Showing 5 results

History of the Inventor: Established in June 1936 by Heinrich Himmler's decree as Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police; the Main Office was responsible for the administrative and protective police (including traffic and water police), the gendarmerie, the municipal and Feuerschutzpoli‧zei police, and the Technical Emergency Aid Long text: Overview of the internal official organization of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich of 30 June 1936 provides for a comprehensive overview of the internal administrative organization of the Main Office. Jan. 1934 (RGBl. I,75) the police sovereignty rights of the countries were transferred to the Reich. As a result, a police department (III) was established in the Reich Ministry of the Interior on May 1, 1934, which, after the merger of the Reich Ministry of the Interior with the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in November 1934, was united with the police department (II) of the latter. Organizationally, this development came to an end on 17 June 1936 with the appointment of Heinrich Himmler as "Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior" (RGBl. I,487). By decree of 26 June 1936 (MBliV, 946), the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police divided his authority into the main offices of Ordnungspolizei and Sicherheitspolizei and subordinated them to their own bosses. The head of the Ordnungspolizei was Kurt Daluege, the former head of the police department of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior, who became ministerial director and SS-Obergruppenführer (most recently general colonel of the police and SS-Oberstgruppenführer). On 31 August 1943 he was replaced by the General of Police and Waffen-SS Alfred Wünnenberg (m.d.F.b.) until the end of the war. The administrative police, the protective police (including traffic and water police), the gendarmerie, the municipal police, the fire police and the technical emergency aid belonged to the department of the order police. The Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei was divided into "offices", of which there were initially only two: the Office of Administration and Law (VuR) and the Command Office (Kdo). The Administration and Law Office was responsible for handling all administrative police, legal and economic tasks of the entire Ordnungspolizei. Until the end of 1938, it was divided into departments, then into official groups, groups, sub-groups and subject areas. In the course of the organisational changes in the main office of the Ordnungspolizei it was dissolved in September 1943 (see below) and was headed by Ministerialdirektor Bracht until 1943. The command office dealt with all management and other general service matters of the order police. It was initially divided into offices and, since the end of 1940, into groups of offices according to the military model, etc. such as the Office of Administration and Law. From September 1943 there were special inspections at the Command Office for the technical fields of work (communication and motor vehicle systems, weapons and equipment) as well as for veterinary, air-raid protection and fire-fighting matters. The heads of the office were Lieutenant General von Bomhard (until October 1942), Lieutenant General Winkelmann (until March 1944), Major General Diermann (until July 1944) and Major General Flade (until May 1945). These two core offices of the Ordnungspolizei main office were joined by two other offices in the course of 1941. By circular decree of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police of 14 January 1941, the Colonial Police Office was established in preparation for the colonial deployment of the Ordnungspolizei. However, it lost its importance with the deterioration of the military situation in 1943 and was dissolved in March 1943 by order of the Führer. On 9 May 1941, the Fire Brigades Office was formed as the fourth office and on 30 December 1941, the Technical Emergency Assistance Office was formed as the fifth office in the Ordnungs- Polizei main office. Fundamental changes in the organization of the Ordnungspolizei main office occurred after Himmler's appointment as Reich Interior Minister (August 1943). With effect from 15 September 1943, the offices of Administration and Law, Fire Brigades and Technical Emergency Aid were dissolved. The tasks of the Office of Administration and Law were mainly transferred to the two new bodies, the Economic Administration Office and the Legal Office. However, the legal office was dissolved at the beginning of December 1943. The majority of his areas of work came to the Office of Economic Administration. By the end of the war, this office had essentially taken over the tasks and position of the old administration and law office again. Its chief became the SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS and police August Frank from the SS-Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt. Most of the areas previously dealt with by the Fire Brigades and Technical Emergency Aid Offices fell to the Command Office, parts also to the newly formed "Reichsämter" Volunteer Fire Brigades and Technical Emergency Aid. The designation "Reichsamt" expressed the special character of these organizations as public corporations. As an office directly subordinated to the head of the Ordnungspolizei, the Sanitäts-Amt, which was detached from the Kommando-Amt (Amtsgruppe III) on 1 Oct. 1944, is to be mentioned. Relocation measures during the war (For this and the following section compare: Jürgen Huck; alternative places and file fate of the main office Ordnungspolizei in the 2nd World War in: Neufeldt, Huck, Tessin: Zur Geschichte der Ordnungspolizei 1936 - 1945; Koblenz 1957) Until 1942, most of the Ordnungspolizei main office was housed in the old office building of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in Berlin NW 7, Unter den Linden 72/74. In the course of the year 1942, the office administration and law was transferred to Berlin-Halensee, Kurfürstendamm 106/107. His successor, the Wirtschaftsverwaltungsamt, had to leave the building as a result of bombing and in February 1944 moved into an office building in Berlin-Lichterfelde, Unter den Eichen 126, together with the official groups I (Economy) and III (Accommodation) and the group "Personnel". The official group II (administration) sat in the barracks camp in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Potsdamer Chaussee, and the official group IV (supply and law) in the building Unter den Linden 72/74 until its dissolution in February 1944. At the end of March 1944, after parts of the group "Personal" and the official group II had already gone to Biesenthal, the entire economic administration office was transferred to the alternative camp "Heidenberg" near Biesenthal/Mark in the district of Oberbarnim. After the air raid of 23/24 November 1943 had severely damaged the building Unter den Linden 72/74, the Kommando Office was transferred to the barracks of the alternative camp "Paula" near Biesenthal in December 1943. Only the inspection L (Luftschutz) remained in the service building in Berlin, Schadowstraße 2, until April 20, 1945. The inspection Feuerschutzpolizei (in the Offiziersschule der Ordnungspolizei in Eberswalde), parts of the inspection Veterinärwesen (in Cottbus) and parts of the personnel groups (in the Offiziersschule der Ordnungspolizei in Berlin-Köpenick) were accommodated elsewhere. The group "War History" was transferred to the Waffenschule der Ordnungspolizei in Dresden-Hellerau in August 1943 and one year later to the castle of Prince Carl von Trauttmannsdorff in Bischofteinitz near Taus (Bohemia). On the other hand, the parts of the motor vehicle inspection initially transferred to Dresden were moved to Biesenthal in November 1944, so that this inspection was closed in the "Paula" camp until April 1945. In March 1945, the relocation to Potsdam-Babelsberg was ordered for the offices of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei in and around Berlin. As a result of the rushing war events, this and other projects (Suhl and Weimar) could not be carried out. At the end of March/beginning of April 1945 it was therefore decided to divide the main office of the Ordnungspolizei into a south and a north staff. The division of services between the two staffs is opaque. The mass, however, has been assigned to the south staff. In the 2nd half of April, the "Süd" task force moved to the officers' school of the Ordnungspolizei in Fürstenfeldbruck. A large part of his staff was dismissed here. On April 28, 1945, the miniaturized working staff drove to Eben/Achensee (Tyrol) and was captured by the Americans in mid-May 1945 in Rottach-Egern (Tegernsee). The "North" task force left Biesenthal on 18 April 1945, reached Flensburg via Lübeck at the beginning of May and was captured there by the English at the Harriesleefeld fire brigade school. Inventory description: Inventory history Reference: Koblenz Inventory Fate of the files of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei The mass of files of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei must be considered lost. The processes that led to this loss are still largely in the dark. We are relatively well informed about the fate of larger parts of the old registries of the Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, which mainly contained files of the former police departments of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and the Reich Ministry of the Interior as well as those of the Prussian State Police dissolved in 1935/36, and about the files of the group "War History". The old registries of the Chief of the Ordnungspolizei were located in the so-called "Archive of the Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei", which was renamed "Aktenverwaltung des Hauptamtes Ordnungspolizei" from October 1941 on the objection of the General Director of the State Archives. During the war, the holdings of this file administration can be found in the service buildings Unter den Linden, Kurfürstendamm and Breitestraße. From 1941 to 1944, about 8,500 volumes of files from the police department registries of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, taken over by the head of the Ordnungspolizei, were handed over to the Prussian Secret State Archives in Berlin-Dahlem. The Secret State Archives had for the most part outsourced these files to Central German mines. From there, together with the other outsourced holdings, they probably came to the Central State Archives II of the GDR in Merseburg. Files of unknown size of the police department of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, mainly through the Schutz- und Kriminalpolizei-, which had been taken over by the head of the Ordnungspolizei in 1936, arrived in 1941/42 from the Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei to the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam, where they were most probably destroyed by the air raid of 14./15. 4. 1945. The files of the Prussian State Police from 1933 to 1935, which were transferred to the Wehrmacht in 1935, appear to have been transferred to the Army Archives in Potsdam during the war. Here they were probably burned as a result of the air raid of April 1945. Far more incomplete than the old registries are our knowledge about the fate of the current registries at the Main Office Ordnungspolizei. At the end of the war the following registrations have to be proved: O - Adjutantur O - HB Head Office O - Jurist O - Kdo Adjutantur O - Kdo WF Weltanschauliche Führung O - Kdo Org/Ia Organisation, Einsatz, Führung O - Kdo I - Ib Nachschuf O - Kdo I Ausb Ausbildung O - Kdo I Sp. Sport O - Kdo I KrG War History O - Kdo II P O - Kdo II P Allg) Personal Data O - Kdo II P R 1) O - Kdo II P Disciplinary Matters 2) O - Kdo II P KrO War Orders and Decorations of Honor 3) O - Kdo In K Inspection Motor Vehicles 4) O - Kdo In N Inspection Communications 5) O - Kdo In WG Inspection Weapons and Appliances 6) O - Kdo In L inspection air raid protection 7) O - Kdo In F inspection fire police 8) O - Kdo In Vet inspection veterinary 9) O - W personal data 10) O - W verse supply 11) O - W I economy 12) O - W II administration and law 13) O - W III accommodation 14) O - medical 15) O - I. - S Inspector General of the Schutzpolizei O - I. - G Inspector General of the Gendarmerie and Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden 16) O - I. - Sch Inspector General of the Schools O - I. - FSchP Inspector General for Fire-fighting 17) (Fire Police and Fire Brigades) O - I. - FwSch Inspector General for Firefighting 18) extinguishing system (fire schools, factory fire brigades and fire show) 19) O - RTN Reichsamt Technische Nothilfe 20) O - RFw Reichsamt Freiwillige Feuerwehren 21) Secret registry Most of these 35 running registries seem to have been completely lost. Only the following incomplete news about their whereabouts have become known to the Federal Archives so far. A part of the personnel files of the command office (registries O-Kdo II P) seems to have been moved in 1943/44 in agreement with the Reichsamt Technische Nothilfe to the castle Eisenhardt in Belzig/Mark (TN school). His fate is unknown. Another part came in spring 1945 first to the police administration Gera, then to Weimar or Gschenda, Kr. Arnstadt, was temporarily brought back to Biesenthal and went in April 1945 with the south staff to Fürstenfeldbruck. Already in Biesenthal the mass of files about the law for civil servants burned, and further losses entered on the march from there to Fürstenfeldbruck by low-flying fire. In Fürstenfeldbruck and at the beginning of May 1945 in Eben, the mass of the files carried along by members of the South Staff was burned. The personnel files of the Economic Administration Office (registry O-W Pers.) were moved to Thuringian towns together with those of the Commando Office in the spring of 1945. They arrived via the police administration in Gera at the Linda police supply camp near Neustadt a. d. Orla - according to other news also to Gschwenda - and returned to Biesenthal for a short time when the Americans arrived, after considerable parts had been burned in Thuringia due to a misunderstood radio message. From there, they were taken to Fürstenfeldbruck by the hourly staff in April 1945, losing their lives in air raids. Here and in Eben, most of the files were destroyed at the end of April/beginning of May 1945. According to other sources, however, it was burned in Maurach/Achensee at the beginning of May 1945 according to further files. A special fate had the files of the group "War History" of the command office (registry O-Kdo I KrG). In the course of the war, a "special archive" had been created for the group through the release of material from the area of the Ordnungspolizei that was important for the history of the war. Among its best sands, the diaries of the SS Police Division established in 1939, the 35th SS (Police) Grenadier Division established in 1945, the SS Police Regiments, the Police Shooting Regiments, the police battalions and other police troop units, as well as a collection of the most important decrees of the Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei (Ordnungspolizei - Ordnungspolizei - Order Police Department) are to be emphasized. These valuable documents were completely destroyed at the end of April/beginning of May 1945 by members of the group "War History" in Bischofteinitz/Bohemia. It is still unclear to what extent the records of the chief of the Ordnungspolizei are kept today by GDR offices. It is only certain that the holdings "Reichsministerium des Innern" of the Central State Archives I in Potsdam under Dept. III contain 46 volumes about the police from the period 1934 to 1937 and personnel files from the main office of the Ordnungspolizei. The remains of the personnel group registries not destroyed in Fürstenfeldbruck and Eben, and apparently also parts of other registries of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei, were confiscated by the Americans. After the occupation of the Offiziersschule der Ordnungspolizei in Fürstenfeldbruck, the police inspected the files they had found, took them to a warehouse, transported them away in the autumn of 1945, leaving behind the person of no interest to them. The material remaining there from the personnel registry of the Economic Administration Office was transferred directly to the Federal Archives in November 1954 via the Bavarian Main State Archives, Dept. I, that of the Command Office in January 1955 and in July 1957 from the Bavarian Police School Fürstenfeldbruck. As early as December 1956, about 550 personnel notebooks of the Kommando-Amtes with the initial letters M - Z had arrived here, which, initially confiscated, had been handed over by the American military government to the Command of the Schutzpolizei in Wiesbaden in 1949 and there - with a stock of originally about 900 notebooks - had been reduced by the handing over of documents about reused police personnel to their office. The main mass of the removed files, however, was first transferred to the file depot of the U.S. Army (Departmental Records Branch) in Alexandria/Virginia and filmed within the Records Group 1010/EAP 170 - 175 (Microfilm Guide 39). The transfer from there to the Federal Archives took place in April 1962. Further file takeovers took place from documents that had initially been brought together in the Document Center in Berlin - first in 1957 personal files on gendarmerie officials via the Hessian Ministry of the Interior, then in 1962 on a larger scale and directly in connection with the so-called Schumacher Collection of documents from various organizational units and at about the same time Daluege's reconstructed files from biographical materials of the Adjutantur of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei. Other provenances that have been grouped according to biographical criteria can still be found in the Berlin Document Center. In the summer of 1957, the former chief of the command office, Lieutenant General of the Ordnungspolizei a. D. Adolf v. Bomhard, two volumes of files personally secured by him (R 19/282 and 283) and, in addition, the documents listed under C in the Annex. 1958 followed tax, salary and wage documents of former employees of the main witness office of the Ordnungspolizei of the Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder in Karlsruhe. Finally, files of the Reich Office Voluntary Fire Brigades were handed over by the Oberfinanzdirektion Hamburg in 1957 and 1964. Archival evaluation and processing Reference: Koblenz stock In view of the insignificance or absence of other records handed down by the police and the need under pension law for proof of service time for members of the police force, a thorough cassation was dispensed with. On the other hand, in order to fill at least some of the gaps in the status quo, not only the official printed matter of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei was listed, but also important matters concerning the Ordnungspolizei from the holdings of the Federal Archives R 43 (Reich Chancellery), R 18 (Reich Ministry of the Interior), R 2 (Reich Ministry of Finance), R 22 (Reich Ministry of Justice), NS 19 (Personal Staff Reichsführer SS), NS 7 (SS and Police Jurisdiction) and R 36 (Deutscher Gemeindetag (German Community Day) were incorporated, without the aim of completeness. On the other hand, the stocks R 20 (chief of the gang combat units; schools of the order police) and R 70 (police services of integrated, affiliated and occupied areas of the 2nd world war), which must be consulted anyway with appropriate investigations, were completely omitted. When classifying the stock, it was not possible to structure the stock in accordance with the registry principle, given the incomplete nature of the preserved files, any more than it was possible to do a close analogy to the administrative structure of the main office. Therefore, an ideal structure of the competence area of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei was developed which was adapted to the importance of the subject areas actually handed down in the inventory. Dr. Neufeldt, Mr. Huck, Mr. Schatz, Dr. Boberach, Dr. Werner and Mr. Marschall were particularly involved in the chronological order in which the inventory was developed. Koblenz, October 1974 Content characterization: Adjutant of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei 1933-1945 (24), Dienststellenverwaltung 1933-1945 (50), Nachrichten- und Befehlsblätter, Erlasses, Besprechungungen 1933-1945 (41), Orga‧nisation and Zuständigkeit 1933-1945 (58), Haushalt 1933-1944 (9), General service law and police service law 1931-1945 (37), courses and schools 1930-1945 (89), assessment, promotion, secondment and transfer of members of the police 1931-1945 (38), remuneration and pensions 1933-1945 (19), Criminal and disciplinary matters 1937-1945 (8), uniforms and orders 1933-1945 (8), Comradeship Association of German Police Officers 1933-1945 (6), personnel statistics 1938-1945 (7), accommodation, equipment and armament 1933-1945 (8), Sanitäts- und Vete‧rinärwesen, Polizeisport 1933-1945 (12), Polizeiverwaltungs- und Vollzugsdienst 1935-1945 (93), Einsatz von Polizeiverbände und -einheiten 1933-1945 (108), Personalakte 1917-1945 (1.067), State Hospital of Police in Berlin. Medical records (ZX) of patients 1940-1945 (1946) (3,149), file of the State Hospital of Police in Berlin (n.a.) State of development: Findbuch (1974) Citation method: BArch, R 19/...

History of the inventor: Joseph Goebbels, who had already been head of the NSDAP's Reich Propaganda Department since 1929, had certainly developed plans for a Ministry of Propaganda even before the seizure of power.(1) The Reichskabinett (Reich Cabinet) dealt with the issue of the Propaganda Department on 11 September. The arguments for the foundation, which the Reich Chancellor (Hitler) himself presented, sounded extremely harmless ex post and far from future realities: "One of the predominant tasks of this ministry would be the preparation of important acts of government. On the oil and fat issue, for example, which now occupies the cabinet, the people should be enlightened in the direction that the farmer would perish if something were not done to improve the sale of his products. The importance of this matter also for the war measures would have to be pointed out ..." Government action would only begin if the awareness-raising work had taken place and worked for some time. ..."(2) On 16 March 1933, however, Goebbels described the future tasks of his ministry programmatically three days after his appointment in a remarkably open manner in front of press representatives: "If this government is now determined never to give way again, never and under no circumstances, then it need not make use of the dead power of the bayonet, then in the long run it will not be able to be satisfied with knowing 52 percent behind it ..., but it will have to see its next task in winning the remaining 48 percent for itself. This is not only possible through objective work". And about the nature of his propaganda he proclaimed: "Not any aesthete can judge the methods of propaganda. A binding judgment can only be given on the basis of success. For propaganda is not an end in itself, but a means to an end.(3) A timid attempt by Hugenberg to at least delay the decision to establish the Ministry of Propaganda in the cabinet meeting of March 11, 1933 failed miserably. Already on 13 March 1933 the law on the establishment of the RMVP was signed by the Reich President and the "writer" Dr. Goebbels was appointed minister.(4) Almost three weeks later, on 5 April 1933, Goebbels noted in his diary: "The organisation of the ministry is finished".(5) In difficult negotiations(6) with the ministries, which had to cede parts of their competences to the new ministry, the responsibilities were determined in detail. The RMVP was responsible for all tasks relating to intellectual influence on the nation, advertising for the state, culture and economy, informing the domestic and foreign public about them, and the administration of all institutions serving these purposes. As a result, the business area of the RMVP will be: 1. from the business area of the Federal Foreign Office: News and education abroad, art, art exhibitions, film and sports abroad. 2. From the RMI division: General Domestic Enlightenment, Hochschule für Politik, introduction and celebration of national holidays and celebration of national holidays with the participation of the RMI, press (with Institute for Newspaper Science), radio, national anthem, German Library in Leipzig, art (but without art-historical institute in Florence, copyright protection for works of literature and art, directory of nationally valuable works of art, German-Austrian Convention on the Export of Art, Protection of Works of Art and Monuments, Protection and Maintenance of Landscape and Natural Monuments, Nature Parks, Preservation of Buildings of Special Historical Importance, Preservation of National Monuments, Verband Deutscher Vereine für Volkskunde, Reich Memorial), Music Conservation, including the Philharmonic Orchestra, Theatre Matters, Cinema, Combating Trash and Dirt 3. From the business areas of the Reich Ministry of Economics and the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture: Economic Advertising, Exhibitions, Trade Fairs and Advertising 4. From the business areas of the Reich Ministry of Posts and the Reich Ministry of Transportation: Traffic Advertising Furthermore, all radio matters dealt with by the Reich Ministry of Posts and the Reich Ministry of Transportation are transferred from the business area of the Reich Ministry of Posts, unless they concern the technical administration outside the premises of the Reich Broadcasting Company and the radio companies. In matters of technical administration, the RMVP shall be involved to the extent necessary to carry out its own tasks, in particular in determining the conditions for the awarding of broadcasting rights and the regulation of fees. In particular, the representation of the Reich in the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft and the broadcasting companies is fully transferred to the RMVP. The RMVP is in charge of all tasks, including legislation, in the designated areas. The general principles shall apply to the participation of the other Reich Ministers." (RGBl. 1933 I, p. 449) These competences were exercised by seven departments, so that the business distribution plan of 1 Oct. 1933 (7) shows the following picture: Ministerial office (with five employees), directly subordinated to the Minister. State Secretary, at the same time Head of Press of the Reich Government I. Administration and Law with one main office Administration, three departments as well as the registry II. Propaganda with 10 departments 1. Positive world view propaganda, shaping in state life, press photography 2. Jewish question, foundation for victims of work, Versailles treaty, national literature, publishing etc. 3. Demonstrations and regional organisation 4. Opposing world views 5. German University of Politics 6. Youth and sports issues 7. Economic and social policy 8. Agricultural and eastern issues 9. Transport 10. Public health III. Broadcasting with three sections 1. Broadcasting 2. Political and cultural affairs of broadcasting 3. Organisation and administrative issues of German broadcasting IV. Press, simultaneously press department of the Reich government with eleven papers V. Film with three papers VI. Theatre, music and art with three papers VII. Defence (defence against lies at home and abroad) with eight papers Goebbels was obviously not satisfied with the official title of his ministry. The extensive tasks in the fields of culture and the arts did not come into their own and the word propaganda, of which he was aware, had a "bitter aftertaste" (8). His proposal to rename his department "Reichsministerium für Kultur und Volksaufklärung", however, met with Hitler's rejection. (9) In July 1933, a circular issued by the Reich Chancellor drew the attention of the Reich governors to the exclusive competence of the Reich or of the new Ministry for the above-mentioned competences and called on them to cede to the RMVP any existing budget funds and offices of the Länder. (10) At the same time, 13 regional offices were established as the substructure of the Ministry, the sprinkles of which corresponded approximately to those of the regional employment offices, and 18 imperial propaganda offices, which subdivided the territory of the regional offices once again. After the Reichspropagandastellen were already converted after short time (approx. 1934) to Landesstellen, in each Gau of the NSDAP a Landesstelle of the RMVP was located. Their leaders were in personal union at the same time leaders of the Gaupropagandaleitungen of the NSDAP, which in its leadership, the Reichspropagandalleitung, was also perceived by Goebbels in personal union. (11) As a result, conflicts of loyalty between the Gaupropaganda leaders/leaders of the RMVP regional offices were unavoidable in disputes between Goebbels and individual Gauleiters. According to theory, the regional offices were supposed to monitor and implement the political decisions made in the ministry in the individual districts, but in practice their heads were often more dependent on their respective Gauleiter than on the ministry due to the above-mentioned personal union. By the Führer decree of 9 September 1937 (RGBl. 1937 I, p. 1009), the Landesstellen were renamed Reichspropagandaämter and elevated to Reich authorities. After the integration of Austria there were no less than 42 Reichspropagandaämter with 1400 full-time employees. (12) In addition to the state offices and Reich Propaganda Offices, a whole range of offices, organizations, associations, societies and societies soon developed, which are to be counted to the subordinate area of the Ministry. (13) Despite the apparently clear regulation on the responsibilities of the RMVP, the 13 years of its existence were marked by disputes over responsibilities with other ministries, in particular with the ministers Rust, Rosenberg and Ribbentrop, of whom Goebbels, as is known, held very little personally. Successes and failures in the competence disputes cannot be followed in detail here; they depended to a large extent on Hitler's relationship with Goebbels. For example, Goebbels did not succeed in extending his competence in theatre to the Prussian State Theatres in Berlin. By contrast, in 1943 the RMVP assumed responsibility for carrying out the Eastern propaganda, while Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the occupied Eastern territories, was left with only the authority to issue guidelines. (14) In the conflict with the Federal Foreign Office over the delimitation of responsibilities for foreign propaganda, an arrangement was reached in a working agreement in October 1941. (15) Wehrmacht propaganda also remained long and controversial. Despite many efforts (16), Goebbels did not succeed in making a decisive break in the competencies of the OKW/Wpr department until the end of the war in March 1945. Propaganda into the Wehrmacht and about the Wehrmacht at home and abroad was then to be taken in charge by the RMVP. It is not possible to determine whether the planned organizational consequences have yet been implemented. (17) Another major success for Goebbels was the establishment of the Reichsinspektion für zivile Luftschutzmaßnahmen (Reich Inspection for Civilian Air Defence Measures), which was headed by the RMVP (18), and his appointment as Reich Plenipotentiary for Total War Operations by Führer Decree of 25 July 1944 (19). For the last months of the Third Reich, Goebbels had reached the zenith of power with this function, apart from his appointment as Reich Chancellor in Hitler's last will and testament of April 29, 1945, which had become effective only theoretically. As Reich Plenipotentiary for the total deployment in war, he had extremely far-reaching powers over the entire state apparatus with the exception of the Wehrmacht. (20) Until that date, the competences of the RMVP had changed only slightly in the main features of all disputes over jurisdiction. That it nevertheless grew enormously and steadily until 1943 (21) was mainly due to diversification and intensification in the performance of its tasks. After 1938, the expansive foreign policy of the Third Reich necessitated further propaganda agencies to direct and influence public opinion in the incorporated and occupied territories. In the occupied territories with civil administrations, "departments" (main departments) for "popular enlightenment and propaganda" were usually set up in the territories with military administration, "propaganda departments", which exercised roughly the functions of the Reich Propaganda Offices. Their position between their superior military services and the RMVP, which sought to influence the content of the propaganda and from where part of the personnel came, was a constant source of conflict. As an indication for the weighting of the individual areas of responsibility of the Ministry in relation to each other, the expenditures for the individual areas in the 10 years from March 1933 to March 1943 are mentioned. With a total volume of 881,541,376.78 RM (22), the expenses for the Active propaganda: 21.8 Communications: 17.8 Music, visual arts, literature: 6.2 Film: 11.5 Theatres: 26.4 Civil servants and equipment: 4.3 Salaries, business needs, including film testing agencies and RPÄ: 12.0 By 1942, the RMVP and its division had been continuously expanded, before facilities in the subordinate area were shut down and departments in the ministry were merged as part of the total war from 1943 onwards. The business distribution plan of Nov. 1942 was as follows: (23) Ministerial Office, reporting directly to the Minister with adjutants, personal advisers and press officers of the Minister, a total of 10 employees State Secretaries Leopold Gutterer, Reich Press Head Dr. Otto Dietrich, Hermann Esser Budget Department (H) with 11 departments; reporting to the Head of the Department, the Main Office and the House Administration Personnel Department (Pers) with seven departments Legal and Organisation Department (R) with three departments Propaganda Department (Pro) with the following ten departments: 1. Political Propaganda 2. Cultural Propaganda 3. Propaganda Exploration 4. Public Health, Social Policy 5. Economy 6. Imperial Propaganda Offices 7. Major Events 8. Youth and Sports 9. Representation 10. Budget of the Department, Preparation of the Peace Treaties, Stagma and other Press Department of the Imperial Government I. Department German Press (DP) with 13 Speeches II. Foreign Press Department (AP) with 19 papers III. Journal Press Department /ZP) with five papers Foreign Press Department (A) with the following five groups: 1. Organization 2. Europe and Middle East 3. Non-European 4. Propaganda Media 5. Deployment abroad and in the Reich Tourism Department (FV) with four units Broadcasting Department (Rfk) with the following eight units 1. Coordination, Interradio and others 2. Broadcasting Command Office 3. Mob Department 4. Broadcasting Programme Support 5. Foreign Broadcasting 6. Broadcasting Industry 7. Broadcasting Organisation 8. Rundfunk-Erkundungsdienst Filmabteilung (F) with five departments Schrifttumsabteilung (S ) with eight departments Theaterabteilung (T) with seven departments Bildende Kunst (BK) with four departments Musik-Abteilung (M) with ten departments Reichsverteidigung (RV) with six departments Abteilung für die besetztischen Ostgebiete (Ost) with twelve departments Generalreferate with State Secretary Gutterer directly subordinated: 1. Exhibitions and Fairs 2nd General Cultural Department (General Cultural Department for the Reich Capital) 3rd General Department for Reich Chamber of Culture Matters 4th Technology (propaganda, radio, film, sound, stage, press, service installations of the RMVP) Press Recording Office for the PK reports of the Press Department of the Reich Government (directly subordinated to the Reich Press Head) A major change in this distribution of responsibilities took place in September 1944 (24). The art departments of theatre, music and visual arts were dissolved and merged into a single department of culture (cult). The East Department was integrated into the Propaganda Department as a main department, the Tourism Department was shut down and the General Departments of the Reich Cultural Chamber, Armaments and Construction and Propaganda Troops were dissolved. Notes (1) J. Goebbels: Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei, p. 28. (2) R 43 II/1149, p. 5, excerpt from the minutes of the ministerial meeting of 11 March 1933. (3) R 43 II/1149, pp. 25 - 29, wording of Goebbels' speech of 16 March 1933 according to W. T. B. (4) R 43 II/1149, RGBl. 1933 I, p. 104 (5) J. Goebbels: Vom Kaiserhof zur Reichskanzlei, p. 293 (6) In an elaboration presumably by Goebbels on a "Reichskommissariat für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda" to be created (R 43 II/1149, pp. 49 - 53) further competences had been demanded. In particular, additional responsibilities were demanded of the German section of the RMI and section VI of the AA, as well as in foreign propaganda. (7) R 43 II/1449, pp. 126 - 133. Heiber gives a diagram of the organisational development of the RMVP at department level with the names of the department heads on the inside of the cover of his Goebbels biography. (8) See speech to representatives of the press on the tasks of the RMVP of 16 March 1933 in R 43 II/1149. It was not without reason that there was a language regulation for the press according to which the term propaganda was to be used only in a positive sense (R 55/1410, Decree of the RMVP to the RPA Nuremberg, 8 Nov. 1940). (9) R 43 II/1149, p. 169, Note by Lammers of 9 May 1934 on a lecture to the Reich Chancellor. (10) R 43 II/1149. (11) After the establishment of the Reichskulturkammer organization, they were also state cultural administrators in the substructure of the RKK. (12) Boelcke, Kriegspropaganda, p. 185. (13) Ebendort, p. 136 ff. there are hints for some institutions. (14) The Führer's order concerning the delimitation of responsibilities dated 15 Aug. 1943, cf. R 55/1435, 1390. (15) Boelcke, Kriegspropaganda, p. 126/127. (16) Lochner, Joseph Goebbels, p. 334, p. 442. (17) R 55/618, p. 123; cf. also the depiction of Hasso v. Wedel, the propaganda troops of the German Wehrmacht. Neckargemünd 1962, Die Wehrmacht im Kampf, vol. 34 (18) Führer decree of Dec. 21, 1943, R 55/441 (19) RGBl. 1944, p. 161, R 43 II/664 a. (20) This competence is virtually not reflected in the RMVP files available in the BA. However, it is well documented in R 43 II. See R 43 II/664 a. (21) See the annual budget negotiations on increasing the number of posts in R 2/4752 - 4762. (22) R 55/862, Statistical overview of monetary transactions. Accordingly, 88,5 % of the expenditure was covered by the licence fee. It remains unclear whether the old budgetary expenditure has been taken into account. (23) R 55/1314 According to this schedule of responsibilities, the files held in the Federal Archives were essentially classified. (24) Newsletter of 13 Sept. 1944 in R 55/441. Inventory description: Inventory history The RMVP records have suffered substantial losses, although the main building of the Ministry, the Ordenspalais am Wilhelmplatz, was destroyed relatively late and almost accidentally in March 1945. Large parts of the old registries, including the previous files from the Federal Foreign Office and the Reich Ministry of the Interior (1), had already been destroyed by air raids in 1944. Moreover, in the last days of the war before and during the conquest of Berlin by the Soviet Russian army, files were also systematically destroyed. (2) In view of the total collapse and devastation of Berlin by the air war, it is not surprising that hardly any manual or private files of RMVP employees have been handed down. Notable exceptions are, in particular, documents from Ministerialrat Bade (press department) (3) and hand files of the head of the broadcasting department, Ministerialdirigent Fritzsche. In this context, the diaries of Goebbels should also be mentioned, which, with the exception of those edited by Lochner in 1948, had been lost for almost 30 years. (4) The bulk of the volumes available in the Bundesarchiv Koblenz until 1996 was transferred from Alexandria (cf. Guide No. 22) and from the Berlin Document Center to the Bundesarchiv in the years 1959 - 1963. The personnel files still held back were added to the portfolio in 2007. The RMVP files kept by the Ministry of State Security of the GDR (mainly personnel files, personnel processes of the theatre, music and defence departments), which were stored in the so-called NS archive until 2006, are also assigned to the holdings. Not in Allied hands was only a small collection from the Music Department and some documents from the German Press Department, which were transferred to the Federal Archives in 1969 as part of the land consolidation with the Secret State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Some original RMVP files can still be found at the Hoover Institution Standford, the Yivo Institute New York and the Wiener Library London. Fortunately, all three institutions were willing to produce microfilms for the Federal Archives (5). In 1974, the Rijksinstitut voor Oologsdocumentatie Amsterdam (Rijksinstitut for Oologsdocumentatie Amsterdam) kindly handed over some original fragments of files to the Federal Archives. In 1946, officers of the French and Soviet secret services found films of about 35,000 documents that had been filmed in the RMVP and buried near Potsdam at the end of the war with the help of an American mine detector (6). The films were taken to Paris to make re-enlargements of them, and it is possible that they will still be kept in the French secret service. The Americans apparently did not receive copies because they had withheld from the French documents of other provenance found in the CSSR. Only incomplete information is available about the content of the films; it can be assumed, however, that not exactly unimportant files have been filmed. Notes (1) Only a few handfiles and a few volumes on the promotion of music have survived. (2) Files of the Reichsfilmarchiv that had been moved to Grasleben/Helmstedt were even to be destroyed by agents of the RSHA when they threatened to fall into the hands of the English (cf. R 55/618). (3) Cf. Kl. Erw. 615, which is a selection of the bath papers from the time around 1933 in the Hoover library. (4) Frankfurter Allgemeine, 21 Nov. 1974, reader's letter. Insignificant fragments from Goebbels' estate from his student days can be found in the Federal Archives under the signature Kl. Erw. 254. (5) A collection of newspaper clippings concerning Goebbels in the amount of 82 Bde for the years 1931 - 1943 was not filmed at the Yivo-Institut. (6) See the documents in: National Archives Washington, RG 260 OMGUS 35/35 folder 19. Archival processing The order and indexing work on the holdings was relatively time-consuming and difficult, as the order of the files was extremely poor. On the one hand there were no detailed file plans or other registry aids for the mass of files from the budget and personnel departments, on the other hand the file management in the ministry, which at least in its development phase was always deliberately unbureaucratic, left a lot to be desired. Especially during the war, when inexperienced auxiliaries had to be used more and more during the war, the Ministry's staff often complained about the inadequacy of the registries. The organisation of the RMVP's records management showed typical features of office reform (1): Registries were kept on a departmental basis, with each registry having a "self-contained partial list of files". The documents were stored in standing folders (System Herdegen). Instead of a diary, an alphabetical mailing card was kept, separated according to authorities and private persons. The reference numbers consisted of the department letter, file number, date as well as an indication, on which card of an order file the procedure was seized. All in all, the files of the Budget and Human Resources Department were in a certain, albeit unsatisfactory, state of order when they entered the Federal Archives. Numerous volumes from the other departments, on the other hand, were formed in a chaotic manner, possibly as a result of a provisional recording of loose written material when it was confiscated. These were often amorphous and fragmentary materials that lacked the characteristics of organically grown writing. So it was practically impossible to form meaningful band units in all subjects. In the case of some "mixed volumes" with written material on numerous file numbers, only the most frequent ones were noted in the finding aid book. Due to the high loss of files, no strict evaluation standard was applied to the files. The main items collected were volumes from the budget department on preliminary checks in the subordinate area and individual procedures for the procurement and management of managed goods for the purposes of the Ministry. Formal records of non-compliant positions in the business division and a number of unarchivalable documents from the Human Resources Department will still be kept for the foreseeable future for the purpose of issuing service time statements. It is not listed in this guide. Preparatory work for the indexing of the Koblenz part of the stock was carried out by Mr. Oberarchivrat Regel (1967) with regard to the files of the budget department on the Reich's own film assets, Mr. Ltd. Archivdirektor Dr. Boberach (1966) with regard to correspondence and the reference files of the head of the broadcasting department, Hans Fritzsche and Ms. Archivoberinspektorin Schneider, née Fisch (1966) for files of the propaganda department. In 2005, the inventories of the finding aids of both sections of the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda were imported into the database of the Federal Archives via a retroconversion procedure. The data records were then combined in a classification. Despite the inhomogeneity of the traditions of most specialist departments, it was advisable to maintain the division by departments. (2) Within the departments, the structure was essentially based on file numbers and factual contexts. The file numbers used in the RMVP were - as far as possible - used as aids for further subdivision. The final step was the integration of the personnel files and personal documents from the NS archive (approx. 5000 individual transactions) and the former Berlin Document Center (approx. 700 transactions). The documents taken over are mainly documents from the personnel department (in addition to personnel files also questionnaires and index cards), theatre (applications, appointments, confirmation procedures) and imperial defence (applications in propaganda companies). The personal records also contain isolated documents on denazification from the period 1946-1950. Since a relatively large number of individual transactions from the NS archives were often only a few sheets, transactions that objectively related to one transaction (e.g. applications for interpreting) were merged into one file. The names of the individual persons as well as the old signatures from the NS archive can still be traced via the BASYS-P database. Both the files from the NS archive and those from the former BDC are not always filed according to the provenance principle. However, the files were not separated again. Most of the files taken over from the former BDC are personal files and questionnaires as well as personnel index cards of individual employees of broadcasting stations. A search is still possible via the BASYS-P database. The procedures for the donation "Artist's thanks" still present in the personal records of the former BDC concerning the Theatre Department were not adopted in this context (approx. 15,000 procedures). The names are entered in the BASYS-P database and can be searched there. Notes (1) Rules of Procedure and Registration of 8 May 1942 in R 55/ 618. (2) The structure of the business distribution plan of Nov. 1942 was used as a basis. Abbreviations AA = Federal Foreign Office Department A = Department Abroad AP = Foreign Press BDC = Berlin Document Center BdS = Commander of the Security Police ChdZ = Chief of the Civil Administration DAF = German Labour Front DASD = German Amateur Broadcasting Service e.V. DNB = Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro DRK = Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Dt. = Deutsch DVO = Durchführungsverordnung french = French Gestapo = Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt KdF = Kraft durch Freude KdG = Kommandeur der Gendarmerie KdS = Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei Kl. Erw. Small acquisition KLV = Kinderlandverschickung LG = District Court MA = Military Archives, Department of the Federal Archives MdR = Member of the Reichstag MinRat = Ministerialrat MdL = Member of the Landtag NDR = Norddeutscher Rundfunk NSV = National Socialist Volkswohlfahrt o. Az. = without file number or date = without date OKW = Oberkommando der Wehrmacht OLG = Oberstes Landesgericht OLT = Oberleutnant ORR = Oberregierungsrat OT = Organisation Todt PG = Parteigenosse PK = Propagandakompanie RAVAG = Österreichische Radio-Verkehrs-AG Reg. Pres. RMI = Reich Ministry of the Interior RMJ = Reich Ministry of the Interior RMK = Reich Ministry of Justice RMK = Reich Chamber of Music RMVP = Reich Ministry of Education and Propaganda ROI = Reichsoberinspektor RPA = Reichspropagandaamt RPÄ = Reichspropagandaämter RPL = Reichspropagandalleitung RR = Regierungsrat RRG = Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft RS = Reichssender RSHA = Reichssicherheitshauptamt RSK = Reichsschrifttumskammer SBZ = Soviet Occupation Zone SD = Security Service SD-LA = SD-Leitabschnitt SDR = Süddeutscher Rundfunk Sipo = Security Police STS = Secretary of State and a. = among others v. a. = above all VGH = Volksgerichtshof VO = Regulation WDR = Westdeutscher Rundfunk ZSTA = Zentrales Staatsarchiv (Potsdam) citation method: BArch R 55/ 23456 Content characterization: Rounded delivery complexes are available only from the budget department and from the personnel department. From the point of view of financing and personnel management, they illuminate almost all areas of the Ministry's activities. From the specialist departments, the volumes from the Propaganda Department should be emphasized, which document above all the design of propaganda and the propagandistic support of foreign workers and resettled persons in the last years of the war. Also worth mentioning are mood and activity reports of individual RPÄ and suggestions from the population for propaganda and for leading the total war. In the Radio Department there is some material about the design of the radio program and the propaganda reconnaissance with reports about the opposing propaganda, which were compiled from the bugging reports of the special service Seehaus. A separate complex of this department are 14 volumes of pre-files from the RMI with handfiles of the Oberregierungsrat Scholz as representative of the Reich in supervisory committees of broadcasting companies in Berlin from 1926 - 1932. Of the film department there are only a few, but interesting volumes about the film production of the last war years with numerous ministerial documents. The majority of the theatre department's traditions are based on documents on professional issues and the Reich's dramaturgy. From the music department the promotion of musical organizations from the years 1933 - 1935 with pre-files from the RMI, the support and job placement of artists as well as material about the musical foreign relations is handed down. The files of the Department for the Occupied Eastern Territories offer rich sources for questions of Eastern propaganda. The losses are greatest in the departments Law and Organization, Magazine Press, Foreign Press, Foreign Countries, Tourism, Literature and Fine Arts. State of development: Publication Findbuch (1976, reprint 1996), Online Findbuch (2007). Citation style: BArch, R 55/...

History of the Inventory Designer: Theodor Seitz, On the Rise and Fall of German Colonial Power. Erinnerungen, 3 Vol., Karlsruhe 1927-1929 Governor of Cameroon and Deutsch-Südwestafrika Inventory description: Diaries on journeys through Cameroon (status: 1977) Citation method: BArch, N 1175/...

Naval officer, Freikorpsführer and writer Bogislaw Selchow Life data July 4, 1877 born in Köslin died February 6, 1943 died in Berlin Military career April 7, 1897 Recruitment as cadet of the Kaiserl. Navy May 1897 Cadet on board of SMS stone 6.12.1897 Participation in the siege of the port of Port au Prince on Haiti with SMS stone 27.4.1898 Promotion to sea cadet Apr. 1898- Sep. 1900 In various functions on board of SMS Moltke, Hela, Mars and Blücher Jan.March 1900 Meningitis, Marinelazarett Kiel 3.9.1900 Ensign at sea 23.9.1900 Transportation to lieutenant at sea Nov. 1900- Nov. 1901 On board of SMS Sachsen, from Oct. 1901 as adjutant; on 4.9.1901 Collision with SMS Wacht near Rügen, which then sinks Nov. 1901- Sep. 1902 Adjutant aboard SMS Kaiser Wilhelm der Große 15.3.1902 Promotion to lieutenant at sea Oct.-Dec. 1902 Wachoffizier aboard SM Torpedoboot G 109 Jan.-Apr. 1903 Company officer of the second company of the I. Torpedo Department, in April radio course on SMS Neptun Apr.-Sep. 1903 Watch officer aboard SM Torpedoboot G 109 Oct./Nov. 1903 Departure as passenger to East Asia aboard SS King Albert Nov. 1903- May 1905 Watch officer aboard SMS Hertha in the Asian region with return journey to Kiel via Africa and the Mediterranean Sea 11.9.1904 Award of the Kung-Pai Order of Merit (Chinese Silver Medal of Remembrance) on the occasion of an audience with the Empress's widow and the Emperor of China 11.2.1905 Award of the Royal Siamese Crown Order of the Fourth Class on the occasion of an audience with the King of Siam June-Sep. 1906 Commander of SM Torpedoboote S 29, S 25 and S 30 as well as services in the Mine Company and as First Officer of the Mine Search Reserve Division Oct. 1906 - June 1907 Naval Academy 6.3.1907 Promotion to Captain Lieutenant July 1907 Service on board of SMS Elector Friedrich Wilhelm Aug.Sep. 1907 Service on board SMS Yorck Oct. 1907- June 1908 Naval Academy July-Sep. 1908 Language leave in England 22.8.1908 Appointment as Honorary Knight of the Johanniter Order Oct. 1908 Departure as a passenger to West Africa on SS Lucie Woermann Nov. 1908- Nov. 1909 First officer on board SMS Sperber Nov./Dec. 1909 Return as a passenger to Germany on SS Lucie Woermann Dec. 1909- Jan. 1909- Jan. 1909 1911 Admiral Staff of the Navy Jan. 1911- March 1913 Adjutant of the North Sea Station 19.9.1912 Award of the Red Eagle Order 4th Class Apr. 1913- Nov. 1914 First Officer aboard SMS Victoria Louise 22.3.1914 Promotion to Corvette Captain 17.7.1914 Award of the Royal Crown to the Red Eagle Order 4th Class 10.11.1914- 30.6.1915 Commander of the 1st Btl. of the Sailor Artillery Regiment III (10.-25.11.1914); II. Part of Sailor's Artillery Regiment I (26.11.-31.12.1914); Part of Sailor's Artillery Regiment II (1.1.-4.2.1915); Part of Sailor's Regiment 4 (5.2.-10.5.1915); Part of Sailor's Regiment 5 (III.2.-10.5.1915); Part of Sailor's Regiment 5 (11.11.-31.12.1914).5.-30.6.1915); Field of application: Flanders 1.5.1915 Wound at Het Sas/Belgium by splinters of shell in head, right shoulder, right arm and right leg 7.2.1915 Iron cross II. class Aug.-Dec. 1915 First officer aboard SMS Freya Jan.-March 1916 Reservelazarett Liebenstein Apr. 1916- July 1917 First officer aboard SMS Hannover, in this function participation in the Battle of Skagerrak on 31.5./1.6.1916 30.6.1916 Award of the Iron Cross I. Class 22.8.1916 Award of the Oldenburg Friedrich-August-Kreuz I. and II. Class 14.9.1916 Neurasthenia recognised as war service damage by the Kdo. von SMS Hannover July 1917 - end of war Admiralstab der Marine 1918 Publication of the propaganda "World War and Fleet" 10.4.1918 Austrian Military Merit Cross 3rd class with war decoration 20.5.1918 Award of the Grand Ducal Hessian Medal of Valour 16.11.1918- 20.8.1919 Department head in the Reichsmarineamt 20.8.1919 Promotion to frigate captain Civil life After his departure from the navy, Bogislav von Selchow began studying history in Marburg and was at the same time commissioned by the Reichswehr Brigade Kassel to form a voluntary formation of Marburg students to protect the young republic. Von Selchow founded the Freikorps "Studentenkorps Marburg" (StuKoMa) and subsequently commanded it in the suppression of Spartacist and Council Democratic riots in Thuringia. On 20 March 1920, the so-called massacre of Mechterstädt took place, in which 15 workers suspected of being rebels, who had been arrested by a StuKoMa strike force, were shot - allegedly "on the run". The accused for these killings were acquitted in two sensational trials, the sentences received by the public as an act of class justice with disgust and protest. Von Selchow had stood before his men during the trial, and Marburg University also showed solidarity with its students and rehabilitated them completely. In addition, von Selchow organized himself in the right-wing extremist, later illegal so-called organization Escherich (Orgesch), which he temporarily led in West Germany. The paramilitary organization set up secret arsenals for an expected fight against Bolshevism and was responsible for murders of personalities of the opposing political camp. Disappointed by Escherich's hesitation to take an offensive course against the Republic, he turned away from Orgesch again in December 1922, resigned his command of the StuKoMa and withdrew from the political public until 1933. Bogislav von Selchow received his doctorate from the University of Marburg on 24.1.1923. Already in 1920 he had published his first volume of poems "Deutsche Gedanken", and soon he succeeded with his poems in the right spectrum. He was now active as a writer and philosopher of history and developed, as a child of his epoch, a so-called "Zeitwendemodell", which depicted the spiritual-historical and political development of mankind. Von Selchow defined the ages of the "all-time", the "we-time" and the "ego-time", which were shaped by various social forces. This system of thought became the basis for his works and, together with the topos of the heroic that he repeatedly took up, made him an ideological pioneer of National Socialism. His anti-Semitism and his view of current events after the fall of the old world had brought him close to the NSDAP by 1933 at the latest: although he was never a party member, he developed into a passionate National Socialist and was one of the 48 personalities who publicly called for Adolf Hitler to be elected in 1933. In 1936 the NS-Studentenkameradschaft, which had emerged from the former Marburger Burschenschaft Germania, named itself after von Selchow. On 9.6.1939 he was appointed honorary senator of the Philipps-Universität Marburg. Description of the holdings: The estate consists of two main areas: the so-called logbooks and a literary-philosophical collection of material, which is supplemented by manuscripts. The so-called logbooks are available until 1931 without gaps and reflect individual experiences and facts in partly epic breadth. 39 of the 51 "logbooks contain records of Selchow from his time as an active naval officer and as leader of the "student corps Marburg" in Freikorpseinsatz. In addition there are copies of the logbooks 61 to 68, which only contain illustrations and cover the period from 1935 to 1940. The "logbooks", however, are not diaries in the narrower sense, but rather through-composed memory books. Von Selchow transferred his diary entries recorded on loose-leaf collections - an example of which can be found in the collection folder of the planned "Logbuch" 65 (N 428/86) - into leather-bound folios and decorated his work with artistic watercolour and pen drawings, among other things. Empty places in the logbooks, on which notes on the pictures or drawings to be inserted are entered in pencil, to be traced in N 428/46, indicate this procedure. The basis of the logbooks, the diary pages, but also his correspondence and other documents, which were unfortunately destroyed privately in the 1950s, are lost except for fragments found in the present collection. Von Selchow created the "logbooks" by first collecting and compiling his notes and supplementary material in folders. Based on this, he transferred text and illustration onto sheets which he had incorporated into the high-quality leather covers bearing the coat of arms of the von Selchow family and embossed inscriptions. This procedure can be traced by means of the above-mentioned collection folder, other folders he used again for other material collections, among others, see N 428/75. The source value of the "logbooks" is increased by the more than 1,000 precisely identified pictures and photos that illustrate the text beyond the drawings. The illustrations show places, ships, everyday scenes from the soldier's but also private life in the homeland and in international waters, crews and persons for the time up to 1919. In addition there are various documents like nautical charts, invitations, etc. From the context of the tradition it can be concluded that the "logbooks" in the form presented here were probably written in the 1930s, since volumes 61 to 68 have inscribed illustrations and empty spaces for the text to be entered. Bogislav von Selchow belonged to the Uradel and had a large circle of relatives and acquaintances. The logbooks give an insight into the life of these circles from the imperial era to National Socialism and reflect the wealth of official and social contacts in the written memoirs and the correspondence, some of which is reproduced. Some spectacular insights into naval life are provided by Selchow's memoirs about his active service with the Imperial Navy. They show the diversity of experience and impressions as an officer of the Imperial Navy, which was deployed around the German colonies. For the first years of the Weimar Republic the so-called logbooks give valuable insights into the world of the Freikorps, above all the so-called student corps Marburg and the so-called organization Escherich; but also to the organization Consul von Selchow maintained contacts - to the latter two numerous statements can be found in the "logbooks". However, his notes not only bear witness to the early phase of the Weimar Republic, but also to the soldierly thinking of Selchow. Even after his withdrawal from public life in 1922, he remained a soldier in his basic attitude as a poet, writer and philosopher of history living in Berlin. The "logbooks" give direct and unique impressions of the life of a member of the Imperial Navy Corps of Officers - also a nobleman - and of his reactions to the collapse of the old order. In terms of the history of mentality, this part of the estate is revealing for the transition from the Empire to the Weimar Republic and probably the only one of its kind that provides information about the revolutionary events in Berlin. Its value might increase with the inclusion of Selchow's publications, especially his autobiography "One hundred days from my life" from 1936. The estate illustrates Selchow's relationship to the old and despised new system. The copies of the "logbooks" for the years 1935 to 1940 also document Selchow's proximity to and access to parts of the NSDAP leadership in their illustrations. In addition to the logbooks, the literary-philosophical estate of Selchow forms the second focal point of the collection. As a conservative-nationalist thinker, von Selchow attempted to establish a time model that divided world history into intellectual epochs, to which he assigned certain developmental steps of mankind in intellectual, but also scientific, political, and religious terms. He thus followed a research trend of his time. His legacy from this phase of his life as a humanities scholar includes collections of various, often loose materials, texts, smaller publications, newspaper articles and his own drafts, but also large diagrams which represent the basis or intermediate steps of his literary work: the note box of a conservative-nationalist writer of the 1920/30s, enriched with his own manuscripts, some published, some unpublished. The tradition of this material, which can be understood from the diagrams, is, however, incomplete; materials on individual subject areas are missing, but may simply not have been laid out. Notes on other stocks BArch MSg 100 (Bogislav Frhr. von Selchow: Deutsche Marineoffiziere) BArch N 253/262 (Estate of Alfred von Tirpitz, correspondence, letter S) BArch RM 5/920 (Critique of the corvette captain of Selchow on birthday congratulations of the members of the admiral's staff for Grand Admiral v. Holtzendorff, Jan. 1919) Vorarchivische Ordnung: The so-called logbooks are continuously available for the years 1897 to 1931. The Federal Archives acquired volumes 39 to 54 as early as 1957 together with the non-military estate of Selchow and in 1960 bought the remaining pieces from the Marine-Offizier-Hilfe, today: Marine-Offizier-Vereinigung. The first two volumes and volume 51 of the former 68 logbooks contained information on family history and were already missing when the estate was acquired; while volume 1 remains in family possession, volume 2 has been considered lost since 1945. The same applies to the main estate consisting of documents and letters, which was destroyed privately in 1957. These volumes are supplemented by copies of the "Logbooks" 61 to 68 for the period September 1935 to December 1940. The originals of these logbooks are still in family ownership. They differ from the "logbooks" available for the years up to 1931 in that they have remained without text. Only pictures and photos were pasted here and also only these sides were copied and taken over into the present estate. This addition to the collection was carried out in 1987 in cooperation with Selchow's nephew Wolfgang von Selchow, who owned the "logbooks" 61 to 68 at that time. Despite this addition, there is a gap in the stock which cannot be clarified on the basis of the available information: While information is available on the whereabouts of volumes 1, 2 and 51, the whereabouts and contents of volumes 55 to 60, covering the period January 1932 to August 1935, are unknown. The memory books are joined by the literary-historical-philosophical archives, which cover the intellectual work of Selchow from 1920 onwards. After the military archive moved to Freiburg in 1968, the so-called logbooks and the literary material initially remained at the main office in Koblenz due to the literary portions. Only in 1976 did the estate come to Freiburg, where in the Military History Collection under the signature MSg. 100 the so-called pennant boards as well as the so-called commemorative plaques were stored since 1957 or partly since 1964 - personnel sheets of the German naval officers from 1848 to 1909 or short biographies and pictures of all officers of the navy who died and died between 1914 and 1918 and in the post-war fights. Citation style: BArch, N 428/...

History of the Inventory Designer: Wilhelm Souchon, Vice Admiral born on 02 June 1864 in Leipzig, died on 13 January 1946 in Bremen married to Violet (née Lahusen) 1881: Sea cadet on SMS Leipzig; 1894: Commander of the mine training ship SMS Rhein, promotion to Captain Lieutenant 1900: I. Officer/Commander of SMS Odin 1900-1903: promotion to Corvette Captain 1903: Chief of Staff of II. (Reserve) Wing 1904: Chief of the Staff of the Cruiser Wing in East Asia on the SMS Fürst Bismarck 1906: Promotion to Captain at Sea, Employment in the Naval Office 1907: Commander of the SMS Wettin 1909: Chief of the Staff of the Naval Station Baltic Sea 1911: Promotion to Rear Admiral, 2nd Admiral of the II. 1913: Commander of the Mediterranean Division 1914: Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman and Bulgarian Navy 1915: Promotion to Vice Admiral 1917: Commander of the 4th Battle Squadron of the Baltic Sea Fleet 1918: Chief of the Naval Station of the Baltic Sea, Governor of Kiel 1919: Pension Awards: Iron Cross I. and II. Class Pour le Mérite Red Eagle Order II. Class with star, oak leaves and swords Crown Order II. Class with Star Prussian Service Award Cross Lippisches Kriegsverdienstkreuz Commturkreuz I. Class of the Albrechts Order Grand Cross of the House Order of the White Falcon with Swords Cross for Merits in War Description: Correspondence, inter alia with Wilhelm II. and Tirpitz; lectures and elaborations on naval history; memoirs and diaries; documents from military service, including as chief of the Mediterranean Division (1911-1915), as commander-in-chief of the Turkish and Bulgarian navies (1915-1917) and as chief of the IV Squadron (1917-1918). State of development: Special conditions of use Citation method: BArch, N 156/...