Sole Prussian supreme court (1782–1815)

On 30 November 1782, the Geheimes Obertribunal was separated from the Kammergericht.^[1] The Kammergericht was subordinated to Geheimes Obertribunal and the Geheimes Obertribunal gained local jurisdiction for the whole of Prussia.^[1] The Kammergericht continued its duties with three senates: The Kriminaldeputation (the criminal deputation), the Instruktionssenat (the court of appeal for the Kurmark) and the Oberappellationssenat (the court of appeal for the four high courts of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, i.e. the Instruktionssenat of the Kammergericht, the Altmärkisches Obergericht, the Uckermärkisches Obergericht [until 1789] and the Neumärkische Regierung).^[14] The Secret Supreme Tribunal thereby became the supreme Prussian court of appeal in the third instance and heard appeals against decisions by the Oberappellationssenat of the Kammergericht and the other high courts of the Prussian provinces.^[14]

The Secret Supreme Tribunal was directly subordinate to the Prussian Department of Justice or, from 1808 onwards, to the Prussian Ministry of Justice.^[1]

One of Prussia's supreme courts (1815–1849)

Due to the Congress of Vienna, Prussian made huge territorial gains in 1815.^[1] Prussia now consisted no longer of one unified area of law, but three: The area of French law in the Left Bank of the Rhine and the Duchy of Berg, the area of the ius commune in New Western Pomerania and Ehrenbreitstein and the Prussian law region in the rest of Prussia.^[15] This fragmentation in the law resulted in the formation of new supreme appellate courts, thus ending the supremacy of the Tribunal.^[15] At this time, five Prussian supreme courts existed:

1. the Rheinischer Revisions- und Kassationshof (the Rhenish Court of Appeal and Cassation) – competent for the area of French law,
2. the Revisionshof zu Berlin (Berlin Court of Appeal) – competent for the ius commune-area of the right bank of the Rhine-territory of the Regierungsbezirk Koblenz,
3. the Oberappellationsgericht zu Greifswald (the Court of Appeal at Greifswald) – competent for the ius commune-area of New Western Pomerania,
4. the Oberappellationsgericht zu Posen (High Court of Appeal at Posen) – competent for the Prussian law-area of the Province of Posen and
5. the Geheimes Obertribunal – competent for all other Prussian law-territories of the kingdom.^[16]

In 1833, the outstanding position of the Geheimes Obertribunal within the Prussian legal system was, however, fortified once more: Due to an ordinance dated 14 December 1833,^{[lower-greek 1]} it (re-)gained the sole responsibility to decide certain nullity appeals (Nichtigkeitsbeschwerden) and appeals on points of law (Revisionen) in civil disputes whose subject-matter reached the amount of the appeal.^[17][1]

During the period of the Vormärz, the Geheimes Obertribunal, however, lost its appellate jurisdiction in certain criminal cases of a political nature by virtue of a Cabinet Order dated 25 April 1835.^{[lower-greek 2]} These cases were reassigned to the Kammergericht (in its capacity as Geheimer Justizrat).^[1][18]

Sole Prussian supreme court again (1853–1867)

The German revolutions of 1848–1849 resulted in the promulgation of the Prussian constitutions of 1848 and 1850 which, inter alia, contained programmatic statements about the organisation of the courts (Article 91 of the 1848 constitution^{[lower-greek 3]} and Articles 92 and 116 of the 1850 constitution).^[19] Article 92 of the Constitution of 1850 proclaimed:

Artikel 92: Es soll in Preußen nur Ein [sic] oberster Gerichtshof bestehen.

Article 92: There shall be only One Supreme Court in Prussia

— 1850 Constitution of Prussia (Verfassungsurkunde für den Preußischen Staat vom 31. Januar 1850)^{[lower-greek 4]}

Before the envisaged unification of the Prussian supreme courts was set into motion, the Geheimes Obertribunal was first renamed to Obertribunal (State Tribunal) by virtue of an ordinance dated 2 January 1849^{[lower-greek 5]} to take into account the new principle of publicity (Öffentlichkeitsgrundsatz) in German procedural law.^[20][1] Then the unification was brought to life by a law dated 17 March 1852,^{[lower-greek 6]} which in its Section 1 merged the two remaining supreme courts of Prussia, the Rheinischer Revisions- und Kassationshof and the Obertribunal into a new court – again named Obertribunal.^[21] The merger of the courts came into effect on 1 January 1853.^[20][22] The other Prussian supreme courts, the Revisionshof zu Berlin, the Oberappellationsgericht zu Greifswald and the Oberappellationsgericht zu Posen had already been disestablished earlier.^[1]

Establishment of a short-lived second Prussian Supreme Court (1876–1874)

After the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, the Oberappellationsgericht zu Berlin (Superior Court of Appeals in Berlin) was formed to hear appeals from the new Prussian provinces: Schleswig-Holstein (including Saxe-Lauenburg), Hanover, Hesse-Nassau and the Principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont.^[1] This new court was, however, short-lived and in 1874 it was merged into the Tribunal.^[1]

Decline and abolishment (1870–1879)

In 1870, the Reichsoberhandelsgericht was established in Leipzig as a court of the North German Federation and later of the German Empire. As a result, the Prussian Supreme Tribunal lost its final appellate jurisdiction concerning commercial and promissory notes law.^[1]

On 30 September 1879, the Prussian Supreme Tribunal was abolished^{[lower-greek 7]} in consequence of the establishment of the Reichsgericht, which – after the entry into force of the Reichsjustizgesetze – was now the sole supreme court of the German Empire.^[23][1]