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History of the Inventor: The Technical Office, established in 1933, set up testing facilities for weapons and equipment at various locations that existed until 1945. Inventory description: KOMMANDO DER ERPROBUNGSSTELLEN According to the provisions of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, the German Reich was prohibited from developing and constructing aircraft for military purposes. Nevertheless, as early as 1920, the Reichswehr Ministry (RWM) set up units with the task of carrying out preparatory work for the creation of development and testing sites for an air force. For example, a "Air Defence" (TA) unit was set up in the Truppenamt (TA) and an aeronautical unit in the Inspektion für Waffen und Gerät (IWG). After the merger of the IWG with the Waffenamt (Wa.A) of the RWM at the beginning of 1927, the aeronautical department became the department 6 F of the testing group (Wa.Prw. 6 F). He was in charge of the development departments disguised as civil engineering offices as well as the test groups in Johannisthal and Rechlin. The testing thus fell within the competence of the testing department of the Weapons Office. At the end of November 1928, the procurement department was also taken over by the Wa.L.Prw. Group. At the end of July 1939, in order to better meet the growing requirements, the Aviation Group in the Weapons Office (Wa.L) was divided into three groups: "Development of aircraft (Wa.L. I)", "Development of equipment" (Wa.L. II) and "Testing" (Wa.L. III). There was also a group on "Procurement" and a group on "Defense Economics and Armaments". On February 8, 1933, on the orders of Reichswehr Minister Blomberg, the Air Protection Office (LA) was formed, which was now also to be responsible for the development, testing and procurement of aircraft, aircraft engines and special aircraft equipment. He was assigned the aviation group in the weapons office, now known as Wa.Prw. 8, as Division L 2. After the transfer of the air-raid protection office to the newly created Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) in May, the aviation technology department was initially subordinated as the Technical Department (B II) to the General Office (LB) of the RLM, but then, in the course of the reclassification of the RLM to the Technical Office (LC) on October 1, 1933, and, like the latter, directly subordinated to the Secretary of State for Aviation, Colonel General Milch. It was divided into the departments LC I (Research), LC II (Testing) and LC III (Procurement). Colonel Wimmer, as head of the Technical Office, remained responsible for aviation technology, while Captain Freiherr von Richthofen, who headed the LC II department from June 1934, was in charge of the technical aspects of the test centres (e-places). Until the Luftwaffe was unmasked in March 1935, the tests were carried out by the "Test Centres of the Reich Association of the German Aviation Industry" disguised as civilian. The "Commando der Fliegererprobungsstellen" (Command of Pilot Test Centres), which had been established in 1934 and was based in Rechlin, now appeared as the central testing authority. At the head of the command was the commander of the testing stations (K.d.E.), who was at the same time head of the E station Rechlin and superior of the chief of the E station Travemünde. His supervisor was the head of department LC II (Testing). In December 1936, the E posts Rechlin and Travemünde as well as Tarnewitz were directly subordinated to the new Chief of the Technical Office, Colonel Udet, in 1937 and charged with the development and technical testing of the Luftwaffe equipment. In the course of a reorganization of the entire RLM, the Technical Office was directly subordinated to Göring. As a result, Udet changed the organizational structure of the Technical Office again in May 1938 and dissolved the office of Commander of the Test Laboratories. The E posts now received independent command offices, which were technically subordinate to the head of the Technical Office. On February 1, 1939, the Technical Office, the Supply Office and the "Industry and Economy" group of offices were merged to form the new General Airworthiness Inspectorate (GL) and once again placed under the authority of the State Secretary for Aviation. Lieutenant General Udet was appointed General Airworthiness Officer and was now responsible for the management and control of the entire aviation technology as well as for the securing of the entire air force requirement while retaining his function as Chief of the Technical Office. After his suicide on 17 November 1941, the former Secretary of State for Aviation at the RLM, Generalfeldmarschall Milch, assumed these offices in personal union. In autumn 1941 a new command of the testing stations (Kdo.d.E) was established. In technical and operational terms, it was subordinate to the Commander of the Test Centres (K.d.E ), who in turn was subordinate to the Chief of the Technical Office and worked closely with the responsible development departments C to E of the Technical Office (GL/C). This post was held by Major Petersen until the end of the war. After the General Aircraft Master's Office was dissolved on 27 July 1944, the business area and thus the entire technical air armament was transferred to the Chief of Technical Air Armament (Chief TLR). The office was subordinated to the General Staff of the Luftwaffe and thus to the High Command of the Luftwaffe (OKL). The commander of the testing stations was now directly under the command of the Chief of Technical Air Armament, but was then subordinated to the commander of the Ersatzluftwaffe (BdE-Lw) shortly before the end of the war. Until 1945 the following E-positions were established and partially dissolved: Rechlin, Travemünde, Tarnewitz, Peenemünde, Udetfeld, Madüsee, Werneuchen, Süd (Foggia), Munster-Nord, Jesau, Arktis-Finsee, Cazeaux (Süd) and Karlshagen. In addition, a large number of test commands and test squadrons were set up from 1941 onwards, some of which were formed only briefly for the testing of individual aircraft types and quickly dissolved again after testing. ERPROBUNGSSTELLEN Torpedowaffenplatz der Luftwaffe Gotenhafen-Hexengrund (ca. 1942-1945) On April 2, 1942, the Luftwaffe Torpedowaffenplatz was repositioned as a branch office. He was subordinate to the General Airworthiness Officer (Technical Office) in terms of military service and discipline. He was assigned to Luftgaukommando I in terms of war classification, economy and administration. With effect from 1 May 1944, the Torpedowaffenplatz was then placed under the command of the E units. He was responsible for the testing of air torpedoes and associated dropping devices. Jesau (1943-1944) This E-Stelle was founded in 1943 as an outpost of the Peenemünde-West testing station. The main task of the E-Stelle Jesau was the execution of surveying work for distance and proximity fuses as well as the testing of the rocket-powered aircraft Messerschmitt Me 163. In August 1944 the E-Stelle Jesau was dissolved. Munster-Nord (1935-1945) As early as 1916, a test and production facility for gas ammunition was set up in Munster-Breloh for the first time on 6,500 hectares. From 1935, manufacturing and testing facilities for chemical warfare agents were again built on the site and the Munster-Nord Army Experimental Station, which was subordinate to the Army Ordnance Office, was set up. Both the Luftwaffe and the Weapons Office use the area for technical testing of high attack bombs and low attack spray containers. Peenemünde-West, later Karlshagen (approx. 1939-1945) After the start of construction work at the end of July 1937, Peenemünde-West started operations on 1 April 1938. Uvo Pauls was in charge until September 1, 1942, succeeding Major Otto Stams and Major Karl Henkelmann at the end of 1944. The task of the E unit was the testing of rocket engines and rocket-propelled, remote-controlled dropping weapons (e.g. Fi 103, Hs 298). The central group of the test centre was the air traffic control, which was responsible for the deployment of the aircraft fleet. She was also assigned a weather station. The following test groups were active at the experimental site, working on different tasks: E 2: Aircraft and missile systems with rocket propulsion, including support of the troop test commands (Fi 103 and Hs 117) E 3: Engines and fuels E 4: Radio and radio control systems E 5: Equipment (power supply, control systems, image station, measuring base) E 7: Drop systems, target and target training equipment E 8: Ground systems The E station was moved to Wesermünde air base near Bremerhaven in April 1945. Rechlin (approx. 1925-1945) Already planned in 1916, the "Flieger-Versuchs- und Lehranstalt am Müritzsee" started operations in 1918 during the First World War. Due to the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, however, the installations there were dismantled again at the beginning of the 1920s. As part of the camouflaged continuation of pilot testing in the Weimar Republic, a test airfield was built in Rechlin from 1925. On the initiative of Hauptmann Student, the German Aviation Research Institute (DVL) in Berlin-Adlershof set up a new "Department M" specifically for this purpose. The "Luftfahrtverein Waren e.V.", founded in 1925, acquired the necessary area on behalf of the Reich and took over the operation of the new airfield. Factory and flight operations began in the summer of 1926. From 1927/28 Albatros Flugzeugwerke GmbH in Berlin-Johannisthal leased the facility, which was now called the "Testing Department of Albatros Flugzeugwerke Johannisthal". After the Reichsverband der Deutschen Luftfahrt-Industrie (RDL) had taken over the site at the insistence of the Reichswehr troop office at the end of 1929, it was continued under the camouflage name "RDL Erprobungsstelle Staaken". After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the facilities in Rechlin were rapidly expanded to become the largest testing station (E station) for aviation equipment. From 1935, the E-Stelle Rechlin was regarded as a showpiece of the Luftwaffe. Until the end of the war, four large building complexes with different uses were built on the huge area: Group North management and technical administration, air base command and weather station; Testing of airframes (from 1936), of radio and navigation equipment, of aircraft on-board devices and equipment, aeromedical tests as well as high-frequency and ionospheric research Group South Testing of engines, of materials as well as of fuels and lubricants East Group Testing of ammunition for on-board weapons and drop-weapons West Group Military testing (only 1935-1938), test group and shipyard, fracture recovery, training workshop Initially, the focus of testing activities in Rechlin was on flight and engine testing. This included the flight testing of the engines, the measurements on the individual engine components as well as the creation of complete aircraft types. Other areas of activity include the testing of aircraft equipment - from on-board instruments to rescue and safety equipment, hydraulic systems - and radio and navigation equipment. From 1933 the testing of weapons was also carried out in Rechlin. The main focus was on the testing of ammunition for firearms as well as the testing of drop ammunition within the framework of flight testing. After the beginning of the 2nd World War, prey planes were thoroughly tested there and the results evaluated. In addition to the purely technical testing of all land aircraft and their equipment, new aircraft types are tested for their military suitability, especially after the start of the war. For this purpose, the Lärz Test Command was set up, to which these aircraft types were assigned for operational testing. From mid-1944 the testing of the new jet aircraft Me 262, Ar 234 and He 162 received highest priority. The E-Stelle Rechlin has undergone several organisational changes during its existence. An overview of the structure and filling of positions is attached as an annex. This is a compilation from the publication of Beauvais. South (Foggia) (c. 1941-1942) In the second half of 1941, the E-Stelle Süd started operations at the airfield in Foggia, Italy. It was intended for the testing of air torpedoes and underwater weapons, which had to be carried out in Grosseto due to unfavourable conditions. At the end of February 1942, it was decided to move the E-Stelle Süd to the French town of Cazaux, southwest of Bordeaux, and operations began at the airfield in May 1942. The test flights were used for the ballistic measurement of various types of bombs or dropping containers, the testing of target devices and bomb droppings. The commander of the E post was Captain Henno Schlockermann. After Allied air raids in March and September 1944, during which the installations were severely damaged and several test aircraft destroyed, operations had to be restricted and then discontinued altogether. By order of 10 October 1944, the E post was officially closed. Tarnewitz (1937-1945) Construction work began in 1935, and two years later the Tarnewitz electric power station was officially put into operation. The task of the new unit was to test new weapon systems for Luftwaffe aircraft. In addition to machine guns and bombs, this also included the newly developed rocket weapons. The various tasks were performed by the groups W 1 (installation), W 2 (ballistics and sights), W 3 (mountings and air discs) and W 4 (on-board weapons and ammunition). From 1938, the E post was subdivided into the specialist groups machine guns and ammunition, including rocket testing (IIA), mountings and air discs (II D), ballistics and sights (II E), installation of weapons in aircraft (II F). Travemünde (1928-1945) In 1928 a seaplane test centre (SES) was founded in Travemünde under the camouflage name "Reichsverband der Deutschen Luftfahrtindustrie Gruppe Flugzeugbau". Originally planned and established after World War I as a secret testing ground for independent naval aviation, the Travemünde testing ground was subordinated to the RLM in 1934 after the National Socialists seized power and expanded further. The focus of the testing activities in Travemünde was the testing of seaplanes and their equipment, naval mines and air torpedoes as well as special ships and boats for maritime flight operations. This also included testing seaplanes, landing on icy and snowy ground, landing attempts on aircraft carriers and rescue measures on the open sea with the aircraft. The E post was divided into the following groups in 1933: A: Navigation, radio, seaman's equipment, special installations B: Operation of aircraft, ships, docks, catapults and vehicles, ground services E: Flight service, holding pilots ready F: Aircraft testing, preparation, execution and evaluation of measurements, reports, assessments G: Testing of on-board devices, radio measuring devices, laboratory, precision mechanical workshop, photo service, duplication K: Administration, personnel, material, buildings, installations M: engines, propellers, aggregates, workshop and test benches Udetfeld (1940-1945) The Udetfeld electric power station was set up in 1940 near Beuthen/Oberschlesien. At the beginning it was led by Major Werner Zober, later by Lieutenant Colonel Rieser. The test leader was Fl.Stabsingenieur Rudolf Noch. The task of the E-Stelle was the testing of small explosive and incendiary bombs, parachute bombs and special detonators as well as the acceptance blasting of all German bomb types. At times she was also engaged in the testing of parachutes and ejection seats. For this purpose it was equipped step-by-step with a measuring base, several discharge points and a picture position. Last tests and measurements took place until shortly before the invasion of the Soviet army at the end of January 1945. The E-Stelle was dissolved by order of 15 February 1945 and its tasks taken over by the E-Stelle Rechlin. Werneuchen (1942-1945) The E post was established in April 1942 at the air base in Werneuchen. She was responsible for the testing and development of search and target devices for air and sea reconnaissance and worked closely with the Aeronautical Radio Research Institute in Oberpfaffenhofen. Field stations for testing ground radio measuring instruments were located in Weesow and Tremmen. The flight testing of newly developed equipment was initially carried out by the test squadron of the Technical Test Command (TVK), and was then transferred to the newly formed night fighter group 10. Their tasks also included the development and testing of equipment for the defence against interference and deception by the enemy air forces. In Werneuchen, the night hunt radio measuring devices FuG 202 "Lichtenstein", the ship's target search device FuG "Hohentwiel" as well as the ground search devices "Würzburg-Riese" and "Freya" were tested. In February 1945, the E-Stelle was moved to Stade and renamed to E-Stelle Stade in April 1945. The E post was commanded by Major i.G. August Hentz until April 1944, then until its dissolution by Major i.G. Cerener. ERPROBUNGSKOMMANDOS und ERPROBUNGSSTAFFELN Erprobungskommando 4 (ERPROBUNGSSTAFFELN Test Command 4) Set-up by order of 1 December 1944 by air fleet 10. Troop testing of the X4 guided missile and testing of operational procedures and tactical capabilities. Test Command 15 Formed from the Experimental Squadron Hs 293 and intended for troop testing of the Gleitbombe Hs 293. Test Command 16 Set up on the Command Path in April 1942 in Peenemünde-West, at the beginning of September budgeting and transfer to Zwischenahn, then in October to Brandis. Testing of the rocket-propelled hunter Me 163 B "Komet". Dissolution on 14 February 1945. Tasks were to be taken over by Jagdkommando 400, which also received the operational aircraft. Erprobungskommando 17 Transfer of the 2./Kampfgruppe 100 from Hannover-Langenhagen to the French Chartes, renaming into E-Kommando XY in January 1942 and temporarily into E-Kommando 100 (March to May 1942), then budgeted as E-Kommando 17. Further development of the X- and Y-process and deployment against England. Mid-September 1942 Renamed 15th Combat Squadron, 6th Experimental and Training Command, 18, set up on 1 August 1942 in Pillau and subordinated to the General of the Air Force by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Ob.d.M.). Testing of the aircraft types intended for the aircraft carrier "Graf Zeppelin" including the instruction and training of the flying and ground personnel on this equipment. Test Command 19 Deployment on 1 July 1942 at the Castel Benito airfield near Tripoli on the Command Way. Testing of the aircraft types Bf 109 and Fw 109 for tropical suitability as fighter and battle planes. Personnel of the supplementary groups of the fighter squadron 27 and 53, respectively. Test and training command 20 formation on 1 October 1942 in Travemünde (later Kamp). Testing of on-board special aircraft as well as instruction and training of flying and ground personnel for on-board special aircraft. Test and Training Command 21 Set up on 1 August 1942 in Garz/Usedom. Personnel and equipment of the disbanded II. combat squadron 3. troop testing of the bomb PC 1400X. Test and teaching command 22 Set up autumn 1942 in Lärz. Testing of the Fw 190 fighter bomber version with long range (Jaborei). Personnel of the combat squadron 40, of the fighter squadrons 2 and 26 as well as of a destroyer school. Spring 1943 Transfer to St. André in France and use for the formation of the I./Schlachtkampfgeschwader 10. Test and training command 24 formation on 1 March 1943 in Mark-Zwuschen. Testing of aircraft types suitable for reconnaissance purposes, including equipment (navigation and heading devices). Dissolution in October 1944, assumption of the tasks and the personnel by the experimental association OKL. Test Command 25 Set-up in accordance with the order of 17 April 1943. Troop testing of the aircraft required for day hunting, aircraft radio measuring equipment, weapons and combat procedures as well as deployment within the framework of the Reich Defence. Reclassification into hunting group 10 with the same tasks. Test Command 26 Set-up in accordance with the order of 29 December 1943 by renaming the 11th (Pz.)/battle squadron at the airfield of the Udetfeld E station. Dissolution on 14 February 1945 and transfer of personnel to General der Schlachtflieger. Assumption of the tasks of the supplementary squadron of the Schlachtgeschwader 151. Experimental squadron 36 Set up in Garz according to the order of 10 August 1943 by renaming the 13th/fighting squadron 100. Testing of the suitability for troops of the successor models of the Hs 293 as well as briefing of observers on the He 177 equipped with the Kehlgerät FuG 203. Dissolution on 12 July 1944. Transfer of the personnel to the E-Kommando 25 for the continuation of the testing of the fighter missiles. Test Command 40 The Fliegerforstschutzverband was formed on 5 March 1940 as an independent association from the "Pest Control Group" of the Flugkommando Berlin, which had existed since 1936. It was mainly used for forest pest control and from October 1941 also took over malaria control in the occupied territories. Numerous spraying and pollination flights were carried out for this purpose. Another focus of his activities was the sowing of agricultural and forestry seeds and the spreading of artificial fertilizers. After being placed under the command of the E units on 1 January 1944, the Fliegerforstschutzverband was renamed E-Kommando 40. By order of 3 September 1944, the command stationed in Göttingen was dissolved and the remainder of the command was transferred to Coburg in November 1944, where it was used to set up E-command 41. Erprobungskommando 41 Formation on January 22, 1945 from remaining parts of the Erprobungskommando 40 and subordination in military service under Luftgaukommando VII and operational under Luftflottenkommando Reich. Test Command 100 See Test Command 17 Test Command Bf 109 G Report of arrival at Rechlin on 15 March 1942. Equipped with eleven Bf 109 G-1 and seven pilots in July. No more data. Test Command Ta 152 Positioning on the Command Way on 2 November 1944 in Rechlin. In accordance with the order of January 9, 1945, the deployment was extended until April 1945, and the deployment was reorganized into a group staff with a staff company as well as four task forces and a technical testing squadron. No formation of the four operational squadrons due to takeover of troop testing of the aircraft type Ta 152 by III/Jagdgeschwader 301. Dissolution on January 23, 1945. Test command Ta 154 formation on December 9, 1943 at the air base Hannover-Langenhagen. Testing of the front suitability of the aircraft type Ta 154. Dissolution according to the order of August 1, 1944. Transfer of personnel to the E-command Me 262. Test command He 162, deployment order of January 9, 1945 for an E-command in group strength (but not with this designation). Implementation of the operational testing of the aircraft type He 162 by I./Jagdgeschwader 1. Experimental squadron He 177 deployment on 1 February 1942 in Lärz. Testing of the aircraft type He 177. Dissolution on September 20, 1943. Transfer of personnel to combat squadron 40. Test squadron Ju 188 set up on March 1, 1943 in Rechlin. Transfer at the end of July 1943 to Chièvres near Brussels. Used for 4th/combat squadron 66th test squadron Me 210 set up in late spring 1942 in Lechfeld, relocated in July 1942 to Evreux in France. Operational testing of the aircraft type. After temporary renaming into 16th/fighter squadron 6 and 11th/destroyer squadron 1, finally reclassification into test squadron Me 410. Test squadron Ar 234 set up summer 1944 (July) in Lärz. Operational testing of the aircraft type Ar 234 B as a bomber. Personnel of the combat squadron 76th Erprobungskommando Me 262, deployment on 9 December 1943 at the Lechfeld air base. First testing of the V-model Me 262 and personnel supply of the III./Zerstörergeschwader 26 in April 1944. Starting from August 1944 formation of Einsatzkommandoos among other things in Lärz. At the end of September use of parts of the E-command, the III./ZG 26 to form the E-command "Novotny" and a new E-command 262 in Lechfeld. Official dissolution of E-command 262 on 2 November 1944. Test command Do 335 set up on 4 September 1944 by command of the E-positions. Troop testing of the aircraft type Do 335 as a mosquito night fighter, fighter, reconnaissance and combat aircraft. Relocation to Rechlin on 20 November. Revocation of the dissolution order of 14 February 1945. Test command JU 388 set up on 15 July 1944 in Rechlin. Testing the Ju 388 as a night hunter. Dissolution on 14 February 1945. Transfer of personnel to Combat Wing 76, E-Command Do 335 and various units. Test squadron Me 410 See test squadron Me 210. Troop testing of the aircraft type Me 410. Integration as 9th squadron of the combat squadron 101 and renaming into 12./KG 2 in October 1943 and finally April 1944 into 13./KG 51. Test squadron 600 formation according to order of April 1, 1945, intended for testing the rocket-driven interceptor Ba 349 "Natter". No further data known. Test command "Kolb", order of 20 November 1944. No further information known. Test command "Nebel" (Fog), order of 26 July 1944, for the testing and production of the Me 264 aircraft type, then from December 1944 also for the testing of long-range aircraft. Etatisierung des E-Kommandoos Ende Februar 1945. Lehr- und Erprobungskommando (W) After Colonel Wachtel had already been commissioned since April 1943 to carry out the war operation of the Fieseler Fi 103 (camouflage designation Flak sight FZG 76), the establishment of the Erprobungskommando began in June 1943. In military service it was subordinated to the higher commander of the anti-aircraft artillery schools and in questions of training and testing to the general of the anti-aircraft weapon. It was supplied by Luftgaukommando III, to which it belonged in terms of war classification. On 15 August 1943, the Wachtel Command formed the Flak Regiment 155 (W), which was soon transferred to France. Sonderkommando Fähre (Siebel) The Sonderkommando Fähre was responsible for the provision and operation of air force ferries for the transport of air force goods. (The information on the E-positions and E-commands were published in abbreviated form by Heinrich Beauvais/Karl Kössler/Max Mayer/Christoph Regel: Flugerprobungsstellen bis 1945. Johannisthal, Lipezk, Rechlin, Travemünde, Tarnewitz, Peenemünde-West. Bonn 1998). Characterisation of content: The collection mainly comprises work and test reports as well as correspondence between the command of the test centres and the test centres themselves and superior departments and various companies. Most of the test reports are for the two E posts Rechlin (approx. 200 AU) and Travemünde (approx. 160 AU). About 60 volumes of files with pollination and spray reports including the corresponding maps have been handed down by the Fliegerforstschutzverband. Of the remaining e-positions, only minor fragments of files have been preserved. The seven file volumes of the command of the e-offices, which deal with organizational matters of the e-offices and e-commands, are to be emphasized. State of development: Online-Findbuch 2007 Scope, Explanation: 573 AE Citation method: BArch, RL 36/...

History of the Inventory Designer: Ambassadors in Moscow, Tokyo and London citation style: BArch, N 2049/...

History of the inventor: On 14 November 1897, the German Reich occupied the Chinese port of Tsingtau and, in a contract with the Chinese Empire dated 6 March 1898, leased an area of 550 km² with Tsingtau as its centre for 99 years - the Kiautschou protectorate. The province of Schantung, to which the leased area actually belonged, was declared a German area of interest and a neutral zone. In this area the empire received concessions for the construction and maintenance of railway lines and mines. However, as early as 30 October 1895, the German Reich had the right to establish branches in the international contracted ports of Tientsin and Hankou, which had existed since 1859/60. And of course the empire, like the other great powers and other states involved in China trade, also maintained a legation in Beijing. German missions were also active in the interior of China, as were German merchants, especially in Shanghai. The German Reich was therefore indeed heavily involved in China and saw itself as such. Against this background, the xenophobic riots in China in Germany that began at the end of 1899 and quickly became more serious were perceived as a threat. The regent, Empress Cixi, remained ambiguous at first in her measures against the "fist fighters united in righteousness", referred to by the colonial powers as "boxers" for short, units of the imperial Chinese army partly allied themselves with them. The uprising continued to increase from January 1900 onwards, with excessive acts of violence against Chinese Christians and foreigners. From May 1900 the foreign landscapes in Beijing were threatened by insurgents, the railway lines from Beijing to the coast were attacked. The Gesandschaften therefore requested military support. In May 1900, the German Reich sent a contingent of the III Sea Battalion stationed in Tsingtau to Beijing, two further companies were ordered to Tientsin, and the cruiser squadron moved to the roadstead before the Taku forts at the mouth of the river Peiho. Meanwhile, the situation in Beijing continued to deteriorate and further troops were needed. In June 1900, the troops of the colonial powers in China formed an expeditionary corps led by the British admiral Seymour (2066 men). However, this was stopped in mid-June by Chinese troops (boxers and regular army) and had to turn back. The foreigners and Chinese Christians in Beijing had meanwhile barricaded themselves in the Gesandschaftsviertel and were cut off from the outside world. The allied colonial powers (USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Japan) stormed the Taku-Forts on June 17, the Chinese government ultimatively called on all foreigners to leave China on June 19. On 20 June the German envoy, Baron Clemens von Ketteler, was murdered in Beijing. By edict of 21 June, China effectively declared war on the Allies, but this was not reciprocated by them. The Allied troops withdrew to Tientsin at the end of June 1900. In Germany, on 25 June, a naval expedition corps of 2528 men (under Major General von Höpfner) was formed from the members of the naval infantry. In addition, on 3 July the order was given to set up an expedition corps of volunteers from the army (under Lieutenant General von Lessel). The Allies had agreed to form an international expeditionary corps, with Germany as commander-in-chief. On 12 August 1900, the former chief of the Great General Staff, Field Marshal Alfred Graf von Waldersee, was appointed commander-in-chief of the international armed force, which finally comprised 64,000 troops. Waldersee used the "Army Command East Asia" as a staff. The East Asian Expeditionary Corps set sail with its first parts on 27 July in Bremerhaven, when Emperor Wilhelm II gave the famous "Hun speech" at their farewell. With the 19,093 men of its East Asian Expeditionary Corps under Lieutenant General von Lessel, the German Reich provided almost a third of the international armed forces. Structure of the East Asian Expeditionary Corps: 3 infantry brigades to 2 infantry regiments with 9 companies each 1 fighter company 1 cavalry regiment to 4 escadrons 1 field artillery regiment to 3 divisions with a total of 8 batteries 2 light ammunition columns 1 battalion heavy field howitzers with 2 batteries 1 pioneer regiment with 9 companies each 1 hunter company 1 cavalry regiment to 4 escadrons 1 field artillery regiment to 3 divisions with a total of 8 batteries 2 light ammunition columns 1 battalion heavy field howitzers with 2 batteries 1 pioneerBattalion of 3 Companies 1 Railway Battalion of 3 Companies 1 Corps Telegraph Department 1 Medical Company 1 Munitions Column Department with 7 Munitions Columns 1 Train Command with 3 Supply Columns, 1 field bakery company, 6 field hospitals 1 stage command with 1 horse depot, 1 military hospital depot, 1 stage ammunition column, personnel for 3 war hospitals and one hospital ship, several supply stations Already on the 4th day of operations, the first day of operations was at the hospital. On August 1, the Allied troops (about 20,000 men) gathered in Tientsin had once again set out and this time were able to fight their way through to Beijing. On August 14, Beijing was taken and then plundered for three days. The Chinese government fled to the south. When the international troops under Waldersee arrived in China, the situation was essentially settled, Beijing and Tientsin were horrified. Numerous "punitive expeditions" for the final destruction of the Boxers followed, in which the East Asian Expeditionary Corps was also intensively involved. The Allied approach was characterized by excessive brutality and numerous riots against the civilian population. On January 10, 1901, the Regent accepted the conditions of the Allies as laid down in the "Boxer Protocol" signed on September 7, 1901. The East Asian Expeditionary Corps was disbanded on 17 May 1901 and transformed into the East Asian Occupation Brigade stationed at Beijing, Tientsin, Langfang, Yangtsun, Tangku and Shanghaikwan. Structure of the East Asian Occupation Brigade: 1 command staff with administrative authorities 2 infantry regiments with 6 companies each, of which 1 company mounted 1 escadron hunter on horseback 1 field battery 1 pioneer company with telegraph detachment 1 field hospital The East Asian Occupation Brigade was further reduced in size and restructured on 1 May and 11 December 1902. On 6 March 1906, the East Asian Occupation Brigade was also dissolved and replaced by a battalion-strength detachment. This was replaced on 5 April 1909 by a naval infantry unit, which was wound up in 1910. The East Asian Department in the Prussian Ministry of War (inventory PH 2) was organizationally responsible. Processing note: The holdings initially comprised only three AE, which together with the few files of the Schutztruppen formed the holdings of RW 51 Kaiserliche Schutztruppen and other armed forces overseas. In 2008, nine further AE of different origins were added and a separate portfolio RW 61 was now formed. The inventory was developed in February 2010. Description of the holdings: The holdings contain the documents of the East Asian Expeditionary Corps and the East Asian Occupation Brigade, as far as they are available in the military archives. Characterization of content: The inventory contains hardly any real material files. It consists mainly of several German-Chinese place name glossaries. Worth mentioning is a publication about the locations Langfang, Yangtsun, Tangku and Schanghaikwan with numerous illustrations. State of development: The inventory initially comprised only three AE, which together with the few files of the Schutztruppen formed the inventory RW 51 Kaiserliche Schutztruppen and other armed forces overseas. In 2008, nine further AE of different origins were added and a separate portfolio RW 61 was now formed. The inventory was developed in February 2010. Pre-archival order: The documents of the East Asian Expeditionary Corps and the East Asian Occupation Brigade must essentially be regarded as lost in the fire of the Army Archives in 1945. Only pieces that have survived by chance have been preserved. These were supplemented by documents from the environment of the two associations, the branches in Tientsin, Hankou and Beijing. Citation style: BArch, RW 61/...

History of the Inventor: 1867 Interim assumption of the foreign policy tasks for the North German Confederation by the Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; on 1 January 1867, the Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs took over the tasks of the North German Confederation. January 1870 Foundation of the Foreign Office of the North German Confederation, 1871 of the German Rei‧ches as a subordinate authority of the Reich Chancellor with the main departments Politics, Han‧delspolitik, Law (from 1885) and News (from 1915); until 1918 at the same time foreign Ver‧tretung Prussia; 1919 appointment of a politically responsible Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs; 1920 extensive reorganization in regional departments and assumption of cultural-political tasks, 1936 dissolution of the regional departments, reintroduction of the departments inventory description: The Foreign Office, which emerged in 1870 from the Royal Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the North German Confederation (since 1867), underwent numerous reforms and restructurings during the Bismarck period and the Wilhelminian Empire, the Weimar Republic until the end of the National Socialist dictatorship. old office) comprise only a fraction of the total volume (approx. 1.6 shelf kilometres) from this period. The largest part (about 18 shelf kilometres) of the files remaining after the losses in the final phase of the Second World War is now in the Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. In the 1920s, mainly for reasons of space, the Political Archive had deposited most of the local archival material in the Potsdam Reichsarchiv (mainly files of the Imperial Office, the Trade Policy Department and the Legal Department). Together with other holdings, the Reichsarchiv also stored these documents in 1944/45 in the salt mine shafts near Staßfurt (Saxony-Anhalt) to protect them from bombing. Confiscated by the Soviet occupying forces, most of the material was transferred after 1949 to the then German Central Archive Potsdam (later the Central State Archive of the GDR, inventory signature 09.01) via the Ministry for State Security of the GDR in several charges, and after the German division was overcome to the responsibility of the Federal Archive. Residual files of the Trade Policy and Legal Departments (Dept. II and III, 1885-1920), which for official reasons had remained in the Political Archives of the AA and had finally been taken to England after confiscation by the British occupying forces, were recorded by the then Federal Archives after their return to the Federal Republic (1957) in October 1962 under the inventory signature R 85. About 350 file units are currently still in the "Special Archive" at the Russian State Military Archives in Moscow under the ("Fund") stock number 1357. They are described there in 3 finding aids (for further information and contact see www.sonderarchiv.de). The Federal Archives have lent important documents and files to the Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin (Auswärtiges Amt, Politisches Archiv, 10117 Berlin; Tel.: 49 (0) 30/5000-3948). They can only be used and evaluated there (see the respective finding aids for further information). Archival evaluation and processing The first archival revision of the volumes took place at the end of the 1950s in what was then the German Central Archive. They were originally described in a total of 44 finding aids from the Reichsarchiv. The file titles of the units of registration recorded in the Potsdam DZA at the time were integrated into the database of the Federal Archives by means of a retroconversion procedure. When processing the data records, numerous corrections were made to the file titles and runtimes. The currently valid archive rules could not always be applied. While maintaining the existing classification, which was predominantly no longer based on the organisational structure of the AA, series or series of bands were formed as required, whereby numerous subordinate series of bands were also created in series. In some cases, the existing factual structure was expanded and supplemented with modern terminology (e.g. legal department). The Potsdam tradition was merged with that of the old Federal Archives in Koblenz (old finding aids for stock R 85, legal department and trade policy department). Characterization of content: Traditional focus Office of the Reich Foreign Minister 1928-1943: Minister's Office and Personal Staff 1928-1944, Personal Press Archive of the Minister 1934-1943 Personnel and Administration Department (incl. Protocol) 1876-1944 [loaned to Political Archive AA] Commercial Policy Department 1869-1920: Exhibition 1875-1920, Service 1885-1914, Railways 1866-1915, Fisheries 1903-1913, Trade, Generalia 1884-1921, Trade, Countries 1868-1920, Foreign Trade 1867-1922, Trade and Shipping, Generalia 1862-1906, Trade and Shipping, Countries 1858-1909, Agriculture 1868-1920, Literature 1847-1917, Marine 1853-1913, Weights and Measures 1911-1920, Medical 1868-1913, Coinage 1867-1913, Minting 1853-1913, Trade, Generalia 1884-1920, Trade, Countries 1868-1909, Agriculture 1868-1920, Trade and Shipping 1847-1917, Marine 1853-1913, Weights and Measures 1911-1920, Medical 1868-1913, Coinage Shipping, Generalia 1887-1914, Inland Navigation, Countries 1907-1913, Shipping, Countries 1844-1913, River Navigation 1869-1913, Telegraphing 1866-1913, Transportation 1890-1920, Insurance 1895-1920, Economics, Generalia 1887-1920, Economics, Countries 1881-1920, Water Management 1907-1913, Customs and Tax, General 1910-1919, Customs and Tax, Countries 1902-1920 Commercial Policy Division 1936-1945: Exhibitions 1936-1943, emigration 1937-1943, railway 1921-1943, finance 1936-1943, fishing 1936-1943, business 1937-1943, health 1937-1942, trade 1936-1945, industry, technology, Trade 1936-1943, Internal Administration of the Länder 1936-1943, Motor Vehicles 1936-1942, Agriculture 1936-1943, Politics 1941-1942, Post, Telegraph and Telephone 1936-1943, Legal 1936-1942, Raw Materials and Goods 1936-1943, Shipping 1936-1943, social policy 1941-1942, taxation 1936-1943, transport 1936-1945, veterinary 1936-1942, roads 1936-1942, economy 1936-1944, customs 1936-1945, trade in war equipment 1936-1944, Handakten 1920-1944, telegram correspondence with the German representations, offices and commercial enterprises 1941-1943 Länderabteilung II und III (1920-1936) [loaned to Political Archive AA] Rechtsabteilung 1858-1945: Emigration, General 1868-1932, Citizenship and Liquidation 1928-1944, Emigration, Countries 1858-1932, International Law Differences 1867-1920, Clergy, School and Abbey Matters 1867-1933, Border Matters 1862-1944, Hand Files 1900-1926, Internal Administration of Individual Countries 1862-1940, Intercessions 1871-1932, Art and Science 1865-1914, Mediatized 1866-1913, Militaria 1869-1942, News 1869-1936, neutrality 1854-1918, passport matters 1816-1932, police matters 1865-1937, postal matters 1829-1932, press 1861-1931, cases, general 1836-1944, cases, countries outside Europe 1869-1936, cases countries Europe 1869-1936, international law 1941-1945, delivery of documents and orders 1937-1945 news and press department 1915-1945: General 1915-1938, war 1914-1921, colonies 1915-1920, head of state 1910-1919, parliaments 1910-1921, state parliaments 1917-1921, imperial government 1916-1924, revolution 1910-1921, League of Nations 1918-1920, parliamentarization and democratization 1918, right to vote 1917-1918, armistice and peace 1914-1923, news about individual countries 1918-1921, news 1914-1921, Business files of the Press Department 1939-1945, German News Office 1940-1943, Interception Service 1942-1943, Foreign Agencies 1942-1945, Own Service 1942-1943, News Material 1933-1945, Press Attachments 1939-1944, Press Archive 1927-1945, Press Information Service 1936-1945, Foreign Information Bodies 1934-1945, Central Office for Foreign Service 1912-1922: Service and business operations 1914-1921, personnel affairs 1912-1921, passport affairs 1917-1920, budget and cash affairs 1914-1922 , relations with institutions and individuals 1914-1920, libraries, publishing houses, bookshops and art dealers 1915-1920, Economic, Political and Military Situation 1915-1920, Propaganda 1914-1921 Department of Cultural Policy 1865-1945 Department of Broadcasting Policy 1939-1945 Department D (Germany) [Liaison Office to the NSDAP] 1939-1943 State of Development: Files from the Personnel and Administration Department and the Country Department were transferred to the Political Archive of the AA as a permanent loan to supplement the holdings there. Citation style: BArch, R 901/...

History of the Inventory Designer: 1.2.1939 Appointment of the "General Aircraft Master", subordinate to the Secretary of State for Aviation and Inspector General of the Air Force, who was in charge of the Technical Office for the Development, Testing and Procurement of Air Force Equipment established on 17.7.1933, as well as the Supply Office in existence since 1.8.1936. At the same time, the "Amtsgruppe Industrie-Plan und Wirtschaft" was established, which from June 1939 was called the "Amtsgruppe Technische Wirtschaft und Haushalt" and from 1941 the "Industriewirtschaftsamt". In 1940/41 a planning office was created at the Generalflugmeister and on 1.3.1944 a fighter staff to increase the production of fighter planes. The Jägestab was under both the State Secretary for Aviation and the Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production, who assumed full responsibility for air force production in 1944. The office of the General Flight Attendant was dissolved on 29.7.1944. The responsibility for testing, developing and taking over the device remained with the Luftwaffe and was assumed by the Chief of Technical Air Defence (ChefTLR). In addition, the Industrial Office, now the "Economic Office", remained in existence. On 15 April 1943, the tasks of the Supply Office had already been transferred to the Chief of the Supply Department, who was subordinate to the General Aircraft Master, who described the inventory: On 17 July 1933, the Flight Technology Department of the General Aircraft Office was made independent as the Technical Office. He was responsible for the development, testing and procurement of the air force equipment. On 1 February 1939 it was subordinated to the newly appointed General Airworthiness Inspector (GL), who was subordinate to the State Secretary of Aviation and General Inspector of the Air Force, and also to the Supply Office, which had existed since 1 August 1936 and whose duties were transferred on 15 April 1943 to the Chief of Supply to the General Quartermaster. At the same time, in 1939, the Industry and Economy Section was set up under GL to carry out development and procurement contracts, to monitor prices, to set delivery conditions and to broker loans. From June 1939 it was called Amtsgruppe Technische Wirtschaft und Haushalt, from 1941 Industriewirtschaftsamt. In 1940/41 a planning office was created at GL and a fighter baton was set up on 1 March 1944 to increase the production of fighter planes. The latter was subordinate both to the Secretary of State for Aviation and to the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production, who finally assumed full responsibility for the production of the Luftwaffe, so that the office of the General Aircraft Master was dissolved on 29 July 1944, while the Inspector General of the Luftwaffe continued to exist as an independent office. Responsibility for testing, developing and taking over the device was transferred to the Chief of Technical Air Defence (ChefTLR). Characterisation of the contents: Only a few documents have survived from the staff of the General Aircraft Master and the Chief Technical Air Defence (ChefTLR). The war diary of the Chief of Technical Air Armament from 18 December 1944 to the end of the war has been preserved. In addition, there is an extensive collection of circulars and minutes of conferences by Göring, Milch, the General Aircraft Master and the Reich Minister for Armaments and War Production as well as the Hunter's Staff. Much of the overdelivery is due to technical documentation and correspondence with companies. Particularly noteworthy here are raw materials, construction and procurement programmes and tables on flight inventory. Pre-archival order: The archive material, which has only been handed down in fragments, originates from the return of files from the USA and Great Britain to the Document Centre of the Military History Research Office, from where it was handed over to the military archive in 1968. Citation style: BArch, RL 3/...

History of the Inventory Designer: Tasks and Organization Essentially follows: (1) Jany, Curt: History of the Prussian Army from the 15th century to 1914, 2nd ed. Edition (= Die Königlich Preußische Armee und das Deutsche Reichsheer 1807 bis 1914, vol. 4), Osnabrück 1967, pp. 294-296. (2) Cron, Hermann: Geschichte des deutschen Armeres im Weltkriege 1914 bis 1918, Berlin 1937, pp. 3-23. (3) PH 3/124 Die Organisation des Großen Generalstabes 1803-1914 (4) PH 3/1026 Die Organisation des Großen Generalstabes (vom 18. Jhr.. until its dissolution in 1919, manuscript by HOAR Stoeckel) (5) PH 3/1272-1273 Graphical representation of the development of the organisation of the Great General Staff 1802-1914 (6) PH 3/310 First introduction to the organisation and activities of the Deputy General Staff of the Armed Forces (1919) (7) Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, MGFA (Ed. by the German Military Historical Research Institute, MGFA) (ed. by the German historian HOAR Stoeckel)): German military history in six volumes 1648 - 1939. Munich 1983 ff, pp. 69-72. (8) Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg, ed. v: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz in conjunction with Markus Pöhlmann, updated and extended study edition, Paderborn 2009, p. 754f. (9) PH 3/3 (10) Waldemar Erfurth: The History of the German General Staff 1918-1945 (= Studies on the History of the Second World War, ed. by Arbeitskreis für Wehrforschung in Frankfurt/Main, vol. 1), Göttingen 1957. 1. Großer Generalstab und Oberster Heeresleitung Großer Generalstab (7) With the Cabinet Order of 24 May 1883, the Generalstab became an Immediatbehörde (Immediate Authority), in fact it had held this position since the Wars of Unification. The General Staff was also assigned independently and directly to the monarch by the War Ministry. The tasks of the War Ministry and the Great General Staff overlapped in part, which occasionally led to conflicts. The position of Chief of Staff of the General Staff was respected, but, apart from operational management in the event of war, it was not endowed with important powers. The General Staff nevertheless exerted a decisive influence on the formation of the army through the training of leaders (the War Academy was subordinate to the Great General Staff), the care for the training of troops in warfare, and the handling of all questions connected with the conduct of a mobilization and a war. His activities included the cultivation of war science education, especially the study and processing of war history, the collection of news and statistical material on foreign armies and the various theatres of war, mapping, investigation and description of his own country. In the peacetime there were no far-reaching changes in the organization of the Grand General Staff, only some expansions due to the increasing scope of the General Staff duties. General Staff of the Field Army and Supreme Army Command (OHL) of the German Army (2) "According to Article 63 of the Constitution of the German Reich of 16 April 1871, the entire land power of the Reich formed a unified army, which was under the Emperor's command in war and peace. In peace, the head of the Great General Staff had practically no power of command and no right of inspection. He merely acted as chief and disciplinary superior of the Grand General Staff. The highest power of command was in fact with the emperor, but in practice it was the chief of the general staff of the army. During the war, the Chief of the General Staff issued operational orders in the name of the Emperor in accordance with the mobilization regulations and was jointly responsible for the management and execution of military operations as well as the other branches of service (ammunition replacement, catering, health, stage service). With the mobilization on August 2, 1914, the chief of the Prussian General Staff of the Army was formed as the "Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army" and the OHL, which was located in the Great Headquarters. The Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army thus embodied the OHL and was always equated with it by concept. On August 5, 1914, the deputy general staff of the army was mobilized in Berlin. The latter remained in existence until 31 January 1919. With the demobilisation, de Große Generalstab resumed its activities on 1 February 1919, with the exception of the positions remaining with OHL. (10) On the basis of the Treaty of Versailles, the dissolution of the Great General Staff was decided and initiated in July 1919. On 4 July 1919 Major General von Seeckt took over the business of the Chief of the General Staff. The name of the service is now "General von Seeckt". On September 30, 1919, the Great General Staff was finally dissolved with the establishment of a liquidation office from part of the central department. The Heads of the General Staff of the Army in Prussia from 1857 to 1918 Field Marshal General Hemuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke 1857-1888 Field Marshal General Alfred Heinrich Karl Ludwig von Waldersee 1888-1891 Field Marshal General Alfred Graf von Schlieffen 1891-1906 General Colonel Helmuth von Moltke 1906-1914 Between 1914 and 1918 a total of four OHLs were formed (8) 1. OHL: General Colonel Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army from Aug. 2 to Sep. 14, 1914 2. OHL: General of the Infantry Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army from Aug. 14 to Sept. 14, 1914 2. 3rd Sept. (officially from 3 Sept. 1914) to 29 Aug. 1916 3rd OHL: General Field Marshal Paul von Beneckendorff and von Hindenburg, Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army from 29 Aug. 1916 to 9 Nov. 1916. 1918, Commander-in-Chief of the Field Army from 9 Nov. 1918 to 3 July 1919, assisted by the First Quartermaster General of the Infantry Erich von Ludendorff, First Quartermaster General from 29 Aug. 1916 to 26 Oct. 1918, then Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener became First Quartermaster General from 29 Oct. 1918 to 3 July 1919 4. OHL: Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener took over the OHL after the resignation of Hindenburgs on June 25, 1919 until the dissolution on Sept. 30, 1919 3. The organizational development of the Great General Staff The organization of the Great General Staff since April 1, 1889 (1) The Quartermaster General was first abolished again, but on April 1, 1889 three Quartermasters (O.Q.) were established. Central Office (from 1890 Central Division) Oberquartiermeister (O. Q.) I since 1 April 1889: 2nd Division Ordre de Bataille (Battle Regulations) and deployment of the German Army Railway Division Railway Section The Railway Section was responsible for the operation and training of the Railway Regiment, subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and of the Airship Division. Eisenbahn-Regiment Oberquartiermeister (O.Q.) II 4th Section - New Formation for the Affairs of Foreign Fortresses and the Preparation of the Drafts of Attacks, with AKO of Dec. 19, 1889 the Department for Foreign Fortresses was added by the Engineering Committee Geographical-Statistical Department (since 1894 an independent Department) German Section - Affairs of the Academy of War and the Training Trips of the General Staff Oberquartiermeister (O.Q.) III 1st Division (Russia, the Scandinavian states, Austria, the Balkans, etc.) 3rd Division (France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy) Division of War History National Recording The position of the Quartermaster General was abolished. Structure of the Large General Staff of the Army since 1908 (1) Central Division 6th Division (Manoeuvre) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) I 2nd Division (Aufmasch) Technical Section (Air Force) 4th Division (Foreign Fortresses of the Western War Theatre) 7th Division (Foreign Fortresses of the Eastern War Theatre) Railway Division Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) II 3rd Division (O.Q.) Department (Foreign Armies in the West) 9th Department (German Colonies) Oberquartiermeister (O. Q.) III 5th Department (Training Trips of the General Staff) 8th Department (Affairs of the War Academy) Oberquartiermeister IV (newly added since 1 April 1894) 1st Department (Foreign Armies in the East) 10th Department (Foreign Armies in the East) Oberquartiermeister V War Historical Department I and II The Head of the Large General Staff Central Department (Personnel, Organisation, Administration) with Section III b (Communications) 6th Section (Manoeuvres) War History Department II (Older War History) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) I. 2. (German Division) - Deployment and Operations Division Railway Division Section 1a (for the revision of the Military Transport Order) 4th Division (Foreign Fortresses) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) II 3rd Division (France with Morocco, England with Egypt, Afghanistan) 9th Division (Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Portugal, America, German Colonies) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) III 5th Division (Operations Studies) 8th Division (Operations Studies) Division (War Academy and General Staff Service) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) IV 1st Division (Russia, Nordic States, East Asia, Persia, Turkey) 10th Division (Russia, Northern States, East Asia, Persia, Turkey) Department (Austria-Hungary and Balkan States) Oberquartiermeister V Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung I (neuere Kriege) Kriegsarchiv Kartenarchiv Chief of the Landesaufnahme and Oberquartiermeister Trigonometrische Abteilung Topographische Abteilung Kartographische Abteilung Photogrammetische Abteilung Kolonialsektion Der Chef des Generalstabes des Feldheeres 1914 bis 1918 (2) 1. General Staff Departments Central Department She was responsible for receiving and forwarding correspondence to the relevant departments, in cooperation with the Military Cabinet for Personnel Matters and Administration. The department was headed by Colonel von Fabeck, and from 26 March 1916 it was headed by Colonel Tieschowitz von Tieschowa. Operations Department The department with the closest connection to the Chief of Staff. She was also the office for his personal letters. It was responsible for creating the conditions for all operational measures of the army: to monitor the organisation and organisation of the entire army and to propose improvements as well as the training, armament and operational capability of the units. The Chief of the Opera Department was responsible for advising the Chief of General Staff, drawing up the operational plans of the General Staff and issuing his orders. During the war the department was expanded extensively. Heads: Major General Tappen Lieutenant Colonel Wetzell (since 31 Aug. 1916) Operations Department B On 18 August 1916, a subdivision was set up under the Operations Department which was responsible for the Macedonian and Turkish fronts. Operations Division II On 23 September 1916, the post of Chief of Field Ammunition was dissolved. The tasks of ammunition and equipment replacement were taken over by the ammunition section in the operations department. Subsequently, the ammunition section was merged with the warfare section to form Operations Division II. Chief: Colonel Bauer News Department, since 20 May 1917 Foreign Armies Department She was responsible for the prosecution of military operations abroad, especially for the warfare of the enemy states. She primarily collected information on their organization and distribution of forces. Division III b Your task was to transmit the enemy's messages. This was done by intelligence officers deployed to the armies and at suitable points in the home country. There were also voluntary or paid agents in neutral and hostile foreign countries and the Secret Field Police in the occupied territories. News material was also provided by the border police and the field police, which also served to carry out espionage. The intelligence and counter-espionage services in the homeland communicated with Division IIIb of the Deputy General Staff, which in turn was subordinated to Division IIIb in the Great Headquarters. The guidelines for patriotic education were issued by the department, as was the press service set up to steer public opinion. Political Department since Feb. 10, 1916 Military Political Department It was responsible for the military political affairs of all states, dealt with legal issues and passed on the information to the military attachés and the written authority on peace issues. 2. the Quartermaster General and his subordinates The Quartermaster General was responsible for all the duties relating directly to the relief of the Chief of the Quartermaster General. operations. This included the entire supply, stage and railway system, field post and administration of justice, field medical services and veterinary services. Generalquartiermeister Generalleutnant von Stein since 14 Sept. 1914 Generalleutnant Hahndorff since 16 Jan. 1916 Subordinate positions Generalintendant des Feldheeeres He was responsible for providing the army with food. In addition, he was the head of the field and troop directorships. With the transition to the positional war, the monitoring of the nutrition in the occupied territory was added. In particular the cultivation of the soil and the necessary procurement of the agricultural machine material and the utilization of the harvest surplus for the field army. Later the industrial use of the occupied territories was added. A new economic department was set up for the West with effect from 5 September 1916. With effect from January 1, 1917, the economic department was made independent and expanded and set up on behalf of the General Quartermaster for the Western Theatre of War (B.d.G. West). He was responsible for the administration, management and utilization of the occupied territories in the West. Besides, he was subordinated: - General Wechselamt - art expert for monument preservation - prisoners of war - and civilian worker battalions - electrotechnical workshop West - artillery and training equipment repair workshops - looting and collecting (until subordinated to a special commissioner) At the beginning, the following positions were also subordinated to the Generalquartiermeister: - Chief of field munitions - Chief of field telegraphy - Chief of field railways - Chief of field aviation - Inspector of balloon guns Chief of field medical services General staff physician of the army Prof. Dr. Schiernig headed the medical services in the entire war zone as the highest superior of the medical personnel. His responsibilities included: the medical service, the care and transport of the wounded, the distribution of hospital trains and ships, hospitals in the homeland. Field Chief Postmaster He supervised the postal system on all theatres of war. The Field Oberpost Inspections West and East were set up to relieve him. Second Commander of the Great Headquarters He was responsible for the security and supply of the headquarters and the control of the sub personnel. He commanded the Infantry and Cavalry Staff Guard, a Land Storm Battalion, a Field Gendarmerie Command, Military Police, a motor vehicle spark station and a telephone department, three balloon defence guns (later ducrh replaced two air defence batteries), a headlight train (later expanded into a headlight department), the field directorate of the Great Headquarters together with the field warfare fund, motor vehicle fleet, field post office, Central Postal Surveillance West with the post office monitoring centre of the Great Headquarters, marketing department and reading hall. Secret Field Police cooperated closely with Division III b. During the war, B.d.G.West also added a number of agencies to the Great Headquarters. The commander of the troops, newly created in 1915, was located in Luxembourg. The Chief of Field Service was established at the end of 1916 and placed under the authority of the Quartermaster General. It served to centralise the motor vehicle formations. After the approval of the Generalqaurtiermeister, he was authorized to give instructions to the motor troops of the army high commandos and the staff figures assigned to the army groups in the west. On 17 May 1918, the staff of the commander of the combat vehicle departments was subordinated to the head of the motor vehicle division. The B.d.G. Ost with its seat in Warsaw was responsible for the utilization of the land in the administrative area of the Supreme Commander East and the General Government of Warsaw. Valenciennes Military Mine Directorate It fell under the jurisdiction of the Quartermaster General in September 1917. The mining administrations of Mons and Valenciennes, which until then had been part of the Metz government, were united to form a military directorate. The German representation in occupied Italy Used in February 1918 in Udine with evacuation of the 14th army. It served to assert German interests in the war spoils acquired jointly with Austria. The commander of the 13th Cavalry Brigade and his staff were to regulate the demand for horses on the eastern and western fronts due to the increasing shortage of horses. He was assigned to the GQ on 31 December 1916. In February 1918 he became the Commissioner of the Quartermaster General in equestrian affairs. Commissioner of the General Quartermaster in Berlin In order to reestablish trade relations with the former Russian territories resulting from the treaties with the Allies, coordination between the central authorities and the General Staff was necessary. He also took over the supervision of the import and export points. Commissioner of the Master Quartermaster General for Prey and Collecting This was created with effect from 1 June 1918. It had already been settled in 1917. He was responsible for the administration of the spoils of war and the control of the services. General of the Ammunition Columns and Trains in the Great Headquarters The increase in the number of formations was accompanied by the technical contraction of weapons, which was created in July 1918. Her task was to use the units, to supervise the technical service in the war zone and at home, and to replace the clothing and field equipment. 3. foot artillery and pioneers were among the special weapons and their technical training was monitored by the inspections. The General of the Foot Artillery in the Great Headquarters He was adviser to the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army on technical matters and the deployment of heavy artillery. In addition, he shaped the training in his home country. He was subordinate to the later established "Inspector of Artillery Metrology" and the "Staff Officer for Heavy Flat Fire". At first he had no direct influence on the general of artillery. This did not change when the OHL introduced the unit staffs "Artillery Generals" instead of "Field Artillery Brigade Commanders" and Foot Artillery Generals to unify artillery. Thus his name was changed to "General von der Artillerie Nr. 1". A month later he became "Inspector General of Artillery Shooting Schools". He was in charge of the shooting training of the entire field and foot artillery in the field and at home. General Inspectors: General of the Artillery of Lauter (until 15 Oct. 1917) Lieutenant General Ziethen The General of the Engineering and Pioneer Corps in the Great Headquarters He was the supreme weapons superior during the war of increasing and specializing formations of the pioneers. He advised the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army and was responsible for the organizational and technical development of the pioneers. The special services of the pioneers, such as the stage-managers of the mine-throwing machine, in existence since the end of 1915, the inspector of the gas regiments created in 1916 and the stage-manager of the pioneer melee means of close combat established in May 1918. In August 1918 he received the designation General of the Pioneers from the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army. General der Pioniere: General der Infanterie von Claer bis bis zum 2. Juli 1916 Major General Marschall von Bieberstein seit 28. Aug. 1918 The Chief of the Field Ammunition Service This was initially subordinated to the Generalquartiermeister. His tasks included coordinating the ammunition provided by the War Ministry in conjunction with the Chief of Field Railways as well as the replacement of equipment on the basis of the reports from the Army High Commands and the Stage Inspection. In addition, he was responsible for planning the needs of the army commandos and the stage inspections and reporting them to the War Ministry. With effect from 10 May 1915, he was directly subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army. This should ensure close coordination with the operations department. On 23 September 1916 the position of Chief of Field Ammunition was dissolved. His duties were performed by the Operations Department. The Chief of the Field Telegraphy The Chief of the Field Telegraphy was settled during the first three years of war at the General Quartermaster. He was in charge of the entire intelligence troops and intelligence media of the field army. During the war the news formations were strongly expanded, which caused the army leadership under Hindenburg to carry out a reorganization. A general of the telegraph troops for the western, eastern and southeastern theater of war was created to relieve the field telegraphy chief. These generals were subordinated to the chief of field telegraphy. A new restructuring of the intelligence system took place, with the head of the field telegraphy reporting to it. A new organizational change was made by the Chief of Field Telegraphy to "Chief of Intelligence" and reporting directly to the Chief of General Staff of the Field Army. He also became commanding general. He was now responsible for organisation, use, training, staffing, replacement, replenishment, technical requirements and all German spark telegraphy traffic. Chief: Major General Balck Colonel von Wolff since Dec. 7, 1914 Major General von Hesse since Apr. 9, 1917 The Chief of Field Railways He was initially subordinate to the Quartermaster General. It was not until his replacement in October 1916 that he was directly subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff. His tasks included the complete railway system and the use of the waterways. At the commander-in-chief east he was represented by the field railway boss east. There were also railway officers at the stage commandos and the stage inspections, later there were authorized general staff officers at the allied states in Constantinople, Sofia, Vienna, and from mid-1916 also at the army groups. Further streamlining of the organization was achieved by the creation of independent railway transport departments based at the Great Headquarters in Kowno and Pleßhatten. Heads: Major General Groener until 31 Oct. 1916 Colonel Freiherr von Oldershausen Chief of War Surveying With the war of positions and the production of a wide variety of maps, war surveying became increasingly important. The head of war surveying was to steer this task. Therefore, the authority was created in July 1915. All surveying units were subject to this authority. Depending on requirements, staff figures for surveying were assigned to the army commandos in the west and the army groups in the west. Chief of the military aviation While one was superior to the army airships, one lay back with the planes behind France, with the captive balloons one was set up in something equal. In order to make the air forces more efficient, the chief of the air force was set up in 1915 with the general quartermaster. He ran the aviators, the airmen and the weather service. On 1 July 1915, an inspector of the balloon guns of the General Quartermaster was created for the air defence, which belonged to artillery. On 8 October 1916, Lieutenant General Hoppner was appointed Commanding General of the Air Force by Allerhöchste Kabinettsordrre and the former Chief of Field Aviation, Lieutenant Colonel Thomsen, became his Chief of Staff. All formations of the airmen, the airship, the air defence and the weather service in the field and in the homeland were subordinated to the Kogenluft. This was directly subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff in October 1915. The head censorship office was also integrated into this, which had previously been the organisational office of the deputy commanding generals. The tasks of the War Press Office were to improve cooperation between the home authorities and the Supreme Army Command in the field of the press, to provide information to the authorities and the press, and to ensure that the supervision of the press was uniform. She was also responsible for forwarding the censorship guidelines to the censorship offices. The press office had contact to all departments, the otherwise usual way of appeal did not exist. In October 1918, the War Press Office was subordinated to the War Ministry. Military post of the Federal Foreign Office The post was established on 1 July 1916 and was subordinated to the Supreme Army Command, but was organisationally subordinated to the Federal Foreign Office, Division IIIb of the Deputy General Staff, the War Press Office, the War Ministry, the Admiral Staff and the R e i c h s m a r i n e a m t . She was responsible for the defense against enemy propaganda and for German propaganda at home and abroad. On 30 January 1917, a "Picture and Photo Office" was set up, which in April 1917 was designated as the "Picture and Film Office". In December 1917, Universum Film AG was founded on the initiative of the Picture and Film Office and used for educational purposes. In January 1918, the Bild- und Filmamt was administratively subordinated to the War Ministry. However, the Military Office of the Federal Foreign Office continued to be empowered to issue directives. The organization of the Great General Staff from 1. February 1919 Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army (9) Central Department Chief of the Landesaufnahme General Staff Departments Department Foreign Army Department (F) Railway Department (E) War Economics Department (Kriweis) Economics Department (W) War History Department (K) War History Department (K 1) War History Department (K 2) War History Department (K 3) Description of the Collection: The Federal Archives have a few copies of organisational documents as well as orders, leaflets and reports from the various areas of responsibility, but also individual documents on events of the First World War and lists of formations of the field army. The Railway Department has received some files on individual projects, and the Chief of the Deputy General Staff has duplicated news from the Surveying Department on the evaluation of aerial photographs. Most of the files of the General Staff were destroyed by the effects of war in 1945 during the fire at the Army Archives in Potsdam. What has remained are only fragmented individual pieces that have been handed down. At the beginning of 1994, a large part of the documents again reached the inventory. These remains were originally kept in the military archives of the former GDR. The stock of official printed matter PHD 7 was dissolved and transferred to the stock. The large-format plans and maps were taken from the files, placed in map folders and attached to the holdings. With the exception of the official printed matter (old PHD 7) and the large formats, the stock was microfilmed. Microfilms are available for use. Content characterisation: Based on the area of responsibility, the collection contains documents on the organisation and distribution of responsibilities, on military measures by foreign states and defensive measures by German agencies, reconnaissance reports and news about foreign armies, evaluation of prisoner testimonies as well as on the deployment, use and strength of foot artillery in war. In addition, there are occasionally reproduced organisational documents as well as orders, orders, notices, leaflets and elaborations from various areas of responsibility, but also individual news about war events from the First World War. From the railway department of the Great General Staff a remnant of individual case files on railway projects has been preserved. The head of the deputy general staff has handed down duplicated reports from the surveying department on the evaluation of aerial photographs. A very small number of copies of the files from the First World War were preserved in the National Archives in Washington. Additional copies of these have been delivered here. Replacement traditions, e.g. of fundamental decrees, orders or correspondence of Prussian military and command authorities, which went to civilian or military authorities of the individual states, can be found in the holdings of the respective competent state archives, in particular Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden as well as Saxony. State of development: Invenio Scope, Explanation: Inventory without increase 37.0 m 1006 AE Citation method: BArch, PH 3/...

Geschichte des Bestandsbildners: Rechtsgrundlagen Zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts herrschte in Deutschland mit 29 verschiedenen Patentrechten bzw. Privilegienordnungen jeweils territorialer Wirkung eine große Rechtszersplitterung auf dem Gebiet des gewerblichen Rechtsschutzes. Dieser Zustand wurde durch das von einer Patentkommission des Reichskanzleramts erarbeitete Patentgesetz vom 25. Mai 1877 (RGBl. S. 501) beendet. Dieses war mehr industrie- als erfinderfreundlich, denn der Erteilungsanspruch stand dem ersten Anmelder, nicht dem Erfinder zu, und Patente konnten gewerblich verwertet werden. Jedermann hatte das Recht auf Einsichtnahme in die Erteilungsunterlagen. Beschreibungen und Zeichnungen wurden von da an amtlich veröffentlicht. Obwohl die Möglichkeit der Lizenzerteilung an Dritte ohne Übertragung des Patentrechts vorgesehen war, unterlag der Patentinhaber drei Jahre nach der Erteilung einem indirekten Lizenzzwang. Die gesetzlichen Grundlagen für das Kaiserliche Patentamt bildeten das o.g. Patentgesetz und die Verordnung betreffend die Errichtung, das Verfahren und den Geschäftsgang des Patentamts vom 18. Juni 1877 (RGBl. S. 533). Der Patentschutz war aber noch nicht effektiv genug, und die Zahl der Anmeldungen stieg, so dass schon am 4. April 1891 ein neues Patentgesetz (RGBl. S. 79) erlassen wurde. In erster Linie verstärkte es die Rechte der Patentinhaber. Der Neuheitsbegriff im Sinne des § 2 des Gesetzes wurde eingeschränkt und unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen die Aussetzung der Bekanntmachung ermöglicht. Das Gesetz betreffend den Schutz von Gebrauchsmustern vom 1. Juni 1891 (RGBl. S. 290) war eine Ergänzung des Patentgesetzes und trat ebenso wie dieses am 1. Oktober 1891 in Kraft. Es war notwendig geworden, da das Gesetz betreffend das Urheberrecht an Mustern und Modellen vom 11. Januar 1876 (RGBl. S. 11) nur die sogenannten Geschmacksmuster, jedoch nicht die zur Steigerung der Gebrauchsfähigkeit dienenden Modelle (Gebrauchsmuster) schützte. Eine weitere Vereinheitlichung des gewerblichen Rechtsschutzes brachte das Gesetz zum Schutz der Warenbezeichnungen vom 12. Mai 1894 (RGBl. S. 441). Auf diesem Gebiet hatte es bis 1874 lediglich regionale Zeichenrechte gegeben. Das Gesetz über den Markenschutz vom 30. November 1874 (RGBl. S. 1943) hatte die Zuständigkeit für die Registrierung den Amtsgerichten zugewiesen. Nun oblag auch diese Aufgabe dem Patentamt. Das Gesetz betreffend die Patentanwälte vom 21. Mai 1900 (RGBl. S. 233; neugefasst durch das Patentanwaltsgesetz vom 28. September 1933 (vgl. RGBl. II S. 669) führte eine Liste von berufsmäßigen Vertretern im Verfahren vor dem Patentamt, eine Prüfungskommission und einen Ehrengerichtshof für Patentanwälte ein. Starke Reformbestrebungen seit ca. 1900, die 1913 zu einem Entwurf der Reichsregierung für ein neues Patentgesetz nebst Gebrauchsmustergesetz führten, wurden durch den Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkrieges unterbrochen. Sie wurden ab 1927 wieder aufgenommen, konnten auf Grund der innenpolitischen Verhältnisse aber nicht sofort durchgeführt werden und fanden ihren Abschluss erst in den Gesetzen über den gewerblichen Rechtsschutz vom 5. Mai 1936. Das Patentgesetz vom 5. Mai 1936 (RGBl. II S. 117) brachte hauptsächlich dem Erfinder zugute kommende Änderungen, darunter die Ersetzung des Anmelderprinzips durch das Erfinderprinzip, die Unterstützung mittelloser Erfinder und eine Neuheitsschonfrist. Das Patentrecht sollte das geistige Eigentum des Erfinders schützen. Durch das Gebrauchsmustergesetz vom 5. Mai 1936 (RGBl. II S. 130) wurden das materielle Gebrauchsmusterrecht und das Verfahrensrecht an das Patentgesetz angeglichen. Auch das neue Warenzeichengesetz vom 5. Mai 1936 (RGBl. II S. 134) brachte verschiedene Neuerungen. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg gab es neben der Einführung von Geheimpatenten und eingeschränkten Beschwerdemöglichkeiten auch im Interesse der Rüstungswirtschaft stehende Fortschritte im Arbeitnehmererfinderrecht. Aufgaben des Patentamts Die wesentlichen Aufgaben des Patentamts waren die Erteilung von Patenten und die Entscheidung über die Erklärung der Nichtigkeit bzw. die Zurücknahme von Patenten sowie die Erteilung von Zwangslizenzen. Daraus ergab sich eine Doppelfunktion sowohl als Verwaltungsbehörde als auch als gerichtliche Instanz. Eine Möglichkeit der Berufung gegen Nichtigkeitsbeschlüsse bestand beim Reichsoberhandelsgericht in Leipzig, ab dem 1. Oktober 1879 beim Reichsgericht. Einen besonderen Aufgabenbereich des Reichspatentamts in der Zeit des Zweiten Weltkriegs bildete die Vergeltung von Patenten. Auf der Grundlage des § 26 der Verordnung über die Behandlung feindlichen Vermögens vom 15. Januar 1940 (RGBl I S. 191) erließ der Reichsjustizminister in den folgenden Jahren mehrere Verordnungen über gewerbliche Schutzrechte bzw. Urheberrechte ausländischer Staatsangehöriger. Wurden deutschen Staatsangehörigen oder Unternehmen auf Grund fehlender bilateraler Abkommen oder Verträge auf der Grundlage von Ausnahmegesetzen Beschränkungen in der Nutzung von ausländischen Patenten auferlegt und in der Vergeltung ihrer eigenen Patente durch ausländische Firmen eine gegenüber den Bürgern dieser ausländischen Staaten abweichende Behandlung zuteil, so wurden sie für entstandene finanzielle Schäden durch das Deutsche Reich vergolten. An den in Deutschland wirksamen Schutzrechten ausländischer Staatsangehöriger konnten zur Wahrung allgemeiner Belange Ausübungsrechte an deutsche Firmen erteilt werden. Außerdem bestand die Möglichkeit, Patenterteilungen auszusetzen bzw. Gebrauchsmuster und Warenzeichen einzutragen. Die entsprechenden Anordnungen wurden vom Präsidenten des Reichspatentamts getroffen, gegen dessen Entscheidung keine Beschwerde möglich war. Organisation Zu Beginn seiner Tätigkeit gliederte sich das Patentamt in sechs Anmeldeabteilungen (für Patentanmeldungen) und eine Nichtigkeitsabteilung. Es gab keine eigenen Beschwerdeabteilungen, denn über Beschwerden gegen Beschlüsse einer Anmeldeabteilung entschied jeweils eine der anderen Anmeldeabteilungen. Das Patentgesetz von 1891 schuf erstmals die klare funktionelle Trennung von Anmelde-, Beschwerde- und Nichtigkeitsabteilungen sowie ein Vorprüfverfahren durch Mitglieder der Anmeldeabteilungen. Durch das Gebrauchsmustergesetz von 1891 wurde die Einrichtung einer Anmeldestelle für Gebrauchsmuster notwendig. Jedoch fand das Gebrauchsmusterlöschungsverfahren vor den ordentlichen Gerichten statt. Das Warenzeichengesetz von 1894 führte zur Errichtung von Warenzeichenabteilungen. Am 31. Oktober 1917 wurde das Patentamt aus dem Geschäftsbereich des Reichsamts des Innern ausgegliedert und dem Reichsjustizamt nachgeordnet. Am 24. März 1919 erhielt es die Bezeichnung "Reichspatentamt" (RPA). 1926 wurde beim Reichspatentamt der Große Senat gebildet, der die Entscheidungsbefugnis über grundsätzliche Rechtsfragen erhielt. Die Gesetze über den gewerblichen Rechtsschutz von 1936 bewirkten folgende organisatorische Veränderungen: Im Patentbereich wurden die Anmelde-, Beschwerde- und Nichtigkeitsabteilungen in Senate umbenannt, an deren Spitze Senatspräsidenten standen. Im Warenzeichenbereich gab es fortan Warenzeichenabteilungen und Beschwerdesenate. Im Gebrauchsmusterbereich ging die Zuständigkeit für Gebrauchsmusterlöschungsverfahren von den Zivilgerichten auf das Patentamt über. Daher gab es neben der Gebrauchsmusterstelle, die für Anmeldungen zuständig war, auch Gebrauchsmusterabteilungen, die mit Löschungen befasst waren. Durch eine Verordnung vom 17. Juni 1938 (RGBl. I S. 638) wurden das österreichische Patentamt und der österreichische Patentgerichtshof mit Wirkung vom 1. Juli 1938 übernommen und als Zweigstelle Österreich dem Reichspatentamt angegliedert. Die Zweigstelle wurde allerdings durch Erlass des Reichsjustizministers vom 23. Dezember 1941 (s. "Deutsche Justiz" 1942, S. 13) zum 31. März 1942 wieder aufgelöst (vgl. R 131/587-589, 794-796, 1021-1025). Im April 1945 stellte das Reichspatentamt seine Arbeit ein. Bedingt durch die Folgen des Zweiten Weltkrieges entwickelten sich in beiden deutschen Staaten separate Patentämter, in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland das Deutsche Patentamt (DPA) mit Sitz in München sowie einer Außenstelle in Berlin und in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik das Amt für Erfindungs- und Patentwesen (AfEP). Personelle Entwicklung im Patentamt Bei der personellen Besetzung des Patentamts unterschied man neben dem Vorsitzenden, der seit der Bekanntmachung vom 26. Oktober 1882 den Titel "Präsident" führte, zwischen ständigen und nicht ständigen Mitgliedern sowie den "sonstigen" Bediensteten (Hilfskräften). Es gab zum einen rechtskundige, d.h. zum Richteramt oder zum höheren Verwaltungsdienst befähigte, zum anderen technische, d.h. in einem Bereich der Technik sachverständige, Mitglieder, die sämtlich in den Anfangsjahren des Patentamts nebenberuflich tätig waren. Im Jahr 1877 beschäftigte das Patentamt insgesamt 39 Personen. Im Zuge des Personalausbaus erhöhte sich zwar die Zahl der Beschäftigten von 39 (1877) auf 172 (1889), jedoch stieg die Mitgliederzahl nur von 22 auf 36. Der Grund dafür war das verstärkte Einstellen technischer Hilfsarbeiter (wissenschaftlicher Hilfskräfte). Als Folge der Neugestaltung durch das Patentgesetz von 1891, welches auch die Berufung der Mitglieder auf Lebenszeit brachte, wuchs der Personalbestand von über 600 (1900) auf annähernd 1.000 Personen (1914) an. Dabei vergrößerte sich die Zahl der Techniker im Vergleich zu den Juristen immer stärker. Im Ersten Weltkrieg wurden vermehrt weibliche Arbeitskräfte als Hilfskräfte eingestellt. Nach dem Krieg erreichte man den Stand von 1914 erst wieder im Jahr 1926 mit rund 1.000 Bediensteten. Ab 1930 setzte eine rasche Vergrößerung des Personalbestands ein, der seine Höchstzahl 1939 mit ca. 1.900 Personen erreichte. Internationale Zusammenarbeit: Auf internationaler Ebene kam es zur ersten Zusammenarbeit anlässlich der "Pariser Verbandsübereinkunft zum Schutz des gewerblichen Eigentums" vom 20. März 1883 (vgl. R 131/1049-1052, 1055). Dieser trat Deutschland allerdings erst mit Wirkung vom 1. März 1903 bei. Seitdem galt die Übereinkunft als innerdeutsches Recht. Ihre wichtigsten Bestimmungen waren die Unionspriorität und die Inländerbehandlung aller Unionsangehörigen. Diese Handhabung galt seit der Revision von 1911 auch für Gebrauchsmuster und Warenzeichen. Von besonderer Bedeutung ist außerdem das "Madrider Abkommen über die internationale Registrierung von Fabrik- und Handelsmarken" vom 14. April 1891 (vgl. R 131/1040, 1077-1081), dem Deutschland 1924 beitrat. Dies führte zur Bildung der Markenstelle für internationale Markenregistrierung beim Reichspatentamt. Bestandsbeschreibung: Bestandsgeschichte Wie andere Dienststellen der Verwaltung auch lagerte das in der Gitschiner Straße 97-103 in Berlin ansässige Reichspatentamt einen großen Teil seiner Unterlagen während des Zweiten Weltkriegs an Ausweichstandorte aus. Ab 1943 gelangten die Geheimsachen, das gesamte Prüfungsmaterial, die Akten der 21 Patentabteilungen sowie fast alle Unterlagen über noch schwebende Patentanmeldungen (ca. 180.000 Patenterteilungsakten der ersten Instanz) nach Schlesien, in ein leerstehendes Zuchthaus in Striegau und in den Ort Jauer. Die Geheimsachen über Patentanmeldungen, geheime Gebrauchsmuster, erteilte und Sonderpatente wurden im Januar 1945 wieder nach Berlin und im Februar 1945 in ein verlassenes Kalibergwerk in Heringen (Werra) gebracht. Dorthin verlegte man auch die Personalakten sowie einen Großteil der Bibliotheksbestände des Reichspatentamts (ca. 300.000 Bände) und das "Index" genannte Patentregister seit 1939 - mit Ausnahme des Buchstaben R, dessen Register in Striegau verblieb. Striegau wurde am 10. Februar 1945 von sowjetischen Truppen besetzt, die das Zuchthaus sprengten. Das gesamte Prüfungsmaterial, die Akten von 18 Patentabteilungen sowie das Patentregister für den Buchstaben R fielen den Flammen zum Opfer. Die nach der Rückeroberung der Stadt durch deutsche Truppen geborgenen Reste verbrachte man nach Heringen. Das Prüfungsmaterial und die Akten der drei restlichen Patentabteilungen, die zuvor in Jauer aufbewahrt worden waren, verlagerte man nach Eger und von dort aus später nach Lichtenfels. Andere Teile, vor allem Bücher und Prüfungsmaterial, flüchtete man im März 1945 von Striegau aus in eine Försterei in Bayerisch-Eisenstein. Diese Unterlagen überdauerten die Wirren der letzten Kriegstage. Das Schicksal der nach Jauer verlagerten Schriftgutbestände ist indes ungewiss. Von den in Berlin verbliebenen Unterlagen, v.a. Patenterteilungsakten der zweiten Instanz, d.h. Beschwerde- und Nichtigkeitsverfahren, sowie Akten über Gebrauchsmuster- und Warenzeichenverfahren, fielen große Teile den Kriegseinwirkungen in den letzten Monaten des Krieges zum Opfer. Durch Bomben zerstört wurden fast sämtliche Warenzeichenakten (ca. 520.000), Unterlagen über die in Deutschland geschützten, international registrierten Marken, fast sämtliche Gebrauchsmusterakten (ca. 160.000) sowie viele Verwaltungsakten. Vollständig zerstört wurden insbesondere die Sachakten der Personalverwaltung. Erhalten blieben vor allem die Patent-, Gebrauchsmuster- und Warenzeichen-Rollen. Von den sowjetischen Truppen wurden nach ihrem Einmarsch in Berlin am 27. Mai 1945 Patentanmeldungen, die sich im Beschwerdeverfahren befanden (ca. 2.787), Akten über erteilte Patente, von denen noch keine gedruckten Patentschriften vorlagen (ca. 150.000), eine Sammlung der deutschen Patentschriften (ca. 14.000 Bände), Teile der Büchereibestände über wichtige technische Probleme, sämtliche Dissertationen sowie ein Teil der Verwaltungsakten beschlagnahmt und teilweise weggeführt. Als nicht wichtig sah man offenbar die noch nicht bearbeiteten ca. 150.000 Patentanmeldungen an, da von diesen nur Durchschläge vorzufinden waren; die Originale waren in Striegau verbrannt. Die nicht von der UdSSR beschlagnahmten Unterlagen blieben in der Dienststelle Berlin, darunter auch Verwaltungsakten über Rechtssachen, das Patentanwaltswesen, Haushalts- und Kassensachen, und wurden später der Außenstelle Berlin des Deutschen Patentamts übergeben. Nicht mehr im laufenden Geschäftsbetrieb benötigte Unterlagen hatte das Reichspatentamt bereits ans Reichsarchiv auf dem Brauhausberg in Potsdam abgegeben. Dieser Schriftgutbestand wurde im April 1945 zerstört, als das Reichsarchiv nach Bombenabwürfen brannte. Nach dem Einmarsch der Westalliierten in Berlin fand sich die dortige Dienststelle des Reichspatentamts im US-amerikanisch besetzten Sektor der Stadt wieder. Von deren noch vorhandenen, unzerstört gebliebenen Unterlagen, darunter vor allem von den Patentanmeldungen, fertigte die amerikanische "Organization Field Information Agency Technical" (FIAT) Mikrofilme, die in die USA gebracht wurden. Das "British Intelligence Objective Sub-Committee" (BIOS) erstellte Auszüge aus den Patentakten, die in 22 Bänden zusammengefasst der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht wurden. Im Schacht Heringen hatten SD-Angehörige vor der Besetzung durch US-amerikanische Truppen wichtige Patente und Geheimakten (zu 95 Prozent) sowie Personalakten vernichtet. Ein großer Teil der dort verbliebenen Unterlagen, darunter ein Teil noch nicht bearbeiteter geheimer Anmeldungen und die geheime Patentrolle, wie auch der in Lichtenfels und in Bayerisch-Eisenstein sichergestellten Akten, wurde in die USA abtransportiert, unter anderem in das Aktendepot der US Army in Alexandria bei Washington. Das Patentamt erhielt im Juli 1945 die Erlaubnis, seine Tätigkeit wieder aufzunehmen. Als Amt für Bodenforschung wurde es mit Unterstützung der Regierung in Kassel an das Geologische Institut der Universität Marburg verlegt. Seine Akten lagerte man in der Grube Beilstein bei Oberscheld ein. Im Januar 1946 erfolgte die Abtrennung der für die Arbeit im großhessischen Raum benötigten von den die sowjetisch besetzten Gebiete betreffenden Unterlagen. Derart gelangte nach Beilstein das für die Provinzen Schleswig-Holstein, Hannover, Oldenburg, Braunschweig, Westfalen, das Rheinland und Süddeutschland relevante Material. Dem 1949 in München neu eröffneten Deutschen Patentamt übergaben die USA die Bibliothek des Reichspatentamts im Umfang von ca. 350.000 Bänden sowie Fotokopien beschlagnahmter Akten. Das in die USA verbrachte Schriftgut des Reichspatentamts wurde in den 1950er und 60er Jahren in die Bundesrepublik Deutschland zurückgeführt. Größtenteils gelangte das Schriftgut direkt ins Deutsche Patentamt nach München, darunter auch vor der Zerstörung im Schacht Heringen gerettete Personalakten. Die ehemalige Außenstelle des Reichspatentamts in Berlin nahm zu Anfang der 1950er Jahre ihre Arbeit offiziell wieder auf. Diese Treuhandstelle Reichspatentamt - Informationsamt für gewerbliche Schutzrechte wurde 1968 als Dienststelle Berlin in das Deutsche Patentamt übernommen. Die in Alexandria zur Record Group 1016 gehörigen Akten des Reichspatentamts (112 Kartons) wurden 1959 an das Bundesarchiv zurückgegeben, das sie im selben Jahr nach München abgab. Zu den von der Sowjetunion zurückbehaltenen Teilen der Überlieferung des Reichspatentamts gehören 132 Akten, die in den 1960er Jahren von der Geheimen Abteilung des Ministeriums für Landwirtschaft der UdSSR in das sog. "Sonderarchiv" überführt wurden. Diese ausschließlich das Fachgebiet Landwirtschaft betreffenden Akten erstrecken sich über die Laufzeit 1935-1942 und sind in einem russischsprachigen Findbuch erschlossen. Sie befinden sich noch heute in dem zur Aufbewahrung von "Beuteakten" bestimmten Archiv, das heute dem Russländischen Zentralen Staatlichen Militärarchiv untersteht (siehe www.sonderarchiv.de). Generalakten Die Generalakten des Reichspatentamts wurden von den Westalliierten direkt in das Deutsche Patentamt überführt. 1972 gab sie die Dienststelle Berlin des Patentamts an das Bundesarchiv ab (Zugang Nr. I 77/72). Patentanmeldungsakten Bis zum Kriegsende konnten nicht mehr alle Anmeldungen beim Reichspatentamt bearbeitet werden. Die Patentakten aus den Fällen, in denen wegen der Kriegsereignisse in den Jahren 1944-1945 kein Patent mehr erteilt werden konnte und die nicht bekannt gegeben worden waren, wurden zwischen 1945 und 1947 zusammen mit anderen Unterlagen technischer und wissenschaftlicher Art von zunächst militärischen, dann zivilen "Investigating Teams" der Briten und US-Amerikaner beschlagnahmt. Entscheidend für die Auswahl des Materials war das Interesse der britischen und US-amerikanischen Industrie an Fertigungsverfahren der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft. Fachleute beider Seiten arbeiteten anhand der Akten Forschungsberichte, sog. "Reports", über einzelne Firmen oder Produktionssparten sowie kurze Inhaltsbeschreibungen, sog. "Summaries", aus und machten diese der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich. Großbritannien veröffentlichte die "British Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee Overall Reports" (BIOS) und die USA die "Field Information Agency Technical US Group, Control Council for Germany"-Serie (FIAT). Daneben wurde noch gemeinsam die "Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee"-Serie (CIOS) herausgegeben. Die Veröffentlichungen erregten ihrerzeit öffentliches Aufsehen. Der sog. Harmsen-Report übte Kritik an der "Ausbeutung" deutscher Patente seitens der USA und Großbritanniens. Auf britischer Seite war zunächst die "German Division" der "Technical Information and Document Unit" (TIDU) beim "Ministry of Economic Warfare" für diese Aktion zuständig. 1946 wurde die TIDU dem "Board of Trade" unterstellt. 1951 kam diese Informations- und Dokumentationsstelle in den Geschäftsbereich des "Department of Scientific and Industrial Research" (DSIR). Bei der Auflösung der TIDU 1957 übertrug man die Verwahrung des deutschen Aktenmaterials der "Lending Library Unit" des DSIR. Infolge Raummangels wurde diese 1961/62 als "National Lending Library for Science and Technology" nach Boston Spa, Yorkshire, verlegt. Die Originale der von den Briten ausgewerteten deutschen Patentakten befinden sich noch heute in Boston Spa. Zu Anfang der 1950er Jahre erwarb das Deutsche Patentamt in München Mikrofilme dieses Aktenbestands. Diese 1.000 Mikrofilmrollen kopierte das Bundesarchiv in den Jahren von 1969 bis 1974 auf Sicherheitsfilm um. Diese Filmduplikate bilden einen eigenen Teilbestand innerhalb von R 131. Sieben einzelne Patentakten gab das Deutsche Patentamt in München 1972 an das Bundesarchiv ab. Im Jahr 1975 wurden 243 sogenannte "Erteilungsakten" des Reichspatentamts mit der Genehmigung des Bundesarchivs in der Dienststelle Berlin des Deutschen Patentamts kassiert. Mehrere Kartons mit Patentanmeldungsunterlagen gelangten nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg in die DDR, vermutlich in das Zentrale Staatsarchiv der DDR (ZStA) in Potsdam, wo sie zunächst wohl nicht weiter bearbeitet, d.h. auch nicht erschlossen wurden. In Ermangelung entsprechender Dokumentation lässt sich der Zeitpunkt, zu dem diese Unterlagen nach Deutschland kamen, nicht näher bestimmen. Russischsprachige Vermerke auf einzelnen Dokumenten lassen immerhin darauf schließen, dass diese Unterlagen 1945 von den sowjetischen Besatzungstruppen beschlagnahmt und von Fachleuten gesichtet, vermutlich auch ausgewertet wurden. Ob sie im Zuge der sowjetischen Aktenrückgaben in den 1950er Jahren oder zu einem anderen Zeitpunkt nach Deutschland zurückkehrten, ließ sich bisher leider genauso wenig feststellen. Nach der Integration der zentralen Archive der DDR ins Bundesarchiv 1990 wurden diese Unterlagen jedenfalls in die neue Außenstelle des Archivs in Hoppegarten umgelagert. Dort blieben sie bis 2010, als das Archiv Aufräumarbeiten durchführte, weitgehend unbeachtet. Vergeltungsakten Eine wenig umfangreiche Überlieferung an Vergeltungsakten (ca. 420 AE) gelangte im April 1973 durch eine Abgabe (Zugang I 26/73) der Dienststelle Berlin des Deutschen Patentamts ins Bundesarchiv. Personalakten Das Deutsche Patentamt gab im Jahr 1980 aus seiner Dienststelle in München Personalakten von Beamten des Reichspatentamts ab, die nach dem Krieg noch weiterbeschäftigt worden waren. Die in München gelagerten Akten waren infolge eines Brandschadens bei der zu Kriegsende erfolgten Auslagerung, von wenigen Ausnahmen abgesehen, zu großen Teilen angesengt bzw. vollständig verbrannt. Die Dienststelle München gab im selben Jahr 1980 ferner "Personalakten verschiedener Behörden und Gerichte über Personen, deren Zugehörigkeit zum ehemaligen Kaiserlichen Patentamt/Reichspatentamt nicht festgestellt werden konnte", ab. Aus seiner Dienststelle in Berlin gab das Deutsche Patentamt 1980 in dreizehn Kartons 859 Personalakten von Angehörigen des Kaiserlichen bzw. des Reichspatentamts ab. Das Bundesministerium der Justiz (BMJ) als vorgesetzte Dienststelle des Bundespatentamts reichte 1980 im Nachgang eine weitere Archivalieneinheit nach (R 131/2720). Aus den für archivwürdig befundenen Akten wurde im Bundesarchiv der Teilbestand "R 131 - Personalakten" gebildet (Signaturen: R 131/1698-2720). 1981 gab das BMJ weitere 29 Personalakten des Reichspatentamts ab, die dem Bestand beigefügt wurden (R 131/2730-2758). 1995 wurden dem Bundesarchiv vom Deutschen Patentamt, München, 94 Personalakten jüdischer Patentanwälte übergeben (R 131/2760-2853). Im März 2004 gab das Bundespatentamt sechs Kartons mit 325 Personalakten von Patentanwälten an das Bundesarchiv ab. Im April desselben Jahres folgten weitere 194 Akten, im Juli drei weitere Kartons. Spätere Nachlieferungen sind nicht im Einzelnen dokumentiert, auch fehlen weitere Abgabeverzeichnisse oder namentliche Auflistungen. Insgesamt handelt es sich um ca. 19 lfm (38 große Umzugskartons). Aus dem Bestand 30.12 (Reichsjustizprüfungsamt) des Zentralen Staatsarchivs der DDR in Potsdam wurden 0,57 lfm (3 Archivkartons) mit Fragmenten von Personalakten in den Bestand übernommen (Altsignaturen: 30.12/2296-2895). Diese Unterlagen sind noch unbearbeitet wie auch weitere 0,14 lfm (ein Archivkarton) an Fragmenten von Personalunterlagen unbekannter Herkunft. Archivische Bewertung und Bearbeitung Das Schriftgut des Reichspatentamts bildet im Bundesarchiv den Bestand R 131. Für die unterschiedlichen Überlieferungsteile wurden in den 1980er Jahren zunächst jeweils eigenständige Findmittel angefertigt: R 131 - Generalakten R 131 - Vergeltungsakten R 131 - Patentanmeldungsakten R 131 - Personalakten In späteren Jahren kamen weitere Personal- und Patentanmeldungsakten hinzu. Organisationsunterlagen und Aktenpläne des Reichspatentamts sind nicht vorhanden. Lediglich ein Aktenplan von 1935/36 (vgl. R 131/446) konnte ermittelt werden, der in Anlehnung an den Generalaktenplan des Reichsjustizministeriums nach Haupt- und Untergruppen gegliedert, allem Anschein nach aber nie in Kraft getreten ist. Das Fehlen von Aktenplänen bzw. von entsprechend aufschlussreichen sonstigen Nachweisen über die Registraturführung im Reichspatentamt einerseits und das Vorhandensein zahlreicher Akten ohne Aktenzeichen andererseits lassen definitive Aussagen über die Schriftgutverwaltung der Behörde und eine durchweg induktive Klassifikation nicht zu. Generalakten Die Aktenverwaltung oblag den einzelnen Registraturen des Reichspatentamts. Vermutlich führten diese - nach dem Muster der Justiz - jeweils Generalaktenregister, in welche die dort gebildeten Generalakten eingetragen und anhand derer neue Aktenzeichen für neu anfallende Akten vergeben wurden. Es ist auch zu vermuten, dass in einer der Registraturen oder Organisationseinheiten des Hauses ein "vollständiges" Generalaktenregister geführt worden ist. Die Vergabe von Aktenzeichen erfolgte offenbar nach Aufgabenbereichen, gekennzeichnet durch römische Ziffern, so z.B. "gen. I" für Patentsachen. Auf der Aktenstufe vergab man arabische Ziffern, so z.B. "gen. I, 1". In einigen Fällen erfolgte eine weitere Untergliederung des Aktenstoffs durch Anfügen von Kleinbuchstaben an die Grundnummer, so z.B. "gen. III, 4 - Zeichen" "gen. III, 4 a - Freizeichen" "gen. III, 4 b - Wortzeichen" "gen. III, 4 c - Wappen". Zahlreichen Generalakten sind Rotuli vorgeheftet, in denen die Schriftstücke vorgangsweise nachgewiesen sind. Nach klassischem Muster wurden im Reichspatentamt zu den Generalakten auch abgeleitete Akten in Form von Specialia und Adhibenda angelegt: Die Kennzeichnung erfolgte durch die bekannten Abkürzungen "spec." und "adh.". Die Gliederung des Aktenstoffes in diese Aktenkategorien scheint dem Wortsinn nach fast durchweg logisch durchgeführt worden zu sein. Eine erste Bearbeitung der Generalakten nahmen in den Jahren 1984-1985 Dorothe Günthner und Johannes Ganser vor. Bei der Verzeichnung der Akten wurden nicht nur sämtliche Aktenzeichen aufgenommen worden, sondern auch auf den Aktendeckeln angebrachte Hinweise auf verwandte Aktenzeichen, allerdings nur insoweit, als letztere im Bundesarchiv überliefert sind. Der Umstand, dass die Überlieferung des Schriftguts des Reichspatentamts, darunter auch jenes der Generalakten, nur unvollständig in das Bundesarchiv gelangt ist; ist an der Klassifikation deutlich sichtbar. Die Klassifikation des Bestands konnte nach der vom Reichspatentamt vorgenommenen Gruppierung der Akten nach Aufgabenbereichen (römische Ziffern) und Aktennummern (arabische Ziffern) in aufsteigender Zahlenfolge vorgenommen werden, ausgenommen die ohne Aktenzeichen überlieferten Akten zu den Patentanwälten, die als Gruppe VI angefügt wurden. Die Gesamtklassifikation stellt sich folgendermaßen dar: I Patente II Geschmacks- und Gebrauchsmuster III Warenzeichen IV Angelegenheiten von Hauptbüro/Präsidialabteilung V Gewerblicher Rechtsschutz im Ausland VI Patentanwälte. Die Klassifizierung der Gruppen I-III und V gestaltete sich dank vorgegebener Aktenzeichen bei der Mehrzahl der Akten nach diesem Raster problemlos. Die ohne Aktenzeichen vorliegenden Akten in den Gruppen I-III konnten relativ leicht nach sachlichem Zusammenhang zugeordnet werden. Eine tiefer gestufte Klassifikation erschien nicht erforderlich. In den Gruppen I-III waren die Akten-Nummern ursprünglich wohl so vergeben worden, dass sie den jeweiligen Paragrafen der Patent-, Muster- und Warenzeichengesetze entsprachen. Für diejenigen Akten, die nicht in unmittelbarem Bezug zu Gesetzesparagrafen standen, sind die Aktenzeichen offenbar in fortlaufender nummerischer Abfolge vergeben worden. Die Gruppe IV hebt sich gegenüber den übrigen Gruppen insofern ab, als es sich um den schriftlichen Niederschlag übergreifender Tätigkeiten des Hauptbüros bzw. der Präsidialabteilung handelt: Regelungen zur Handhabung der Bestimmungen des Patent-, Gebrauchs- und Geschmacksmuster- sowie des Warenzeichenrechts einerseits sowie Regelungen des Dienstbetriebs, Geschäftsgangs, Postverkehrs andererseits. Hier ist - auf Grund der unvollständigen Überlieferung der Akten - eine Aktenordnung ähnlich jener der Gruppen I-III nicht erkennbar. Wegen der lückenhaften Überlieferung des Bestands einerseits und fehlender Aktenzeichen andererseits - meist sind nur Spezialia oder Adhibenda vorhanden, während die Generalia fehlen -, wurde bei der Klassifikation zwar die Abfolge der Aktenzeichen beibehalten, aber im Unterschied zu den Gruppen I-III und V eine archivische Klassifikation durchgeführt, die eine feiner gestufte Gliederung notwendig machte. Die Akten der Gruppe V sind vom Reichspatentamt nach einem Länderalfabet angelegt, die Aktenzeichen auch hier in aufsteigender Zahlenfolge vergeben worden. Die Reihung der Akten nach Aktenzeichen wurde bei der Klassifikation lediglich dadurch unterbrochen, dass die Akten betreffend internationale Zusammenschlüsse, Abkommen und Kongresse, die mitten in der Länderserie angesiedelt worden waren, dort herausgenommen und an den Schluss der Aktengruppe gestellt wurden. Angesichts im Laufe der Jahrzehnte geänderter Bezeichnungen einzelner Staatsgebiete (vgl. z.B. Schutzgebiete) ist zur Erleichterung der Benutzung ein geografischer Index gefertigt worden. Die ohne Aktenzeichen überlieferten Akten der Gruppe VI wurden nach Sachkomplexen klassifiziert. Kassiert wurden im Jahr 1995 die in den Generalakten enthaltenen und Auszüge aus Gesetzes- und Veröffentlichungsblättern sowie bedeutungsloser Schriftwechsel - z.B. über die Verlegung von Sitzungen des Reichspatentamts. Das von Dorothe Günthner und Johannes Ganser erarbeitete Findbuch wurde von Frau Schuster geschrieben. Diese Erschließungsdaten wurden nach 2005 retrokonvertiert und können nunmehr im Datenbanksystem des Bundesarchivs (BASYS) über das Recherchesystem INVENIO abgerufen werden. Vergeltungsakten Dorothe Günthner und Johannes Ganser bearbeiteten im April 1984 den ersten Teil der Überlieferung. Von den ursprünglich 376 Bänden (ca. 1,5 Gefach) des ersten Überlieferungsteils wurden 75 Bände als archivwürdig bewertet (R 131/10001-10076). Kassiert wurden insbesondere diejenigen Akten, die aus rein formalen Gründen abgelehnte Anträge nach der Verordnung über die Behandlung feindlichen Vermögens vom 15. Januar 1940 (RGBl I S.191) zum Gegenstand haben. Bei Aktengruppen, welche die Bearbeitung von Anträgen einer bestimmten Firma auf die Nutzung von mehreren Patentrechten dokumentieren, die eine andere Firma innehatte, wurde, da ursprünglich für jedes Patent ein einzelner Band angelegt worden war, jeweils nur ein Beispielband aufgehoben. Im 1984 entstandenen Findbuch erschlossen wurden der Name des Antragstellers, des Schutzrechtinhabers, die Laufzeit sowie die alten Vergeltungsaktenzeichen. Auf die Nennung der einzelnen Schutzrechtinhalte wurde verzichtet, da sie hinter dem Aspekt der kriegswirtschaftlichen Maßnahmen des Deutschen Reiches in heutiger Bewertung zurück stehen. Die vorgegebene Gliederung in Akten über erteilte und nicht erteilte Ausübungsrechte wurde beibehalten. Diese beiden Gruppen waren wiederum unterteilt in Patente, Gebrauchsmuster, Warenzeichen, Urheberrechte und Patente in einzelnen eingegliederten Gebieten. In der zweiten Jahreshälfte 2008 wurde der Bestand einer Revision unterzogen, da Unstimmigkeiten im Signaturensystem aufgetaucht waren. 270 Archivalieneinheiten, die bei Bestandsbereinigungen aufgefunden worden waren, wurden neu verzeichnet (R 131/10077-10346). Der gesamte Überlieferungsteil "Vergeltungsakten", der nun insgesamt 345 AE umfasst, wurde eingemappt und vollständig neu signiert. Kassationen wurden nicht vorgenommen. Die Erschließung folgte den Vorgaben des Findbuchs von 1984. Erfasst wurden entsprechend die Namen der Antragsteller, der Schutzrechtinhaber, die Laufzeiten sowie die Aktenzeichen der Vergeltungspatente. Die Verzeichnungsdaten zum ersten Überlieferungsteil wurden per Retrokonversion in die Datenbank des Bundesarchivs (BASYS) übertragen. Bei der Integration der neu hinzugekommenen Unterlagen konnte das bereits vorgegebene Klassifikationsschema beibehalten werden. Das nun vorliegende, von Karl-Heinz Eggert und Sabine Dumschat bearbeitete Findbuch ist auch online recherchierbar. Patentanmeldungsakten Patent- und Gebrauchsmusteranmeldungen wurden im Reichspatentamt bestimmten Klassen zugeordnet. Zu diesem Zweck bestand dort eine nach gewerblichen und industriellen Spezialfachgebieten gegliederte Patentklasseneinteilung. Sie diente als Grundlage für die Bearbeitung der Anmeldungen. Der wichtigste Grundsatz für die Bestimmung der Klassenzugehörigkeit einer Anmeldung war deren Zuweisung in dasjenige Spezialfachgebiet, in dem die Erfindung lag. Zur Feststellung der Erfindung musste der Prüfer alle eingereichten Unterlagen, d.h. Beschreibung, Zeichnung, Ansprüche, heranziehen. Falls mehrere Spezialgebiete vorlagen, fiel die Entscheidung auf die am wichtigsten erscheinende Klasse. Zu den Mikrofilmen jener Akten, die sich bis heute in britischem Gewahrsam, in der "National Lending Library for Science and Technology" in Boston Spa befinden, erstellte 1984 Johannes Ganser ein Findbuch, das im Benutzersaal des Bundesarchivs für Recherchen zur Verfügung steht. Die Grundlage der Gliederung des Teilbestands bildet die beim Reichspatentamt praktizierte Patentklasseneinteilung. Diese war für die Briten bei der Verfilmung der Akten indes nicht der entscheidende Klassifikationsmaßstab. Anmeldungen zu einer bestimmten Klasse können somit auf mehreren Filmen zu finden sein; auf jedem Film sind vice versa Unterlagen zu mehreren Patentklassen zu erwarten. Bei der Benutzung der Filme ist demnach zunächst von dem in Frage kommenden Spezialfachgebiet gemäß der Patentklasseneinteilung auszugehen. Auf welchen Filmrollen zum entsprechenden Fachgebiet Unterlagen vorhanden sind, ist der 1. Konkordanz im Findbuch zu entnehmen. Die 2. Konkordanz stellt die Verknüpfung zwischen den Rollensignaturen und den Filmsignaturen her. Die über das Zentrale Staatsarchiv der DDR überlieferten Einzelfall-Unterlagen wurden im Zeitraum 2011-2012 bearbeitet. Sie befanden sich zunächst in einem ungeordneten, um nicht zu sagen: chaotischen Zustand. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass der Kontext einstmals organisch gewachsener Einzelvorgänge empfindlich gestört ist. Begleitende Dokumentation irgendwelcher Art konnte nicht ermittelt werden. Die Unterlagen waren stoßweise in Papier eingeschlagen und mit Paketband verknotet. Diese Bündel wurden geöffnet, die Unterlagen vollständig durchsortiert. Da kein Überlieferungskontext, geschweige denn ein System der Aktenbildung zu erkennen war, wurde versucht, vermittels alfabetischer Sortierung nach Patent-Anmeldern Abhilfe zu schaffen. Anschließend wurden 314 Archivalieneinheiten gebildet, neu eingemappt und signiert (R 131/10347-10670). Doppelstücke wurden vernichtet, darüber hinaus jedoch keine Kassationen vorgenommen. Eine Akte (R 131/10502) wurde an das Bergbauarchiv im Deutschen Bergbau-Museum, Bochum, abgegeben. Ein "Nachtrag zur Nummernliste" für das Jahr 1933 ist nunmehr in der Dienstbibliothek des Bundesarchivs zugänglich (Signatur: ZB 24128). Sowohl die Klassifikation des Bestands als auch die Erschließungsparameter orientieren sich an dem Muster, welches das Findbuch für die Vergeltungsakten aus dem Jahr 1984 vorgegeben hat. Unterschieden wurden die Anmeldung von Patenten und Gebrauchsmustern, ungültige Patente und Hilfsmittel in Form von Unterlagen, welche die Zulassungen ausländischer Patentämter dokumentieren. Unterschieden wurde nach Anmeldern, die im Deutschen Reich ansässig waren, und solchen, die vom Ausland aus ihre Ansprüche geltend zu machen versuchten. Bei letzteren handelt es sich unter anderem um Dependancen deutscher Konzerne im Ausland. Im Einzelnen erfasst wurden bei der Erschließung jeweils: Namen der anmeldenden Firmen oder privaten Antragsteller bzw. der Patentinhaber, schlagwortartig der Patentanspruch, d.h. der Gegenstand des Patents respektive das zu schützende Verfahren, das Aktenzeichen des Reichspatentamts, gegebenenfalls auch die zugeteilte Patentnummer sowie die Laufzeiten der Akten. Das nun vorliegende, von Karl-Heinz Eggert und Sabine Dumschat bearbeitete Findbuch ist auch online recherchierbar. Personalakten Von den vom Deutschen Patentamt 1980 aus seiner Dienststelle in München abgegebenen Personalakten von Beamten des Reichspatentamts, die nach dem Krieg noch weiterbeschäftigt worden waren, wurden nur zwei als archivwürdig angesehen. Der Rest wurde kassiert. Die in den Bestand R 131 integrierten Akten sind vorläufig personenbezogen erschlossen (sog. "Anlage 2"). Bei allen im selben Jahr 1980 abgegebenen "Personalakten verschiedener Behörden und Gerichte über Personen, deren Zugehörigkeit zum ehemaligen Kaiserlichen Patentamt/Reichspatentamt nicht festgestellt werden konnte", handelte es sich bei näherer Prüfung um Vorakten des Reichspatentamts. Die Mehrzahl der Akten wurde für kassabel befunden (untergeordnetes Büropersonal). Lediglich 14 Akten wurden in den Bestand übernommen: R 131/1737, 1754, 1787, 1804, 1942-1943, 1996, 2609, 2000, 2000 a, 2000 b und 2721-2723. Sie sind in einem Vorläufigen Verzeichnis personenbezogen erfasst (sog. "Anlage 3"). Mit den aus seiner Dienststelle in Berlin 1980 in 13 Kartons übergebenen 859 Personalakten von Angehörigen des Kaiserlichen bzw. des Reichspatentamts lieferte das Deutsche Patentamt ebenfalls ein Vorläufiges Verzeichnis mit namentlicher Auflistung (sog. "Anlage 4") ab. Abgesehen von den Akten R 131/2724, 2725 und 2726 waren diese Unterlagen stark zerstört und kassabel. Zu den "bei der Dienststelle Berlin des Deutschen Patentamts befindlichen Personalakten oder Personalaktenteile[n] über Angehörige des ehemaligen Kaiserlichen Patentamts und des Reichspatentamts" existiert allerdings noch eine zweite, leider undatierte, namentliche Aufstellung mit 875 Einzelpositionen, die sich mit der oben genannten nicht deckt. Eine eindeutige Klärung kann erst die Erschließung aller noch nicht in BASYS erfassten archivwürdigen Personalakten ergeben. Aus den nach der Bewertung verbliebenen Akten wurde im Bundesarchiv der Teilbestand "R 131 - Personalakten" gebildet (Signaturen: R 131/1698-2720). 1981 kamen die vom Bundesministerium der Justiz abgelieferten 29 Personalakten des Reichspatentamts hinzu, zu denen gleichfalls ein Vorläufiges Verzeichnis vorhanden ist (R 131/2730-2758). Eine namentliche Auflistung existiert ebenso zu den 1995 vom Deutschen Patentamt abgegebenen 94 Personalakten jüdischer Patentanwälte (R 131/2760-2853). Von den im Jahre 2004 vom Deutschen Patentamt abgegebenen Personalakten, v.a. von Patentanwälten, liegen bisher lediglich zu 519 namentliche Auflistungen vor. Eine Bewertung der 38 große Umzugskartons umfassenden Ablieferungen steht noch aus. Ebenso müssen die aus dem Bestand 30.12 (Reichsjustizprüfungsamt) des Zentralen Staatsarchivs der DDR in Potsdam aussortierten Fragmente von Personalakten sowie die weiteren 0,14 lfm (ein Archivkarton) Personalunterlagen unbekannter Herkunft noch bearbeitet werden. Inhaltliche Charakterisierung: Inhaltliche Charakterisierung Generalakten Der Generalaktenbestand gibt einen Einblick in die Tätigkeit des Reichspatentamts, der von erheblichem Wert für die Geschichte der Technik und die Entwicklung des Rechtswesens, insbesondere des gewerblichen Rechtsschutzes in Deutschland, sein dürfte. Hervorhebenswert sind die umfangreiche Sammlung von Gesetzen und Verordnungen zum gewerblichen Rechtsschutz im Ausland sowie die Akten aus der Mitarbeit des Reichspatentamts in der Internationalen Union zum Schutz des gewerblichen Eigentums. Diese Mitarbeit hatte auch das Ziel, die internationalen Abkommen mit den deutschen Gesetzen auf diesem Gebiet zu koordinieren. Nach 1945 hatte das Reichspatentamt noch partiell weiter gearbeitet, was die Fortführung einiger Akten bis 1951 erklärt. Überlieferung: (1877-1918) 1919-1945 (1946-1951) (1.171 AE): Patente 1877-1949 (187), Gebrauchs- und Geschmacksmuster 1877-1945 (24), Warenzei‧chen 1894-1945 (65), Patentklasseneinteilung 1882-1944 (9), Abteilungsmitgliedersitzungen und -entscheidungen 1877-1945 (30), Post- und Fernmeldewesen, Auslegestellen 1879-1946 (28), Annahme und Anmeldung 1877-1945 (21), Veröffentlichungen 1878-1949 (47), Zivilgerichtsbarkeit und Rechtsauskünfte 1879-1944 (13), Dienstbetrieb, Aktenführung und Präsidialverfügungen 1877-1948 (76), kriegsbedingte Maßnahmen auf dem Gebiet des ge‧werblichen Rechtsschutzes 1914-1948 (49), Zusammenarbeit mit Ingenieur- und Erfinder‧verbänden 1911-1951 (11), gewerblicher Rechtsschutz im Ausland 1878-1944 (13), ein‧zel‧ne Länder 1877-1944 (425), internationale Zusammenschlüsse, Abkommen und Kongresse 1878-1944 (57), Patentanwaltsgesetz, Patentanwaltskammer 1933-1949 (5), Eintragung und Löschung als Patentanwalt 1900-1948 (34), Ausbildung und Prüfung, Berufsausübung und Ehrengerichtsbarkeit 1900-1950 (41), Patentanwaltswesen im Ausland 1894-1949 (36) Findmittel: Findbuch (1984) und BASYS/INVENIO-Recherche Vergeltungsakten Die 1973 ins Bundesarchiv gelangten Akten dokumentieren die Behandlung von Anträgen einzelner Firmen auf die Erteilung von Ausübungsrechten gemäß der Verordnung über gewerbliche Schutzrechte britischer Staatsangehöriger vom 26. Februar 1940 (RGBl I S. 424), der Verordnung über Urheberrechte britischer Staatsangehöriger vom 1. Juli 1940 (RGBl I S. 947) sowie der Verordnung über gewerbliche Schutzrechte und Urheberrechte von Angehörigen der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika vom 22. Dezember 1942 (RGBl I S. 737). Die für archivwürdig befundenen Vergeltungsakten besitzen somit einen gewissen Aussagewert über das Verhältnis Deutschlands zu den USA und Großbritannien, wenn auch beschränkt auf den gewerblichen Rechtsschutz während des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Darüber hinaus ist zu erkennen, auf welchen Gebieten Erfindungen als kriegswichtig und als zur Wahrung allgemeiner Belange notwendig angesehen wurden. Die in den Jahren 2008-2010 nacherschlossenen Unterlagen behandeln vor allem deutsche Reichspatente, die Urheberrechte für künstlerische Werke, deutsche Warenzeichen und österreichische Marken. Überlieferung: 1940-1945 (345 AE): Erteilte Ausübungsrechte: deutsche Reichspatente 1940-1945 (4), Patentanmeldungen 1941 (1), österreichische Patente 1940-1944 (1), Patente Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren 1940-1945 (2), deutsche Gebrauchsmuster 1940-1941 (1), deutsche Warenzeichen 1940-1942 (2), Warenzeichen Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren 1941-1942 (1), Urheberrechte für künstlerische Werke 1941-1945 (7); nicht erteilte Ausübungsrechte: deutsche Reichspatente 1940-1945 (175), Patentanmeldungen 1940-1944 (14), deutsche Gebrauchsmuster 1940-1941 (1), deutsche Warenzeichen 1940-1945 (44), österreichische Marken 1940-1945 (19), Urheberrechte für künstlerische Werke 1940-1945 (73) Findmittel: Online-Findbuch Patentanmeldungen a) Auf den Mikrofilmen jener Unterlagen, deren Originale sich bis heute in der "National Lending Library for Science and Technology" in Boston Spa befinden, sind aneinander gereiht einzelne Patentanmeldungen mit den dazugehörigen Erläuterungen zu finden. Sie erstrecken sich über den Zeitraum 1941-1945. Bearbeitungsvermerke oder Schreiben des Reichspatentamts sind selten vorhanden. Lediglich Hinweise auf Druckschriften, die zur Abgrenzung des Anmeldungsgegenstands in Betracht gezogen wurden, tauchen hin und wieder auf. Diese Unterlagen stammen aus Verfahren, die wegen des Kriegsgeschehens nicht zu Ende geführt werden konnten, zu denen keine Patente mehr erteilt wurden. Dennoch geben sie einen Einblick in die Anstrengungen und Errungenschaften deutscher Erfinder und Unternehmen in der Spätphase des Zweiten Weltkriegs. Man erkennt teilweise, welche gewerblichen und industriellen Zweige infolge der kriegsbedingten Probleme zurückgestellt werden mussten. Der technikgeschichtliche Wert der Unterlagen dürfte nicht unerheblich sein. Überlieferung: Patentanmeldeakten 1941-1945 (999 Mikrofilme) Findmittel: Findbuch (1984) b) Die über das Zentrale Staatsarchiv der DDR überlieferten Unterlagen beziehen sich vornehmlich auf Erfindungen, die mit dem Wirtschaftsbereich des Bergbaus zu tun haben. Es handelt sich um in ihrer Struktur gleichförmige Einzelfall-Vorgänge, denen in der Regel allerdings die Anlagen abhanden gekommen sind, die zur Erteilung von Patenten herangezogen werden mussten. Ein Teil dieser Anlagen sind vermutlich die als "Hilfsmittel" verzeichneten fremdsprachigen Unterlagen. Da die registraturmäßige Ordnung dieses Überlieferungsteils vollkommen zerstört vorgefunden wurde und die verbliebenen Unterlagen zu wenige Geschäftsgangsvermerke tragen, war eine Rekonstruktion der ursprünglichen Vorgänge leider nicht möglich. Überlieferung: (1877-1918) 1919-1945 (314 AE): Patentanmeldungen (249): Deutsches Reich 1878-1945 (211), Großbritannien 1883-1942 (6), Belgien 1905-1944 (2), Frankreich 1881-1937 (4), Niederlande 1915-1939 (2), Österreich 1897-1945 (2), Ungarn 1902-1945 (4), USA 1880-1939 (8), andere Länder 1888-1942 (10); Gebrauchsmuster (12): Deutsches Reich 1913-1939 (11), Ausland 1927-1936 (1); ungültige Patente (7): Deutsches Reich 1877-1941 (4), Ausland: Frankreich 1905-1927 (2), andere Länder 1905-1929 (1); Hilfsmittel (46): Großbritannien 1877-1937 (12), Frankreich 1907-1937 (11), USA 1875-1938 (20), andere Länder 1894-1939 (3) Findmittel: Online-Findbuch Personalakten Der Teilbestand umfasst Personalakten von Mitarbeitern des Reichspatentamts sowie von Patentanwälten. Zu letzteren zählen 84 jüdische Anwälte, denen man ihrer Abstammung wegen die Zulassung entzog und die entsprechend 1933 bzw. 1938 aus der im Patentamt geführten Anwaltsliste gelöscht wurden. Überlieferung: (1877-1918) 1919-1945 (1.155 AE), 19,71 lfm unbearbeitet Umfang: Gesamt: ca. 100 lfm und 999 Mikrofilme Generalakten: 44,9 lfm - 1.171 AE (R 131/1-1205) Vergeltungsakten: 3,7 lfm - 345 AE (R 131/10001-10346) Patentanmeldungen: 314 AE (R 131/10347-10670) und 999 Mikrofilmrollen (R 131/EC 3317-EC 4316) Personalakten: 28,11 lfm - 1.155 AE (R 131/1698-2853) 19,71 lfm unbearbeitet "Erteilungsakten": 0,14 lfm unbearbeitet Gesamtlaufzeit des Bestands: (1877-1918) 1919-1945 (1946-1951) Teilbestände: Generalakten: (1877-1918) 1919-1945 (1946-1951) Vergeltungsakten: 1940-1945 Patentanmeldungsakten: Filme 1941-1945 Akten (1877-1918) 1919-1945 Personalakten: (1877-1918) 1919-1945 Erschließungszustand (Überblick): Generalakten: Findbuch (1984) und BASYS/INVENIO-Recherche Patentanmeldungsakten: Findbuch (1984) zu den Filmen, Online-Findbuch zu den Akten Vergeltungsakten: Online-Findbuch Personalakten: Vorläufige Verzeichnisse Hinweis: Online-Findmittel liegen bisher nur zu den Vergeltungs- und den nicht verfilmten Patentanmeldungsakten vor. Erschließungszustand: Erschließungszustand (Überblick): Generalakten: Findbuch (1984) und BASYS/INVENIO-Recherche Patentanmeldungsakten: Findbuch (1984) zu den Filmen, Online-Findbuch zu den Akten Vergeltungsakten: Online-Findbuch Personalakten: Vorläufige Verzeichnisse Hinweis: Online-Findmittel liegen bisher nur zu den Vergeltungs- und den nicht verfilmten Patentanmeldungsakten vor. Zitierweise: BArch, R 131/...

History of the Inventory Designer: Introduction Prehistory up to 1933 The rapid increase in car traffic after the First World War meant that road construction in Germany had to face up to these new requirements. The aim was to rapidly improve the existing road conditions and adapt them to the new requirements of increasing motorisation by extending the existing country roads and building motorways. Contemporary statistics show that in 1924 every 321st inhabitant in Germany owned a "car", while at the same time in France every 90th, in Great Britain every 71st and in the USA already every 7th inhabitant owned a car. The private German vehicle fleet in the country doubled in the years from 1923 to 1926 from 100,340 cars to 206,456. In 1933, only seven years later, almost 800,000 motor vehicles were registered in Germany. The construction of the Berlin AVUS (Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungs-Straße) in 1921 as well as the activities of the Studiengesellschaft für Automobilstraßenbau (STUFA) played a special role, the latter in particular with regard to the extension of the existing country roads. However, the war and its consequences prevented a resumption of this discussion until the mid-twenties. With the founding of the association HAFRABA and its transition to GEZUVOR, plans for the new motorways in particular took shape, which, after the National Socialists took power, were quickly declared to be the "Führer's Roads". In the course of its work, HAFRABA drew up about 70 plans for a motorway network in Germany. The later central and territorial road construction administrations were able to profit from many results of their complex research, test series, but also from studies for the job creation of larger quantities of labour. The existing conditions with regard to the road administration in the respective sovereign jurisdiction on the one hand and the (Reich) legislator on the other, as well as the increasing blockage of road construction plans from Reich railway and financial circles, but also from the Länder and provinces, forced the necessity of a reorganisation of the road system in Germany to a certain extent, which did not take long after the seizure of power by the Hitler dictatorship. Adolf Hitler was not yet Chancellor of the Reich for two weeks when he put the construction of intersection-free motorways up for discussion in the cabinet. As early as 11 February 1933 he announced the "initiation and implementation of a generous road construction plan", with which both a modern transport system was to be created and unemployment effectively combated, but also reaped the opposition of Reichsbahn General Director Dorpmüller and Reich Finance Minister Count Schwerin von Krosigk. Nevertheless, he was determined to discuss the necessity of motorways with transport experts and leading representatives of the economy. In a conversation with HAFRABA managing director Willy Hof on 6 April 1933, he was informed in detail about the association's plans. As early as 27 June 1933, the Reich government announced, against the will of the Reichsbahn representatives, the formation of the company "Reichsautobahnen", which initially acted as a branch of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft. One day later, Hitler appointed Dr. Fritz Todt, a highly intelligent civil engineer who was loyal to the line, as "Inspector General for German Roads". With the later "Decree on the General Inspector for the German Road System" of 30.11.1933, Todt was also transferred the business area of the company "Reichsautobahnen". The decree states: "For the execution of the construction of the Reichsautobahnen ... a supreme Reich authority shall be established with its seat in Berlin, the head of which shall be given the official title of 'General Inspector for the German Road System'. He is appointed by the Reich President at the suggestion of the Reich Chancellor and reports to the Reich Chancellor. Hitler was convinced of Todt's suitability after he had read his so-called "Brauner Bericht" (Brown Report), a memorandum on "Road Construction and Road Administration", in which Todt deals with the previous conditions of road construction in Germany and formulates objectives for the time of National Socialism. The new authority had the task to organize the construction of the "Reichsautobahnen" and the maintenance of the country roads, as far as they had belonged so far to the responsibility of the Reich Minister of Transport. Legal foundations The "Gesetz über die Errichtung eines Unternehmens Reichsautobahnen" of 27 June 1933, the first ordinance of 7 August 1933 and the "Gesetz zur Änderung Gesetz über die Errichtung eines Unternehmens Reichsautobahnen" of 18 December 1933 provided the Inspector General with a foundation of powers and authority which enabled him to implement the goals set by the Reich leadership as quickly as possible. This included the right to route and design the Reich's motorways as well as the right to levy charges, the right of expropriation and the assumption of state sovereign rights over the motorways. With the "Act on the Temporary New Regulation of the Road System and the Road Administration" of 26 March 1934, the division of roads into 1st motorways, later "Reichsautobahnen", 2nd Reich roads, 3rd country roads of the 1st order, 4th country roads of the 2nd order, was also introduced. The law of the land was amended in accordance with the provisions of the first order, and further regulations were made regarding the distribution of the road construction load, the administration of the Reich roads and the country roads of the first order, the road supervisory authority, etc. A general power of attorney to the greatest extent possible was granted to the Inspector General with the formulation written down in § 1 "The Inspector General for the German Road System determines which roads are subject to the provisions of this Act and which roads have the characteristics of Imperial roads and of Land Roads I. and II. I'll give you the order." The prerequisites created by the aforementioned legal bases were very soon reflected in the structure and organisation of the office of the Inspector General for German Roads. Organization and Structure In 1934, the Inspector General's Division comprised the two major areas of responsibility, Land Roads and Reich Motorways, as well as the resulting connections to the 30 Supreme Road Authorities with 176 State Construction, Road and River Offices of the Länder and Provinces on the one hand and the 15 Supreme Construction Supervisors with 65 Construction Departments for the motorways on the other. As a result, the internal service structure was as follows: Four departments were assigned to the Inspector General for German Roads. 1. department Landstraßen (L), 2. department Administration/Administration (V), 3. department Research/Exhibition/Congress (F) 4. department Reichsautobahnen (A) Furthermore, a landscape consultant was assigned to the Inspector General. In addition to a joint press and socio-political speaker, departments L and A were each assigned 5 speakers (L1 to L5 and A1 to A5), whose fields of work extended to cooperation with the road construction authorities in the Länder and provinces and with the supreme construction managers of the motorways. After that the following (territorial) competences arose: L1: Hanover, Oldenburg, Brunswick, Westphalia, Rhine Province, Hesse-Kassel, Schaumburg-Lippe, Lippe-Detmold L2: Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Hohenzollern, State of Hesse, Hesse-Wiesbaden L3: Thuringia, State of Saxony, Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, East Prussia L4: Brandenburg, Grenzmark, Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Province of Saxony, Anhalt L5: General affairs of the rural road sector, special tasks Job creation Department A - Reichsautobahnen A1: Site management Stettin, Hannover, Altona, Königsberg A2: Site management Breslau, Dresden, Halle, Kassel A3: Site management Essen, Cologne, Frankfurt/Main A4: Site management Munich, Stuttgart, Nuremberg A5: Special tasks: In the summer of 1934 Todt presented his first report on the activities of his authority. An overview of the road construction authorities from 1935 under the authority of the Inspector General illustrates the striving for a strongly centralised connection of road construction tasks in Germany. After Hitler's declaration on January 30, 1937, that the German Reich had regained unrestricted sovereignty over the Deutsche Reichsbahn and that the Deutsche Reichsbahn had been converted into a pure Reich administration by the law of February 10, 1937, the Reichsautobahnen were to be given a position similar to that of the Deutsche Reichsbahn. This was done in the "Gesetz zur Neuregelung der Verhältnisse der Autobahn" of 1 July 1938 and by the "3. Verordnung zur Durchführung des Gesetz über die Errichtung eines Unternehmen 'Reichsautobahnen'" of 1 June 1938. Fritz Todt was appointed chairman of the board of the Reichsautobahnen. The offices of the company became direct Reich authorities. Thus the company Reichsautobahnen lost its character as a society. The "Führerprinzip" (leader principle) practiced in all authorities of the "Third Reich" dominated the organization of the Reich's motorways at the latest since the enactment of this law. With the rapid progress of the political and economic processes in Germany, with rearmament, with the creation of ever new political and organizational structures in the Reich territory, with the invasion of Austria and the Sudetenland, with the erection of the Westwall after the occupation of the demilitarized Rhineland and finally with the beginning and course of the war, ever new and different organizational units and focal points of work developed within the office. The supreme construction management of the Reichsautobahnen was extended by similar authorities in the occupied areas. In the construction of the Westwall from the middle of 1938 onwards, the 22 superstructure superstructure lines at the German western border were firmly integrated, after Hitler, under heavy accusations against the General Staff of the Army, had given this task to Todt without further ado - it was the hour of birth of the "Organisation Todt". It had its first seat as Abteilung West in Wiesbaden. In the files of the Inspector General for the German Road System, an interweaving of tasks with other ministries (e.g. Reich Ministry of Transport, Reich Ministry of Finance), the NSDAP as well as the cooperation with many other organisations is reflected in many ways, e.g. the National Socialist Association of German Technology (NSBDT), the German Labor Front (DAF), the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) and the German Automobile Club (DDAC), and many others. The business distribution plan of the Inspector General of October 28, 1938 clearly expresses that the company was already at the level of political development. Directly subordinate to the Inspector General were now not only the 4 departments but also three other business areas: Research, NSDAP compounds, imperial defence and defence (cf. Fig. page XII). Fritz Todt held a number of political offices. From 1933 he was not only Inspector General for German Roads, but also Head of the Main Office for Technology of the NSDAP, 1938 he became General Plenipotentiary for the Regulation of the Construction Industry, 1940 Reich Minister for Armament and Ammunition as well as Inspector General for the Special Tasks in the Four-Year Plan, 1941 Inspector General for Water and Energy. At the height of his political career Todt died in a plane crash on 8 February 1942 near the "Führerhauptquartier" near Rastenburg/ East Prussia. Albert Speer took office on 9 February 1942. Inventory description: Inventory history The inventory summarised in inventory R 4601, General Inspector for the German Road System, consists of several parts from the former GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. This includes around 2,300 files and almost 1,800 card index sheets from the former Central State Archives of the GDR, which were formerly kept there as holdings 46.01 and were recorded in a finding aid file, some of them with very general and inaccurate title records. The files of the holdings R 65 I to R 65 IV described below were added from the Federal Archives. Here, finding aids with precise title entries and notes on contents were available. In addition to Todt's "Brounen Denkschrift" (Brown Memorandum), the R 65 I holdings included 34 other files from US returns from 1934 to 1945, as well as files from the Building Department Wittlich 1941 (1), the Wiesbaden Department 1938-1943 (2), the Böttger 1938-1945 (11), Bonacker 1937, 1942-1944 (2), Dittrich 1926-1952 (67), Schönleben 1939-1944 (6), and supplements 1939 (1). The collection R 65 II contained 141 files of the Reichsautobahndirektion Berlin and was handed over to the Federal Archives by the Federal Minister of Transport in 1962 (official files of the Federal Archives, file no.: 3115/4, note dated 31 Jan. 1962). The inventory R 65 III was a collection of decrees of the Inspector General. The inventory R 65 IV contained personal files, of which 112 files have been catalogued and a further 12 running metres have not been catalogued. Archival evaluation and processing The inventory was indexed using the above-mentioned finding aids by entering it into the BASYS-S database of the Federal Archives for the purpose of making the finding aid data available online. A physical reception of the files did not take place due to time reasons with some exceptions. The archive signatures of the Potsdam holdings were largely retained during the indexing process, but each volume was given its own archive signature for found files with volume numbers. The signatures begin: at no. 1 for the former stock 46.01, at no. 3001 for the former stock R 65 I, at no. 4001 for the former stock R 65 II, at no. 5001 for the former stock R 65 III, at no. 10001 for the former stock R 65 IV. The 112 personal files already opened up have been newly recorded, but are not part of this finding aid book. The existing classification was largely renewed and is based both on the organizational structure of the inventory generator and on its functional responsibilities. The internal order of the files has been maintained. The inventory has already been moved from standing folders to folders. Characterisation of content: management and organisation of the road sector: legislation, decrees (57). Organization, administration and human resources: General (74), personnel matters (78), land and planning matters (15), public procurement (59), construction machinery, equipment and vehicles (29), motor vehicles (47), construction materials and fuels (47), traffic regulation and safety (27), winter services (90), tourism (25), statistics( 19), Mobilisation, war deployment, occupied territories (27), map system (37), hand-files of leadership (40), hand-files of the department L-Landstraßen (19), hand-files of the department A-Autobahnen (27), hand-files of the department V-Verwaltung (11), hand-files of administrators for special questions of the departments L and A (3). Department West, Wiesbaden (5). Potsdam Alte Zauche alternative (5). Country roads: Imperial roads: General administrative affairs of the Reichsstraßen (32), financing of the Reichsstraßen (90), technical execution of the road construction and execution of construction measures (136), construction project (48), index sheets Reichsstraßen (14), road books Reichsstraßen (133). Roads I. and II. Order: General administrative matters of the country roads I. and II. Order (28), Financing of rural roads - Öffa (20), Building projects (60), Roads map sheets (2). Bypasses, town crossings, feeder roads (105) Individual projects (45). Imperial highways: Legislation and general administrative matters of the Reichsautobahnen (83), financing of the Reichsautobahnen, budget and treasury matters (36), property and spatial planning matters (8), project planning and routing (46), landscape and urban architecture, animal protection, nature conservation, monuments (38), cooperation with other Reich services (27). Material-technical infrastructure and operational services: planning approval and reallocations (13), fuel and petrol stations (15), motorway and road connections with foreign countries (10), operational services (24), building materials, road surfacing (40), technical execution of road construction and execution of construction measures (9). Personnel infrastructure: deployment and accommodation of labour (61), wages, tariffs, special arrangements (29), personnel matters (27). Files of the Reichsautobahndirektion Berlin: Direktionsakten (18), Gebiete der Obersten Bauleitungen (124). Top construction management: Berlin (25), Wroclaw (15), Dresden (12), Essen (18), Frankfurt/Main (25), Halle (6), Hamburg (12), Hanover (3), Kassel (7), Cologne (12), Königsberg (3), Linz (7), Munich (13), Nuremberg (9), Stettin (4), Stuttgart (6), Vienna (5), Wittlich Construction Department of the Reichsautobahnen (1), Dresden (12), Essen (18), Frankfurt am Main (25). Public relations, press matters, lectures (21), accidents (20). Level crossings (45), bridges and structures (63), cycle paths and hiking trails (32), research, development, standardisation (182), congresses, conferences, exhibitions, work of professional associations (50). Personnel files A-Z 1938-1973 (112), 12 running meters untapped. Citation style: BArch, R 4601/...

Inventory Description: The Naval Airship Department was established by Allerhöchste Kabinettsordre on 3 May 1913 from the "Aviation Personnel of the Imperial Navy" next to the Naval Airship Department as an independent department with the temporary location Johannisthal. (1) The commanders of the departments were given "judicial, disciplinary and leave powers". In all training and technical matters, both departments were under the control of the State Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt, in all others of the inspection of coastal artillery and mines, as well as the head of the "North Sea Naval Station". (1) The State Secretary of the Reich Naval Office, Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, established 1 June as the day of formation by order of 8 May 1913. (2) As early as April 1912, members of the navy, including Corvette Captain Friedrich Metzing, were commanded for training at Deutsche Luftschifffahrts-AG. The airship command was subordinated on 15 July 1912 under the designation "Luftschiff-Detachement" with the Johannisthal site near Berlin Metzing as commander. (3) After the death of the commander of the naval airship department Friedrich Metzing in the accident of "L 1" on 9 September 1913, Corvette Captain Peter Strasser became his successor. Responsibility for the airship sector in the navy lay with the BX "Luftschiff- und Fliegerwesen" department of the shipyard department of the Reichsmarineamt formed on 12 October 1912. On 1 April 1913 an organisational change followed: Department BX was restructured to become the "Aviation Section" (Section BX with Divisions BXa and BXb). (4) At the beginning of the First World War, the command structure of the Naval Airship Division changed. By the Most High Cabinet Order of 29 August 1914, the office "Commander of the Aviation Departments" was created as the highest central command post of the entire naval aviation. (5) The Naval Airship Department and the Naval Aircraft Department were subordinated to this. The cabinet order assigned the following tasks to the new commander: Provision and training of personnel, management of schooling outside departments, test drives and maintenance of aircraft operational capability. The Most High Cabinet Order of May 1, 1916 assigned the naval airship division Cuxhaven (Nordholz) as a new location and divided the division into airship troops. (6) On November 23, 1916, the Naval Aviation Departments were divided into the Airship and Aircraft divisions by the Most High Cabinet Order. (7) The post of Commander of the Naval Aviation Divisions was transformed into Commander of the Naval Aviation Division and the Commander of the Naval Airship Division was elevated to "Chief of Naval Airships". The newly appointed Naval Airship Leader was in charge of the Naval Airship Division and the Naval Airships. The newly created position was subordinate to the command of the high seas armed forces in "matters of use and training of the North Sea front airships, to the State Secretary of the R e i c h s m a r i n e a m t , in technical and experimental matters and in matters of the school and experimental airships, and in all other matters to the naval station command of the North Sea". (7) For the airships deployed in the Baltic Sea, a new "Airship Ladder East" was formed as division commander. (7) The latter acted independently or according to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Baltic Sea, but remained subordinate to the Commander of the Naval Airships. (8) The post of Airship Manager East was vacated in November 1917 due to staff shortages and the cessation of airship operations in the Baltic Sea. (9) This structure remained in place until the end of the war. After Strasser's death in the "L 70" on 5 August 1918, the post of commander of the naval airships was not reoccupied. (10) Due to the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles to abandon military aviation in Germany, the Naval Airship Department was dissolved in Nordholz on 10 December 1920. (11) During the First World War, naval airships were used for reconnaissance in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, securing and supporting mine search units, sighting and reporting of enemy naval forces and mine barriers, reports on merchant shipping and for offensive voyages, in particular on Great Britain. Commander of the Naval Aviation Departments 29 August 1914 - 23 November 1916 Rear Admiral Otto Philipp Leader of the Naval Airships 23 November 1916 - 5 August 1918 Frigate Captain Peter Strasser from 5 August 1918 August 1918 unmanned (representative: Hans-Paul Werther) Airship Leader East 23 November 1916 - November 1917 Corvette Captain Hans Wendt Naval Airship Troops Status: May 1916 (12) I. Nordholz II. Fuhlsbüttel III. Ahlhorn IV. Hage V. Tondern VI. Seerappen VII. Seddin VIII. Düren IX. Wainoden Status: November 1918 (13) I. Nordholz III. Ahlhorn IV. Wittmundhaven V. Tondern VI. Seerappen VII. Seddin-Jeseritz XI. Wainoden Characterisation of the contents: The collection covers the period 1914 to 1938, with a focus on the deployment of the naval airship department in the First World War from 1914 to 1918. The records also include other provenances based on circulars and forwarded communications from other or superior agencies such as the Navy Admiral Staff, the Commander of the Reconnaissance Ships of the Baltic Sea or the Commanding General of the Air Force, etc. The collection is also available in German. The operations of the naval airships are reflected in the tradition. The focus is on the operational and enterprise files for the reconnaissance voyages in the North Sea and Baltic Sea as well as the attack voyages, especially in Great Britain. War diaries and orders are available on a large scale for this purpose. The war diaries were created for individual airships or naval airship troops. Further few file complexes are found to the organization and to the personnel of the naval airship department. The structure of the documents mainly consists of war diaries, orders (daily and departmental orders) and so-called driving reports of the numerous reconnaissance and attack drives. The trip reports contain information on the trip task, names of crew members, weather conditions, technical data and square maps with the marked route. In addition, there are radio messages (some encrypted), spark telegraphy bearings, weather and barometer maps and telegrams. The collection also includes photographs, press articles, technical drawings, sketches and a large number of maps. The overdelivery is not complete. Only the war records have survived. Documents from the pre-war and post-war periods may have been destroyed in the air archives in 1945. State of development: Online-Findbuch Vorarchivische Ordnung: Bestandsgeschichte After the end of the First World War, the documents of the disbanded naval services, including the Naval Airship Department, were collected in the War History Department of the Admiral Staff of the Navy (established on 15 February 1916) for the purpose of setting up a new naval archive. From 1919 the name of the naval archive was changed to "Head of the Institute for Naval History and Chairman of the Naval Archive". A second renaming took place on 22 January 1936 in "Kriegswissenschaftliche Abteilung der Marine". However, this did not belong to the Reichsarchiv, but was subject until 31 March 1934 to the Inspectorate of Naval Education, then to the Chief of Naval Management, and later as a subordinate authority to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. During the First World War some war diaries (RM 116/185-199) were already forwarded to the admiral's staff of the Navy for information and were thus integrated into his written material, but are handed down in this inventory. During the Second World War, naval records were moved to Tambach Castle near Coburg on 22 November 1943. (14 ) After the end of the war, the archives were confiscated by US troops and taken to London. There the files were filmed on a large scale, combined into bundles, provided with consecutive F-numbers ("Faszikel", "File" or "Fach") and partly with a seven-digit number with the prefixed letters "PG" ("pinched from the Germans"). The archives were then handed over to the British Admiralty. In the 1960s, the marine files were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany as part of the process of returning files and were transferred to the Document Centre of the Military History Research Office in Freiburg i.Br. With the transfer of the Document Centre in 1968, which is based on the 1968 interministerial agreement between the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the documents were transferred to the Federal Archives and Military Archives moved from Koblenz to Freiburg. In 1977 an access with a photo album to the naval airships (access number 2005/77) took place, which was transferred under RM 116/200 into the inventory. An LL signature (LL 410) refers to a storage in the air archive. A note in English on the file cover indicates a seizure by British and/or US troops. During the file repatriations, the photo album was also handed over to the Document Centre at the Military History Research Office, where it received an I L signature (I L (B) 11). (15 ) The tradition is not complete. A large part of the documents may have been transferred to the Luftarchiv at that time and destroyed in 1945. In 1936, the Luftwaffe set up its own archive under the name "Kriegswissenschaftliche Abteilung der Luftwaffe" (War Science Department of the Air Force) and collected the entire archives of the Air Forces of the Army and the Navy Air Forces. (16) It may have included parts of the naval airship department files, which would justify the small size of the file delivery. Archivische Bearbeitung A rough list of files was available on the holdings, which contained only imprecise file titles and durations as well as old signatures. An evaluation of the documents was not carried out due to the loss of written records and the resulting gaps in the records before 1945. The existing rules of procedure were retained. The documents had already been formed; most of them were in Prussian thread stitching, a small part in archive folders. The file structure is uneven; thus, in part, uniformly formed and coherent files were found for a task or an assignment. On the other hand, there were also documents with heterogeneous contents, such as aerial reconnaissance and attack drives. The inventory of the stock was carried out with the archive management system of the Federal Archives BASYS-S-2. The files were recorded and classified on the basis of the specified overdelivery due to a lack of organisational documents. The old signatures F and PG numbers as well as the file numbers were recorded. The terms "Detachement" and "Trupp", for the units subordinated to the Naval Airship Department, were not used uniformly in the files despite the same meaning. The collection contains numerous photographs and maps, the content of which is linked to the files and have therefore been left in their context. Only the oversized maps which were not sewn in due to damaged files were removed for conservation reasons and are now stored together in a map folder in the inventory under RM 116/201. The files are in a poor state of conservation. The damage ranges from dissolved thread stitching, mechanical damage as a result of use, to paper decay and ink corrosion. The collection needs to be restored soon. The stock is not completely foliated. Scope, explanation: Holdings without increase 7.4 linear metres 198 AU Citation method: BArch, RM 116/...

Description of the holdings: In 1920 the attaché service was essentially dissolved. Between 1920 and 1933, no naval attachés were notified to German embassies abroad. From 1933 to 1945, the Kriegsmarine again sent naval attachés to the most important embassies. The majority of the naval attachés' files from 1933 to 1945 are still with the British admiralty in London. In the form of microfilms, the Federal Archives contain documents of the naval attaché in Madrid as well as fragments of files from Tokyo, Moscow and Oslo. Characterisation of content: Of the imperial naval attachés, only files of the attaché in Sofia from World War I have survived to a considerable extent. The tradition for the individual naval attachés since 1933 is very different. While for some attachés, e.g. Washington, no archives have been preserved in the holdings, for others, e.g. London, Rome, Tokyo, Moscow, Istanbul and Ankara, as well as Madrid, Lisbon, Agram and the four Scandinavian capitals, entire series of files have been preserved. The files of the naval attaché Tokyo go through the internment of the ´Personals (first by the Japanese, then by the Allies) and the handling of the office after the Second World War beyond the end of the war until 1947. State of development: Index of duties Vorarchivische Ordnung: The archival records of the naval attachés of the Imperial Navy until their recall in 1920 are summarized under the sub-collection RM 12 I. The archival records of the naval attachés of the Imperial Navy until their recall in 1920 are summarized under the sub-collection RM 12 I. Documents of the naval attachés appointed between 1933 and 1945 are part of RM 12 II. Scope, explanation: Holdings without increase 11.0 m 462 AU Citation method: BArch, RM 12-II/...

History of the Inventor: The Naval Group Command West was formed in August 1939 in Wilhelmshaven as the operational command staff for the German Bight, the North Sea and the Atlantic. After the French campaign, it moved its headquarters to Paris and transferred part of its powers to the Naval Group Command North. Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Group Command West was simultaneously Commander Admiral France. In October 1944, the Maritime-Negruppenkommando West was replaced by the Marineoberkommando West in Bad Schwalbach. Description: The Naval Group Command West was formed in August 1939 in Sengwarden near Wilhelmshaven as the operational command staff for the German Bight, the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. After the French campaign it took its seat in Paris and transferred part of its competence to the Naval Group Command North. His commander-in-chief was Commanding Admiral France, whose staff was integrated into the Group Command in November 1942 as the Chief Quartermaster's Staff, which since then had not only been the operational command staff, but also carried out military service and location-related tasks. In October 1944 the Naval Group Command West was replaced by the Naval Command West in Bad Schwalbach. His commander-in-chief was at the same time commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht of all troops of the army, the navy and the air force enclosed in the fortress areas of France. Characterisation of content: In addition to the war diary from 23.8.1939 to 31.1.1945, the holdings also include files on the occupation of Norway, the preparations for landing in England and the operations of the blockade crushers, battleships and auxiliary cruisers arriving in French ports. There are gaps in the operational records of the companies "Weserübung", "Seelöwe", "Rheinübung" and "Cerberus". West Marine Command files are no longer available. State of development: Findbuch Scope, Explanation: 384 Citation method: BArch, RM 35-II/...

History of the Inventory Designer: On 13 December 1918, the Navy Cabinet became the Personnel Office in the Reichsmarineamt. The personnel office was renamed the Marine Officers Personnel Department on 17 April 1919. On 1 October 1936, this was extended to the Naval Personnel Office (MPA), which was directly subordinated to the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The Naval Personnel Office was divided into two departments in 1936; the third was added in 1939: General and Maritime Officers' Affairs Department (MPA I) Naval Engineering Officers' Affairs Department (MPA II) Officers' Affairs Department d.B., z.V., a.D. and Special Leader Department (MPA VI) In addition, three departments were directly subordinate to the Head of the Office: Department for Naval Affairs (MPA III) Department for Naval Affairs (MPA IV) Department for Naval Affairs (MPA V) The Naval Personnel Office was dissolved on 14 July 1945. Processing note: An (incomplete) archive list of the holdings from earlier years is available. In addition, there is a finding aid book for the naval officers' card index by Mrs. Katharina Toth from 1990. The inventory, with the exception of the usage file, was indexed in 2012 by Mr. Frank Anton with database support. The official RMD 12 (Marine Personnel Office) holdings of printed matter were dissolved and its archives transferred to the holdings. Description of the holdings: The existing archives of the holdings were partly returned from London to the Military Historical Research Office (MGFA) during the period from 1959 to 1965. Other documents were issued in the 1960s and 1970s by individual citizens of the Federal Republic. The most recent parts of the collection were transferred from the Military Interim Archive in Potsdam in 1993. Content characterization: Numerous documents were destroyed at the end of the war in 1945. The collection comprises only a few files of the Reichsmarine from the years 1919 to 1935 and also not very many general documents from the time of the Kriegsmarine from 1935 to 1945. The largest part of the collection consists of officer records from the years 1940 to 1943. In addition, there is an extensive use index of the naval officers. State of indexing: Index of archival records Findbuch zur Verwendungskartei für Offiziere Online-Findbuch Scope, Explanation: Stock without increment 82 AE and 42000 index cards Citation method: BArch, RM 17/...

On April 21, 1933, Hitler appointed his personal secretary Rudolf Hess, the former head of the "Political Central Commission" of the NSDAP, as "deputy of the Führer" and authorized him to decide in his name on all matters concerning the leadership of the party. The main task of the deputy leader and his staff, formed at the headquarters of the NSDAP in Munich, was to "align the Gauleitungen, divisions and affiliated associations of the NSDAP uniformly and to give them political guidelines"(1) This function of a central authority of the internal party leadership had to be fought for and defended first and foremost against the resistance of the Reichsorganisationsleiter Robert Ley, who regarded himself as the main heir of Gregor Strasser and his concentration of power within the party. (2) The "NSDAP liaison staff" set up on 24 March 1933 in the former building of the Prussian State Ministry in Berlin was subordinated to Hess and subsequently served as the Berlin office of the Führer's deputy, without achieving or even exceeding the importance of the Munich staff, also with regard to the later coordination functions vis-à-vis the Reich government. As was already the case when Hess was commissioned to head the Central Political Commission, which had been created at the end of 1932 after Gregor Strasser's dissolution of the Reichsorganisationsleitung, which had developed into a central party-internal power apparatus, as a supervisory organ for its previous main departments III and IV,(3) Hitler's appointment of his private secretary as deputy to the leader was by no means intended to strengthen the position of the party or its Reichsleitung within the National Socialist power structure. While the comparatively generous endowment of the deputy leader's central authority of the party leadership should undoubtedly also serve to curb the power ambitions of other, personally stronger party leaders, the personality of Hess, who had always been a devoted follower of his leader without any independent power within the party leadership, offered a guarantee that a center of power alongside Hitler, as it threatened to develop in the short term in 1932 with Gregor Strasser's rise to "a kind of general secretary of the party with comprehensive powers of attorney" (4), could no longer emerge in the future. Hess could not speak of a supremacy over other "law firms" (law firm of the leader of the NSDAP, Reich Chancellery and - after Hindenburg's death - Presidential Chancellery). Even the later use of the central competences of the office of the deputy of the Führer under the energetic and ruthless leadership of Martin Bormann to develop his known personal position of power could only succeed, since Bormann consciously built up his position, but never only that of Hitler. Rudolf Hess, who was personally rather weak, was, however, granted comprehensive powers in state affairs by the Law of 1 December 1933 on Securing the Unity of Party and State. Like Röhm, the head of the SA staff, Hess was appointed Reich Minister without a portfolio in order to "ensure the closest cooperation between the Party and the State".(5) The position of the deputy leader was decisively strengthened by Hitler's unpublished circular of 27 March, which was issued by the Reichsminister in Berlin. On July 7, 1934, "the deputy of the Führer, Reich Minister Rudolf Hess", was given the position of a "participating" Reich Minister in the legislation without exception.(6) This gave Hess the opportunity to comment on all drafts of laws and ordinances and to assert the party's position. By the "Erlass über die Beteiligung des Stellvertreter des Führers bei der Ernennung von Beamten" (Decree on the Participation of the Deputy Fuehrer in the Appointment of Civil Servants) of 24 September 1935 (7), Hitler also ordered Hess to participate in the appointment of Reich and Land officials in such a way that he received a copy of the proposal for promotion or appointment with more detailed information about the civil servant and was granted a reasonable period of time to comment. As a rule, this deadline was used to obtain the opinion of the local party organisation, particularly on the political position of the candidate. After this decisive expansion of competence, the office of the deputy leader, whose staff comprised "two, three men" when Martin Bormann took over the leadership of the staff in July 1933, (8) took on firmer contours. In 1937, the deputy of the Führer or his staff leader, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, was headed by Rudolf Mackensen, the staff manager, and a number of clerks, representatives, special representatives, heads of offices, and other officials, only some of whom served exclusively on the staff of the Führer's deputy, while the vast majority headed party institutions that only formally served Hess or (9) The latter included (1937): Main Archive of the NSDAP: Head of Headquarters Dr. Uetrecht The Head of the Foreign Organization of the NSDAP: Gauleiter Bohle The Commissioner for Foreign Policy Issues: Ambassador von Ribbentrop The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Head of Headquarters Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. G. Bohle The Commissioner for Foreign Policy Issues: Ambassador of Ribbentrop The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Head of Headquarters Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. G. Bohle The Commissioner for Foreign Policy Issues: Ambassador of Ribbentrop The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Head of Headquarters Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. G. Todt Der Sachbearbeiter für alle Fragen der Volksgesundheit: Hauptdienstleiter Dr. Wagner Commission for Higher Education Policy: Haupttellenleiter Prof. Dr. Wirz The representative for the new building of the Reich: Gauleiter Adolf Wagner The official for questions of job creation, for financial and tax policy: Hauptdienstleiter State Secretary Reinhardt The official for art and culture: Amtsleiter Schulte-Strathaus The official for music: Head of main office Adam The clerk for school questions: Head of main office Wächtler The clerk for practical-technical questions: Head of office Croneiß Party official examination commission for the protection of Nazi literature: Reichsleiter Bouhler The representative for building industry: General Building Inspector Head of Office Speer In 1938, the following were added: Central Office for the Economic Policy Organisations of the NSDAP: Head of Main Office Keppler Commission for Economic Policy: Head of Office Köhler. In addition to the already mentioned office of the deputy of the Führer in Berlin (liaison staff under head of the main office Stenger), there were also: Special representative of the deputy of the Führer: head of the main office Oexle Representatives for special use (e.g. V.): head of the main office Brockhausen and head of the main office Seidel (Nazi camp for civil servants in Tutzing and Reich camp for civil servants in Bad Tölz). De facto, the Munich office of the deputy leader's deputy consisted essentially of two parts, in addition to the leadership of the staff and the adjutants: Internal party affairs and constitutional issues. According to the published organisational overviews, they were headed by 'clerks', referred to as 'Division II or Division III' in the secret business distribution plans (10 ). During the preparation of this finding aid book, a business distribution plan (1938) of Division II, headed from March 1934 until the end of the war by Helmuth Friedrichs, former Gaug Managing Director of the NSDAP in the Gau Hessen-Kassel region, was determined for the first time for the office of the deputy leader's deputy. There the organisational level below the department level was also called "department" instead of "group" or "main office" as was later the case. Division II - Internal Party Matters - Field: Political Issues of the Party and the State Staff: Head of Main Office Helmuth Friedrichs Division II A Establishment and Expansion of the Party, its Structures and Associated Associations. Observation of economic, social and agricultural policy issues. Head: Head of Office Albert Hoffmann Representative: Head of Head Office Erich Eftger II A a Head of Head Office Pannenborg Organisational questions of the whole party, orders and orders of the deputy of the leader, as far as they concern organisational questions. Observation of the organizational relations of the affiliated associations and the divisions to the party and among each other. liaison with organisations outside the Party dealing with human leadership, as far as the organisation's issues are concerned. II A b Head of Headquarters Franz Schmidt II Social, economic and agricultural policy issues, labour front and questions of the Reich's nutritional status. Connection to the NSBO main office and the Reichsamt für Agrarpolitik. II A d Head of main office Long connection to the main offices and affiliated associations and their fields of activity; in particular local politics, civil servants, educators, war victims, NSDStB, women's affairs, people's welfare with the exception of the National Socialist Association of Lecturers, the National Socialist Association of Physicians, the German Labour Front, the Office for Agricultural Policy, the Office for Technology. Division II B Observation of domestic political developments and their impact on the party and the state. Head: Head of Office Gerland Representative: Witt II B a Head of Witt Reporting (in cooperation with all departments of the staff); orders of the deputy of the leader, as far as they concern ideological questions. II B b Head of Gerland Propaganda and Press Liaison Office (film, radio, post and celebration). II B c Head of office Schütt Liaison office training (training questions of the party in connection with the Reichsschulungsamt). II B d Head of the Lindhorst office Connection guide to the RAD Schnurbein connection office SA, SS, NSKK, Arbeitsdienst, HJ. II B e Head of department Gerland Liaison office KdF. II B f Head of Office Gerland Lutze Liaison Office Wehrmacht. II B g Office for Guests of Honour R e i c h s p r t a g e s . Department II C Head of Office Opdenhoff Führungsamt und Personalamt des Stellvertreters des Führers. Recording and supervision of junior leaders of the NSDAP. Processing the personal files of the political leaders to be confirmed by the deputy leader and the leader. Supervision of the Gauamts- and Kreisleiter detached to the staff. Membership system. Division II D Head of Office Opdenhoff Handling of complaints concerning party departments. Head of the Thurner headquarters Supervision of the junior staff members who have been seconded to the staff for one year. For the Department for Questions of Constitutional Law (Division III) set up in the summer of 1934 after the transfer of the authority to participate in the preparation of state legislation, there is no business distribution plan for the office of the deputy of the Führer. In the 1938 and 1939 National Socialist Yearbooks, in addition to the "official in charge of questions of state law", Hauptamtsleiter Sommer, the heads of the departments Dr. Johann Müller, Heim and von Helms are only listed as heads of department (11) This department, which was responsible for "supervising" the legislation and personnel policy of the Reich government, was subdivided, analogous to the individual ministries, into respective organisational units (groups or main offices, offices, main offices) for domestic, legal and economic policy. Since it could itself be regarded as a part of the state administration in terms of civil servant and budgetary law and had almost exclusively to do with draft laws and civil servant issues, it was obvious for Hess to entrust the work of this department to experienced administrative officials with legal knowledge. At the request of the deputy of the Führer, the officials were transferred from the respective Reich or Land departments to the staff of the deputy of the Führer. Until 1941, Head of Division III was the administrative lawyer Walther Sommer in the rank of Ministerial Councillor; his successor became State Secretary Dr. Gerhard Klopfer in 1941. Due to the composition and origin of the staff, Division III was hardly in a position to bring about the originally intended implementation of a radical party position in state legislation and civil servant policy. Rather, we can speak of a mediating function between party offices and ministries. Within this framework, the public authorities expected "their" officials transferred to the staff of the deputy leader to have a supportive influence on the responsible NSDAP department, which was usually actually exercised (12). Nonetheless, it is beyond doubt that the party's right to participate in the appointment and promotion of civil servants, from which only the Wehrmacht was able to keep itself free, had a considerable influence on the civil service and, among other things, had to impair its traditional view of service. Immediately after the England flight of his deputy Rudolf Hess, Hitler made the order on 12 May 1941 that the previous office of the Führer's deputy should bear the name "Party Chancellery" and be subordinated to him personally. The leader was "as before Reichsleiter Martin Bormann" (13). In his decree of 29 May 1941 "On the Position of the Head of the Party Chancellery" Hitler specified "in order to ensure the closest cooperation of the Party Chancellery with the Supreme Reich Authorities: The Head of the Party Chancellery, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, has the powers of a Reich Minister, he is a member of the Reich Government and of the Council of Ministers for the Defence of the Reich". Hitler then affirmed that the previous head of staff of the office of the deputy leader's deputy did not receive the title of his former superior, but rather all of his powers: "Where in laws, ordinances, decrees, orders and other orders the deputy leader's deputy is named, he shall be replaced by the head of the Party Chancellery" (14). According to the NSDAP's self-image, the Party Chancellery was Hitler's office in his capacity as leader of the party. Their Hitler leader, who was directly responsible for Hitler, had "to process all fundamental plans and suggestions from the area of the party centrally" for Hitler. The instructions issued by Hitler himself or prepared on his behalf for the entire party were sent exclusively via Bormann to the departments responsible for implementation. Not only the political leadership of the party, but also all work arising from the party's supremacy towards the state was to be done in the party chancellery. During the war, these tasks included, as a matter of course, the "versatile deployment of the party organs in total internal warfare" and the work of the party in the integrated and occupied territories. In addition to the party and the Wehrmacht, the focus of the jurisdiction of the party chancellery was on "securing the unity of party and state" (15). In the Ordinance of 29 May 1941 on the Implementation of the Decree of the Führer on the Position of the Head of the Party Chancellery, the Reich Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellery Lammers and the Head of the Party Chancellery ordered the following on 16 January 1942: (16) The Party's participation in the legislation was to be effected exclusively through the head of the Party Chancellery, unless Hitler determined otherwise in individual cases. Proposals and suggestions from the area of the Party, its divisions and affiliated associations could only be forwarded via Bormann, the responsible ministries and other supreme Reich authorities, as far as the legislation was concerned. This practically amounted to a concentration of power on the person of Bormann. The party also played a central role in processing the personal data of the civil servants. In any case, the head of the Party Chancellery had the position of a b e t e i l t e Reich Minister in the preparation of state legislation in legislative work. This also applied to the laws and ordinances of the provinces and governors of the empire. In addition to these formal competences, it was stipulated that, in matters other than legislative matters, the communication between the supreme Reich and Land authorities, insofar as these were responsible regionally for several districts of the NSDAP, on the one hand, and the services of the Party, its divisions and affiliated associations, on the other hand, took place solely via Bormann if these were "fundamental and political questions". Direct traffic was expressly declared inadmissible. Thus an instrument of power equipped with far-reaching competences came under the exclusive leadership of an energetic party functionary who was just as servile upwards as he was after him under brutally ruthless party officials, who of course used it as far as possible to expand his own position of power, which of course was not exclusively based on his position as head of the party office. Bormann's rise from organizer of illegal Freikorpsgruppen and Feme desk murderers to head of the relief fund of the NSDAP and finally to chief of staff of the Führer's deputy, his constant approach to the person of Hitler - from the administration of Hitler personally from various sources funds available, the conversion of the House of Wachenfeld to the "Berghof" and "Berghof" respectively. the expansion of the entire Obersalzberg complex into Hitler's summer residence, up to Hitler's constant company in the Führer's headquarters or "special Führer train" during the war - cannot be traced here in detail (17). The coupling of these two functions - the leadership of the political coordination centre of the party (staff of the deputy leader or party chancellery) and Hitler's constant support and advice, also in personal matters - formed the basis of Bormann's special position of power, which could not easily be equated with the strengthening of the party leadership as such. Structurally, even an energetic head of staff or head of the party office was unable to change the desolate weakness of the NSDAP's Reich leadership. Even under Bormann, the party chancellery did not develop into an all-powerful, bureaucratic command center comparable to communist politburo. Bormann's special position was based on the personal, independent power of attorney as Hitler's personal clerk, which was institutionalized on April 12, 1943 with Bormann's official appointment as "Secretary of the Führer" (18). From Bormann's dominant position in the Führer's headquarters - not actually from his function as head of the Party Chancellery - the path led to the Super and Control Minister of the Reich Government, when the Bormann was not only seen by dissatisfied party and contemporaries in the final years of the war, but is also portrayed in historical studies on the Nazi regime in general (19). The two-pronged organisational structure of the office of the leader's deputy, which was essentially based on the two departments for internal party affairs and for questions of constitutional law, remained basically unchanged, even under the name of the party chancellery. In Division II, the following groups or main offices were added in accordance with the expansion of the tasks: II M (Reich Defence, Planning of Operations for the War Tasks of the Party), II W (Fundamental Questions of the Wehrmacht, Liaison Office to the OKW), II E (Foreign and People's Growth Work of the Party, including Occupied Territories), II F (Nazi Leadership in the Wehrmacht and Nazi Lead Officers) and II V (Staff Leadership Volkssturm). The offices II C and IID, on the other hand, which dealt with the party's junior leaders and personnel issues, were merged to form the II P office. The organisational overview of Division II given below is essentially taken from a note in Division III of 11 April 1945. The offices II A 2, 3 and 5 as well as II B 6 and II W 1 - 4 no longer listed there were supplemented from earlier business distribution plans from 1942 and 1944. Apart from a few exceptions, the names given as heads of organizational units originate from a plan for the introduction of dictation marks dated 26 March 1942 (20) and a telephone directory of 20 Jan 1945 (21), divided into departments and official groups/main offices. Head of Department: Friedrichs Hauptamt II A Management duties and organisation of the party, its divisions, affiliated associations and organisations Neuburg (1945: Keitel) II A 1: Organisational matters and fundamental questions of party structure, fundamental membership issues, staffing plan in cooperation with II P. Examination of content, coordination and publication of orders, circulars and announcements of the party office. Monitoring and evaluation of the announcements of all other Reich management offices. steering of the party's alignment sheets. Design of the arrangement. Collection of guide words, laws and decrees for evaluation for party work. Welsch (as representative) II A 2: The Party's commitment to economic, agricultural, financial and transport policy affairs Stengel (as representative) II A 3: Social policy affairs Elberding II A 5: Volkstumspolitik Seekamp (as representative) II A 6: General complaints and petitions Gerber Hauptamt II B: Ritterbusch (1945: Wall) II B 1: Propaganda and press, events and lectures Buhler (as representative) II B 2: Training and education in the party, adult education, leader training Schenke (as representative) II B 3: Culture and celebration design, written material Dr. Hammerbacher II B 4: Reporting and information system, events and lectures of the Brandes II B 5: Structure Detering (in representation) II B 6: e.g. V. Haar (in representation) Hauptamt II E II E 1: Party political leadership and organisational questions of the working areas of the National Group Norway and Belgium, the Adriatic Coastal Region, the Alpine Foothills and the Party Liaison Office Prague, as well as their coordination within the party to the national political and Germanic control centre. Refugee issues from evacuation areas outside the empire. Evaluation of the reporting material produced by the party sector. II E 2: Party political leadership issues of the AO National Group, the NSDAP and the Gauinspektionen See-Schifffahrt. Intergovernmental work of the party abroad by coordinating within the party and cooperating with the AA. (Domestic I and II) Align the Party's foreign work with the policy of the people and evaluate the foreign policy material generated in the Party sector. II E 3: Treatment of folklore issues within the Reich through the political orientation of German folk growth, consolidation of the endangered German folk growth and treatment of foreign peoples in the territory of the Reich. German folklore groups abroad, folk-political questions in the Generalgouvernement, Protectorate and in the occupied territories. Racial Issues in People's Growth Work. Corresponding work with: Main Office for Folklore Issues, Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, Reichskommissar für die consolidation deutscher Volkstums, VDA, Kärntner Volksbund, Steirischer Heimatbund, Volkstumsreferenten der Gliederungen und angeschlossenen Verbände. Hauptamt II F NS leading officers as leadership in the Wehrmacht. Rudder (1944/45) Hauptamt II M II M 1: Air war measures and operational planning. Beier (1945) II M 2: Securing personnel and material needs. (UK positions, fuel management, home flak, etc.) Zander Hauptamt II P Personalamt Hesseldieck (1945: Walkenhorst) II P 1: General personnel policy, seniority and service issues, pay and pensions. Young drivers and driver selection. II P 2: Disciplinary and appeal matters, judgments of war courts II P 3 Orders and decorations. care for surviving dependants and general care measures. Personal care for the soldiers of the service. Elections and conscripts to the Reichstag II P 4: Kommandiertenheim Rauchstraße. Hauptamt II V Staff management "Volkssturm" Bofinger (1945) Hauptamt II W Wehrmachtsfragen, at the same time liaison office to OKW Passe II W 1: Fundamental Wehrmachtsfragen. Rodegerts II W 2: Leadership office for Wehrmacht issues in parties, divisions, affiliated associations and supervised organisations. Rodegerts (in representation) II W 3: Special tasks of Rodegerts (in representation) II W 4: Questions of welfare and support for party comrades and people comrades vis-à-vis the Wehrmacht Rodegerts (in representation) The organisational structure and distribution of tasks of Division III are best derived from an undated "Provisional Business Distribution Plan of Division III - Party Law, Economy, Church", which was drawn up before 1944 at any rate: (22) Head: State Secretary Head of Command Dr. Klopfer Representative: Ministerialdirektor Dienstleiter Klemm, (at the same time Head of Group III C) Personal advisor: Oberregierungsrat Mainchnittsleiter Dr. Lincke Personalstelle III PSt.: Regierungsamtmann Klein, Regierungsinspektor Hausrath Special tasks: III V: Government Councillor Section Head Dr Beyer Government Councillor Dr Beyer Lang SS-Hauptsturmführer Will SS-Hauptsturmführer Klauß Affairs of the Security Police and the SD, procurement and evaluation of intelligence material, general questions of competence, political science investigations and research tasks, assessment of the political science literature - cooperation with the Party Official Examination Commission -, magazine and press editorial office of the department, affairs of the Black Corps, archive and map office of department III S: Regierungsrat Bereichsleiter Knöpfel Studienrat Dr. Scheele Lehrer Funk Frau Thomas Special orders of the Reichsleiter, Sonderbücherei, Archiv, Reichsschule Feldafing Gruppe III A: (Internal Administration, Folklore) Leiter: Oberregierungsrat Dienstleiter Ancker Vertreter: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Kap III A 1: Ministerialrat Dr. Dr. Hillebrecht Amtsrat Blankenburg Amtsrat Erler Amtsrat Verwaltungs- und Verwaltungsreformfragen; Administrative simplification; New areas; Reichskanzlei III S 2: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Kap Gemeinschaftsleiter Wöll Volkstumsfragen; Nationality matters; Eastern issues; Sammlungssagen III A 3: Currently unoccupied, distributed among III A 2, 4, 7 Public health (incl. (civil status, special sovereign matters); presidential chancellery (especially decorations); Federal Foreign Office; colonial matters Group III B: (economy, labour, nutrition, transport) Head: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Dr. Bärmann 1st representative: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Fröhling 2nd representative: Oberregierungsrat Bereichsleiter Dr. Geißler III B 1: Head: Gauhauptstellenleiter Mittag Organisation der gewerblichen Wirtschaft Gauwirtschaftsberater - Ausschüsse III B 1 a: Regierungsrat Section head Dr. Densow Energie; Ostwirtschaft; Preise; Handel; Handwerk; Entjudungen; Allgemeine Wirtschaftsfragen III B 1 b: Regierungsrat Section head Kopp Produktion der gewerblichen Wirtschaft (außer Kohle, Bergbau, Energie); Rohstoff- und Warenbewirtschaftung; Personalien in der gewerblichen Wirtschaft III B 1 c: Reichsbankrat Vellmer Kohle-Bergbau; money and capital markets; banking and credit; insurance; foreign trade; tourism III B 2: Head: Oberregierungsrat Bereichsleiter Dr. Geißler Basic questions of social policy III B 2 a: Regierungsrat Section head Schwingenstein Amtsrat Gemeinschaftsleiter Fiedler Arbeitseinsatz; Sozialversicherung; Versorgungswerk III B 2 b: Regierungsrat Beimes Lohnpolitik; Gewerbeaufsicht; Berufserziehung III B 2 c: Section Head Gölz Construction Industry; Housing and Settlement; Transport; Post III B 3: Senior Government Council Section Head Kok Government Officer Eisermann Food Industry; Agriculture; Forestry; Hunting; Price Policy in Food, Agriculture and Forestry; Reich Office for the People of the Reich; Reich Nutrition Office; Armament of the German Village; Regional Planning; Battle of Production III B 4: Attorney at Law Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. (German Federal Law Gazette) On top of that, support of the Gauwirtschaftsberater; conferences; reporting; newsletter "Der Gauwirtschaftsberater"; editing; economic policy training and propaganda; special assignments III B 5: main editor, section leader Vollmann Wirtschaftswissenschaft; archive; business press and magazines; magazine "Nationalsozialistische Wirtschaftspolitik" Group III C: (Justice, law of the NSDAP) Head: Ministerialdirektor Dienstleiter Klemm Representative: Oberregierungsrat Oberreichsleiter Dr. Enke III C 1: Ministerialdirektor Dienstleiter Klemm Reserved special areas: NSRB; Academy for German Law; Participation in personnel matters of the judiciary III C 2: Oberregierungsrat Oberreichsleiter Dr. Enke Justizinspektor Gemeinschaftsleiter Ungethüm Party Law; Civil Law; Commercial Law; Labour Law; Procedural Law; Voluntary Jurisdiction; Bar Law; Civil Cases; Individual Cases III C 3: Oberlandesgerichtsrat Müller Justizinspektor Gemeinschaftsleiter Ungethüm Criminal Law; Wehrmacht Criminal Law; Juvenile Criminal Law; Grace Cases; Compensation Act; Criminal Cases, Individual Cases III C 4: Prosecutor von Kaldenberg Secondary criminal laws; traffic law; criminal proceedings for racial defilement; criminal procedural law; costs and fees; testimony approvals (interrogation law) III C 5: District Court Council Section leader Klemm-Werner participation in III C 2; industrial property law; copyright and publishing law; shipping law; treatment of hostile property III C 6: Higher Regional Court Council Dr. Hopf Strafsachen, Einzelfälle; Heimtückesachen; study and training reform; prison group III D: (Church, school, university, youth leader of the German Reich, Ministry of Propaganda, organization of celebrations, provision for war survivors) Head: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Krüger Representative: Oberregierungsrat Reichsleiter Dr. Schmidt-Römer III D 1: Oberregierungsrat Abschnittleiter Dr. Fruhwirth Central steering of political and denominational affairs in the new areas, insofar as they are not dealt with in Divisions III D 2 to III D 4. Confessional contributions; right to leave and enter the church; cemetery law; public holiday law; acquisition of the right of the dead hand; confessional activities in hospitals; church statistics; general legal issues; insofar as they concern political-confessional matters III D 2: Oberlandesgerichtsrat Dr. Birk Steuerinspektor Wischer Allgemeine Kirchenfragen; Special Questions of the Protestant Church; Special Questions of the Catholic Church; Church and Wehrmacht; Other Churches and Sects; God-believers III D 3: Oberregierungsrat Bereichsleiter Dr. Schmidt-Römer Tax Inspector Wischer Finance and Property Affairs of the Churches, including Church Matters of the Reich Ministry of Finance; Church and Economy III D 4: Government Councillor Dr. Schlapper Tax Inspector Wischer Transfer of clergy and church officials to other professions; Personnel and Salary Matters of Political and Denominational Significance III D 5: Head of Office Dr. Wischer Landwehr Reichspropagandaministerium Restriction of confessional propaganda work and deconfessionalization of political and cultural means of leadership (literature, press, music, film, visual arts); celebration design; Reich Aviation Ministry; Confidential Information III D 6: Head of Studies, Section Head Dr. Anton Allgemeine Erziehungsfragen; personal details of teacher training institutions; HJ participation in educational matters at schools; German education abroad and in the areas incorporated into the Reich III D 7: Regierungsrat Section leader Kristandt Allgemeine Verwaltungs- und Rechtsangelegenheiten der Schule; Schule und Kirche; Landjahr; Heimschule; Kinderlandverschickung; Minderheitenschulwesen; Lehrerbesoldung; Jugendführer des Deutschen Reiches III D 8: z. Philipp Government Inspector Gerst University Affairs, including Personal Data; Technical and Vocational Schools; High Command of the Wehrmacht, in particular Wehrmacht Welfare III D 9: Kreisleiter Dr. Kurt Schmidt Displacement of denominational influences, especially denominational influence on youth outside school and on adult education; denominational interventions in hero worship; denominational superstition (miracles, prophecies, chain letters, pilgrimages, processions, etc.).); denominational influence on foreign peoples in the Reich; the abusive use of National Socialist terms, symbols and institutions as well as German customs by the churches; Churches and Party Group III E: (Finances) Head: Ministerialrat Oberbereichsleiter Dr. Gündel Representative: Oberregierungsrat Gemeinschaftsleiter Dr. Brack Financial policy; property and transport taxes; family burden equalisation; customs and excise taxes; monopolies; budget matters, financial equalisation; financial relations with the incorporated territories and with non-German territories and states; Reich assets and Reich debts; compensation issues Group III P: (civil servant matters and participation in state personnel policy) Head: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Dr. Kernert Representative: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Döll III P 1: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Dr. Kernert Reserved special areas: III P 2: Landrat Dr. Grazer General and internal administration; questions of junior staff and training III P 3: Landrat Dr. Hoffmann Auswärtiges Amt; Ministry of Labour; Unterrichtsverwaltung III P 4: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Döll Reichsjustizministerium; individual cases according to §§ 42 and 71 DBG III P 5: Oberregierungsrat Abschnittleiter Dr. Grazer Bode Amtsrat Gemeinschaftsleiter Sommer Beamtenrecht; Remuneration Law; Reich Finance Administration; Court of Audit; Prussian Finance Ministry; East Ministry; Colonial Policy Office III P 6: Reich Bank Council Section Head Grimm Reich Economics Ministry; Four-Year Plan; Reichsbank; Freemason Issues III P 7: Oberregierungsrat Section Head Kirn Reich Transport Ministry; Division Reich Minister Speer; Reich Post Ministry III P 8: Head of the section Brändle Beurlaubungen for purposes of the NSDAP; service penal cases - individual cases; civil servants of the simple, middle and upper service of all business areas; OKW; Reich Aviation Minister; Reich Forester III P 9: Regierungsrat Section leader Tent Jewish and mixed-race issues; police, medical, veterinary, and surveying administration; Reich Labor Service; Reich Ministry of Food; Reich Nutrition A business distribution plan for Division I, which was exclusively concerned with the administration of the Reich's agencies and whose leader in the years 1941 - 1943/44 was to be proven to be Hauptdienstleiter Winkler, from 1944 Dienstleiter Zeller (23), could not be determined. Externally, the three departments of the Party Chancellery continued to appear as "managing directors, internal party affairs officers and constitutional affairs officers". In addition to these three departments, which de facto constituted the "Party Chancellery" office, the published organisational overviews also continued to include other institutions de iure as parts of the Party Chancellery, which in practice developed as relatively independent independent entities or whose heads did not appear in their Party Chancellery function or appeared only marginally. Listed are (1942/1944): (24) Special representative at the party chancellery: Oberdienstleiter Oexle Main archive of the NSDAP: Reichsamtsleiter Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944: Bereichsleiter Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht. Brügmann The Head of the Foreign Organization: Gauleiter Bohle The Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Popular Growth (from 1944: The Commissioner of the NSDAP for all Popular Issues): Reichsleiter Himmler The Commissioner for the New Construction of the Reich: Gauleiter Adolf Wagner The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Commander-in-Chief Dr. Todt, Oberbefehlsleiter Speer The official in charge of all public health issues: (Chief) Befehlsleiter Dr. Conti The head of the NSDAP's Race Policy Office: Ober- bzw. Hauptdienstleiter Dr. Groß The head of the Office of Genealogy: Reichsamtsleiter bzw. Hauptbereichsleiter Dr. Mayer Der Beauftragte für Fragen der Finanz- und Steuerpolitik: Fritz Reinhardt, Reichslager of the NSDAP, Bad Tölz: Seidel, Reichsschule of the NSDAP, Feldafing am Starnberger See: Reichsamtsleiter or Oberdienstleiter Görlitz Remarks: (1) Thus the contemporary terminology of the task description in the organization and yearbooks of the NSDAP; here: Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, edited by the Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP, 2.-4. Aufl., Munich 1937, p. 152 (BArch NSD 9/17). (2) On the overall complex of the relationship between party and state during Nazi rule, cf. in particular Martin Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers. Foundation and development of his internal constitution, Munich 8th edition 1979; Peter Diehl-Thiele, Party and State in the Third Reich. Studies on the relationship between the NSDAP and general internal state administration 1933-1945, Munich 1969. (3) Broszat, Staat Hitlers, p. 80, on the structure of the Reichsorganisationsleitung der NSDAP under Gregor Strasser see p. 73 ff. (4) Broszat, Staat Hitlers, p. 80, on the structure of the Reichsorganisationsleitung der NSDAP under Gregor Strasser cf. p. 79. (5) RGBl. I p. 1016. (6) BArch R 43 II/694. (7) RGBl. I. S 1203. (8) Information from the unprinted essay by Kurt Borsdorff: "Mit Reichsleiter Martin Bormann auf dem Obersalzberg" in BArch NS 6/789; cf. Diehl-Thiele, Partei und Staat, p. 218, note 46 (9) See above all the NSDAP Organization Books available until 1941 (BArch NSD 9/16-19) and the National Socialist Yearbooks published until 1938 "with the cooperation of the Reichsleitung der NSDAP" by Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler, from 1939 by Reichsorganisationsleiter Robert Ley (BArch NSD 9/22-26). (10) Organisational overviews and business distribution plans of the department of the deputy leader or of the party chancellery are summarised in NS 6/451. (11) NSD 9/25-26. (12) Cf. Broszat, State of Hitler, pp. 311 ff. (13) Printed, inter alia, in the Organisation Book of the NSDAP, 1943, p. 151 (NSD 9/20). (14) RGBl. I p. 295. (15) Cf. the detailed task description of the Party Chancellery in the National Socialist Yearbook 1944, p. 181 f. (NSD 9/28). (16) RGBl. I p. 35. (17) See above all Josef Wulf, Martin Bormann - Hitlers Schatten, Gütersloh 1962, Lew Besymenski, the last notes by Martin Bormann. A document and its author, Stuttgart 1974, and Jochen von Lang, The Secretary. Martin Bormann: The man who ruled Hitler, Stuttgart 1977. The various depictions of Rudolf Hess concentrate above all or even exclusively on his flight to England, the conviction in Nuremberg and in particular the prison time in Spandau, so that a comprehensive, scientific representation of the "deputy of the Führer" and his activities 1933 - 1941 is basically still outstanding. (18) NS 6/159. (19) Cf. in detail Broszat, State of Hitler, pp. 392 ff. (20) All plans and overviews in NS 6/451. (21) NS 6/138; below the group leader level it was not possible to assign the names listed there to certain organizational units. (22) NS 6/451; there also the less detailed organizational overview printed by Diehl-Thiele, Partei und Staat, pp. 222 ff. For the staff at the beginning of 1945, see also the telephone directory of 20 Jan. 1945 in NS 6/138. (23) In addition to the organizational overviews in NS 6/451, see NS Yearbooks 1942 and 1944 (NSD 9/27-28). (24) NS Yearbooks 1942 and 1944 (NSD 9/27-28). Inventory description: Inventory history of written records management in the party office Although file plans and other registry aids have only been handed down in fragments for certain periods of time, even then, a clear picture of the written records management of the Hess and Bormann offices can be drawn. A file plan from the year 1937 is divided into two main areas (10 party, 20 state) and then divided into four levels according to the subject system. Files that could have been listed according to this plan, which was valid until about 1940, are only preserved in the form of single sheets or small processes, so that this file plan was of no particular importance for the indexing of the holdings. On the other hand, an excerpt from the file plan for matters of Reich defence (1) dating from 1939 proved to be a useful aid. It provides for up to 80 small subject series, of which 3 to 18 each are grouped into five groups (operational planning, subject areas, defence, preparation of mobilisation and general affairs); finally, collective folders for routine processes could be created as required. The systematic weaknesses that are typical of small subject series became clearly apparent in the distortion. The division of the records into "destination files", "auxiliary files" and "files for correspondence" is not convincing and could be neglected in the listing of the files of the competent Division M and Group II M respectively. File plans for the mass of the surviving records, i.e. from the time of the Party Chancellery (1941 - 1945), have not been preserved. After all, Rotulus sheets preserved for a sub-area with titles to essentially completed processes show the systematics of the underlying file plan (2). Rotulus leaves for the file numbers 1010/0 to 3230/4 have been preserved, whereby a further stage in the numerical classification was partly formed. The classification was based on the department principle. The file plan was used until the end of the war, as the comparatively closed tradition from Department III shows, and was observed in principle. The reference number consisted of the name of the respective organizational unit and the file number. The fate of the holdings since the conquest of Germany by the Allies corresponds to the history of German contemporary historical sources in the war and post-war period in general. Perhaps there is a specific feature typical of the existence of a political party in that self-destruction by party functionaries accounts for a larger proportion than destruction by enemy action. Of course, the acts of annihilation cannot be proven in detail. Since 1955, the Federal Archives have received splinter-like remnants and a few closed groups of records, essentially from offices of the victorious powers USA and Great Britain, to a lesser extent from authorities and universities in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as about two dozen individual donations from private holdings, whereby takeovers from other holdings of the Federal Archives are added. In 1955, the Federal Archives took over copies of letters from the Chief of the Security Police and the SD to Bormann, of judgments handed over to Bormann by the Reich Minister of Justice, and of other documents from the Provenance Party Chancellery, all relating to events in connection with the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, all of which - supplemented by a small amount of material from private collections - were combined in the NS 6 "Party Chancellery of the NSDAP" as a special "Collection July 20, 1944" due to their common provenance. The originals of these documents, which had already been transferred to the main archive of the NSDAP before the end of the war, were received by the Bundesarchiv in 1962 in the course of the repatriation of German files from the Federal Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia (USA). These historically highly significant materials were already made accessible in detail by Jürgen Huck in November 1955. His title recordings have been completely incorporated into this finding aid book (p. 94 ff.). The other contributions come from the University Library of Heidelberg, the American Document Center in Berlin, the Federal Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia, and the National Archives of the United States in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress there, and the British file depot in Whaddon Hall. In addition, there were a large number of smaller statements from German authorities and private owners. The holdings received a larger increase in the course of many years of organizing work from other holdings of the Federal Archives, above all from the NS 26 holdings (main archive of the NSDAP) and the "Schumacher Collection", which is to be dissolved altogether. In total, no more than 5 documents of the Party Chancellery should be preserved in the Federal Archives. This rough estimate may disregard the registries of the State Secretary Reinhardt in his capacity as "representative of the deputy of the leader or of the Party Chancellery for matters of job creation, financial and tax policy" and his personal adviser Dr. Hans Gündel, who was head of Group III E Public Finances in the Party Chancellery, remaining in inventory R 2 (Reich Ministry of Finance). Comments: (1) Both file plans in NS 6/69. (2) NS 6/803 - 804. Archival processing While the "Collection 20. July 1944" and which became known according to their core as "Kaltenbrunner Reports", were subjected to a detailed indexing, which already led in 1955 to a finding aid book with a detailed introduction and comprehensive index, the remaining parts of the inventory, fed by a multitude of duties and takeovers, were first recorded in the order of access, provided with provisional signatures, and in some cases marked summarily in terms of content - whereby, if available, the delivery directories of the delivering agency, for example the "Kaltenbrunner Reports", were usually followed. B. of the US Document Center -, Z. T. however, also downright according to archivfachlichen points of view registered. The final organizing and indexing work now carried out on this stock could therefore only partly be concerned with recording a number of accesses that had not been indexed at all up to now. The main task was rather the consolidation, standardisation and, in particular, the overall classification of the archival records - also from other holdings of the Federal Archives - which had been divided into numerous accesses and indexed to varying degrees of intensity up to that point, and which naturally necessitated an examination, but mostly also a reformulation, of the provisional titles found. This applied in particular when, on the one hand, the dissolution of predefined archive units, which had previously only been described in summary form and which had mostly been formed formally in Allied custody, into individual processes was offered, and, on the other hand, the combination of scattered parts of processes into processes or also of scattered individual processes into uniform series, some of which were provided for by the file plan, became possible. The intensive recording to Bormann of the reports of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD on the events in connection with the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944, made almost thirty years ago, was taken over in the finding aid book. Since, of course, it was not necessary to index the remaining components at this extraordinary depth, this complex of archival records described in Section C 8.1 continues to occupy a special position within the holdings, which is also clearly discernible according to formal criteria. This can be justified both on the basis of the exceptional importance of the documented object, proven by the very high user frequency, and on the remarkable quality of the sources. The "originals" of the above-mentioned documents, which arrived in the Federal Archives considerably later (1962) - the indexing in 1955 had been done on the basis of copies taken over from the Federal Archives at the time and made in American custody - had been formed according to American principles of order and were provided with their own provisional archive signatures in the Federal Archives. They have now been adapted to the order and distortion as they were created in 1955 for the distortion of the corresponding copies. This adaptation also extends to the signatures, so that the found distortion of the copies can also be applied without any restriction to the corresponding volume of originals - which now bears the same signature. In principle, attempts were made to adopt predefined registry units, to retain grown processes as archive units, and to use existing titles as a basis for title formation during indexing wherever possible. This attempt, however, could essentially only succeed with the organically grown written material from the years after 1940/41 handed down from Division III in the areas of "Foreign Trade" (C 12), "Money and Capital Markets" (C 14), "Construction Industry" (C 18) and "Housing Construction, Housing Management, Settlements" (C 19) - i.e. from the offices III B 1 and III B 2 - with limitations also in the surviving records of the main offices and the main offices with restrictions. Groups II M (mobilization of the party and distribution of the Reich) and II F (Nazi leadership and education of the Wehrmacht). As a rule, only scattered and incoherent remnants from the other organisational units, i.e. also from the registries of the deputy leader, his staff leader or the head of the party chancellery, the department heads, from the groups II A and II B concerned with the actual party leadership in the narrower sense, as well as from the years 1933 to 1936 in general, reached the holdings. Here, therefore, there was only the choice of registering individual pieces as such - if the historical value made it appear justified - or of combining documents that belonged together thematically or according to formal criteria to form artificial processes in which either the documented object or the formal criterion (e.g. Führer's discussions with Bormann, templates for Reichsleiter Bormann, lectures by Friedrich's head of department to the Führer's deputy) were decisive for the process formation. The relatively complete and complete series of orders, decrees and circulars of the deputy of the leader or of the party chancellery is of central importance not only with regard to the overall wrecked tradition of the entire collection, but also because of its outstanding independent source value. The information contained in these documents (cf. Section C 1) on all areas of the Party Chancellery's leadership and administrative activities was primarily intended for higher Nazi functionaries and constitutes a high-quality collection of sources, both in terms of quality and quantity, for research into the ruling apparatus of both the NSDAP and the Nazi regime in Germany, which could be used not only for special studies on Hess and Bormann's offices, but also for a variety of questions in the research of the Nazi era. It therefore seemed advisable not to leave it - under the influence of the party announcements printed in the Reichsverfügungsblatt - with a conventional recording of titles by volume, which was limited to chronological information, but to make the content of both the subject matter and the text of the decrees, orders and circulars as accessible as possible using the possibilities of automatic data processing. The result of this indexing will be presented in the second part of this finding aid book, while in the first part the series of party announcements will be recorded and listed in purely chronological order within the overall systematics of the stock (Section C 1). As far as possible, the classification of the records is based on the remaining business distribution plans of Divisions II and III. The "regulatory registration principle" was applied insofar as, for practical reasons, it proved necessary to provide for several development sections (Sections C 18 and C 19) at a relatively low organisational level (e.g. head office III B 2 c) in the case of relatively dense parts of the transmission from offices III B 1 and III B 2. In organisational areas with a ruinous tradition, on the other hand, written records of several groups were sometimes combined, e.g. groups II F and II W in section C 5. It goes without saying that in cases in which a classification was not formally possible due to a lack of business signs or due to the dissolution of the registry discipline at the end of the war, a decision was made on the basis of factual aspects. This applies in particular to the documents in connection with 20 July, which went directly to Bormann at the Führer's headquarters without any noteworthy processing by the Party Chancellery and from there went directly to the main archive of the NSDAP. In the classification scheme of the index they now appear under the generic term "Combating political opponents by security police and SD", although an assignment to Bormann's reference files in Chapter B would also have been conceivable. This applies mutatis mutandis to the documents relating to general party management matters, which are combined under "Management, Adjutant's Office" and in Sections C 2 and C 3 and for which there was no recognisable regulatory approach - not even in the form of a reference number - to registration. As it were, those documents were appended to the inventory under the designation "Special Tasks" which did not arise from Bormann's activity as head of the Party Chancellery, but were related to Bormann's activity as an administrator of Hitler's private assets. These are remnants of the traditions of the equipment of the planned "Führer Museum" in Linz and the recovery of the art treasures already "acquired" for this purpose, as well as a few files from the management of the "Führerstiftung Wohnungsbau Linz" and the administration of the "Führerbauten" on the Obersalzberg. A total of three concordances not only ensure that certain signatures of the holdings can be easily identified in the finding aid book (Concordance I), but also guarantee that archival documents cited after Allied signatures (Concordance II), after the provisional numbers of the Federal Archives or after earlier signatures from other holdings of the Federal Archives (Concordance III) remain easily accessible. In principle, an inventory of the Federal Archives is to be used according to the Federal Archives' specially prepared finding aids, since the Allied signatures indicated, for example, in the American "Guides to German Records microfilmed at Alexandria" or other finding aids for confiscated German files, mostly represent an outdated state of order of the files and can only be used for ordering American microfilms. For practical reasons, it should still be possible in individual cases to move from the Allied signature possibly cited in publications to the signature of the original in the Federal Archives. The present finding aid book was created as part of a retro-digitisation project of the Federal Archives and contains the digitised indexing results of the present conventional finding aid. In connection with the planned online launch, the portfolio was revised in 2008. The entire collection was supplemented above all by files and dossiers from the collection "NS Archive of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR". Citation method BArch NS 6/ .... Characterization of the content: The fact that a user of the inventory is repeatedly reminded of the fact that these are only highly unequally distributed debris or even scattered fragments of a formerly quantitatively and qualitatively important registry body, roughly comparable with the inventory of the Reich Chancellery (R 43), is certainly the main reason why considerations of the historical value of the existing traditions must have an ambivalent result. Due to the closed series of the "Verfügungen, Anordnungen und Rundschreiben" and the - admittedly for the most part for a long time published -(1) Überlieferung zum 20. Juli 1944 (1) the holdings certainly belong to the qualitatively most significant from the time of the Nazi rule. However, even against the background of the most recent outstanding importance and competence of the party law firm and in particular of its head, the tradition still received cannot make up for the loss of important parts of the registry. Thus Bormann's much-described closeness and position of trust in relation to Hitler is documented at best in some splintery notes on "Führerbesprechungungen". The party's relationship to the state, Bormann's role in the Nazi power structure, in particular also considerations of the actual power of Hitler's directly assigned offices and the forms of rule exercised by them cannot be conclusively assessed on the basis of Bormann's preserved sources and the party chancellery, in which some important conclusions could rightly have been expected for the aforementioned reason. The fact that, instead, the Nazi regime's efforts to build social housing during the war are very closely documented and can largely make up for the loss of the Reich Housing Commissioner's tradition is a pleasing finding for the detailed researcher in this context, but it is undoubtedly of subordinate importance overall. The question remains as to whether the decisive files - such as the personal registry - will be filed by the applicant.

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: Origin and Development of the Ministry, Competences: Prior to 1914, food and agriculture matters were predominantly the administrative responsibility of the States. As far as the Reich was involved, the corresponding tasks were performed by the Reich Office of the Interior. The First World War brought a decisive turning point here; the longer the war lasted, the more urgent it was to take economic measures to secure food supplies. The first step in this direction was the establishment of the War Grain Society on 25 November 1914. On 28 June 1915, this company was united with the authority of the Reich Commissioner for Bread Management, which was founded only a little later, and the Reich Distribution Office, which was responsible for supplying flour, to form the Reichsgetreidestelle. For the management and distribution of other products, a large number of other Reich offices were set up in the course of the following months, for whose joint supervision the War Food Office was established on 29 May 1916. This was the first time that a central authority had been created for the uniform regulation of the war food industry in the Reich. Since the general emergency after the end of the war made a temporary continuation of the forced economic measures in the food sector necessary, the institution was retained and renamed the Reichsernährungsamt on 19.11.1918. This is the immediate predecessor authority of the Reich Ministry of Food, which was founded by decree of 21 March 1919 on the "Establishment and Designation of the Supreme Reich Authorities". In connection with the discussion about the common economy, the Ministry of Food was temporarily united with the Ministry of Economics from 15.9.1919 to 30.3.1920. After it became independent again, it was given the name "Reichsministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft" (Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture). With the National Socialist assumption of power, the food industry was gradually subjected to state-controlled market regulation. The Reichsnährstandsverwaltung, which was created on the basis of the standardization or dissolution of the previous professional associations and self-administration bodies by the law of 13 September 1933, not only belonged to the RMEL's area of supervision, but was at the same time linked to the ministry at the head by personal union. Analogous to other supreme Reich authorities, the RMEL was merged with the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture on January 1, 1935 and until the incorporation of Austria in 1938 was called the "Reichs- und Preußisches Ministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft". A new and thus competing responsibility for the food industry arose with the promulgation of the Four-Year Plan in 1936. An organisational link with RMEL was established in that one of the two State Secretaries took over the management of the Nutrition Business Group in the Four-Year Plan. Due to a lack of personnel, the Reichsnährstandsverwaltung was integrated into RMEL during the Second World War. When RMEL was founded in 1920, its responsibilities extended to agriculture, the food industry, forestry, timber and fishing. The ministry kept these competences more or less unchanged for more than a decade. With effect from 5.7.1932, the Reich Ministry of Labour also assigned the RMEL the task of "Agricultural Settlement". On the other hand, it had to hand over to the newly established Reich Forestry Office on 12.7.1934 and 12.7.1935 the competences of forestry and hunting respectively the timber industry and the game trade. After several attempts by RMEL to take over responsibility for veterinary matters from the Reich Ministry of the Interior had failed, the Prussian Veterinary Department, which had belonged to the competence of the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, was rather assigned to the Ministry of the Interior by decree of 11 March 1935 after its merger with RMEL. Even before the merger, the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture had transferred responsibility for the agricultural vocational and technical education system to the newly created Reich Ministry of Science, Education and People's Education by law of 29 June 1934. The competence of the water management, which RMEL had taken over when it merged with the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, was lost to the newly appointed Inspector General for Water and Energy by decree of 29.7.1941. Inventory description: Inventory history Most of the RMEL files (approx. 2500 volumes) handed over to the Reichsarchiv until 1944 were destroyed during the bombing of Potsdam in April 1945. The same fate affected the vast majority of RMEL's files, which were located in the Berlin office buildings in Wilhelmstrasse and Behrenstrasse. The main exception to this rule were those files which had reached the area around Landsberg/Warthe in connection with the evacuation of various departments of the RMEL and the Reichsnährstandsverwaltung during the final months of the war. A further relocation to the Müncheberg/Seelow forest near Küstrin was planned, but was not possible. When it was merged with RMEL, a large stock of files from the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture had already been transferred to the then Prussian State Secret Archives. Since 1990, these files, which have meanwhile been kept by the Merseburg Department of the Central State Archives of the GDR, have again been kept in the Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin. The remains of the RMEL files seized by the American occupying forces after the end of the war were first collected together with other holdings of the Food and Agriculture Group at the Ministerial Collecting Center (MCC) in Hessisch-Lichtenau and listed. Most of these files were brought to Berlin with the relocation of the MCC in early 1946 and taken over by the Document Center there a few years later, while a smaller part seems to have reached the Document Center in Darmstadt. With the exception of the files on the expropriation of Jewish agricultural property handed over by the Secret State Archives in Berlin, most of the volumes of the tradition of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry, formerly kept in Koblenz as holdings R 14, have been successively transferred to the Federal Archives in Koblenz since 1953. On the other hand, the later filing deliveries from America and England contained only very isolated pieces of the former RMEL. It must be noted here that unfortunately no more than half of the files recorded in Hessisch-Lichtenau finally found their way into the Federal Archives. The remaining files will have to be considered missing today. The records in the Central State Archives in Potsdam until 1990 as holdings 36.01 originate from file transfers by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the GDR, the State Archives of Potsdam and Magdeburg and from file returns from the USSR. In 1990 both overdelivery parts were combined as stock R 3601. Archival evaluation and processing The order of the holdings is largely based on the business distribution plan of summer 1942, i.e. the individual departments form the main groups of the classification. Subgroups were formed largely on the basis of the main areas of responsibility of the departments. If necessary, modifications were made. Within the individual classification groups, the order was made as far as reasonable and recognizable according to the existing file numbers. Due to the fragmentary character of the tradition, individual volumes are often missing in the series of volumes already created in the registry of the ministry. For the sake of better clarity, no corresponding references were made to the individual follow-up titles. The system only noted if tape sequences or series were created in the archive. In view of the rudimentary tradition, cassations, with the exception of duplicates, were largely avoided. Content characterization: The tradition of the stock is extremely fragmentary. According to the business distribution plan of RMEL of 1942, which forms the basis of the inventory classification, the documents of Department V Customs and Trade Policy are only minimal and those of Department IX Village Armament, Highlands, Reallocation do not exist. The activities of Dept. I General Administrative, Personnel, Budgetary and Legal Matters, Dept. II Production and Food Policy are documented in particular, especially the food security during and after the First World War. World War, as well as the Abt. III Reichsgestütverwaltung. Larger groups of files include the documents of the general administration and those of the experimental and research institutes, the war damage regulation as well as the domain administration, especially in the integrated eastern territories. Above all, however, in this context it is important to refer to the files on the expropriation of Jewish agricultural land. State of development: Online-Findbuch (2008) Citation method: BArch, R 3601/...

History of the Inventory Designer: On October 1, 1939, summary of the (Prussian) Secret State Police Office (Ge‧stapa), the office of the Political Police Commander of the (non-Prussian) Länder, the Reich Criminal Police Office, the Security Police Main Office, and the Sicherheits‧haupt‧amtes (SD Main Office) of the SS in the newly erected Security Police Main Office, which was established by the Chief of Security Police and SD, Reinhard Heydrich (since October 30, 1939). January 1943 Ernst Kaltenbrunner) Reichssi‧cher‧heits‧hauptamt (RSHA); in October 1943 the RSHA was established as follows: Amt I Per‧sonal, Training and Organisation of the Security Police and the SD, Amt II Haushalt und Wirtschaft, Amt III Deutsche Lebensgebiete, Amt IV Gegner-Erforschung und -Be‧kämp‧fung (Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt), Amt V Verbrechensbekämpfung (Reichskriminal‧poli‧zei‧amt), Amt VI Auslandsnachrichtendienst, Amt VII Weltanschauliche Forschung und Aus‧wer‧tung Content characterisation: Part 1 (formerly: ZStA, 17.03): 1917-1945 (138): Personnel, organisation, business administration of various SS and SD offices 1917-1919, 1933-1945 (12), political situation (with reports), labour movement, communist and social democratic actions, church affairs (both domestic and foreign) 1921-1945 (22), training activity (also church political training) 1936-1944 (13), Literaturnach‧weise (historical and contemporary documents) 1927-1943 (9), lecture directories, Seme‧ster and seminar papers, various records 1923-1945 (15), Hexenwesen, Zauberei (with references) 1932-1942 (36), Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt, Berlin 1933-1943 (14), Geheime Staatspolizei Bremen 1934 (1), Staatspolizei(leit)stellen - mit verschiedenen Außen(dienst)stellen und Grenz(polizei)kommissariaten - Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Königsberg (Prussia), Munich, Saarbrücken, Prague 1933-1944 (15), Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Be‧reich of the Military Commander in France, Paris 1944 (1) Part 2 (formerly: BArch, R 58): 1920-1945 (1.670): Administration: Central authorities of the Security Police and SD 1933-1945 (21), Central and Unterbehör‧den 1933-1945 (6), Reichsstiftung für Länderkunde 1943-1944 (5), Correspondence and administration of written records 1933-1945 (20), Procurement, in particular Weapons and equipment 1933-1945 (15), vehicles 1936-1944 (10), literature 1941-1944 (9), budget, cash and accounting 1933-1945 (13), personnel affairs in general 1933-1945 (10), affairs of individual departments and persons 1936-1945 (97), Involvement of university teachers by the Orient Research Centre 1944-1945 (3), Ein‧stellung, education and training 1930-1945 (22), disciplinary measures 1934-1944 (4) Monitoring and prosecution of political opponents: Principles and guidelines 1933-1945 (6), status reports and overviews from the gesam‧ten Reichsgebiet 1931-1944 (34), status reports, v.a. individual state police officers 1933-1939 (68), imposition of protective custody and "special treatment" 1933-1945 (5), Über‧wachung and persecution of the labor movement in general 1928-1944 (27), popular front, united front 1925-1940 (15), German united party 1937-1940 (3), Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and socialist splinter groups 1931-1943 (23), Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and communist splinter groups 1932-1942 (41), individual social democratic, socialist or communist political organizations 1926-1942 (17), socialist and communist youth and sports organizations 1931-1941 (26), "Red Aid" 1930-1939 (16), cultural political organizations, free thinkers 1927-1941 (12), socio-political, professional and other organizations 1920-1941 (7), Ge‧werkschaftsbewegung 1922-1944 (20), anarcho-syndicalist movement 1930-1940 (5), Catholic and Protestant churches 1933-1945 (16), sects and freemasons 1933-1943 (10), Jews in the "Old Empire" 1933-1944 (16), Jews in integrated and occupied territories 1937-1944 (4), Zionist movement 1933-1944 (5), anti-Semitic propaganda 1936-1941 (6), national, liberal, conservative and monarchist opponents 1931-1945 (11) Surveillance of the NSDAP, its branches and the Wehrmacht: NSDAP and Wehrmacht in General 1933-1943 (1), Ribbentrop Office 1937 (1), German Labour Front 1933-1940 (2), Foreign National Socialist and Fascist Groups and Foreign Emigrants in Germany 1934-1942 (1), 20. July 1944, 1944 (1) Supervision of non-political organizations and economic enterprises: non-political organizations 1929-1941 (3), sports, youth and social associations 1930-1942 (2), consumer cooperatives 1934-1941 (6), artificial language organizations (Esperanto and others) 1933-1943 (10), economic enterprises, v.a. Insurances 1933-1942 (13) Defense against and fight against espionage and sabotage: Defense against espionage, treason and sabotage in general 1933-1945 (22), Lan‧desverrat and espionage 1933-1945 (9), sabotage and assassinations 1933-1945 (13) Measures against foreigners and in the integrated, affiliated and occupied Gebie‧ten: Treatment of foreigners in general 1933-1944 (3), foreign workers 1934-1944 (3), prisoners of war 1938-1945 (4), national minorities in Reich territory and in incorporated, affiliated and occupied territories 1934-1944 (1), state police measures in Austria 1938-1943 (7), daily reports of the state police headquarters Vienna 1938-1940 (11), mood and situation reports from Austria 1939-1944 (6), Sudetenland, Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia 1938-1945 (4), incorporated eastern territories and Generalgou‧vernement for the occupied Polish territories 1939-1945 (3), Denmark and Norway 1940-1945 (14), Eupen-Malmedy, associated western territories (Alsace, Lorraine, Luxem‧burg) 1940-1943, occupied western territories (Netherlands, Belgium, France) 1940-1944 (8), Occupied Eastern Territories (Baltic States, USSR) 1941-1945 (24), Yugoslavia, Hungary, Siebenbür‧gen, Macedonia, Operation Zone Adriatic Coastal Country 1941-1945 (6) Persecution and fight against non-political crime: Remainders of the criminal police 1935-1944 (3) Surveillance of public opinion and mood of the people: Principles of reporting by the SS Security Service (SD) 1937-1945 (2), Be‧richte on the 1939 domestic political situation (2), reports from the Reich: General, opponents, cultural areas, folklore and public health, administration and law, economics, Luft‧krieg 1939-1943 (39), SD reports on domestic issues 1943-1944 (10), regional Stimmungs‧berichte 1943-1945 (2), propaganda against foreign reports and "anti-state" influencing of public opinion 1933-1944 (3), combating antinationalsozialisti‧schen Literature 1933-1944 (11), Review and prohibition of books and brochures 1933-1943 (66), monitoring of the press 1933-1945 (55), broadcasting 1933-1945 (20), music, theatre, film, art 1935-1943 (2), science, education and popular education 1939-1945 (1), folklore 1939-1944 (1), situation of the general administration 1939-1945 (4), administration of justice 1939-1942 (1), economy 1939-1943 (1) procurement and evaluation of news from abroad: Foreign news in general 1938-1945 (16), monitoring of trips abroad 1936-1939 (10), German citizens and emigrants abroad 1933-1943 (6), German minorities abroad 1933-1943, news about individual countries: Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Albania, Algeria, Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Bel‧gien, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nie‧derlande, Norway, Austria, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Rhodesia, Romania, Schwe‧den, Switzerland, Soviet Union, Spain, South Africa, Syria, Transjordan, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Hungary, Uruguay, Venezuela, United States of America, Cyprus 1931-1945 (188) Individual cases of persecution and surveillance: Lists, files and collective files, v.a. about political opponents from the Weimar Republic 1934-1944 (7), card index about clergy retired from church service, Or‧densangehörige and civil servants 1940-1944 (5), card index of the SD to files about individual Perso‧nen also outside of Germany with personal data and information about the reason of the file keeping, a.o. Emigrants, diplomats, foreign legionnaires, lodge membership, political activity, Spionage‧verdacht, loss of service card 1936-1938 (157), SD file on persons in individual places, especially in northern Germany with a focus on Lower Saxony, including information on profession, organization (including KPD, Freemasons, denominational associations, companies, Be‧hörden), with additional stamp "Jude" o.Dat. if necessary. (223), SD card indexes on Germans and foreigners, especially Ireland, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Tsche‧chen and Hungary 1933-1943 (22) Annex: Personal documents 1883-1945, 1957-1960 (73) Part 3a (formerly: ZPA, PSt 3): 1913-1946 (616): Amt IV Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt (Office IV): political surveillance in the area of various state police (leading) positions 1929-1942 (135), Lage‧berichte 1938-1941 (4), KPD, SPD 1920-1944 (115), political emigration, directories of fugitive political opponents 1931-1944 (34), Distribution of illegal pamphlets 1927-1940 (43), jurisdiction against political opponents and interrogation practice 1933-1943 (21), various areas of surveillance 1913-1946 (27), internals, supplements 1933-1944 (16) Main Security Office of the RFSS: Monthly and situation reports, daily reports 1933-1939 (34), KPD, SPD, Red Massen‧selbstschutz, Red Frontkämpferbund 1924-1940 (50), Rheinischer Separatismus 1919-1940 (7), distribution of illegal pamphlets 1931-1941 (23), jurisdiction against politi‧sche opponents 1931-1938 (9), various areas of surveillance 1931-1939 (23), Perso‧nalangelegenheit Professor Dr. Scheidt 1936-1944 (1) Various offices of the RSHA, including state police (leit)stellen Berlin, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Stettin, Vienna 1920-1945 (73) Supplement: Structure of the main offices and offices of the Reichsführer of the SS o.Dat. (1) Part 3b (formerly: ZStA, 17.01 St 3): 1919-1946 (1.344): Office IV Secret State Police Office: printed reports of the Secret State Police and memorandums 1923-1942 (29), situation reports of the Secret State Police Office 1933-1942 (63), statistical reports of the State Police Offices 1938-1942 (30), reports of the State Police Offices in Germany and the occupied territories 1941-1943 (23), Anwei‧sungen, ordinances, orders and search lists of the Secret State Police, etc. Personal data and reports on doctors and guards in concentration camps 1928-1946 (42), materials of the Secret State Police Office on the dissemination of illegal writings, arrests, investigations, trials and the Tätig‧keit of the party organizations of the KPD 1928-1945 (81), various materials 1930-1945 (33), German, foreign and international organizations, parties and projects vor‧nehmlich of the labor movement 1919-1945 (291); various departments (RSHA and others) 1929-1945 (58); reports and notifications of the state police departments 1921-1945 (417); font collection: Illegal writings with reports and reports of the Secret State Police on their distribution and registration 1926-1945 (203); Supplements: various offices (RSHA and others) 1930-1946 (74) Part 4 (taken over by the Polish archive administration): approx. 17th century - 1945 (771): various agencies (RSHA and others; focus: RSHA Office VII Weltanschauli‧che Research and evaluation, with illegal and confiscated materials), approx. 17th century - approx. 1945 (771) Part 5 (Boberach/Muregger project): approx. 1782 - approx. 1946 (approx. 3,902): SD-Hauptamt and agencies III, VI and VII - Control and prosecution of ideological opponents: Jews, members of Christian denominations, Freemason lodges (with illegal and confiscated materials), ca. 1782 - ca. 1946 (ca. 3,902) State of development: Part 1 (former: ZStA, 17th century)03): Database/Find Index Part 2 (formerly: BArch, R 58): Database/Publication Findbuch: Boberach, Heinz: Reichssicherheitshauptamt (fonds R 58) (Findbücher zu Bestände des Bundesarchivs, Bd. 22), Koblenz 1982, reprint 1992 u. 2000 Annex - Personnel documents: database Part 3a (formerly: ZPA, PSt 3): database/findbuch (1967) Part 3b (formerly: ZStA, 17.01 St 3): database/findbuch, vol. 1-3 (1968) Part 4 (taken over by the Polish archive administration): Provisional directory Part 5 (Boberach/Muregger project): Database/Preliminary Findbuch Reichssicherheitshauptamt R 58 Part I: SD-Hauptamt und Ämter III, VI und VII, edited by Heinz Boberach and Dietrich Muregger Subsequent developments in database citation style: BArch, R 58/...

History of the Inventory Designer: 1872 Establishment of the Imperial Statistical Office by the Imperial Chancellor with the issue of a business instruction by the Imperial Chancellor, first subordinated to the Imperial Chancellery, since 1879 to the Imperial Office of the Interior and since 1918 with simultaneous renaming into the Imperial Statistical Office to the Imperial Ministry of Economics, 1934 Merger with the Prussian Statistical Office The task of the Office was the collection of material for Imperial Statistics, its technical and scientific examination, processing and publication, expert reporting on statistical issues. Inventory description: Inventory history Due to the effects of war and the collapse of the German Reich, the records of the Reich Statistical Office suffered heavy losses. At the Berlin headquarters in the Neue Königstraße, parts of the statistical material were destroyed during bomb attacks in May 1945. During the demolition of the building in 1945, the central registry was completely destroyed and approximately 10 of the 200,000 volumes of the library were lost. In the years 1943/44 several departments or departments with their written material had been moved to alternative locations. Much of the material that remained in the territories later occupied by Soviet troops was destroyed, while others were sent to the then Central State Archive in Potsdam. In April, the Dargun and Weimar branches were able to bring important material to Schwerin, from where the staff of the Reich Statistical Office there were able to flee to Hamburg at the end of April with parts of the documents in Schwerin. In Schwerin the original material of industrial production statistics and the mass of price statistics documents fell into Russian hands. The parts of the tax statistics that had been moved to Wernigerode were transported to Derenburg in Hesse before the retreat of the American troops. The stocks brought to Würzburg suffered losses due to bomb damage; the remaining documents were preserved. After 1945, the stock that had been relocated to the western occupation zones and the fragments of the traditions rescued from the Soviet occupation zone were concentrated in three places: 1. in the British occupation zone in the Statistical Office in Hamburg and Minden 2. and in the American occupation zone in the Ministerial Collecting Center in Fürstenhagen near Kassel; from there larger parts were brought to the USA 3. in the French occupation zone in the Office for Statistics and Economic Development in Baden-Baden. Essentially, the documents that fell into the hands of the Western occupying powers at the time were sent to the Federal Archives via the American Document Center in Berlin, the Federal Statistical Office or the USA. Archival evaluation and processing The successive transfer of parts of the collection from the Reich Statistical Office to the Federal Archives has led to a gradual recording of the holdings. The documents on the excise tax statistics, which came to the Federal Archives in 1952 with written documents from other American departments, were indexed in a finding aid book. The material returned from Alexandria in 1958 was provisionally developed in 1959. After a return of the files from the Berlin Document Center in 1962 and further splinter deliveries, a provisional completion of the indexing could be achieved in 1968. All the documents of the Statistical Office of the Reich that had entered the Federal Archives were indexed by a index of finds, whereby parts of the material recorded in the index of consumption statistics were re-signed. The publications of the Statistisches Reichsamt available in the Budnesarchiv at that time were recorded in a second index. Later, the Federal Statistical Office, in particular, was able to adopt further documents from agricultural statistics, industrial production statistics and the Reich Office for Defense Economic Planning and social statistics. Further exhibitor provenances were incorporated from the traditions of the Reichsnährstand and the Reichsstelle für Raumordnung which had been passed on to the Federal Archives. In addition, the Imperial War Museum in London handed over to the Federal Archives some relevant documents of small volume. In the winter of 1975, these additions were also incorporated into the inventory. Characterization of content: The following groups of written documents are to be named as the main focus of the collection: - Social statistics - Industry - Financial and tax statistics - Transport and communications - Abroad - Money and loans, insurance Part 1 (formerly: ZStA 31.02): Organisation and business operations 1922-1945 (186); Population and area 1925, 1933-1943 (28); Cross-sectoral economic activities 1910-1944 (533); Armament and war economy 1933-1947 (312); Industry 1910-1946 (542); Agriculture and forestry, fishing 1913, 1924-1945 (93); Transport and transportation 1924-1945 (475); Post and telegraph 1913-1944 (12); Crafts 1895, 1936-1944 (8); Arts and culture 1930-1944 (88); Medicine and sport 1928-1945 (72); Social services 1909-1945 (164); Education 1937, 1939-1944 (4); Finance and taxes 1913-1945 (177); Money and credit, insurance 1876-1946 (223); Justice and crime statistics 1937-1941 (3); Foreign countries 1904-1944 (640). Part 2 (formerly: BArch R 24): Administration 1923-1945 (16); Trade and transport statistics 1927-1944 (11); Social statistics 1927-1945 (1633); Population, business and cultural statistics 1910-1944 (5); Financial and tax statistics 1913-1945 (527); Summary economic statistics 1934-1945 (53); industrial production statistics 1936-1945 (35); general foreign statistics 1927-1945 (107); statistical communications - Memel 1932-1934 (2). State of development: Findbuch für Teil 1 (1982) Findbuch für Teil 2 (1975) Citation method: BArch, R 3102/...

History of the Inventory Designer: History After the foundation of the Reich in 1871, the creation of a common railway administration for all German states was not initially on the agenda. The southern German states feared the overweight of Prussia and finally rejected Bismarck's rich railroad law of 1875. Only the railway lines in Alsace and Lorraine, which were separated from France, were subject to the Imperial Chancellor since 1871. For the railway system in Germany the network of the Alsace-Lorraine Railways (besides 7 state administrations at that time) existed as the only state administration until the transfer of the state railway administrations of the Länder into the possession of the Reich. This railway network consisted of the parts of the French Ostbahn assigned to the German Reich on the basis of the Frankfurt Peace Treaty of 10 May 1871 and the lines of the Wilhelm-Luxemburg-Eisenbahnen taken over on a lease basis by the State Treaty of 11 June 1872 with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The newly formed "Kaiserliche Generaldirektion der Reichseisenbahnen in Elsass-Lothringen" had been established for this purpose by the Most High Decree of 9 December 1871 with the powers and duties of a public authority. At first it was directly subordinated to the Reich Chancellery (Department III for Alsace-Lorraine). Until the French occupation of Alsace-Lorraine in November 1918, it was also the focal point of operations and administration. For the development of transport in Alsace-Lorraine, in addition to the special traffic situation on the Upper Rhine road and the Burgundy Gate, the development of industry was of importance. While originally the textile industry in the area of Mulhouse stood in the first place, the German heavy industry, which shifted to Lorraine and Luxembourg, came more and more into the foreground, in addition the potash works in the Upper Alsace, which developed on a coincidental discovery, and the not very important but in Germany at that time almost only petroleum extraction near Pechelbronn. In the interests of smooth cooperation between transport operators and production units, a "Railway Committee" was set up on 1 October 1874, composed of representatives of chambers of commerce, industry and agriculture. This first Railway Committee later became the model for the Railway Councils affiliated to the other German State Railway Administrations. The Directorate-General also broke new ground on the question of tariffs by creating the so-called wagon room tariff. The inauguration of the first railways in Alsace-Lorraine, the Strasbourg - Basel line, took place on 19 and 20 September 1841. Thirty years later, when the Alsace-Lorraine Railways were taken over by the German Reich, the length of the line was 768.21 km, plus 174.54 km of the Wilhelm-Luxemburg Railway Company. Under German administration more than 1200 km were added. From a technical point of view, the railways were regarded as model installations in every respect: the transhipment facilities between railways and inland waterways were brought to the highest level of technical efficiency; the stations in Strasbourg and Metz were converted from small provincial stations into metropolitan stations with all the requirements of modern times. Net revenues in 1872 amounted to more than 5 million Marks, increased to 20 million Marks in 1890, 86 million Marks in 1900 and 153 million Marks in 1913, the last year of peace. On 27 May 1878, the Imperial Decree established the Reichsamt für die Verwaltung der Reichseisenbahnen in Berlin. It was a central authority under the direct authority of the Imperial Chancellor to manage the administration of the railways in Alsace-Lorraine and the neighbouring regions. The General Directorate of the Reichseisenbahnen in Alsace-Lorraine was now subordinated to the Reichsamt für die Verwaltung der Reichseisenbahnen, which acted as the state supervisory authority. The respective Prussian Minister of Public Works was entrusted with the management of the authority. First head of the Reich Office was State Minister Albert von Maybach (1822-1904), later Karl von Thielen (1832-1906) followed from June 1891, Hermann von Budde (1851-1906) from June 1902 and Paul von Breitenbach (1850-1930) from 1906. Direct management was the responsibility of the Directorate-General for Railways in Alsace-Lorraine, based in Strasbourg. Until 1 October 1909 it consisted of three departments: Division 1 for Operations, Division 2 for Construction, Division 3 for Transport and General Administration. To this end, the company management, traffic inspections, machine inspections, workshop inspections and a telegraph inspection managed the various branches of the company and traffic, while the central technical offices (the technical office, the construction office, the mechanical office and the materials office) independently handled a number of general transactions falling within the scope of the central administration. On 1 October 1909, a reorganisation came into force, the importance of which lay essentially in the removal of the operational directorates without replacement and the abolition of the central offices and the telegraph inspection, whose business was now handled by the Directorate-General itself. At the same time, the number of departments increased to 5: Department 1 for General Administration, Finance and Budgeting, Department 2 for Operations, Department 3 for Transportation, Department 4 for Construction, Department 5 for Machinery and Workshops. The 17 operational inspections in Alsace-Lorraine and 3 operational inspections in Luxembourg were directly carried out by the Directorate-General. The Executive Board of the German operations administration in Luxembourg was the superior authority for all departments of the district. There were 8 traffic inspections in Basel, Mulhouse, Colmar, Strasbourg, Saargemünd, Metz, Diedenhofen and Luxembourg. The traffic inspector in Basel also held the post of representative of the German administration vis-à-vis Switzerland. There were 6 machine inspections: in Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Saargemünd, Metz, Diedenhofen and Luxembourg. The main workshops were in Mulhouse, Bischheim near Strasbourg, Montigny near Metz and Niederjeutz near Diedenhofen. They were subject to the workshop inspections in Bischheim and Montigny two each (for locomotive construction and for carriage construction one each). Secondary workshops subject to machine inspections were located in Saargemünd and Luxembourg. Since 1911, all inspections have been called Offices, Plant Office, Machine Office, etc.). The incorporation of the Prussian Minister of Public Works into the administrative organization of the Reich strengthened the influence of the head of the Prussian State Railways over the heads of the other federal railway administrations and reduced the importance of the Reich Railway Office for issues related to national defence. 7 After the assignment of Alsace-Lorraine to France as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, the Reich Ministry of Transport took over the Reich Office's execution tasks in the autumn of 1919. The source value of the files taken over from the General Directorate in Strasbourg was described by the Reichsarchiv as "sufficient" at the time. "Apart from some historically interesting details from the recent times of Emperor Wilhelm I and Prince Bismarck, their value for the history of the German Empire lies in the... 9 Reference should be made to the peculiarities of Alsace-Lorraine's traffic situation at the intersection of important north-south and east-west connections and the resulting tradition of archival sources. The files contain documents from negotiations on the construction of major Alpine passes (Gotthard Railway, Eastern Alpine Railway, Simplon Railway), traffic between England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy, traffic between the Balkan states, Austria-Hungary and the southern German administrations on the one hand and France and Spain on the other. Further documents are available on construction and engineering, operational services, passenger, baggage and freight traffic. A comprehensive component reflects the collective bargaining system, including social aspects taking into account foreign language problems. Measures against espionage, sabotage and agent activity, also persecution of political opponents are recorded in the "Secret Acts A and B", statements on military facts, especially the mobilization, the war 1914/18, the armistice and the peace negotiations can be found in the "Secret Acts M". Inventory description: Inventory history The files of the Directorate-General of the Reichseisenbahnen in Strasbourg have been transferred to France. A few files from the former Central State Archives in Potsdam are in the inventory R 4202 General Directorate of the Reich Railways in Alsace-Lorraine in the Federal Archives. The files of the Reichsamt for the administration of the Reichseisenbahnen were offered to the Reichsarchiv for takeover in autumn 1931. From the entire file stock of about 4000 volumes, 1313 volumes were transferred to the Reichsarchiv for permanent storage in accordance with the then existing regulations. Obviously, there were no war losses. Archival evaluation and processing The files of the Reich Office for the Administration of the Reich Railways taken over by the Reichsarchiv were arranged, listed and recorded on index cards in 1932, followed by a finding aid book for the holdings (today: R 4201). In 2008, the inventory was recorded in the BASYS-S database of the Federal Archives on the basis of the find book available from 1932. This was done by entering the data into the BASYS-S database of the Federal Archives for the purpose of making the search results available online. The intensive index data were taken over for the most part original with the abbreviations used at that time. Only the numerical archive signatures were retained for the indexing; for found files with volume numbering (e.g. 154 a), each volume received a new archive signature. This concerned all files with the now new archive signature R 4201/729 to R 4201/1430. The previous signatures were listed as old signatures, the files themselves were re-signed in 2008 in the course of an inventory revision and magazine-technical work. Content: Organization and administration of the Reichsamt 1870-1920 (186), budget and cash administration 1870-1921(386), personnel matters: Civil servant matters 1871-1920 (385), special personnel matters (secret files B) 1872-1919 (13), building and construction 1864-1919 (152), operational services 1871-1918 (86), passenger and baggage traffic 1871-1918 (21), freight traffic 1871-1919 (169), collective bargaining 1871-1919 (145), Measures against espionage, sabotage and agent activity, also persecution of political opponents (secret files A) 1881-1919 (14), mobilization, war, armistice, peace negotiations (secret files M) 1872-1920 (93) Online Findbuch (2009) In total, the holdings in the Federal Archives include 1430 files. Together with the holdings of the Reichseisenbahnamt (R 4101) and the Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsass-Lothringen (R 4202), a rather complete set of files exists for the early period of traffic organisation in the railway age in Germany - regardless of its correspondence with the files of the Prussian Ministry of Public Works, which are located in the Prussian Secret State Archives in Berlin-Dahlem, and the large number of archival sources on railway history in the archives of the Länder, districts and cities. The source value of the files taken over from the General Directorate in Strasbourg was described by the Reichsarchiv as "sufficient" at the time. Apart from some historically interesting details from the recent time of Emperor Wilhelm I. and Prince Bismarck, their value for the history of the German Empire [lies] in the... that at the Reichsamt almost all the questions that the Prussian Ministry of Public Works had to deal with were reflected in a more concise and concise form. Reference should be made to the special features of Alsace-Lorraine's traffic situation at the intersection of important north-south and east-west connections and the resulting tradition of archival sources. The files contain documents from negotiations on the construction of major Alpine passes (Gotthard Railway, Eastern Alpine Railway, Simplon Railway), traffic between England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy, traffic between the Balkan states, Austria-Hungary and the southern German administrations on the one hand and France and Spain on the other. Further documents are available on construction and engineering, operational services, passenger, baggage and freight traffic. A comprehensive component reflects the collective bargaining system, including social aspects taking into account foreign language problems. Measures against espionage, sabotage and agent activity, also persecution of political opponents are recorded in the "Secret Acts A and B", statements on military facts, especially the mobilization, the war 1914/18, the armistice and the peace negotiations can be found in the "Secret Acts M". Supplementary traditions Further traditions include the inventories R 4101 Reichseisenbahnamt and R 4202 Generaldirektion der Eisenbahnen in Elsass-Lothringen. The Secret State Archives of Prussian Cultural Heritage in Berlin contain the files of the Prussian Ministry of Public Works (holdings I. HA Rep. 93 B Ministry of Public Works). Citation style: BArch, R 4201/...

History of the Inventory Designer: The Development of the Office of the Head of the Reich Propaganda until the Seizure of Power The office of the Head of the Reich Propaganda of the NSDAP was established and expanded in the course of the reestablishment of the NSDAP in 1925 and its organizational consolidation. Personnel changes at the top in particular also had a decisive impact on the development. Instead of Hitler's old "comrade-in-arms" Hermann Esser, Gregor Strasser, Gauleiter of Lower Bavaria and head of the working group of the Northwest German NSDAP-Gaue, took over the office of Reich Propaganda Leader in the summer of 1926. His adjutant, Heinrich Himmler, was entrusted with running the business [cf. Frei, Norbert: Nationalsozialistische Presse und Propaganda, in: Das Dritte Reich. Structure of power and history, edited by Martin Broszat and Horst Möller, Munich 1983, p. 154]. The first step was the vertical expansion of the propaganda work, above all the expansion of the so-called propaganda cells at the Gauleitungen and local groups. At the beginning of 1928 Strasser became Reichsorganisationsleiter. Himmler became Deputy Reich Propaganda Leader, while Hitler himself formally acted as Reich Propaganda Leader. Himmler developed his first general considerations on the use of propaganda at the end of 1928. These guidelines for propaganda actions were to serve as the core of National Socialist propaganda, especially for the preparation and conduct of major National Socialist events [cf. Tyrell, Albrecht (ed.): "Führer befiehl...". Self testimonies from the fighting days of the NSDAP. Documentation and Analysis, Düsseldorf 1969, p. 255 ff.] Joseph Goebbels, Gauleiter of Berlin, was appointed Reichspropagandaleiter (RPL I) in 1930. When he took office, Strasser's influence on propaganda was clearly noticeable. Some of the propaganda tasks had already been transferred to the duties of the Reichsorganisationsleiter; Hitler turned the Reichsrednerschule into an independent Department II (Director: Fritz Reinhardt). The overlapping of competencies and demarcation problems could not be resolved until Strasser's departure in 1932. For the first time in the Reichstag election campaign of 1930 and later in the election year 1932, the NSDAP carried out election propaganda, which had not been known in this professional form in Germany until then [cf. Frei, p. 161]. Goebbels function as the central figure of the entire propaganda of the NSDAP was consolidated when he additionally became head of the newly founded Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda on March 14, 1933. As part of the Reichsleitung of the NSDAP, the Reichspropagandaleiter was initially based in Munich. After 1933, a liaison office of the RPL was set up in Berlin, so that part of the work gradually shifted there. Tasks and organizational structure of the RPL since 1933 [The following remarks are based on the Organization Book of the NSDAP, edited by the Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP, Munich 1936 (7th edition 1943), as well as the addresses of the NSDAP offices and affiliated associations, the state, the Reich government, authorities and professional organizations. Reichsband mit Lexikon-Wegweiser A-Z, 2. edition, Berlin 1939, 3. edition 1941/42, Berlin 1942] The Reichspropagandaleiter was responsible for monitoring, coordinating and standardizing the propaganda of the NSDAP, its branches and affiliated associations. Just as he bundled the propaganda of the NSDAP in a central place, so he determined the guidelines for the party "for the realization of the cultural will of the leader" [Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, 1936, p. 295]. In addition to the use of press and film, radio received a special status as a central propaganda medium. The Reichspropagandaleiter exercised "control over the entire broadcasting system with reference to its internal organizational, cultural and economic development" [Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1936, p. 295]. Another central task was "to penetrate the entire German people with the National Socialist ideology". The Head of Staff (1937 Hugo Fischer, 1942 Eugen Hadamowsky) and the Adjutant (1937 Karl Hanke) were under the direct authority of the Reich Propaganda Leader [Organization Book of the NSDAP, 1936, p. 295]. The Reichsautozug "Deutschland", the RPL office, the main office for press propaganda, the main office for exhibitions and trade fairs, and the "Reichsring für Nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung" (Reich Ring for National Socialist Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment) were directly subordinated to the Chief of Staff. The task of the Reichsautozug "Deutschland" (Reich Automobile Train Germany) (led by SA Group Leader Hermann Schäfer) was to supply the NSDAP with technical aids for major events and other rallies of political significance. The Bavarian relief train (headed by Hugo Fischer in 1939) was responsible for mass catering at major events in Munich. The RPL Secretariat was responsible for cash and administrative matters. The main office for press propaganda coordinated the uniform press processing and exploitation of the propaganda measures of all offices/main offices, main offices and RPL offices. The main office for exhibitions and fairs (Hugo Fischer) supervised the propaganda preparation of exhibitions and fairs in which the NSDAP was involved. The task of the Reichsring für Nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung (Reich Ring for National Socialist Propaganda and People's Enlightenment) was to ensure that the propaganda of all branches and affiliated associations was conducted uniformly by the NSDAP [The Reichsring was later a main office; occupation of posts on 26 May 1941 (see p. XII). This change has not been taken into account in the 1943 NSDAP organisation book]. The Reichsring was assigned one representative each of the propaganda positions of all divisions and associations (liaison officers). In addition, various offices were represented in the Reichsring. The Reichsring für Nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung was set up by Walter Tießler on behalf of Goebbels in 1934 and headed until 1943/1944 [Walter Tießler, born 18 Dec. 1903, Reichsamtsleiter, RPL employee since 1934, head of the Reichsring main office since 1935, head of the liaison office since 1941]. Cf. NS 18/5 curriculum vitae of Tießler; NS 18/1229 "10 Jahre Reichsringarbeit"]. Previously, the task of centralizing propaganda had been performed by the Concentration Office in the RPL. Tießler wrote in retrospect in 1944: "With the creation of the Reichsring in 1934, the propaganda and educational work of the offices, divisions, affiliated associations, the professional organisations of the estates and numerous associations was brought under uniform control. A Reichsring I was formed, in which all party organizations are represented. In a Reichsring II all other Reichs-organizations, which have propagandistic tasks, were cared for." NS 18/1229, p. 1] The liaison officers remained in their respective organizations and coordinated propaganda work with the RPL from there. In the Reichsring itself, only the bodies, associations and organizations operating throughout the Reich were represented. In order to achieve a propagandistic penetration as dense as possible also vertically, the Gaurings were built up within the Gaupropaganda lines at the Gau level, the circular rings at the district level and the local rings at the local group level. The so-called Gauring bulletins, which were published by the respective districts, as well as regular working meetings served as means of communication. The Reichsring was used in numerous propaganda campaigns, e.g. in the so-called election battles and winter relief campaigns as well as in all "mouth propaganda campaigns" during the war. In addition to the ongoing Reichring meetings, Reichsring meetings took place, at which the Reichspropagandaleiter, other Reichsleiter and Ministers as well as Gauleiter gave speeches. During the war, the Reichsring was entrusted with the paper management of all propaganda and training material. It should be mentioned in particular that the Reichsring evaluated the People's Court trials propagandistically and monitored the use of speakers by the Deutsches Bildungswerk and the Leistungsertüchtigungswerk as well as other organizations. The structure of the offices, later main offices, corresponded to their areas of responsibility: 1. Active Propaganda The main task was to organize and carry out all propaganda actions. Thus the administration was initially also responsible for the training and supervision of the entire propaganda speaker organization [This purpose was also served by the distribution of the monthly magazine "Unser Wille und Weg" (main editor Dagobert Dürr)]. The Active Propaganda Office (headed 1937 by Walter Schulze, 1941 by Werner Wächter) was subdivided into the main office of Speakers, with the following offices: Speakers' Organisation (recording all Reich, Gau and Kreis speakers of the NSDAP as well as all specialist speakers of the affiliated associations and organisations), Speakers' Information (providing all speakers with information material), Speakers' Mediation (Reich speakers and RPL battalion speakers) and Speakers' Training (with Reich Speakers' School for Young Speakers; cf. The following point (5): speaker training), the main office Lichtbild (responsible for all photo presentations; organisation book of the NSDAP, 1936: Lichtbildwesen still belonged to the film office management) and the main office Großveranstaltungen und architektonische Ausgestaltung. 2. film The task of the Office was to carry out film screenings for the purpose of disseminating and consolidating National Socialist propaganda and ideology. The film directorate (director 1937 Karl Neumann, 1941 Arnold Raether) was divided into organisation, cash management, production and technology, dramaturgy, cultural film and film press processing. 3. broadcasting The management of the Office controlled the entire German broadcasting system "in order to commit the internal organisational, cultural, technical and economic development of the broadcasting system to National Socialist principles. The effects of radio propaganda are secured by the radio maintenance organisation through the use of all technical possibilities of transmission to gather the entire people at every place and room - whether by house, community or people reception."The Head of Broadcasting (Head 1937 Horst Dreßler-Andreß, 1939 Hans Kriegler, 1941 August Staats) included the Head Office for Cultural Policy Broadcasting Work and Broadcasting Organisation, the Head Office Broadcasting Technology and the Head Office Broadcasting Propaganda. 4. culture The task of the Culture Directorate was to stimulate and promote National Socialist art. The head of the Office of Culture (1937 Franz Moraller, 1941 Hannes Kremer, 1942 Karl Cerff) was at the same time Reichskulturwalter in the Reichskulturkammer. The office included the main office for architecture, the main office for artistic design, the main office for selection (viewing and selection of artistic and poetic works for the National Socialist celebration) and the main office for programme design (National Socialist celebrations). 5. speaker training [The office speaker system is listed for the first time in the organization book of the NSDAP of 1940. It has obviously taken over the task of speaker training from the office Active Propaganda, although in the staffing of 26.05.1941 it is still assigned to the main office Propaganda] The office management speaker training was responsible for the training of the party leaders. The Reichsrednerschule and the ongoing supply of information material to the speakers served this purpose, among other things. 6. liaison manager The head of the liaison office in Berlin (1937 Wilhelm Haegert, 1941 Walter Tießler) had the task of "centralizing all communication with the Reich ministries, authorities and public bodies, etc., and of carrying out all communication with them. Thus it should be ensured "that the guidelines of propaganda come to the knowledge of the Reich authorities concerned. Conversely, the Liaison Office shall inform the Reichspropagandaleitung of all tasks and orders issued by the Reichspropaganda Ministry." Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, 1936, p. 301] The structure of the RPL and its staffing as of May 1941 was as follows [NS 18/1080: Announcement of the head of the Reich Propaganda from 26. January 1941 to 18. June 1941] [NS 18/1080: Bekanntmachung des Reichspropagandaleiters vom 26. May 1941]: Chief of Staff: Hugo Fischer Directly subordinated to the Chief of Staff: - Chief of Staff: Heinrich Adami - Managing Director and Commissioner for Financial Affairs: Willi Osthold - Office "Personnel and Administration": Kurt Dietz - Office "Reichsverteidigung" (M): Hermann Schenk - Special Representative of the RPL for the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Head of the Department of Cultural Policy at the Reich Protectorate in Bohemia and Moravia: Dr. Karl Freiherr von Gregory 1st main office Propaganda: Werner Wächter - Office "Active Propaganda": Werner Studentkowski - Office "Major Events": Hans Froelich - Office "Speaker Organization and Mediation": Dr. Karl Lapper - Office "Speaker Training": Hugo Ringler - Office "Photograph": Gerhard Bartsch - Office "Propagandalenkung": Max Davidts - Office "Exhibition and Fairs": Paul Bötticher 2nd Main Office Broadcasting: August State - Office "Broadcasting Organization and Administration": Wilhelm Lehr - Office "Broadcasting": Wolfgang Fischer - Office "Broadcasting Technology": Georg Budich - Office "Broadcasting Propaganda": August State 3. main office for orientation of the organizations [This new name for the Reichsring does not seem to have asserted itself. It is not mentioned in the 1943 NSDAP organisation book] (Reichsring): Walter Tießler - Office "Orientation of Propaganda Actions": Udo Pfriemer - Office "Orientation of Propaganda Media": Willi Krämer - Office "Orientation of Propagandists": Willi Krämer 4th main office film: Arnold Raether - office "Filmische Ausrichtung": Herbert Baerwald - office "Zentralverleih": Heinrich Kadach - office "Filmpropaganda": Paul Teuchert - office "Produktion": for the time being unoccupied, held by Arnold Raether - office "Kassenverwaltung": Karl Schulze 5. office "Kassenverwaltung": Karl Schulze 5. office "Filmische Ausrichtung": Herbert Baerwald - office "Zentralverleih": Heinrich Kadach - office "Filmpropaganda": Paul Teuchert - office "Produktion": for the time being unoccupied, held by Arnold Raether Hauptamt Reichsautozug "Germany": Hermann Schäfer - Amt "Administration": Hans Achauer - Amt "Propagandatechnik": Emil Wipfel - Amt "Werft und Technische Betriebsleitung": Paul Mühlhoff - Amt "Mobiler Zug": Hermann Schäfer 6. main office culture: Hannes Kremer - office "planning": Hannes Kremer - office "celebration organization": Hannes Kremer - office "music": Theodor Jung - liaison office: Josef Schneider-Franke [the announcement of the remaining offices as well as their occupation should take place later] subordinated to the Reichpropagandaleiter for special use: Leopold Gutterer, State Secretary in the RMVP Alfred-Ingemar Berndt, Ministerialdirigent in the RMVP Eugen Hadamowsky, Reichssendeleiter. The RPL was organized vertically at Gau, district and local group level. The Gau- and the Kreispropagandaamt, each with a propaganda leader at the top, were subdivided into five task areas analogous to the RPL: 1. active propaganda 2. film 3. radio 4. culture 5. liaison leaders The local group propaganda offices were organized in a similar way. Description of the holdings: The files of the RPL, like those of other provenances from the NS era, are only partially preserved due to severe war losses. In 1943, the main cultural office of the RPL in Munich was bombed out [cf. NS 18/1097, letter of the main cultural office of 16 Dec. 1943]. Most of the files of the RPL are said to have been destroyed in 1945 before the American invasion of Munich [cf. Das Bundesarchiv und seine Bestände, 3. supplemented and newly edited edition by Gerhard Granier, Josef Henke, Klaus Oldenhage, Boppard 1977, p. 355]. The fate of the RPL file tradition since the occupation of Germany by the Allies corresponds to the general history of German contemporary historical sources in the post-war years. The remaining files of the RPL, like most of the files of offices and divisions of the NSDAP, were transferred to the American Document Center in Berlin-Zehlendorf (BDC) at the beginning of 1946 as the central collection point for party documents. During the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49, parts of the holdings were brought to Great Britain and the USA. Since 1960 the Federal Archives had known that RPL files were in 39 archive boxes in the World War II Record Division of the US National Archives in Alexandria/Virginia. These files had been mistakenly assigned to the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. They had only been handed over a few months earlier from Great Britain, where they had apparently been taken from the Leitz folders, reviewed and then loosely forwarded to the Americans [files of the Federal Archives 4721-Prop/1.]. In April 1962, 38 cartons with documents of the provenance "Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP, Reichsring für Nationalsozialistische Propaganda und Volksaufklärung" were handed over to the Federal Archives as part of the return of files from the USA. These were the remaining files that the Americans had kept in Record Group 1035. The loose files were packed in the usual yellow American envelopes. A small part of the files (about 100 numbers) was filmed by the Americans and listed in Microfilm Guide No. 35 [Guide to German records microfilmed at Alexandria, VA., No. 35, Records of the National Socialist German Labor Party (Part III), The National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, Washington 1962, pp. 16-24]. In the mid-1970s, Herbert Schmitz made a first partial indexing of the holdings, which was continued in 1979 by Rainer Raillard and subsequently by other editors. Mrs. Christine Reibel and Mr. Thomas Marschner recorded the previously disordered part of the delivery in 1998/1999 and reworked the old drawing. They used the formation of archive series and volume sequences as a way of interlocking volumes that belonged together in terms of content or chronology. The final processing took place in the following years by Mrs. Jana Blumberg. In addition to conservation measures (folders, removal of metal parts), interventions in the found internal order of individual files were also necessary, especially with regard to the complete filming of the inventory. In some cases, obviously torn processes were reconstructed by combining fragments that had previously been recorded individually [The proof of dissolved files is secured by a concordance]. In the course of the processing, the NS 18 holdings were supplemented by a file (62 Re 3/1) previously handed down in the Central State Archives of the GDR, a series (RKK [ehem. BDC] 2007/0001/01-05) previously kept in the Reichskulturkammer holdings of the former BDC, and by individual files from other Federal Archives holdings: NS-Splitter/104, 172, NS-Misch/1428 and R 6/1048. In the interest of the most complete possible reproduction of the surviving records, those files whose whereabouts could not be ascertained during the final processing were also included in the indexing [they are marked by the addition "whereabouts unknown"]. Cassations were essentially limited to duplicates. Foreign provenances were sorted out, RPL publications as well as other party official bodies were handed over to the library. The tradition of the RPL consists for the most part of files of the provenance Reichsring, which were created under the direction of Walter Tießler in the years from 1940/1941 to 1943 in Berlin. Only a small part of the documents on the propaganda activities of the years 1925-1932 (these are almost exclusively the files handed over from the BDC 1962) has been preserved. Accordingly, the files essentially document the design and implementation of propaganda in the period after 1939, with the 1941-1943 period being the most dense. Only a few documents exist from the period between the NSDAP's assumption of power and the beginning of the war. The files of the holdings, which were created after 1940, refer almost exclusively to the area of responsibility of the Reichsring Main Office for National Socialist Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment. The tradition of the other areas of the RPL is limited to Tießler's function as a liaison between the entire RPL and the Reich ministries, authorities and public bodies. Due to the large losses of the overall delivery, a classification based on organizational or registrational aspects did not seem to make sense. For this reason, the editors have opted - independently of a strict provenance principle - for an objective structure based on the contents of the RPL's task completion. In May 2005, after publication of the Publication Findbuch, the collection of press cuttings (formerly ZSg 118) from Koblenz was taken over. It was placed as a separate item at the end of the inventory. Citation method BArch NS 18/... State of the Index: Publication Findbuch Volume 103 (2003), Online Findbuch (2005, 2007). Citation style: BArch, NS 18/...

History of the Inventory Designer: Based on a secret memorandum by Adolf Hitler from the summer of 1936 (handed down in R 3/1501), the new four-year plan was officially announced at the Reich Party Congress in September 1936. The Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring (RGBl. I 1936, p. 887) was appointed as the commissioner for the four-year plan on 18 October 1936; the Prussian State Ministry under Hermann Göring (office of the State Secretary Körner) acted as the central office. He was given the authority to centrally control all economic measures, in particular war economic measures, including the power to issue instructions to the Reich ministries and all levels of the party. The task of the (second) four-year plan was to focus the German economy on armament and war production and to reduce dependence on foreign imports (self-sufficiency efforts), above all in the raw materials and food sectors, in order to achieve the goals set by Hitler ("1. The German army must be operational in four years. 2. the German economy must be war-capable in four years"). The most important measures were, on the one hand, the quota system for important raw materials and their partly synthetic production in the Reich, and, on the other hand, the planning and control of labour input as well as the stabilization of wages and prices in order to channel investment into the capital goods industry and restrict private consumption. To carry out the tasks, numerous special representatives were appointed and various special authorities created, including for the economic exploitation of the occupied and annexed territories. In 1940, the four-year plan was extended by a further four years with the proviso that it was adapted to the needs of the war (RGBl. I 1940, p. 1395). From 1942, however, more and more powers were transferred to the Reich Minister for Armament and Ammunition (later for Armament and War Production). Inventory description: The four-year plan announced by Hitler in 1936 aimed to enable Germany to wage war economically and militarily within four years. The Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring, who was entrusted with this task, was given far-reaching powers in the economic and defence sectors, especially in the supply of raw materials. Inventory history: The registry of both the headquarters of the Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan and of the numerous subordinate institutions must be regarded as almost completely lost as a result of the war events. Only a few fragments of the tradition have survived. The greater part of it is in the special archive in Moscow (fund no. 700, 337 file units), while the smaller part is in the two central German archives in East and West. The Koblenz Federal Archives kept 55 files, which today bear the signatures no. 1-52 and originate from various acquisitions; among other things, some documents were transferred to the archive in 1964 by Salzgitter AG (today's signatures no. 29-39), others were copied from the Imperial War Museum in London in 1974 (today's signatures no. 40-41, 44). The Central State Archives of the GDR in Potsdam kept another 71 files of the Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan under the inventory signature 34.01, which begin today with the signature 101; this part contained almost 40 volumes of the Press Office in the Prussian State Ministry, which was also responsible for the Four-Year Plan, as well as seven files of the Research Centre for Defense Economics. The signature no. 177, which also contains documents of the press office, also originates from the dissolution of the so-called NS archive of the HA IX/11 of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. Archival processing: After the unification of the two German states in 1990, the two parts of the tradition were brought together in the Federal Archives in Berlin under the inventory designation R 26 I, but without initially being subjected to a common system. In 2014, the indexing information from the 1960s was transferred to the database of the Federal Archives, the indexing was revised and a task-related structure was drawn up for the entire holdings. Characterisation of the contents: The few records of the headquarters of the Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan handed down in the Federal Archives contain only a few volumes of the Central Secretariat of Göring (mainly correspondence A-Z) and the office of the State Secretary Körner as well as various preliminary files on the tasks of the Four-Year Plan (files of the Commissioner of the Führer and Reich Chancellor for Economic Affairs Wilhelm Keppler). There are also some files on the supply of raw materials and on general (including foreign) economic issues, as well as the somewhat more extensive press office documents on the press and public relations work of the four-year plan authority. State of development: Findbuch (2014) Citation method: BArch, R 26-I/...

History of the Inventor: On 29.8.1914, the Commander of the Naval Aviation Departments was appointed, who in 1916 became Commander of the Naval Aviation Departments, later Chief of Naval Aviation and to whom the commanders of the aircraft were subordinated. The naval flight chief was responsible for the provision of all flight personnel and for fulfilling the military requirements for seaplanes and ground organisation. The Naval Air Force consisted of seaplane and naval land flight departments, seaplane and naval land flight stations, training and special units as well as front units of the naval pilots. The seaplane stations also included floating seaplane stations, i.e. aircraft mother ships, and the land-based flight stations also included the fortress (land) flight stations and the Wainoden indoor protection station. (Cf. Hildebrand, Hans H.: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine sowie Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945. Volume 2, Osnabrück 2000, p. 8; Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt (Ed.): Deutsche Militärgeschichte in sechs Voländen, Volume 5, Munich 1983, p. 300f.) During the First World War, seaplane stations were built on the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Some of the stations were located in occupied Belgian territory (e.g. sea flight stations Flanders I and II) and Russian territory (e.g. sea flight station Kerch) or on the territory of allies, e.g. the Ottoman Empire (e.g. sea flight station Chanak). Among the North Sea's seaplane stations were: Borkum Flandern I (=Seeflugstation Zeebrügge) Flandern II (=Seeflugstation Ostend) Helgoland List/Sylt Norderney (See Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, Manuskript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, S. 5. according to this, the command of the II Seaflieger-Abteilung included the front flight stations Borkum, Norderney, Helgoland and List as well as the air base Tönning. For the history of these sea flight stations see ibid. pp. 20-23 (Borkum), 24-26 (Norderney), 27-29 (Helgoland), 30f (List). For the history of the two naval flying stations in Flanders see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, pp. 5-7 (Flanders I), 8-10 (Flanders II). There is no record of the naval flying station Flanders III (naval airfield Nieuwmunster/Neumünster), see ibid., pp. 11-13. On the organisation of the air forces of the naval corps in Flanders see also Hildebrand, Hans H.: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine sowie Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945, Volume 3, Osnabrück 2000, pp. 60-62.) The sea flight stations at the Baltic Sea included: Angernsee (near Engure, west of Riga, Latvia) Apenrade Arensburg (Kuressaare, Ösel/Saaremaa Island, Estonia) Bug on Rügen Flensburg (see RM 113) Hadersleben (moved to Apenrade in March/April 1915), see RM 112/13) (Kiel-)Holtenau Köslin-Nest (Koszalin, Poland) Liebau (Liepâja, Latvia) Papenholm/Papensholm (west of Kihelkonna, island Ösel/Saaremaa, Estonia) Putzig (Puck, Poland (since 1919)) Reval (Tallinn, Estonia) Stralsund and Wiek on Rügen Warnemünde Wiek on Rügen (see Stralsund) Windau (Ventspils, Latvia) (On the history of these naval flying stations see Köhler, Karl: Gliederungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, Manuskript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 46 (Hadersleben), 47 (Apenrade), 48-50 (Flensburg), 51-53 (Holtenau), 56 (Warnemünde), 57f (Bug on Rügen, Stralsund and Wiek on Rügen), 59f (Köslin-Nest), 61f (Putzig), - subsequent stations were built on occupied territory - 75f (Libau), 79-81 (Windau), 82f (Angernsee), 84 (Arensburg), 85 (Papensholm), 87 (Reval).) (Due to unfavourable geographical and meteorological conditions, the main operation of the station was relocated from Stralsund to Wiek on Rügen in 1916. In Stralsund, a partial operation was maintained. See also RM 112/170, Incidents 6 Nov. 1915 and Köhler, Karl: Gliederungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 57.) Among the sea flight stations on the Mediterranean were: Agha Liman and Mersina (southern coast of Anatolia, north of the eastern tip of Cyprus) Chanak (on the southern shore of the Dardanelles near Canakkale) Xanthi (northern shore of the Aegean Sea, Greece (since 1920), see RM 110/22) (On the geographical location and history of the naval flight stations, see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, p. 64f, 70f (Chanak), 76f (Mersina). Only the stock RM 110 (RM 110/22) contains a record of the Xanthi sea flight station, for the Xanthi sea flight station see also ibid. p. 79f. For the organization of the seaplanes within the framework of the Sonderkommando Turkey see Hildebrand, Hans H.: Die organisatorische Entwicklung der Marine sowie Stellenbesetzung 1848 bis 1945, Volume 3, Osnabrück 2000, p. 63f.) The seapilot stations on the Black Sea were among the most important: Babadag (Romania) Duingi (near Constanta, Romania) Kawak/Kavak (eastern bank of the Bosporus) Kertsch (Crimea, Ukraine) Konstanza/Constanza (Constanta, Romania) Odessa (Ukraine) Sebastopol/Sewastopol (Crimea, Ukraine) Varna (Varna, Bulgaria) (For the geographical location and history of the sea flight stations see Köhler, Karl: Structure and Organisation History of the Naval Air Force, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, S. 64 and 78 (general), 73 (Kawak), 81f (Varna), 83 (Constanza), 84 (Sebastopol), 85 (Duingi), 86 (Babadag).) The floating seaplane stations included: S.M.H. Answald S.M.H. Glyndwr (see RM 99) S.M.H. Oswald (see also RM 99) S.M.H. Santa Elena S.M.S. Stuttgart (see RM 110/62) (On the history of the floating naval flight stations see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftstreitkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 99f (general), 102f (S.M.H. Santa Elena), 104f (S.M.H. Answald), 106 (S.M.H. Oswald), 107 (S.M.H. Glyndwr). The S.M.S. Stuttgart was a Small Cruiser converted into an aircraft mother ship (also known as an aircraft cruiser), see ibid., p. 101.) The naval land flight stations included: Barge Großenhain Hage Kiel Nordholz-Cuxhaven Schlüterhof-Tuckum Speckenbüttel-Geestemünde Tondern Wainoden (see also RM 116/193) Wilhelmshaven-Wangerooge (On the history of the land flight stations see Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1866, p. 54f. (Fortress Land Flight Station Kiel); Köhler, Karl: Strukturungs- und Organisationsgeschichte der Marineluftkräfte, manuscript, 1969, in: MSG 2/1867, p. 98-101 (general), 102f (Nordholz), 104f (Barge), 106f (Hage), 108f (Tondern), 110 (Speckenbüttel), 138-140 (Wilhelmshaven). Processing note: The classification of the stock took place in a first step by differentiating between seaplane flight stations, aircraft mother ships (= floating seaplane flight stations) and naval land flight stations in order to show in particular the group of aircraft mother ships separately. The second - and central - classification level is represented by the individual stations or aircraft mother ships. In this way, the overdelivery for a station can be determined. In the case of the maritime stations Flanders I and Flanders II, a more detailed classification at third level was also necessary. In these cases, war diaries, reports and orders/instructions, technical documentation and, in the case of Flanders II, personnel matters, as well as various documents form subordinate classification points. The classification level 'Miscellaneous documents' had to be created because of the heterogeneity of some files. For war diaries in several volumes, corresponding volume sequences were created. The formation of series was dispensed with. In principle, the archival processing was based on the processing of the related stock RM 110 (Command Posts of the Naval Air Force). A provisional finding aid book was available for the inventory, but it did not contain any notes. In addition, titles had to be converted several times (see explanations below). The classification of the preliminary finding aid into seaplane stations and naval land stations was supplemented by the classification point of the floating seaplane stations (aircraft motherships) and deepened in the case of the stations Flanders I and Flanders II (see above). Due to the otherwise retained classification and sorting of the provisional finding aid book, the classification largely coincides with the (ascending) numbering of the files, since the files were sorted and signed on the basis of the stations in the course of the provisional recording. File titles such as "Ganz Geheim" were dissolved and archived titles were created instead. If due to the heterogeneous content only the possibility existed to form a title such as "Various affairs", more extensive content notes were written. In the title field of war diaries, additions such as "Ausfertigung für den Admiralstab der Marine" and "Entwurf" were added in brackets to make it possible to distinguish between the war diaries of the Admiral Staff and those of the respective stations. The latter were only partially identified as drafts by the file-maintaining bodies; an addition to the title of the record was only made in these cases. A further addition to the titles of the war diaries - which necessarily had to be included - was the excerpts. All war diaries were indexed uniformly, taking into account these additions in the title recording. The additions to the title also made it justifiable not to record the organizational unit in charge of the records, since the title specification makes it possible to distinguish between the war diaries of the Admiral Staff and those of the war stations. The (volume sequence) titles each contain the name of the corresponding station; the redundancy with the classification points was accepted in BASYS S for the purpose of searchability. The tape sequence numbers were created for archiving purposes, which can mean that they may differ from those on the file covers. If, for example, only volumes 3, 4 and 5 of a war diary have been preserved, these were recorded as volumes 1, 2 and 3. In the field "File number" in BASYS S only the "Lu", "Ef" and "MK I" file numbers and old signatures (see below) were noted. Other file numbers (e.g.: Ca VIII), some of which also existed, were not included, since they were only present in parts and the field file number in these cases was already assigned the MK I signature. However, the corresponding information can be reconstructed using the file covers. In the case of files in the former folder form, the lid was severed and placed on top in the folder. It is unclear to what extent the MK I numbers are actually file numbers and not rather old signatures. The following indications speak for the latter: - The MK I numbers have been applied in a different colour than the A or C file numbers, which were partly applied in the same colour - and presumably at the same time - with the title - Provided that MK I numbers were present, there was usually also a sticker "Archiv der Marine. War records." the MK I numbers could have been signatures of the Marine Archives. - MK I numbers are comparatively consistently available, as if it were a complete transmission, while large gaps can be observed in the area of A and C file numbers. The latter appears more plausible in view of the cassation decisions made during the (first) archiving in the Navy archives and due to war losses. - A deeper classification or structuring of the MK I signatures does not exist, rather more than 300 consecutive numbers are available, whereas A and C file numbers are partly more deeply structured (e.g. "Ca"). The latter seems more probable for the registry of the Commander of the Naval Corps Fliers (Kofl. M.K.) than a purely sequential numbering. The attempt to reconstruct the file plan on the basis of the preserved file covers appears very difficult, if not impossible, due to large gaps. The F numbers (for files or subject) and any existing PG numbers were entered in separate old signature fields in the Old signature field. It should be noted that an F number usually includes several files; F numbers can therefore occur several times. The old signatures of RM 112/49-56 from the RM 110 inventory were also included (formerly RM 110/612-619). An index of objects, places and persons was not compiled. Description of the holdings: After the end of the First World War, the documents of the disbanded naval stations, including the various commanders of the naval pilots, were collected in the War History Department of the Admiral Staff of the Navy, which had already been established on 15 February 1916, for the purpose of establishing a new naval archive. From 1919 the name of the naval archive was changed to "Head of the Institute for Naval History and Chairman of the Naval Archive". A second renaming took place on 22 January 1936 in "Kriegswissenschaftliche Abteilung der Marine". However, this did not belong to the Reichsarchiv, but was subject until 31 March 1934 to the Inspectorate of Naval Education, then to the Chief of Naval Management, and later as a subordinate authority to the Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine. During the Second World War, naval records were moved to Tambach Castle near Coburg on 22 November 1943. After the end of the war, the archives were confiscated by US troops and taken to London. There the files were filmed on a large scale, combined into bundles, provided with consecutive F-numbers ("Faszikel", "File" or "Fach") and partly with a seven-digit number with the prefixed letters PG ("Pinched from the Germans"). The archives were then handed over to the British Admiralty. In the 1960s, the marine files were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany as part of the file return process and were transferred to the Document Centre of the Military History Research Office (MGFA) in Freiburg. On the basis of an interministerial agreement between the Federal Minister of Defence and the Federal Minister of the Interior from 1968, the files were transferred from the Document Centre to the Federal Archives. They were finally transferred to the Federal Archives Military Archives, which had been moved from Koblenz to Freiburg. (See the inventory description for RM 110; Author: Michael Weins) The inventory comprises 234 storage units from various sea and land flight stations of the Imperial Navy. With two exceptions (RM 112/44, 137), the duration of the files does not extend beyond the period between 1914 and 1918, i.e. the First World War and the immediate post-war period. Most of the war diaries of the individual stations - both the (draft) copies kept at the stations and the copies for the admiral's staff - have survived; only war diaries of several stations are available. An exception to this is the tradition of the maritime flight stations Flanders I and Flanders II, which also contain reports and documents on personnel and technology. The tradition of the Flanders II seafaring station thus forms the largest portion in RM 112 (53 files). Of the sea flight stations (Kerch, Odessa and Sevastopol) which were not put into operation until 1918 as a result of the occupations in the Ukraine, as well as the stations in Turkey (Agha Liman/Mersina, Chanak and Kawak), Bulgaria (Varna) and Romania (Babadag, Duingi and Constanza), only one or two war diaries are available. Content characterization: War diaries, orders of the day, weekly reports and daily reports are available from various sea flight stations. In addition, collections of orders and activity reports, as well as files on weapons technology and questions of deployment and personnel matters have been handed down from the Flemish Flanders II seaport station. The naval land flight stations are represented with war diary documents. A large part of the documents may have been transferred to the Luftarchiv at that time and destroyed in 1945. The war diaries, reports and commands available from several sea flight stations in the eastern Baltic Sea region (Angernsee, Arensburg, Liebau, Papenholm, Windau and floating sea flight stations S.M.H. Answald and S.M.H. Santa Elena) offer partly illustrated information on the preparation and execution of the "Enterprise Albion". In 1916 and 1917 reconnaissance flights and partly also bombing raids took place especially from the Angernsee seaport station on Riga Bay, which were partly documented photographically. The Russian warships off Arensburg were photographed several times (RM 112/2-5), as well as the destruction of the Russian radio station on Runö (RM 112/4). Since the "Company Albion" is to be regarded as the first joint operation of the German armed forces, i.e. a combined army, navy and partly also air force operation, the relevant documents in inventory RM 112 form an important supplement for research, as they document the role of the air forces (operating under supreme command of the Navy). The files on personnel and technical matters received from the Flanders II naval flying station describe - despite the existing gaps in transmission - several aspects of the everyday operation and profile of a naval flying station and can be used as examples for other naval flying stations. However, it must be pointed out that the equipment and operational profile of the maritime flight stations in Flanders differed from those behind the front due to their proximity to the western front. State of development: Online-Findbuch Scope, Explanation: Stock without increase 5.4 lfm 234 AE Citation method: BArch, RM 112/...

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: Tasks and Organization Essentially follows: (1) Jany, Curt: History of the Prussian Army from the 15th century to 1914, 2nd ed. Edition (= Die Königlich Preußische Armee und das Deutsche Reichsheer 1807 bis 1914, vol. 4), Osnabrück 1967, pp. 294-296. (2) Cron, Hermann: Geschichte des deutschen Armeres im Weltkriege 1914 bis 1918, Berlin 1937, pp. 3-23. (3) PH 3/124 Die Organisation des Großen Generalstabes 1803-1914 (4) PH 3/1026 Die Organisation des Großen Generalstabes (vom 18. Jhr.. until its dissolution in 1919, manuscript by HOAR Stoeckel) (5) PH 3/1272-1273 Graphical representation of the development of the organisation of the Great General Staff 1802-1914 (6) PH 3/310 First introduction to the organisation and activities of the Deputy General Staff of the Armed Forces (1919) (7) Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, MGFA (Ed. by the German Military Historical Research Institute, MGFA) (ed. by the German historian HOAR Stoeckel)): German military history in six volumes 1648 - 1939. Munich 1983 ff, pp. 69-72. (8) Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg, ed. v: Gerhard Hirschfeld, Gerd Krumeich, Irina Renz in conjunction with Markus Pöhlmann, updated and extended study edition, Paderborn 2009, p. 754f. (9) PH 3/3 (10) Waldemar Erfurth: The History of the German General Staff 1918-1945 (= Studies on the History of the Second World War, ed. by Arbeitskreis für Wehrforschung in Frankfurt/Main, vol. 1), Göttingen 1957. 1. Großer Generalstab und Oberster Heeresleitung Großer Generalstab (7) With the Cabinet Order of 24 May 1883, the Generalstab became an Immediatbehörde (Immediate Authority), in fact it had held this position since the Wars of Unification. The General Staff was also assigned independently and directly to the monarch by the War Ministry. The tasks of the War Ministry and the Great General Staff overlapped in part, which occasionally led to conflicts. The position of Chief of Staff of the General Staff was respected, but, apart from operational management in the event of war, it was not endowed with important powers. The General Staff nevertheless exerted a decisive influence on the formation of the army through the training of leaders (the War Academy was subordinate to the Great General Staff), the care for the training of troops in warfare, and the handling of all questions connected with the conduct of a mobilization and a war. His activities included the cultivation of war science education, especially the study and processing of war history, the collection of news and statistical material on foreign armies and the various theatres of war, mapping, investigation and description of his own country. In the peacetime there were no far-reaching changes in the organization of the Grand General Staff, only some expansions due to the increasing scope of the General Staff duties. General Staff of the Field Army and Supreme Army Command (OHL) of the German Army (2) "According to Article 63 of the Constitution of the German Reich of 16 April 1871, the entire land power of the Reich formed a unified army, which was under the Emperor's command in war and peace. In peace, the head of the Great General Staff had practically no power of command and no right of inspection. He merely acted as chief and disciplinary superior of the Grand General Staff. The highest power of command was in fact with the emperor, but in practice it was the chief of the general staff of the army. During the war, the Chief of the General Staff issued operational orders in the name of the Emperor in accordance with the mobilization regulations and was jointly responsible for the management and execution of military operations as well as the other branches of service (ammunition replacement, catering, health, stage service). With the mobilization on August 2, 1914, the chief of the Prussian General Staff of the Army was formed as the "Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army" and the OHL, which was located in the Great Headquarters. The Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army thus embodied the OHL and was always equated with it by concept. On August 5, 1914, the deputy general staff of the army was mobilized in Berlin. The latter remained in existence until 31 January 1919. With the demobilisation, de Große Generalstab resumed its activities on 1 February 1919, with the exception of the positions remaining with OHL. (10) On the basis of the Treaty of Versailles, the dissolution of the Great General Staff was decided and initiated in July 1919. On 4 July 1919 Major General von Seeckt took over the business of the Chief of the General Staff. The name of the service is now "General von Seeckt". On September 30, 1919, the Great General Staff was finally dissolved with the establishment of a liquidation office from part of the central department. The Heads of the General Staff of the Army in Prussia from 1857 to 1918 Field Marshal General Hemuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke 1857-1888 Field Marshal General Alfred Heinrich Karl Ludwig von Waldersee 1888-1891 Field Marshal General Alfred Graf von Schlieffen 1891-1906 General Colonel Helmuth von Moltke 1906-1914 Between 1914 and 1918 a total of four OHLs were formed (8) 1. OHL: General Colonel Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army from Aug. 2 to Sep. 14, 1914 2. OHL: General of the Infantry Erich von Falkenhayn, Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army from Aug. 14 to Sept. 14, 1914 2. 3rd Sept. (officially from 3 Sept. 1914) to 29 Aug. 1916 3rd OHL: General Field Marshal Paul von Beneckendorff and von Hindenburg, Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army from 29 Aug. 1916 to 9 Nov. 1916. 1918, Commander-in-Chief of the Field Army from 9 Nov. 1918 to 3 July 1919, assisted by the First Quartermaster General of the Infantry Erich von Ludendorff, First Quartermaster General from 29 Aug. 1916 to 26 Oct. 1918, then Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener became First Quartermaster General from 29 Oct. 1918 to 3 July 1919 4. OHL: Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener took over the OHL after the resignation of Hindenburgs on June 25, 1919 until the dissolution on Sept. 30, 1919 3. The organizational development of the Great General Staff The organization of the Great General Staff since April 1, 1889 (1) The Quartermaster General was first abolished again, but on April 1, 1889 three Quartermasters (O.Q.) were established. Central Office (from 1890 Central Division) Oberquartiermeister (O. Q.) I since 1 April 1889: 2nd Division Ordre de Bataille (Battle Regulations) and deployment of the German Army Railway Division Railway Section The Railway Section was responsible for the operation and training of the Railway Regiment, subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and of the Airship Division. Eisenbahn-Regiment Oberquartiermeister (O.Q.) II 4th Section - New Formation for the Affairs of Foreign Fortresses and the Preparation of the Drafts of Attacks, with AKO of Dec. 19, 1889 the Department for Foreign Fortresses was added by the Engineering Committee Geographical-Statistical Department (since 1894 an independent Department) German Section - Affairs of the Academy of War and the Training Trips of the General Staff Oberquartiermeister (O.Q.) III 1st Division (Russia, the Scandinavian states, Austria, the Balkans, etc.) 3rd Division (France, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy) Division of War History National Recording The position of the Quartermaster General was abolished. Structure of the Large General Staff of the Army since 1908 (1) Central Division 6th Division (Manoeuvre) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) I 2nd Division (Aufmasch) Technical Section (Air Force) 4th Division (Foreign Fortresses of the Western War Theatre) 7th Division (Foreign Fortresses of the Eastern War Theatre) Railway Division Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) II 3rd Division (O.Q.) Department (Foreign Armies in the West) 9th Department (German Colonies) Oberquartiermeister (O. Q.) III 5th Department (Training Trips of the General Staff) 8th Department (Affairs of the War Academy) Oberquartiermeister IV (newly added since 1 April 1894) 1st Department (Foreign Armies in the East) 10th Department (Foreign Armies in the East) Oberquartiermeister V War Historical Department I and II The Head of the Large General Staff Central Department (Personnel, Organisation, Administration) with Section III b (Communications) 6th Section (Manoeuvres) War History Department II (Older War History) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) I. 2. (German Division) - Deployment and Operations Division Railway Division Section 1a (for the revision of the Military Transport Order) 4th Division (Foreign Fortresses) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) II 3rd Division (France with Morocco, England with Egypt, Afghanistan) 9th Division (Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Spain, Portugal, America, German Colonies) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) III 5th Division (Operations Studies) 8th Division (Operations Studies) Division (War Academy and General Staff Service) Chief Quartermaster (O.Q.) IV 1st Division (Russia, Nordic States, East Asia, Persia, Turkey) 10th Division (Russia, Northern States, East Asia, Persia, Turkey) Department (Austria-Hungary and Balkan States) Oberquartiermeister V Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung I (neuere Kriege) Kriegsarchiv Kartenarchiv Chief of the Landesaufnahme and Oberquartiermeister Trigonometrische Abteilung Topographische Abteilung Kartographische Abteilung Photogrammetische Abteilung Kolonialsektion Der Chef des Generalstabes des Feldheeres 1914 bis 1918 (2) 1. General Staff Departments Central Department She was responsible for receiving and forwarding correspondence to the relevant departments, in cooperation with the Military Cabinet for Personnel Matters and Administration. The department was headed by Colonel von Fabeck, and from 26 March 1916 it was headed by Colonel Tieschowitz von Tieschowa. Operations Department The department with the closest connection to the Chief of Staff. She was also the office for his personal letters. It was responsible for creating the conditions for all operational measures of the army: to monitor the organisation and organisation of the entire army and to propose improvements as well as the training, armament and operational capability of the units. The Chief of the Opera Department was responsible for advising the Chief of General Staff, drawing up the operational plans of the General Staff and issuing his orders. During the war the department was expanded extensively. Heads: Major General Tappen Lieutenant Colonel Wetzell (since 31 Aug. 1916) Operations Department B On 18 August 1916, a subdivision was set up under the Operations Department which was responsible for the Macedonian and Turkish fronts. Operations Division II On 23 September 1916, the post of Chief of Field Ammunition was dissolved. The tasks of ammunition and equipment replacement were taken over by the ammunition section in the operations department. Subsequently, the ammunition section was merged with the warfare section to form Operations Division II. Chief: Colonel Bauer News Department, since 20 May 1917 Foreign Armies Department She was responsible for the prosecution of military operations abroad, especially for the warfare of the enemy states. She primarily collected information on their organization and distribution of forces. Division III b Your task was to transmit the enemy's messages. This was done by intelligence officers deployed to the armies and at suitable points in the home country. There were also voluntary or paid agents in neutral and hostile foreign countries and the Secret Field Police in the occupied territories. News material was also provided by the border police and the field police, which also served to carry out espionage. The intelligence and counter-espionage services in the homeland communicated with Division IIIb of the Deputy General Staff, which in turn was subordinated to Division IIIb in the Great Headquarters. The guidelines for patriotic education were issued by the department, as was the press service set up to steer public opinion. Political Department since Feb. 10, 1916 Military Political Department It was responsible for the military political affairs of all states, dealt with legal issues and passed on the information to the military attachés and the written authority on peace issues. 2. the Quartermaster General and his subordinates The Quartermaster General was responsible for all the duties relating directly to the relief of the Chief of the Quartermaster General. operations. This included the entire supply, stage and railway system, field post and administration of justice, field medical services and veterinary services. Generalquartiermeister Generalleutnant von Stein since 14 Sept. 1914 Generalleutnant Hahndorff since 16 Jan. 1916 Subordinate positions Generalintendant des Feldheeeres He was responsible for providing the army with food. In addition, he was the head of the field and troop directorships. With the transition to the positional war, the monitoring of the nutrition in the occupied territory was added. In particular the cultivation of the soil and the necessary procurement of the agricultural machine material and the utilization of the harvest surplus for the field army. Later the industrial use of the occupied territories was added. A new economic department was set up for the West with effect from 5 September 1916. With effect from January 1, 1917, the economic department was made independent and expanded and set up on behalf of the General Quartermaster for the Western Theatre of War (B.d.G. West). He was responsible for the administration, management and utilization of the occupied territories in the West. Besides, he was subordinated: - General Wechselamt - art expert for monument preservation - prisoners of war - and civilian worker battalions - electrotechnical workshop West - artillery and training equipment repair workshops - looting and collecting (until subordinated to a special commissioner) At the beginning, the following positions were also subordinated to the Generalquartiermeister: - Chief of field munitions - Chief of field telegraphy - Chief of field railways - Chief of field aviation - Inspector of balloon guns Chief of field medical services General staff physician of the army Prof. Dr. Schiernig headed the medical services in the entire war zone as the highest superior of the medical personnel. His responsibilities included: the medical service, the care and transport of the wounded, the distribution of hospital trains and ships, hospitals in the homeland. Field Chief Postmaster He supervised the postal system on all theatres of war. The Field Oberpost Inspections West and East were set up to relieve him. Second Commander of the Great Headquarters He was responsible for the security and supply of the headquarters and the control of the sub personnel. He commanded the Infantry and Cavalry Staff Guard, a Land Storm Battalion, a Field Gendarmerie Command, Military Police, a motor vehicle spark station and a telephone department, three balloon defence guns (later ducrh replaced two air defence batteries), a headlight train (later expanded into a headlight department), the field directorate of the Great Headquarters together with the field warfare fund, motor vehicle fleet, field post office, Central Postal Surveillance West with the post office monitoring centre of the Great Headquarters, marketing department and reading hall. Secret Field Police cooperated closely with Division III b. During the war, B.d.G.West also added a number of agencies to the Great Headquarters. The commander of the troops, newly created in 1915, was located in Luxembourg. The Chief of Field Service was established at the end of 1916 and placed under the authority of the Quartermaster General. It served to centralise the motor vehicle formations. After the approval of the Generalqaurtiermeister, he was authorized to give instructions to the motor troops of the army high commandos and the staff figures assigned to the army groups in the west. On 17 May 1918, the staff of the commander of the combat vehicle departments was subordinated to the head of the motor vehicle division. The B.d.G. Ost with its seat in Warsaw was responsible for the utilization of the land in the administrative area of the Supreme Commander East and the General Government of Warsaw. Valenciennes Military Mine Directorate It fell under the jurisdiction of the Quartermaster General in September 1917. The mining administrations of Mons and Valenciennes, which until then had been part of the Metz government, were united to form a military directorate. The German representation in occupied Italy Used in February 1918 in Udine with evacuation of the 14th army. It served to assert German interests in the war spoils acquired jointly with Austria. The commander of the 13th Cavalry Brigade and his staff were to regulate the demand for horses on the eastern and western fronts due to the increasing shortage of horses. He was assigned to the GQ on 31 December 1916. In February 1918 he became the Commissioner of the Quartermaster General in equestrian affairs. Commissioner of the General Quartermaster in Berlin In order to reestablish trade relations with the former Russian territories resulting from the treaties with the Allies, coordination between the central authorities and the General Staff was necessary. He also took over the supervision of the import and export points. Commissioner of the Master Quartermaster General for Prey and Collecting This was created with effect from 1 June 1918. It had already been settled in 1917. He was responsible for the administration of the spoils of war and the control of the services. General of the Ammunition Columns and Trains in the Great Headquarters The increase in the number of formations was accompanied by the technical contraction of weapons, which was created in July 1918. Her task was to use the units, to supervise the technical service in the war zone and at home, and to replace the clothing and field equipment. 3. foot artillery and pioneers were among the special weapons and their technical training was monitored by the inspections. The General of the Foot Artillery in the Great Headquarters He was adviser to the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army on technical matters and the deployment of heavy artillery. In addition, he shaped the training in his home country. He was subordinate to the later established "Inspector of Artillery Metrology" and the "Staff Officer for Heavy Flat Fire". At first he had no direct influence on the general of artillery. This did not change when the OHL introduced the unit staffs "Artillery Generals" instead of "Field Artillery Brigade Commanders" and Foot Artillery Generals to unify artillery. Thus his name was changed to "General von der Artillerie Nr. 1". A month later he became "Inspector General of Artillery Shooting Schools". He was in charge of the shooting training of the entire field and foot artillery in the field and at home. General Inspectors: General of the Artillery of Lauter (until 15 Oct. 1917) Lieutenant General Ziethen The General of the Engineering and Pioneer Corps in the Great Headquarters He was the supreme weapons superior during the war of increasing and specializing formations of the pioneers. He advised the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army and was responsible for the organizational and technical development of the pioneers. The special services of the pioneers, such as the stage-managers of the mine-throwing machine, in existence since the end of 1915, the inspector of the gas regiments created in 1916 and the stage-manager of the pioneer melee means of close combat established in May 1918. In August 1918 he received the designation General of the Pioneers from the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army. General der Pioniere: General der Infanterie von Claer bis bis zum 2. Juli 1916 Major General Marschall von Bieberstein seit 28. Aug. 1918 The Chief of the Field Ammunition Service This was initially subordinated to the Generalquartiermeister. His tasks included coordinating the ammunition provided by the War Ministry in conjunction with the Chief of Field Railways as well as the replacement of equipment on the basis of the reports from the Army High Commands and the Stage Inspection. In addition, he was responsible for planning the needs of the army commandos and the stage inspections and reporting them to the War Ministry. With effect from 10 May 1915, he was directly subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army. This should ensure close coordination with the operations department. On 23 September 1916 the position of Chief of Field Ammunition was dissolved. His duties were performed by the Operations Department. The Chief of the Field Telegraphy The Chief of the Field Telegraphy was settled during the first three years of war at the General Quartermaster. He was in charge of the entire intelligence troops and intelligence media of the field army. During the war the news formations were strongly expanded, which caused the army leadership under Hindenburg to carry out a reorganization. A general of the telegraph troops for the western, eastern and southeastern theater of war was created to relieve the field telegraphy chief. These generals were subordinated to the chief of field telegraphy. A new restructuring of the intelligence system took place, with the head of the field telegraphy reporting to it. A new organizational change was made by the Chief of Field Telegraphy to "Chief of Intelligence" and reporting directly to the Chief of General Staff of the Field Army. He also became commanding general. He was now responsible for organisation, use, training, staffing, replacement, replenishment, technical requirements and all German spark telegraphy traffic. Chief: Major General Balck Colonel von Wolff since Dec. 7, 1914 Major General von Hesse since Apr. 9, 1917 The Chief of Field Railways He was initially subordinate to the Quartermaster General. It was not until his replacement in October 1916 that he was directly subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff. His tasks included the complete railway system and the use of the waterways. At the commander-in-chief east he was represented by the field railway boss east. There were also railway officers at the stage commandos and the stage inspections, later there were authorized general staff officers at the allied states in Constantinople, Sofia, Vienna, and from mid-1916 also at the army groups. Further streamlining of the organization was achieved by the creation of independent railway transport departments based at the Great Headquarters in Kowno and Pleßhatten. Heads: Major General Groener until 31 Oct. 1916 Colonel Freiherr von Oldershausen Chief of War Surveying With the war of positions and the production of a wide variety of maps, war surveying became increasingly important. The head of war surveying was to steer this task. Therefore, the authority was created in July 1915. All surveying units were subject to this authority. Depending on requirements, staff figures for surveying were assigned to the army commandos in the west and the army groups in the west. Chief of the military aviation While one was superior to the army airships, one lay back with the planes behind France, with the captive balloons one was set up in something equal. In order to make the air forces more efficient, the chief of the air force was set up in 1915 with the general quartermaster. He ran the aviators, the airmen and the weather service. On 1 July 1915, an inspector of the balloon guns of the General Quartermaster was created for the air defence, which belonged to artillery. On 8 October 1916, Lieutenant General Hoppner was appointed Commanding General of the Air Force by Allerhöchste Kabinettsordrre and the former Chief of Field Aviation, Lieutenant Colonel Thomsen, became his Chief of Staff. All formations of the airmen, the airship, the air defence and the weather service in the field and in the homeland were subordinated to the Kogenluft. This was directly subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff in October 1915. The head censorship office was also integrated into this, which had previously been the organisational office of the deputy commanding generals. The tasks of the War Press Office were to improve cooperation between the home authorities and the Supreme Army Command in the field of the press, to provide information to the authorities and the press, and to ensure that the supervision of the press was uniform. She was also responsible for forwarding the censorship guidelines to the censorship offices. The press office had contact to all departments, the otherwise usual way of appeal did not exist. In October 1918, the War Press Office was subordinated to the War Ministry. Military post of the Federal Foreign Office The post was established on 1 July 1916 and was subordinated to the Supreme Army Command, but was organisationally subordinated to the Federal Foreign Office, Division IIIb of the Deputy General Staff, the War Press Office, the War Ministry, the Admiral Staff and the R e i c h s m a r i n e a m t . She was responsible for the defense against enemy propaganda and for German propaganda at home and abroad. On 30 January 1917, a "Picture and Photo Office" was set up, which in April 1917 was designated as the "Picture and Film Office". In December 1917, Universum Film AG was founded on the initiative of the Picture and Film Office and used for educational purposes. In January 1918, the Bild- und Filmamt was administratively subordinated to the War Ministry. However, the Military Office of the Federal Foreign Office continued to be empowered to issue directives. The organization of the Great General Staff from 1. February 1919 Chief of the General Staff of the Field Army (9) Central Department Chief of the Landesaufnahme General Staff Departments Department Foreign Army Department (F) Railway Department (E) War Economics Department (Kriweis) Economics Department (W) War History Department (K) War History Department (K 1) War History Department (K 2) War History Department (K 3) Description of the Collection: The maps from the former inventory KART 3 were transferred to the inventory PH 3-KART. Content characterization: The map inventory contains maps of various types (section maps, location maps, position maps, operation maps, photo maps, artillery maps, map sheets, map sketches, etc.) of the theatres of war of the First World War. The maps were produced by the cartographic department of the Deputy General Staff of the Field Army and by the surveying departments and map offices of the command authorities and associations. The majority of the maps refer to the western theater of war, especially Belgium, France and Luxembourg. Only a small part of the documents refers to the eastern theater of war, especially Russia. State of development: Invenio citation: BArch, PH 3-KART/...

History of the Inventory Designer: 1.2.1939 Appointment of the Chief of Training to relieve the General Staff of the Luftwaffe. At first he was directly subordinate to the Inspector General of the Luftwaffe, since April 1940 to the intermediate Chief of the Air Force. The inspections that had existed since 1935 for the individual branches of the armed forces were transferred to the Chief of Training. During the war, they were overwhelmingly converted into arms generals and mostly subordinated to the Chief of the Air Force General Staff. In the spring of 1943, the office of Chief of Education was closed. Some of the tasks were entrusted to the "General of Flight Training", who from July 1944 was subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe and in October 1944 also took over the training area of the Luftwaffe Command Staff I a with the chart system. Overview of the names of the inspections / weapon generals L In 1 1936 - Jan. 1939: Inspection of the reconnaissance pilots and the aerial photography Febr. - Sept. 1939: Inspection of the army pilots, plus General of the Lw. at the ObdH Oct. 1939 - Spring 1942: Inspection of the reconnaissance pilots Spring 1942 - Autumn 1943: General of the reconnaissance pilots and General of the Lw. at the ObdH from autumn 1943: General of the reconnaissance pilots L In 2 1937 - Jan. 1939: Inspection of the combat pilots Febr. - Sept. 1939: Inspection of the combat, Stuka and reconnaissance pilots Oct. 1939 - Sept. 1941: Inspection of the combat and Stuka pilots from Sept. 1941: General of the combat pilots L In 3 1936 - 1937: Inspection of the fighter and Stuka pilots 1938: Inspection of the fighter and Stuka pilots 1938: Inspection of the reconnaissance pilots L In 2 1937 - Jan. 1939: Inspection of the fighter, Stuka and reconnaissance pilots Oct. 1939 - Sept. 1931: Inspection of the fighter and Stuka pilots from Sept. 1941: General of the fighter pilots L In 3 1936 - 1937: Inspection of the fighter and Stuka pilots 1938: 1939 - 1941: Inspection for technical training 1942 - May 1943: Inspection for technical troop service, equipment and weapons L In 6 From 1937: Inspection of motor vehicles L In 7 Inspection of air intelligence L In 8 Inspection of seaplanes Febr. 1939 - March 1940: Inspection of Naval Pilots Apr. 1940 - Apr. 1942 Inspection of Maritime Aviation L In 9 Inspection of Pilot Schools L In 10 Inspection of Education and Training, plus Command of the Air War Schools June - Dec. 1944: Inspection for Troop Service and Education in the Air Force L In 11 1939: Inspection of the Airborne and Parachute Troops, plus Commander of the Air Force Division 7 L In 12 1939 - Jan. 1944: Inspection of the Airborne and Parachute Troops L In 11 1939: Inspection of the Airborne and Parachute Troops, plus Commander of the Airborne and Parachute Division 7 L In 12 1939 - Jan. 1944: Inspection of the Airborne and Parachute Troops L In 11 1939: Inspection of the Airborne and Parachute Troops, plus Commander of the Airborne and Parachute Troops 7 L In 12 1939 - Jan. 1939 1941: Inspection for air navigation (blind flight and meteorological service inspection) L In 13 1939 - 1942: Inspection of civil air defence since 1942: Inspection of air defence L In 14 1939 - 1944 Inspection of medical service L In 15 Inspection of air defence zones L In 16 Inspection of maritime emergency service L In 17 June 1942 - Spring 1943: Inspection of air force construction forces Spring 1943 - Apr. 1944: Air force inspection for construction troops and prisoners of war May - Sept. 1944: Inspection of air force pioneers and prisoner of war camps From Oct. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war camps from Oct. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war camps from Oct. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war camps from Oct. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war from Sept. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war from Oct. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war from Sept. 1944: Inspection of the air force pioneers and prisoner of war from Oct. 1944 In 18 Dec. 1942 - Beginning of 1944: Inspection of the air force field units Inventory description: The department Chief of Training (Chef AW) was formed in February 1939 to relieve the 3rd (training) department of the General Staff, which had emerged in 1937 from the training department of the Luftkommandoamt (Air Command Office) in existence since 1934 and was subordinate to the Air Force Inspector General. The 3rd section of the General Staff was limited to tactical training, while the Chief AW had to carry out the entire remaining training of the Luftwaffe according to the instructions of the Reich Minister of Air Force (Ob.d.L.). Equipped with the status and disciplinary powers of a Commanding General, he had the right to supervise the training orders issued and to attend the service of the units in order to check the level of training of the troops. However, he did not exercise direct command over the troops. At first, the Chief AW was also directly responsible to the Inspector General of the Luftwaffe (Gen.Insp.d.Lw.), but since April 1940 to the intermediate Chief of the Air Force. In addition to the training department, the staff included the regulations and teaching material department, the strength and equipment department and the aerial photography department, which was spun off from Luftwaffeninspektion 1 (L In 1), the former army aircraft inspection. The air force inspections 1-14, which had also been under the control of the Gen.Insp.d.Lw. since their formation in 1935, now fell under the authority of the Chief AW, although from April 1940 only the inspections 1-3, 8-10 and 12 remained in his area of responsibility. In the spring of 1943, the Aerial Photogrammetry Department, together with the Air Force's Main Photogrammetry Department, was affiliated with the General of Reconnaissance Aircraft (formerly L In 2) in order to serve as the basis for reconnaissance work there. Surveying was assigned to the 7th department of the General Staff; only Group V (film) and the main film station remained with the Chief AW. Renamed in "General der Fliegerausbildung" (Gen.d.Fl.Ausb.)(Kreipe) the former chief AW remained limited to his main task of troop training. From July 1944 on he was subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff (Chief Gen.St.) and in October of the same year the training area was taken over by the Luftwaffe Command Staff Ia (training dept.), where already since 1942 the map system was integrated. The "General of the reconnaissance pilots" (v. Barsewisch), who at the same time also held the functions of General d. Lw. at the Commander-in-Chief of the Army (Ob.d.H.) (taken over from L In 1, Insp. d. Heeresflieger), was responsible for the organisation and conversion of the reconnaissance units and for the development of aircraft. Due to his impressions during inspections, he was able to make training demands on the general of the pilot training and even provide for the training of officers in reconnaissance supplementary units. In spring 1945 his duties were taken over by the 7th abbot of the Lw.Führungsstab (Lw.F.St.). The purpose of the air force inspections was to monitor and supervise the training, personnel and equipment of the various branches of the armed forces and other facilities of the air force. They made suggestions for improvements and advised the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (Ob.d.L.) during the war - partly with the powers of a Commanding General and renamed to weapon generals. The weapon generals were directly under the control of the chief of the general staff, thus in contrast to the inspections they were equal to the chief of AW/Gen.d.Fl.Ausb. New services have been created or areas of responsibility moved as needed. Thus the L In. 1 (inspection of the army pilots) with the range aerial photography and the connection to the army was divided between the boss AW and the Gen.d.Aufkl.flieger or took over later completely from the latter. Since January 1940 the L In 4 (Flakart.) and the L In 13 (Luftschutz) were subordinated to the general of the anti-aircraft artillery (Flakwaffe) (Rüdel, afterwards v. Axthelm) since January 1940; the latter became from October an independent mechanism. From April 1940, inspections 5 (flight safety), 6 (motor vehicles) and 14 (medical services) were directly under the command of the Air Force Chief - no longer under the command of AW. who in turn was subordinated to the Gen.Insp.d.Lw. At the end of 1944 all inspections were subordinated to the weapon generals. In May 1943, the "General der Truppentechnik" was appointed as successor to the Technical Office of the General Aircraft Master. In 1944 the "General der Fliegerbodenorganisation" emerged from the 2nd department of the General Quartermaster. Characterisation of the content: The Chief AW and the General of Flight Training have mainly passed down provisions on the training of the different types of armed forces, in particular the Air Force, as well as on staffing and organisation. The richest survivor is the general of reconnaissance pilots, whose written records contain most of the relatively extensive documents on aerial photography. The general of the anti-aircraft weapon as well as the inspections of the medical service and the civil air-raid protection are also handed down with noteworthy documents, the latter with experience reports about heavy air attacks on German cities. Remains of documents have been deposited in the Federal Archives by the generals of fighter, fighter and battle pilots as well as by the General of the Naval Sector, to whom the naval and sea pilots were technically subordinate, mostly in the form of leadership principles, guidelines for deployment and cooperation with the army and navy (with experience reports), technical requirements, development programmes, lists of the armament status and staffing of positions. State of preservation: Findbuch 1990 Vorarchivische Ordnung: The archive material, which has only been handed down in fragments, originates from the return of files from the USA and Great Britain to the Document Centre of the Military History Research Office, from where it was handed over to the military archive in 1968. Scope, explanation: 692 AU Citation method: BArch, RL 4/...