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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 Inventor: The Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda is instructed and authorized to combine the members of the branches of activity that concern his sphere of duties into public corporations"[1] With this clear sentence, the Reichskulturkammergesetz of September 22, 1933 was introduced and the nationalization and supervision of German culture began, namely the forced unification of all those active in the field of culture in an association, the Reichskulturkammer. In addition to its headquarters, the Reichskulturkammer consisted of the following individual chambers: 1st Reichsschrifttumskammer (Bundesarchiv Bestand R 56-V) 2nd Reichspressekammer (R 56-IV) 3rd Reichsrundfunkkammer 4th Reichstheaterkammer (R 56-III) 5. Reichsmusikkammer (R 56-II) 6th Reichskammer der bildenden Künste 7th Reichsfilmkammer (R 56-VI) The Reichsfilmkammer was established before the foundation of the Reichskulturkammer, on 14 July 1933[2] as a "temporary film chamber". The Reichsrundfunkkammer was dissolved again on 28 October 1939 and the members distributed among the other individual chambers.[3] The tasks and organization of the individual chambers can be found in the introductions to the corresponding finding aids. With the First Decree on the Implementation of the Reichskulturkammergesetz of 1 November 1933[4], the individual chambers were given the status of public corporations, which in turn were merged into a single public corporation, namely the Reichskulturkammer. Provisions which the individual chambers were allowed to enact had the rank of indirect imperial law, but were limited to the area of chamber membership. Paragraph 10 of that first regulation stated that admission to an individual chamber could be refused "if facts exist from which it follows that the person in question does not possess the reliability and aptitude necessary for the performance of his duties"[5] The President of the individual chamber concerned decided on the aptitude and aptitude. A rejection meant a ban on the profession, because the cultural practice of the profession outside the chambers was not permitted. When the Reich Chamber of Culture and its individual chambers were established, however, there were no rejections or prohibitions at first, as the individual chambers automatically took over all those involved in culture who were organised in the professional associations responsible for their area. These professional associations formed part of the chamber as professional associations (e.g. Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnenangehöriger in der Reichstheaterkammer or Deutscher Sängerbund in der Reichsmusikkammer). Thus the members of the professional associations acquired the membership in the single chambers, without examination of the "reliability or suitability". Thus, at the beginning, "non-Aryans" or other groups of people who did not correspond to the "ideal image" of the National Socialists were also in the chambers. For Propaganda Minister Goebbels this was a problem which he tried to solve with the appointment of Hans Hinkels as Third Managing Director of the Reich Chamber of Culture on 1 May 1935. State Commissioner Hinkel was entrusted with dealing with personnel issues in the individual chambers. This meant nothing less than the expulsion of the Jews and other groups of people from the chambers who were undesirable to the National Socialists. Hinkel was responsible for the "cleansing" of the chambers as the "commissioner for the supervision of the intellectual and artistic non-Aryans in German Reich territory". The presidents of the individual chambers were not spared either. Only Max Amann remained president of the Reichspressekammer. It was also Hinkel who took over the transformation of the professional associations into student councils, which was completed in 1935. § 15 of the First Ordinance on the Implementation of the Reichskulturkammergesetz already provided for a division into "professional associations or student councils". What at first glance hardly seemed to be a difference had considerable legal consequences. While the professional associations were still independent corporations with private assets, the newly founded professional associations were only regarded as administrative offices of the chambers without their own legal personality. The former professional associations were thus gradually nationalised and expropriated as a result of this transformation. A particular problem with the presentation of the tasks of the Reich Chamber of Culture was the interdependence with the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. The president of the RKK, Joseph Goebbels, was at the same time Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, his deputy (vice-president) the acting state secretary in the Ministry of Propaganda, at the beginning Reich Press Head Walter Funk. The organisational supervision of the individual chambers was carried out by the RKK headquarters, with its seat in the Ministry of Propaganda. Hans Schmidt-Leonhardt, head of the IC (Legal) department, was initially appointed as its managing director. As a counterpart to the individual chambers, individual specialist departments (press, literature, music, visual arts, theatre, film and radio) were created in the Ministry of Propaganda, whereby the heads of department were at the same time the respective chamber presidents in personal union. The linkages also existed at the lowest Gau level. There was already the usual interweaving of state and party in the Third Reich by the union of the head of the regional office of the Ministry of Propaganda and the head of the NSDAP's main propaganda department in one person. These functionaries now still held the post of Provincial Cultural Administrator and thus the supervision of the local offices of the individual chambers. In support of the Presidents, a Presidential Council was set up in each Chamber. The Presidential Council consisted of seven representatives of the corresponding cultural sector. The persons were appointed by Goebbels himself and the respective chamber president had to appoint a managing director from this circle who was directly entrusted with administrative tasks. On 15 November 1935, Hinkel announced the establishment of the Reich Cultural Senate, in which particularly deserving persons of cultural life would come together and serve as a cultural-political source of ideas for Goebbels. In reality, this Senate was only representative. In it were all chamber presidents, the respective presidential councils, the vice-presidents and the three managing directors of the RKK, who carried the title Reichskulturwalter. But only 3 years later, with Goebbels order of 05 April 1938 (Az. I B 1000)[6], the office of the Reichskulturwalter was abolished again. Only one management remained in the Reich Chamber of Culture with the tasks of "training and propaganda" and supervision of the regional divisions of the individual chambers. The specialist supervision of the individual chambers was now carried out by the specialist departments in the RMVP, the organisational supervision by the responsible administrative departments. The personal union of the offices of Head of Department of the Ministry and President of the Chamber was also abolished. Hinkel himself had been head of the Department IIA (Cultural Activities of Nonarians) since 01 April 1938. After the beginning of the Second World War, the focus was on troop support as an "important task of the war". The troop support consisted essentially of organising performances on front stages and supplying the troops themselves with parlour games, musical instruments, etc. The troops were then given the opportunity to play on the front stages. Organizationally, the RMVP first installed its own "Troop Support" department, which moved to the new "BeKa" department (Special Cultural Tasks)[7] in 1940. The department BeKA was the successor of the department IIA, its head remained Hans Hinkel. By decree of 30 April 1941[8] the "Hauptgeschäftsführung der RKK" was founded. Hinkel received the position of "Secretary General of the RKK" in this main management, which was divided into five departments: Department A (Heinz Tackmann): Administration (Personnel, Budget and Legal Affairs) Department B (Walter Owens): Professional tasks (aptitude test and support of young people, orientation and supervision of career guidance, job creation and social affairs of cultural professions) Department C (Erich Kochanowski): Propaganda (liaison with the departments of party and state, representation of the RKK in film and radio, press affairs, as well as political training and orientation of cultural workers) Department D (Helmuth von Loebell): Cultural personal data (political assessment of cultural workers, exclusion procedures and decisions on complaints, special permits for "non-Aryans", examination of cultural enterprises for Jewish influence, cultural activities of foreigners) Department E (Hans Erich Schrade): Special tasks (troop support, cultural support of the returned ethnic Germans and foreign workers, supervision of the mentally and culturally active Jews in the Reich territory) The BeKA department, which had been de facto dissolved with the founding of the RKK's main management, was renamed "Generalreferat Reichskulturkammersachen"[9] in the RMVP in August 1941. At the same time, the department heads of the main management of the RKK remained in personal union speakers of this general department. The above tasks did not change until the end of the war. On 1 May 1944, Hans Hinkel's key position in the Reich Chamber of Culture became clear once again. On this day, Goebbels appointed Hinkel as Vice President of the RKK, and Hans Erich Schrade assumed the duties of Secretary General. Before that Hinkel had already been appointed "Special Trustee of the Work for the Professions Creating Culture", "Reichsfilmintendanten" and Head of the Film Department in the RMVP. He was also given overall responsibility for the broadcasting entertainment programme. Notes [1] Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 661. [2] Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 483. [3] 5th VO on the implementation of the Reichskulturkammergesetz. 4]Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 797 [5] Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 797 [6] Newsletter of the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda No. 5 of 9 April 1938 (R 55/20617). 7] GVPL of 01 Nov 1940 (R 55/20776). [8] R 55/163. [9] GVPL of Nov. 1, 1942 (R 55/20621). Hans Hinkel - Career in the Reich Chamber of Culture 1933 Prussian State Director in Alfred Rosenberg's "Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur" State Commissioner in the Prussian Ministry of Culture Head of the Prussian Theatre Committee 1 May 1935 3. Managing Director in the RKK Headquarters Commissioner for the Supervision of Intellectually and Artistically Active Non-Aryans in the German Reich (as a separate department in the Propaganda Department of the RMVP) 15. Nov. 1935 Reichskulturwalter im Reichssenat 1936 Head of Department II at the headquarters of the RKK 5 April 1938 Head of Department IIA (Supervision of Cultural Activities of Nonarians) in the RMVP July 1940 Chief Executive of the RKK 30. April 1941 General Secretary in the General Management of the RKK August 1941 Head of the General Department for Reich Culture Chamber Matters in the RMVP until 1945 Special trustee of the work for the culture-creating professions Overall responsible for the entertainment programme in the Rundfunk Reichsfilmintendant Head of the Film Department in the RMVP Vice-President of the RKK (from 1. April 1941 onward) May 1944) Inventory description: Inventory history A part of the files (R 56-I/1-147) transferred from the Berlin Document Center to the Federal Archives between 1959 and 1962 has already been recorded by Dr. Wolfram Werner. For a more detailed history of their transmission, see the introduction to the corresponding finding aid book (finding aid books on the holdings of the Federal Archives, volume 31). These are mainly files from the Hinkel office. Newly added were the material files from the "Reichskulturkammer" collections of the former BDC. The contents were as follows: 1. manuscripts of films, novels and plays 2. household matters with the Landeskulturwaltern 3. files of a private service nature (i.e. requests for jobs and petitions, as well as congratulations, mostly from private persons, to Hinkel) Archival processing The titles of the files available in the Koblenz part of the stock are recorded in the present online find book edited by Mr Tim Storch. The signatures assigned at that time were retained. The classification was based on the order already created by Dr. Werner. Due to the new situation of traditions it had to be extended by the item "budget". The classification point "Goebbels-Stiftung für Bühnenschaffende" (Goebbels Foundation for Stage Designers) still existing in the old find book has been removed and is now to be found in the holdings R 56-III (Reichstheaterkammer). It remains to be mentioned that part of the tradition from the former BDC was not recorded in the holdings of the Reichskulturkammer and its individual chambers, but was included in holdings R 55 (Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda) due to the determination of provenance (R 55/21300-21564). This can be explained by the organisational link between the RKK and the RMVP. Foreign provenances were handed over to the responsible archive (Landesarchiv Berlin). These were files of the Reichspropagandaamt Berlin, the NSDAP-Gauleitung Berlin and the Landeskulturwalters Berlin. Publications, in particular circulars of the DAF and newsletters of the RMVP, have also been sorted out and handed over to the library. Citation BArch R 56 I/... State of development: publication index (1987), online index (2006). Citation style: BArch, R 56-I/...

Contains among other things: "Statistisches Warenverzeichnis für Deutsch-Südwest-Afrika" (Statistical Goods List for German Southwest Africa) of the Customs Administration, 1914; compensation and salary of the bank director Junker (Letter from Dr. Fresenius), 1921; Draft of a law concerning the establishment of the budget for the protectorates for the accounting year 1914; Implementing provisions for the transfer of the financial administration of the East African protectorate, the South West African protectorate and Cameroon to the protectorates; Record of the discussion between the American Consul General, Mr. George Murphy, and the Kastl Government Council, 1916; Draft of a Fencing Ordinance; The policy of South Africa during the war until mid-1918; Ordinance of the Imperial Governor of German Southwest Africa, concerning public roads (draft); Ordinance of the Imperial Chancellor, concerning the levying of a special mountain rights tax in the German Southwest African protectorate, 1911; Note on the necessity of the amendments to the provisions on farm purchase; Draft Ordinance of the Imperial Chancellor concerning the levying of fees in administrative matters in German Southwest Africa Also Contains: Music card for a music evening, Aug.1916Memorial book "Gustaf Schlieper zum Gedächtnis", 1937