzsche (1900–1953) who while not exactly “the newsreader”
some claimed, was not someone ever concerned with matters of high-policy and he was available for the trial only because,
in the haphazard ways things happened at the end of the war, he’d fallen into
the hands of the Russians. Certainly,
his voice was well-known to Germans but nobody on the British or US prosecution
teams had heard of him and, perhaps more tellingly, neither had some of his
fellow defendants. Despite this unpromising
background however, a case was prepared but compared with the mass-murderers
and plunderers which whom he shared the dock, the tribunal wasn’t convinced he
could be convicted of war crimes or crimes against humanity and ordered his
acquittal. Unlike the substituted Kaltenbrunner
who was guilty as sin of horrific crimes, Fritzsche seemed little more than a
clerk, guilty of something but not war crimes.
Arrested shortly afterwards by the German authorities, he was convicted as
a “major offender” by a denazification court and sentenced to nine years
imprisonment. In the early Cold War however,
attitudes were shifting and like many others, he was soon released.
Courtroom during the Krupp trial, Nuremberg, 1947.
By far the most troubling act of (attempted) succedaneum was
that of Alfried Krupp (1907–1967). Krupp
was an industrialist and had been head of the Krupp concern (steel works and
related production) which was a major supplier of weapons and other materiel to
the Nazi war machine, much of it produced using slave labor under appalling
conditions. It was important to ensure a
representative of industry be included in the trial and no operation was more
dominant in the Nazi economy than Krupps.
In one of those curious mistakes which just can’t be fixed, although it
had been intended to indict Alfried Krupp, at some point in the process, a
filing error or something happened and instead his father Gustav Krupp
(1870–1950) was listed. The father had
actually been “retired” to the titular position of Chairman because of physical
and mental incapacity and the error wasn’t noticed until it was too late and
the indictment had been issued. Were it
in any other context, an apology could have been made and the paperwork amended
but “substitution” in criminal law is a special case and no civilized legal
system permits it. The court had already
been made aware that the elder Krupp was physically and mentally not fit to
attend a trial which prompted the suggestion he might be tried in absentia but
this the tribunal declined. The prosecution’s
alternative plan was therefore to “add” the name of the son to the indictment
but this appalled the tribunal even more because it was so obviously as
substitution. By now it was too late to
run the argument that the “addition” was simply to correct the earlier filing
error and the trial proceeded without either Krupp.
At things turned out, the mistake merely delayed
things. At the time, it wasn’t certain
there would be subsequent trials but the success of the main trial encouraged
the prosecutors and twelve hearings (referred to usually as the "Subsequent
Nuremberg Trials") were conducted including three concerned with the crimes
committed in the course of industrial production (Krupp, Flick & IG Farben). After the trial (1947-1948), Alfried Krupp
received a twelve year sentence and the forfeiture of property although he served
only a few years before the sentence was commuted.
