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Inventory description: The Commandant Rückwärtiges Armeegebiet (Korück) was established during the mobilization as a command post at the Army Commandos of the Wehrmacht. The Korücks were used as administration of the occupied enemy areas directly between battle zone and rear army areas under the administration of the army groups. At the beginning of the war there were nine Korücks, in the course of the war more Korücks were built as needed. During the war, some Korücks were transformed into supreme commanders. A Korück consisted of 17 officers, 6 civil servants, 18 non-commissioned officers and 38 crews, plus 7 "Hilfswillige. The task was to secure supply routes, supply bases, railway lines, communication links, the most important airports as well as to guard and transport prisoners of war. The Korücks were in charge of the security divisions and regiments, Landesschützen battalions, field and orc commandant posts, units of the field gendarmerie and the secret field police as well as staffs for prison collection points and transit camps (Dulag). The Korücks were distributed as follows during the Polish campaign: In the east: 3rd army (501), 4th army (580), 8th army (530), 10th army (540), 14th army (520), HGr. south (570) in the west: 5th army (560), 1st army (590), 7th army (550) Between 10th and 16.09.1939 the Korücks 581-589 and 591-592 were reassembled. Of these altogether 20 Korücks remained however in Poland or were otherwise used: 501 as staff 421.infantry division in East Prussia 530 as Oberfeld-Kommandantur (OFK) Warschau, later 386.Infantry Division 570 as OFK Krakow, later transferred to the Netherlands 581 as OFK Radom, later 372 Infantry Division 586 as Staff "Oberost" (Commander-in-Chief East), later Commander's Office Warsaw 587 as OFK Tschenstochau, later 351.Infantry Division On 5.01.1940 further 3 Korücks (670-672) were established, but were renamed with some others still in the winter 1939/1940 into Oberfeldkommandanturen and were used after the France campaign as follows: 520 as OFK 520 in Mons 570 as OFK 570 in Gent 589 as OFK 589 in Liège 591 as military administrative district A St.Germain (initially OFK) 592 as Military Administrative District C Dijon (initially OFK) 670 as OFK 670 in Lille 671 as Military Administrative District B in Angers (initially OFK) 672 as OFK 672 in Brussels For use by the armies only: HGr. B 18.Armee, Korück 588, later (1942) Commander H.Gebiet Südfrankreich 6.Army, Korück 585 HGr. A 9. army, Korück 582 2. army, Korück 583 4. army, Korück 580 12. army, Korück 560 16. army, Korück 584 HGr. C 1. army, Korück 590 7. army, Korück 550 Since the armies in France had no more army territory after the armistice, the office of the Korück was also cancelled with them. In the Russian campaign and on the other theaters of war Korück's armies were assigned from north to south as follows: 20.Geb.Armee Korück 525 (10.09.1941, first for East Karelia) HGr. Nord 18.Armee 583 (from 2.Armee Westen) 16.Armee 584 (as in the west) HGr. Mitte 9.Army 582 (as in West; exchange August 1943 with 2.Pz.Army, now 532) 3.Pz.Army 590 (from 1.Army West) 4.Army 559 (01.02.1041) 2.Pz.Army 532 (16.02.1942; Exchange August 1943 with 9.Army, now 582 in the Balkans) HGr. B 2.Army 580 (from 4th Army West) 4.Pz.Army 593 (15.01.1942; December 1942 Exchange with 6.Army, now 585) 6.Army 585 (as in the West; December 1942 Exchange with 4.Pz. Army, now 593) HGr. A 1.Pz.Army 351 (27.03.1942) 17.Army 550 (from 7.Army West) 11.Army 553 (01.02.1041; remained in Crimea; 1943 dissolved) Balkan 12.Armye/HGr. E: 560 (became 01.10.1942 Command) Thessaloniki Aegean Sea) Italy 10.Army 594 ( 01.02.1944 from Field Commandantur 1047) 14.Army 511 ( 1944?) The 8.Army newly established in southern Russia in 1943 first had the Korück 595, which went to Italy as OFK 379 and was replaced on 01.10.1943 by the Korück 558 (formerly OFK 787 Kharkov). In 1944 also the armies in the west received again a Korück: 1.Army 535 (01.10.1944 as Korück AOK 1) 7.Army 534 (10.01.1945) - or 534 with the 1.Fallsch.Army (presumably from OFK 770) 15.Army 517 (December 1944 from Feld-Kommandantur 517) 19.Army 536 (1944/1945) 25.Army 533 (*November 1944 from OFK 670) (according to Tessin, Georg: Associations and troops and the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in the Second World War 1939-1945, 1st vol, Osnabrück 1979) Characterization of the contents: The Korücks' war diaries have survived. These mainly document security measures and supplies, operations against partisans with reports of fighting by troops and police. In addition, there are commands, service instructions and arrangements, e.g. for supply. Furthermore, situation, combat, activity and deployment reports as well as organisational and personnel documents (staffing lists, etc.) are available in the inventory. Occasionally photographs and maps (maps of operations and locations) have been handed down. Parts of the documents were already handed over to the Army Archives in Potsdam during the war. After the end of the war in 1945, the documents were confiscated by the US armed forces. After their return to the Document Centre of the Military History Research Office in the 1960s, the holdings were taken over by the Military Archives of the Federal Archives. State of development: Findbuch Zitierweise: BArch, RH 23/...

Contains among other things: Circular for the approval of larger meetings by Prime Minister Göring, 30 Nov. 1936; proposals of the Afrikanische Frucht-Compagnie AG, Hamburg, for the establishment of a German overseas economic area using the example of bananas from Cameroon, 26 Nov. 1937; various reports of the Reichskommissar für Altmaterialverwertung, SA-Brigadeführer Ziegler: Implementation guidelines, cooperation of the NSDAP divisions, waste paper collection, introduction of waste material collection in Italy, 1937; invitation to a meeting on the Anhaltinische Kohlenwerke on 3 Nov. 1936; invitation to a meeting on the Anhaltinische Kohlenwerke on 3 Nov. 1936. June 1937; Activity of the Work Deployment Business Group: Reserve for the Work Deployment in Mining, Article "Principles and Results of Wage Policy" by Ministerial Director Mansfeld, Freimachung von Arbeitskräften der Zigarrenindustrie für die Landwirtschaft, Beseitigung der Kurzarbeit; Responsibility of the Fishing Industry Working Group; Submissions by the German Textile Materials Working Group concerning the Reich Exhibition of the German Textile and Garment Industry; Information from the Group for Foreign Trade Business on Carl Boschulte, Hamburg

Inventory description: With the decree on the reorganization of the OKW of February 7, 1938, the Wehrmachtführungsamt (WFA) was created - initially referred to as the Office Group Command Staff. The Wehrmachtführungsamt was renamed Wehrmachtführungsstab (WFSt) on 7 August 1940. According to Hitler's instructions, he had to work on the operations and measures necessary for the entire conduct of the war and to participate in laws affecting the Wehrmacht as a whole. Among other things, he drafted the instructions for warfare and the special and combat instructions or "Führerweisungen" issued on Hitler's behalf. From 1940, the chief WFSt was responsible for the warfare on the so-called OKW war theatres in Scandinavia including Northern Finland, Africa and Italy, from July 1941 also in the Balkans and from 15 March 1941 in the West. In this respect, he informed Hitler daily about the course of the operations there on the basis of the situation reports; the head of the OKW had assigned this task to the head of the WFSt at the beginning of the war. Initially, the position of the WFSt was still weak, but with the plans to occupy Denmark and Norway it had already broken through the supremacy and largely independent action of the three parts of the armed forces. Only the war against the USSR and the Eastern Front remained a "OKH theatre of war" until shortly before the end of the war in the area of responsibility of the General Staff of the Army. A field or front squadron of the WFSt became a permanent institution with the Western campaign in the area of the "Führer Headquarters", whereby Hitler's influence on the command increased. In the course of the war, this squadron divided its working areas geographically. Initially, the WFA or WFSt consisted of the departments of National Defence (L), Wehrmacht Communications (WNV) and, from April 1939, Wehrmacht Propaganda (WPr). Division L was the operational task force in WFA/WFSt; it was subdivided into the operation groups Army (L IH), Air Force (L IL), Navy (L IK), Organisation Group and Quartermaster Group. The Chief of Dept. L was also responsible for the leader of the war diary, an office officer and the registry. On January 1, 1942, the departmental name of the chief of the Dept. L changed to ¿Deputy Chief of the WFSt¿, a little later the group WFSt/Ic (enemy situation) was established. The following groups/departments belonged to the WNV department: Deployment and organisation/central department, wire communication, radio department, war telecommunications department, encryption department. From 1942, the "Generalbevollmächtigter für technische Nachrichtenmittel" was assigned to it. In WPr (at the time of 1942) Group I was responsible for propaganda leadership, organization and the propaganda troops, Group II for domestic propaganda and troop support, Group III for military censorship (with censorship groups army, navy and air force), Group IV for foreign propaganda, Group V for army propaganda and Group VI for air force propaganda. The groups V and VI existed only for a short time and were dissolved already in 1942/43, a film staff was added at this time. Preprovenience: Wehrmachtführungsamt (Initially Office Group Joint Staff) Content Characterization: In addition to the remains of diaries and reference files of the chief WFSt, the status reports of the staff and his war diary, some Wehrmacht reports and special reports, numerous documents of the deputy chief of the WFSt on organizational matters of Wehrmacht leadership (13 vol., 1938-1945), the personnel and material equipment of the Wehrmacht (25 vol., 1938-1945), the military equipment of the Wehrmacht (25 vol., 1938-1945), the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht's military equipment, and the military equipment of the Wehrmacht, 1935-1945), the organisation of the field army (19 vols., 1940-1945) as well as warfare on the individual theatres of war (West: 26 vols., 1940-1945; North: 17 vols., 1941-1945; Africa: 6 vols.; South East: 15 vols, 1941-1944; East: 10 vols.; Italy: 9 vols.), the Reichsverteidigung and Heimatkriegsgebiet (18 vols., 1935-1945), the Versorgungsführung (20 vols., 1940-1945) and administration of the affiliated and incorporated territories (10 vols., 1939-1945) as well as occupied territories (40 vols., 1938-1945). The instructions for warfare and basic orders (70 vols., 1939-1945) and individual companies (29 vols., 1939-1945) form separate series. In addition, the files of the Wehrmacht Propaganda Department deserve special mention: Organization (12 vol., 1937-1945), Personnel Affairs (13 vol., 1939-1944) and Internal Service (16 vol., 1939-1943); Propaganda Leadership in General (37 vol., 1939-1943), 1937-1945) and deployment of propaganda troops (71 vols., 1939-1944, mainly in the navy and occupied territories, with activity reports); cooperation with civilian authorities and the press (13 vols., 1939-1945), 1938-1942); radio (7 vols., 1939-1944), picture and film propaganda (11 vols., 1939-1941); collection of news about the situation in the Wehrmacht and at home and abroad (11 and 29 vols., 1939-1942); defence against enemy propaganda (10 vols., 1939-1942); defence against enemy propaganda (10 vols., 1939-1942), 1939-1945); exercise of military censorship (89 vol., 1939-1944, mainly on individual cases of examination, approval or prohibition of books, journal and newspaper articles and the publication of pictures). There are also series (a total of 26 vols., 1939-1945) of Wehrmacht propaganda situation reports, "Nachrichten des OKW", "Mitteilungen für das Offizierskorps" and "Mitteilungen für die Truppe". From the area WNV only fragments of written material are available (20 vol., 1939-1945). State of development: Online-Findbuch Scope, Explanation: 920 AU Citation method: BArch, RW 4/...

History of the Inventory Designer: With effect from 9. November 1936 Transformation of the Chief Adjutant's Office of the Reichsführer SS into the organizational unit "The Reichsführer SS Personal Staff"; function of the Persönli‧chen Staff Reichsführer SS - one of the main offices of the Reichsführung SS - as sachbear‧beitende Office of the Reichsführer SS for tasks that did not fall within the competence of SS departments; division of the Personal Staff Reichsführer SS into offices in the years 1942-1944: Amt Wewelsburg, Amt Ahnenerbe, Amt Lebensborn, Amt/Abteilung Presse, Amt München (artistic and architectural tasks in connection with the SS-Wirt‧schafts-Verwaltungshauptamt), Amt Rohstoffe/Rohstoffamt, Amt für Volkstumsfragen, Zen‧tralinstitut for optimal human recording (statistical and practical evaluation of the "human recording" at the SS and police), Amt Staffführung (internal affairs of the staff and the offices) Long text: As Heinrich Himmler at the age of 28 years by order of Hitler from 20. When the SS was appointed Reichsführer-SS on January 1, 1929, only about 280 men belonged to the SS, at that time still a special formation of the SA. The supreme leadership organ of the "Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP", set up in the spring of 1925 for Hitler's personal protection and protection of the assembly, whose abbreviation "SS" was probably to become the best-known cipher symbolizing the reign of terror of the National Socialist regime in Germany and Europe, was the "Oberleitung der Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP", which functioned organizationally as part of the Supreme SA leadership in Munich. At the height of the Second World War, on 30 June 1944, the SS then comprised almost 800,000 members, of whom almost 600,000 were in the Waffen SS alone [1]. During these 15 years, the bureaucratic apparatus of the SS had grown enormously through the establishment of new offices, main offices and other central institutions at the highest level of management and through the formation of numerous subordinate offices and institutions. At the same time - also as a consequence of Himmler's leadership principle of the division of competences on the one hand and the linking of institutionally divided competences by personal union on the other - the organisational network at the top of the SS [2], which had become an if not the decisive instrument of power, had turned out to be almost unmanageable. The formal separation of the SS from the SA took place in two steps. Himmler's communication to the SS of December 1, 1930, according to which "the complete separation of SA and SS had been completed" [3], was followed by an order issued by Hitler as the Supreme SA Leader on January 14, 1931, that the Reichsführer-SS, as leader of the entire SS, be subordinated to the Chief of Staff, and the SS, as an independent association with its own official channels, be subordinated to the Reichsführer-SS [4]. With the "elevation" of the SS "to an independent organization within the framework of the NSDAP" ordered by Hitler on July 20, 1934, the binding of the SS to the SA was finally concluded. This was justified by the great merits, "especially in connection with the events of 30 June 1934" [5], i.e. the so-called "Röhm Putsch". At the same time the Reichsführer-SS, like the chief of staff of the SA, was directly subordinated to Hitler. In 1929, the Reichsführung-SS, which at first still knew a "managing director of the overhead management", had a very modest cut within the framework of the then equally underdeveloped Obersten SA leadership. The institutional expansion of the SS leadership pursued by Himmler ran clearly parallel to the development of the Supreme SA leadership, after Ernst Röhm had taken it over as Chief of Staff in January 1931. As with the latter, several departments and departments were created in the Reichsführung-SS until May 1931 in the following structure [6]: Ia Structure, Training, Security Ib Motorisation, Transport Ic Intelligence, Press Id Clothing, Catering, Accommodation Iia Personnel Department, Staffing Iib Proof of Strength III Matters of Honour, Legal Matters Iva Money Management Ivb Medical Care of the SS (Reichsarzt-SS) V Propaganda The SS Office developed from these organisational units in 1932. The department Ic became the SD Office, a race office, later race and settlement office, at the beginning of 1932 newly created. With Himmler's appointment as inspector of the Prussian Police on April 20, 1934 and Reinhard Heydrich's function as head of both the Secret State Police Office and the SD Main Office, the SD Office, later known as the SD Main Office, underwent a development that was separate from the narrower Reichsführung-SS. In 1939, this led to the merger of the SD Main Office and the SD Main Office Security Police to form the Reichssicherheitshauptamt [7]. Although the Reich Security Main Office, the Ordnungspolizei Main Office, the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German People's Growth, and the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle were all part of the SS leadership, according to the understanding of the SS and the NSDAP; these authorities, however, apart from the joint leadership by Himmler as Reichsführer-SS and head of the German Police, and as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German People's Growth and the linking of state and party-official tasks, essentially performed state functions [8]. The SS Office of 1932, which from 1935 was known as the SS Main Office [9], changed its tasks and became the nucleus of new main offices into the war years. They arose as the Reichsführung-SS continued to expand through increasing leadership and administrative tasks: Development of the armed units, development and leadership of the Waffen-SS during the war, administration of the concentration camps (KL) and the economic enterprises of the SS, activities in the ideological-political field. The order issued by the Reichsführer-SS on January 14, 1935, to reorganize the Reichsführung-SS with effect from January 20, 1935, named the "Staff Reichsführer-SS" in addition to the SS Main Office, the SD Main Office, and the Race and SS Main Offices, the SD Main Office, and the Race and Settlement Main Office. It was divided into a chief adjutant's office, a personnel office, a SS court, an audit department and a staff treasury [10]. The Chief Adjutant's Office was later to become the Main Office of Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS. The staff of the Reichsführer-SS and the SS-Hauptamt were closely linked in terms of personnel by the fact that the chiefs of individual offices of the Hauptamt simultaneously performed functions in the staff. So corresponded in the SS-Hauptamt: Staff Reichsführer-SS: Personalamt (II) Personalkanzlei (II) Gerichtsamt (III) SS-Gericht (III) Verwaltungsamt (IV) Verwaltungschef-SS und Reichskassenverwalter (IV) Sanitätsamt (V) Reichsarzt-SS (V) In addition, the Führungsamt (I) and the Ergänzungsamt (VI) as well as the inspector of the KL and the SS-Wachverbände - directly subordinated to the head of the SS-Hauptamt - were added to the SS-Hauptamt, from 1936 the SS-Totenkopfverbände, and, from autumn 1935, the inspector of the disposal troop. One after the other, the corresponding organizational units in the SS Main Office or the SS Main Office were subsequently transformed into in the staff Reichsführer-SS 1939: - the SS-Personalhauptamt für die Personalangelegenheiten der SS-Führer [11], - the Hauptamt SS-Gericht [12], - the Hauptamt Verwaltung und Wirtschaft [13], which from 1942 was united with the Hauptamt Haushalt und Bauten des Reichsführers-SS and Chefs der Deutschen Polizei und dem SS-Verwaltungsamt to form the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt [14], 1940: - the SS Main Office "for the military leadership of the Waffen SS and pre- and post-military training of the General SS" [15], - the "Dienststelle SS-Obergruppenführer Heißmeyer", which supervised national political educational institutions and home schools within the portfolio of the Reich Ministry for Science, Education and Popular Education, as it were the preliminary stage of a planned Main Office for national political education [16]. The SS-Hauptamt under its leader SS-Gruppenführer Gottlob Berger essentially retained the registration and supplementary services as well as matters of training, especially for SS members recruited in the "Germanic Lands". In addition to these main offices and offices, Himmler had early established his own office to direct the apparatus and to supervise institutions directly subordinated to him and tasks in his adjutant's office that remained outside the offices. On June 15, 1933, the SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Wolff [17], who was the same age as Himmler, had joined them as full-time adjutant. Wolff very soon became Himmler's closest confidante, accompanied him on his travels and took part in his leadership tasks. In 1935 he became chief adjutant. Himmler took the upgrading of the Chief Adjutant's Office as an institution that had outgrown its original function into account when he transformed it into the Personal Staff by order of November 9, 1936 [18]: "1.) With effect from 9 November 1936, the previous Chief Adjutant of the Reichsführer-SS was given the designation 'The Reichsführer-SS Personal Staff' in view of its size and its greatly expanded service area over the years. 2.) I appoint SS-Brigadeführer Wolff as Chief of the Personal Staff. 3.) The new Adjutant of the Reichsführer-SS to be established forms a department of the Personal Staff." The simultaneous elevation of the Personal Staff to a main office was not only not pronounced, but probably also not intended. The increasing tasks of the Personal Staff on the one hand and the consideration of Wolff's position in relation to the newly established Heads of Main Office in 1939 may have persuaded Himmler to subsequently interpret another order of November 9, 1936, later, in 1939, to the effect that he had already at that time elevated the Personal Staff to a Main Office. In this order of November 9, 1936 [19] on the "Reorganization of the Command Relations in the All SS", he had announced the "Structure of the Office of the Reichsführer SS" as follows: SS Main Office, SD Main Office, Race and Settlement Main Office, Reichsführer SS Personal Staff; in addition, the Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, SS Obergruppenführer Daluege, had the rank of Head of Main Office. In the order of June 1, 1939, with which he formed the SS Personnel Main Office and the SS Court Main Office, he took up this order again and formulated that he had "established" them as the Main Offices. Still in the order of April 20, 1939, to found the Hauptamtes Verwaltung und Wirtschaft, however, he had declared that it was "a Hauptamt like the other Hauptämter of the Reichsführung-SS (SS-Hauptamt, SD-Hauptamt, Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt, Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei, and Hauptamt Sicherheitspolizei). So there was still no talk of a main office Personal Staff here. Wolff was only appointed head of the main office retroactively on 8 June 1939 [20]. The function and task of the Personal Staff are described as follows in a directive of 3 April 1937 on command management and administration in the area of responsibility of the Reichsführer-SS [21]: "The Personal Staff of the Reichsführer-SS is the administrative office of the Reichsführer-SS for those matters which do not belong to the areas of activity of the heads of the SS-Hauptamt, the SD-Hauptamt, the Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt or the administrative central offices. For reasons of competence, the Chief of the Personal Staff must finally hand over to the SS Headquarters, the SD Headquarters, the Race and Settlement Headquarters, or the Central Offices in charge all matters which fall within the competence of the Heads of the SS Headquarters, the SD Headquarters, or the Central Offices in charge. The Chief of the Personal Staff simultaneously supervises a) the Adjutant's Office of the Reichsführer-SS, b) the entrance office of the Reichsführer-SS, c) the "Chancellery of the Reichsführer-SS". Two characteristics of the Personal Staff are thus shown: It should not perform any tasks in competition with the SS specialist departments, but should be Himmler's administrative office for tasks outside these departments, i.e. at least partially exercise the specialist supervision over Himmler's directly subordinate institutions. The function of the Personal Staff as a "central command post of the Reichsführung-SS" [22], which has brought about the quality of its records and thus of the archive records to be described here, is not addressed here. In addition, a number of chief positions were assigned to the Personal Staff, whose holders functioned in personal union as heads of the corresponding offices in the SS Main Office or in the SS Main Office, but which in turn did not develop into their own SS Main Offices: The chief defender of the Reich was at the same time chief of the Office for Security Tasks in the SS-Hauptamt, later in the SS-Führungshauptamt. The Inspector for Physical Education was head of the Office for Physical Education in the SS Main Office. The Inspector for Communications, who was also Chief of the Office for Communications in the SS-Hauptamt and later in the SS-Führungshauptamt, was renamed Chief of Telecommunications and, towards the end of the war, traded as Reichsführer-SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, Chief of Telecommunications. From 1942, for example, he was ordered by Himmler to set up and train a female SS intelligence corps [23]. The head of the SS-Fürsorge- und Versorgungsamt, which was established in 1938, dissolved in 1944, and initially placed under Himmler's personal control, also held a chief position in the Personal Staff. Among the institutions that Himmler directly controlled through the Personal Staff were the economic enterprises of the SS [24] (Nordland-Verlag GmbH, Porzellanmanufaktur Allach, Photogesellschaft F.F. Bauer GmbH, Anton Loibl GmbH, Gemeinnützige Wohnungs- und Heimstätten-GmbH and the Spargemeinschaft-SS, later SS-Spargemeinschaft e.V.), the Gesellschaft zur Förderung und Pflege Deutscher Kulturdenkmäler e.V. [Society for the Promotion and Maintenance of German Cultural Monuments], which were established in the mid-30s, and the SS [24], which was the first German society to establish a "Society for the Promotion and Maintenance of German Cultural Monuments", the Externsteine-Stiftung and the König-Heinrich I.-Gedächtnis-Stiftung. All these institutions served financial as well as cultural, ideological or social purposes at the same time. For example, the licence fees from the exploitation of the patent for a pedal reflector for bicycles - the inventor Loibl was a motorist of Hitler - by Anton Loibl GmbH benefited "Ahnenerbe" e.V. and the association "Lebensborn". In addition to tableware, Porzellanmanufaktur Allach produced gift articles which were not sold but were distributed by Himmler alone to SS members and their families as well as to other recipients on certain occasions via the Personal Staff or the SS Adjutant's Office [25]. Among the articles that were produced for Himmler's "gift chamber" were life candlesticks and children's Frisians, Jul candlesticks and Jul plates, sculptures such as SS flag bearers, SS horsemen, lansquenets with lance, Garde du Corps, jugglers, dachshunds, mountain deer, traditional costume groups, and much more. In the Personal Staff, these businesses were assigned to a "cultural department", with the exception of the Savings Community SS, for which the "Economic Aid Department" was responsible. The old cultural department became obsolete in 1938, when all economic enterprises were economically and organizationally subordinated to the SS-Verwaltungsamt in the SS-Hauptamt. One exception was the porcelain manufactory Allach, which was institutionalized in the Personal Staff as the "Amt München". Among the institutions economically subordinated to the SS-Verwaltungsamt in 1938 were also the Externsteine-Stiftung with the purpose of preserving the alleged Germanic cult site near Detmold [26], the König Heinrich I.Gedächtnis-Stiftung, which was responsible for the care and preservation of the Quedlinburg Cathedral, and the Gesellschaft zur Förderung und Pflege Deutscher Kulturdenkmäler e.V. (Society for the Promotion and Care of German Cultural Monuments), which looked after a number of objects, the best-known of which were the Wewelsburg near Paderborn, the Sachsenhain near Verden/Aller and the Haithabu excavation site near Schleswig. Thus also the "Department for Cultural Research", which until then had been in the Personal Staff - together with a Department for "Excavations" - for these institutions and other Himmler ambitions in culturally-historically oriented areas, lost its idealistic competence and finally also its organizational basis. The beneficiary was the "Lehr- und Forschungsgemeinschaft Das Ahnenerbe", founded in 1935, which had been affiliated to the Personal Staff since the end of 1936 and belonged to the Personal Staff from April 1, 1942 in the organizational form of an office [27]. Economically, however, the "Ahnenerbe" was also subject to the SS-Verwaltungsamt since 1938. The "Ahnenerbe" - with Himmler as president at the helm - had the statutory task of "researching the space, spirit, deed and heritage of North-Rassian Indo-Europeanism, bringing the research results to life and communicating them to the people". Objectives to make the "Ahnenerbe" the "reservoir for all cultural efforts of the Reichsführer-SS" were questioned by Himmler's leadership style, however, "that he did not necessarily want to unite everything in the "Ahnenerbe" in order not to concentrate too many important and essential things in one place" [28]. In the course of its complicated history, which succinctly documented the mental aberration and confusion of Himmler's ideology and scientific ideas, the "Ahnenerbe" attempted to go beyond its early conception and become a bizarre research site for various areas of the "cultural sciences" and natural sciences that could serve both the Nazi ideas of domination and the very concrete ones. During the war it expanded its activities further, e.g. in the form of the so-called "Germanic Science Mission" in the occupied "Germanic" countries. For its journalistic activities, it had an Ahnenerbe-Stiftungs-Verlag publishing house. The "Ancestral Heritage" finally fell into direct entanglement with the inhuman and criminal practices of the Nazi regime through the affiliated "Institute for Military Research", whose establishment Himmler had personally ordered. Under the guise of research allegedly important to the war, cruel experiments were carried out on concentration camp prisoners, which were linked to the names of doctors involved, such as Dr. Siegmund Rascher. Prof. Dr. August Hirt conducted perverted "research" at the Reich University of Strasbourg with his anthropological investigations of skulls and skeletons of "Jewish-Bolshevik Commissioners" who had previously been killed in Auschwitz [29]. A "cultural object" that remained outside the jurisdiction of the "Ancestor's Heritage" was the Wewelsburg castle in East Westphalia, with which Himmler intended to create a permanent place of worship for the SS order's idea [30]. Himmler remained personally concerned about their development, up to the planting of the castle slope with walnut trees. Organizationally, it was also anchored in an office at the Personal Staff. Another office in the Personal Staff, which represented an association, was the office Lebensborn. The association "Lebensborn" had been founded in 1936 and - contrary to what was published after the end of the war - had the statutory purpose of supporting families with many children and assisting single mothers [31], in keeping with the Nazi racial ideology and population policy "racially and hereditarily biologically valuable". Special homes were set up to accommodate them. The "Lebensborn" became directly culpable during the war as a caring organization for "racially valuable" children whose parents had been persecuted, transferred to concentration camps or killed; among them, for example, were the children of the inhabitants of Lidice and Lezáky, who had been shot dead or sent to concentration camps in the course of retaliatory measures for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, and children whose parents had been executed as members of the Czech resistance movement [32]. The observation of the press was an early concern of Himmler. The later office press in the personal staff had the task of keeping Himmler informed about press news. In addition, he was responsible for cooperation with party and state press control agencies, certain censorship tasks and the development of word and image documentation. Among other things, the Office also prepared an "Organization Book of the SS," since, according to its leader, "very few SS leaders have a complete overview of the organization of the Reichsführer-SS's area of work in detail" [33]. In order to carry out Himmler's tasks within the framework of the 2nd Four-Year Plan, an "Office Four-Year Plan" was created in the Personal Staff. It was involved in labour recruitment, construction and raw materials management, energy problems and research. In 1942 it was "tacitly" dissolved and incorporated into the "Rohstoffamt" [34], which had emerged from the staff office of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Popular Growth [35]. A very early office that Himmler permanently linked to the Personal Staff was the office "Reichsarzt SS und Polizei", headed by Dr. Ernst Robert Grawitz until the end of the war. Grawitz has become less well known than Dr. Karl Gebhardt, the chief physician of the SS hospital Hohenlychen, in whose treatment Himmler very often went and who traded as "Supreme Clinician of the Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police" [36]. Finally the "SS-Mannschaftshäuser" are to be mentioned; since the mid-30s they served to bring together the SS members at the universities "for the training of the scientific offspring required by the SS", as Himmler put it in 1939 [37], when he withdrew this institution from the Race and Settlement Main Office and turned it into an "SS office in the Personal Staff". According to staffing plans and job descriptions [38], the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS in 1942/44 was structured and staffed as follows: Chief of the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Karl Wolff Offices Wewelsburg: SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Siegfried Taubert, Burghauptmann der SS-Schule "Haus Wewelsburg" Amt Ahnenerbe: SS-Oberführer Professor Dr. Walter Wüst, curator and head of office; SS-Standartenführer Wolfram Sievers, Reichsgeschäftsführer and deputy head of office Amt Lebensborn: SS-Standartenführer Max Sollmann, board member and head of office Amt/Abt. Presse: SS-Obersturmbannführer Gerhard Radke, later SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Behrendt Amt München: SS-Standartenführer Professor Karl Diebitsch (processing of all artistic and architectural questions in connection with the SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt) Amt Rohstoffe/Rohstoffamt: SS-Standartenführer Albert Kloth Amt für Volkstumsfragen: SS-Brigadeführer Erich Cassel, head of office and liaison officer to the Reichsleitung der NSDAP and the offices of the Reichsführer-SS Zentralinstitut für optimale Menschenerfassung: SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Albert Bartels (Statistical and practical evaluation of the entire "human recording" in the SS and police) Office staff management: Staff leader SS-Oberführer Otto Ullmann, from February 1943 SS-Standartenführer Paul Baumert (responsible for all internal affairs of the staff and the offices) with the directly subordinate main departments: SS-Adjutantur: SS-Obersturmbannführer Werner Grothmann Police-Adjutantur: Lieutenant Colonel of the Schutzpolizei Willy Suchanek and SS-Hauptsturmführer Martin Fälschlein Personal Department Reichsführer-SS: SS-Standartenführer Dr. Rudolf Brandt, Ministerialrat, Personal Officer of the Reichsführer-SS and Reichsminister des Innern Sachbearbeiter Chef Persönlicher Stab (S.B.Ch.P.): SS-Obersturmführer Heinrich Heckenstaller Orden und Gäste: SS-Standartenführer Hans von Uslar, later SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Helmut Fitzner Administration: SS-Hauptsturmführer Oskar Winzer, later SS-Obersturmbannführer Christian Mohr (administration of the staff and the subordinated offices) Economic Aid: SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Helmut Fitzner (debt relief and loan matters for the SS) Staff: SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Breitfeldt SS-judicial liaison officer: SS-Standartenführer Horst Bender The representative for service dogs at the Reichsführer-SS: SS-Oberführer Franz Mueller (Darß) (service dogs questions of the Waffen-SS and police at the Reichsführer-SS) and departments: - Awards and orders (subordinate to the SS-Adjutantur; processing of high awards in Waffen-SS and police) - records management and office (records registration and custody) - intelligence office (monitoring of all intelligence means of the Berlin office of the Reichsführer-SS) - driving service - commander of the staff department of the Waffen-SS (leadership and supervision of all Waffen-SS members transferred to the Personal Staff). This overview also mentions a number of other institutions that Himmler personally subordinated, were "worked on" in the Personal Staff and are documented there. These included, for example, the Reichsführer-SS Personal Staff, Department F, SS camp Dachau - Haus 13, Ernährungswissenschaftliches Versuchsgut. The director was Dr. Karl Fahrenkamp; his main task was the development of preparations for the promotion of plant growth. Around 1940 the Statistical Inspectorate was set up. From January 1944 it was called the Statistical-Scientific Institute of the Reichsführer-SS, was headed by Dr. Richard Korherr and was commissioned with the preparation of statistical work for Himmler. To be mentioned in this context are still ad hoc special institutions such as the representative of the Reichsführer-SS in the staff of the Special Representative for the Investigation of the Appropriate Use of War, General von Unruh, SS-Standartenführer Harro With, and the Reichsführer-SS Sonderstab Oberst Streck, who had to follow letters about grievances in offices and troops. Another of Himmler's countless areas of interest, the development of raw materials during the war, is probably to be attributed to the fact that he was not only very personally concerned, for example, with the breeding of caraculae and perennial rye or with the extraction of oil shale, but that he had Göring officially appoint him special envoy for all questions of plant rubber [39]. In the occupied Polish and Soviet territories, cultivation trials with Kok-Sagys, a plant found in European Russia, were undertaken at great expense in order to obtain usable quantities of natural rubber for the German war economy. The business of the Personal Staff in the narrower sense was conducted by the Office Staff Management with the subordinate main departments and departments. The other offices - the Amt für Volkstumsfragen and the Zentralinstitut für optimale Menschenerfassung (Central Institute for Optimal Human Recording) (with tasks of statistical labour force recording using the Hollerith method), which were established only towards the end of the war and apparently remained without significance and precipitation, were listed only for the sake of completeness - belonged to the Personal Staff, but had separate offices and their own registries. The most important organizational units in the Office of Staff Management were the main departments Personal Department Reichsführer-SS and S.B.Ch.P. (Head of Personal Staff) and the adjutant offices. The Dog Service Officer worked outside the Personal Staff Unit. Although the SS-richterliche Verbindungsführer was always located in the vicinity of Himmler, he conducted his official business separately from that of the staff; his registration was not included in the records of the Personal Staff [40]. Wolff's main task as Chief of the Personal Staff was to support Himmler as the closest employee and confidant in his leadership tasks. His function changed when he was appointed liaison leader of the Reichsführer-SS at Hitler on 26 August 1939. He now stayed in the immediate vicinity of Hitler, i.e. also in his field quarters. Without having any technical competence, he should keep Himmler up to date on developments at the Führer's headquarters and be available to answer questions from the Führer's headquarters. The position directly assisting the Chief of Personal Staff was the S.B.Ch.P. Main Department. (clerk chief of personal staff). The incumbent or one of his employees had to work for Wolff at the Führer's headquarters [41]. When Wolff fell seriously ill in February 1943, Himmler took over the leadership of the Main Office Personal Staff "until further notice" himself. Wolff did not return to this position; after his recovery in the summer of 1943 he prepared for his function in Italy [42]. Himmler did not appoint a new chief of the Personal Staff, but continued to perform this function himself. He dissolved the S.B.Ch.P. department. Himmler's closest collaborator after Wolff, especially since Wolff's appointment as Liaison Leader at Hitler and finally as Supreme SS and Police Leader in Italy, was his personal advisor Dr. Rudolf Brandt. Himmler's already large area of responsibility was expanded by Himmler's appointment as Reich Minister of the Interior to include the processing of tasks from the area of this ministry. Brandt always worked in the immediate vicinity of Himmler. His powers extended far beyond those of a personal speaker who accompanied Himmler on his travels and, for example, as a trained stenographer, recorded Himmler's speeches. He decided which post was presented to Himmler or not, gave a daily lecture on the problems involved, independently implemented instructions from the Reichsführer-SS, and fended off requests if they did not appear to be presentable as Himmlers in terms of content or time. Even without personally obtaining Himmler's decisions, in individual cases he could take his decision or opinion for granted and act accordingly. The police adjutants essentially had "speaking" or "transmitting" functions. The Police Adjutant's Office was the office of the two liaison officers of the Reich Security Main Office and the Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei. Suchanek was always in Himmler's field command post during the war, while Fälschlein was on duty in Berlin. In contrast to the Police Adjutant's Office, the SS Adjutant's Office, in addition to the adjutants' task of "accompanying" the Reichsführer SS, also carried out administrative tasks such as setting appointments, preparing trips, processing invitations, congratulating and giving gifts. It also dealt with factual and personnel matters of the Waffen SS, maintained contact with the SS Main Office and SS Head Office as well as with the front units of the Waffen SS. In Munich, Karlstraße 10, the SS-Adjutantur maintained a branch office occupied by SS-Hauptsturmführer Schnitzler. The headquarters of the Personal Staff was the building Prinz Albrecht-Straße 8 in Berlin, which was also Himmler's headquarters as Reichsführer-SS and chief of the German police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior as well as the chief of the security police and the SD (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) [43]. During the war Himmler often worked in various "field command posts". One of the most constant places of residence was the field command post "Hochwald" in a forest near Großgarten in East Prussia, about 40 km away from the Führer's headquarters "Wolfsschanze" [44]. Commander of the Feldkommandostelle Reichsführer-SS and responsible for its security was the SS-Obersturmbannführer Josef Tiefenbacher. He was in charge of the SS and police escort units as well as the special train "Steiermark", Himmler's rolling field command post, which brought him to the desired destinations or also let him follow Hitler's special train. This happened, for example, after the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, when Himmler's special train was parked near Hitler in Bruck/Murr. His motorcade was called "Sonderzug Heinrich". Near Hitler's Führer Headquarters "Wehrwolf" near Vinnitsa in the Ukraine, Himmler had established his field command post "Hegewald" in a German ethnic settlement area south of Shitomir. The increasing air raids on Berlin made it necessary to look for alternative quarters outside the city. These apparently accommodated larger areas of the service and had facilities that could do justice to Himmler's safety and that of his closer staff even if they were present for a longer period of time. The largest and most systematically developed object was apparently the alternative site "Birkenwald" near Prenzlau (Uckermark). On an area of approx. 290,000 m2 with some permanent buildings, which had been given over by the city administration, extensions were carried out until the last months of the war; the laying of a connecting track for the special train "Steiermark" was still in the planning stage in November 1944. The alternative place also had accommodations for Himmler, his personal adviser and the adjutants. For the year 1944 the existence of the alternative sites "Bergwald" and "Tannenwald" is proven in the files of the Personal Staff, as well as for March 1945 the alternative camp "Frankenwald" in Bad Frankenhausen (Krs. Sondershausen/Thüringen) [45]. _ [1] Cf. the data of the Statistical-Scientific Institute of the Reichsführer-SS in NS 19/1471. [2] Cf. Hans Buchheim, Die SS - Das Herrschaftsinstrument. Command and Obedience (Anatomie des SS-Staates, vol. 1), Olten and Freiburg i. Br 1965 [3] SS Command No. 20 of 1. 12. 1930 (NS 19/1934). 4] SA command no. 1 (simultaneously for SS) dated 16. 1. 1931 (NS 19/1934). 5] Hitler's Order of July 20, 1934 by Gerd Rühle, Das Dritte Reich, 1934, p. 237 [6] Staff Order of May 12, 1931 (NS 19/1934). 7] See Shlomo Aronson, Reinhard Heydrich and the Early History of the Gestapo and SD, Stuttgart 1971, and Buchheim (note 3 above). 8] The Federal Archive and its holdings, edited by Gerhard Granier, Josef Henke, Klaus Oldenhage, 3rd ed., Boppard 1977, p. 41 ff., 51 and 53 [9] Federal Archive holdings NS 31 [10] SS-Hauptamt, Staff Order No. 6 (NS 31/70). In an order to reshape the Reichsführung-SS dated February 9, 1934, Himmler had issued a new order for his staff with the Departments I. Adjutantur, II. Personalabteilung, III. Gerichtsabteilung, IV. Revisionsabteilung and V. Pressabteilung only the official title "Der Reichsführer-SS" (NS 17/135, copy in NS 19/4041). 11] Order of 1.6.1939 (NS 19/3901); residual files of the SS Personnel Main Office in the Federal Archives NS 34. [12] Also order of 1.6.1939 (ibid.); Federal Archives NS 7. [13] Order of 20.4.1939 (NS 19/1166). 14] Command of 19.1.1942 (NS 19/3904); Federal Archives holdings NS 3. 15] Commands of 15.8.1940 and 5.9.1940 (NS 19/3903); preserved files of the SS-Führungshauptamt in the Federal Archives holdings NS 33. 16] See Himmler's order of 12.1.1941 (NS 19/3903), also letter of 7.11.1941 from the Reich Minister of Science, Education and People's Education to the Reich Minister of Finance (R 2/12745). 17] Documents on Wolff's personal and private service affairs can be found in NS 19/3456 as well as in the other archive units described below in Section B. 2; in addition also the dossier concerning Wolff (copies) in the documents of the Freundeskreis Reichsführer-SS in NS 48/81. 18] NS 19/3901. Himmler announced the wording of the order in a speech at the SS-Gruppenführertagung on 8.11.1936 in Dachau (NS 19/4003; see also note 72), which had long been regarded as incomplete. 19] NS 19/3902 [20] See the documents of the Friends of Himmler concerning Wolff (copies) in NS 48/81 [21] NS 19/2881 [22] Gunther d'Alquen, Die SS. History, task and organization of the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP, Berlin 1939, p. 24 [23] The preserved files of the SS-Helferinnenschule Oberehnheim are in the Bundesarchiv stock NS 32 II. 24] See note 23. 25] See, for example, the archives described in section B.1.6 below. 26] Cf. Klaus Gruna, Die Externsteine kann sich nicht fhren, in: Menschen, Landschaft und Geschichte, edited by Walter Först, Cologne and Berlin 1965, pp. 239-249 [27] Tradition of the "ancestral heritage" in the Federal Archives NS 21 - Cf. Michael H. Kater, Das "Ahnenerbe" der SS 1935-1945. A contribution to the cultural policy of the Third Reich, Stuttgart 1974. [28] File note of the Reich Secretary of the "Ahnenerbes", Wolfram Sievers, from 4.11.1937 about a visit of Pohl to the "Ahnenerbe" on 2.11.1937 (NS 21/779). 29] See, among others, Reinhard Henkys, Die Nationalsozialistischen Gewaltverbrechen, Stuttgart und Berlin 1964, p. 66, 69 f., 247. Sievers was sentenced to death and executed for the criminal activities of the Institute in the Nuremberg medical trial. Shepherd's been missing since the end of the war. Rascher was executed on Himmler's orders for child undermining. 30] Cf. Heiner Lichtenstein, Wo Himmler wollte residieren, in: Menschen, Landschaft und Geschichte (above Note 29), pp. 115-128 and Karl Hüser, Wewelsburg 1933 to 1945. Cult and Terror Site of the SS. Eine Dokumentation, Paderborn 2nd edition 1987 [31] Cf. Georg Lilienthal, Der "Lebensborn e.V." Ein Instrument Nationalsozialistischer Rassenpolitik, Stuttgart, New York 1984 [32] Cf. the correspondence on the accommodation of Czech children 1943-1944 (NS 19/375) as well as Marc Hillel and Clarissa Henry, Lebensborn e.V. In the name of the race, Vienna, Hamburg 1975 [33] Accountability report of the head of office from 1.11.1942 (NS 19/2985). 34] Letter from SS-Standartenführer Kloth to SS-Obergruppenführer Wolff of 3. 8. 1942 (NS 19/349). 35] File note of SS-Standartenführer Kloth of 4.10.1943 to. Establishment of the office m.W. of 15.1.1942 and letter of the Rohstoffamt to the administration of the Personal Staff of 22.9.1943 (NS 19/1786). 36] See Henkys (note 36 above) and Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Vols. 1-2, Washington, D. C. 1950, and Alexander Mitscherlich and Fred Mielke (ed.), Medicine without Humanity. Documents of the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, Heidelberg 1949 [37] SS Order of 12.2.1939 (NS 19/3901). 38] NS 19/2881. 39] Letter of appointment dated 9.7.1943 (NS 19/1802). 40] Remains of tradition in the Federal Archives NS 7 [41] Indictment of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the District Court Munich II in the criminal proceedings against Karl Wolff; see also Note 22 [42] On the takeover of the Personal Staff by Himmler himself see NS 48/81; on Wolff's later use in Italy see also NS 19/3456 [43] Cf. Topography of Terror. Gestapo, SS and Reich Security Main Office on the "Prinz-Albrecht-Gelände". Eine Dokumentation, ed. by Reinhard Rürup, Berlin 8th ed. 1991 [44] Cf. Peter Hoffmann, Die Sicherheit des Diktators, Munich 1976, p. 219 [45] The construction of alternative sites essentially documents the archives described in section A.1 below as well as other documents scattered throughout the indices. For Birkenwald see above all NS 19/2888, 3273, 2211 and 1518. Inventory description: Inventory history The file tradition developed at the offices of the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS essentially shares the general fate of German contemporary historical sources described elsewhere in the war and post-war period [1]. Losses of files as a result of air raids in November 1943 are documented several times in the files of the Personal Staff. The office building at Prinz-Albrecht-Str. 8 was destroyed by bombs in February 1945 [2]; members of the Soviet and U.S. occupying forces are said to have recovered files from the ruins of the building after the end of the war [3]. There is no information about the fate of the files of the Personal Staff at the end of the war, nor about where the traditions of U.S. troops now kept in the Federal Archives were captured. The first message is conveyed by a file directory of the "7771 Document Center OMGUS", the subsequent U.S. Document Center in Berlin-Zehlendorf which existed until 1994 and which, as of July 1948, records an inventory of 2.5 tons of Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS "transferred to another location". It had been made available to the prosecution authorities of the Nuremberg War Beaker Trials [4]. When preparing the files for trial purposes, numerous and extensive "personnel processes" were taken from the files of the Personal Staff in Nuremberg and the Führer personnel files of the SS Personnel Main Office were added. While these later returned to the Document Center in Berlin and - reduced by withdrawals, e.g. for the "Schumacher Collection", which was formed in the Document Center against all archival provenance principles on the basis of factual aspects and which was transferred to the Federal Archives in 1962 - remained in the custody of the Document Center until it was taken over by the Federal Archives in the summer of 1994 [5], the Personal Staff, which had also been reduced by further withdrawals for trial purposes, was transferred to the USA during the Berlin blockade in 1948/49. In the course of the general repatriation of confiscated German archival records from British and American custody in 1962, it was handed over by the National Archives in Washington to the Federal Archives in Koblenz in a mixture with other records from the command area of the Reichsführer-SS [6]. After the restoration of the state unity of Germany on 3 October 1990 and the unification of the former central state archives of the GDR with the Federal Archives, the archives of the Personal Staff together with the other state and party official holdings of the Federal Archives from the period before 1945 came under the responsibility of the newly established "German Reich" Department of the Federal Archives, which was initially located in Potsdam and has been part of the Federal Archives Office in Berlin-Lichterfelde since 1996. The tradition of the Personal Staff in the Federal Archives was supplemented by a "Himmler Collection" formed in the Document Center and also handed over to the Federal Archives in 1962 [7]. It contained Himmler's personal papers, which were kept in the Federal Archives, supplemented by a microfilm of diary entries from the years 1914-1924 [8] kept in the Hoover Institution, and which constitute Himmler's estate [9]. However, the majority of the collection consisted of documents from the Personal Staff and the SS-Adjutantur, which were added to the files of the Personal Staff Reichsführer-SS. These include notes and recordings of Himmler's appointments and telephone conversations. 10] Finally, the Federal Archives were able to reunite the files of the Personal Staff that had previously been placed in the "Schumacher Collection" in the Document Center with the main holdings in NS 19. This also applies to those parts of a comprehensive collection of copies of Personal Staff documents that were created in the Document Center before the transfer of the holdings to the USA and whose "original" originals can no longer be verified in the holdings or could not yet be verified. The identification of the copies with the corresponding originals proved to be very time-consuming above all because the internal structure of the collection of copies, consisting mostly of compiled individual pieces, differed fundamentally from the order found or newly created for the files. The remaining copies, i.e. copies that could not be identified on the basis of "originals", were finally assigned to the holdings as such, and their form of transmission as copies were recorded as comments. For the majority of these remaining copies, including the few larger connected processes [11], it can be assumed that the corresponding "originals" were lost before the repatriation from the USA, or were excluded from the repatriation for reasons which can no longer be understood today, or simply, like many other German contemporary historical sources, must be regarded as lost. In individual cases, on the other hand, a double tradition cannot be ruled out; the "originals" of the documents recorded as copies may still be in an unexpected place in the inventory, but to want to find them under any circumstances would have required an unjustifiable effort. In the course of the revision and increase of the total holdings in August 2007 by orders, orders and decrees of the individual departments in the Personal Staff of the Reichsführer-SS as well as of the command authorities of the Waffen-SS and individual units of the SS upper sections concerning documents, the existing collection could be further expanded in its range of holdings. Furthermore, activity reports and partly personal documentations of the higher SS and police leaders as well as announcements, decrees and orders concerning cultural and ideological matters of folklore and resettlement policy were included. _ [1] Cf. the general aspect Josef Henke, Das Schicksal deutscher zeitgeschichtlicher Quellen in Kriegs- und Nachkriegszeit (The Fate of German Contemporary History Sources in the War and Post-War Period). Confiscation - repatriation - whereabouts, in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 30 (1982), pp. 557-617 [2] Cf. Topography of Terror (Note 51), pp. 178 ff. and Gerald Reitlinger, Die SS, Munich 1957, p. 55 [3] Findings of members of the then main archive (former Prussian Secret State Archive) in Berlin-Dahlem. 4] On the use of confiscated German files for the Nuremberg Trials see Henke (Note 54), pp. 570-577. 5] See Dieter Krüger, Das ehemalige "Berlin Document Center" im Spannungsfeld von Politik, Wissenschaft und öffentlichen Meinung, in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 45 (1997), pp. 49-74. 6] Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria/Va.., Vol. 32, 33, see also Heinz Boberach, Die schriftliche Überlieferung der Behörden des Deutschen Reiches 1871-1945. Securing, repatriation, substitute documentation, in: Aus der Arbeit des Bundesarchivs (oben Anm. 1), p. 50-61, here: p. 57 [7] See NSDAP Main Archive, Guide to the Hoover Institution Microfilm Collection, compiled by Grete Heinz and Agnes F. Peterson, Hoover Institution Bibliographical Series XVII, Stanford 1964, p. 144-149 [8] See Werner T. Angress and Bradley F. Smith, Diaries of Heinrich Himmler's Early Years, in: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, 1959, p. 206-224 [9] Federal Archives holdings N 1126 [10] See the below in Sections B.1..3 and B.3 archival records. 11] [(NS 19/539) and in Ukraine 1942-1945 (NS 19/544). Registrar's Relationships The "Administration of records" department of the Personal Staff was responsible for the administration of records. A "document management order" regulated "file creation and storage" [1]. The filing plan provided for the written material to be divided into four categories: Personnel filing cabinet (red), Subject filing cabinet (blue), Special filing cabinet (green), Command filing cabinet (yellow). The identification of the processes took place within a stamp imprint: personal staff Reichsführer-SS, records administration, file. No. ..., by handwritten colour inscriptions of the name (personal file) or the file number. The assignment to the individual categories, in particular the distinction between "Personnel folder" and "Subject subject folder", was often inconsistent, that is, things were also stored according to the names of correspondence partners. Subject-matter filing could take place both to a narrower subject in the sense of a "process", but also to subject series up to the number of 25 numbered individual processes increase. In addition to open files, secret files with their own characteristics and structures were also kept. The war situation and in particular the decentralised keeping of records in the field command posts led to different forms of filing after a combination of Roman-Arabic numerals without any recognisable factual connection between the individual "events", partly also - originally not foreseen - correspondence files. Filing aids and storage aids that have not been preserved may have secured access to the not particularly sophisticated document storage system to some extent. NS 19/2881: Archive evaluation and processing of confiscations at the end of the war, file transports to file collection points, file withdrawals and file rearrangements for various purposes (e.g. for the Nuremberg Trials and for the biographical collections of the Document Center in Berlin), mixtures of provenances and new formations of files have not left the already weak classification system unimpaired. In addition, files that were confiscated, as it were, on the desks of the departments and authorities, and this includes a large part of the documents captured from SS departments, were mostly in a loose state and were particularly susceptible to disorder. The SS tradition that arrived in the USA was essentially classified into three categories: Files of command authorities and troops of the Waffen-SS on the one hand and files of SS upper sections with subordinate units and facilities on the other hand were put together in separate complexes with different signatures. In a third category, in provenance overlapping to the two mentioned categories and in a colorful mixture of provenance and pertinence (e.g., files of state authorities with SS matters), all the files were brought together that seemed suitable to present the SS as an organization with its manifold ramifications. In the Federal Records Center, a file depot in Alexandria, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., these files - like numerous other traditions of civilian provenance - were arranged according to a scheme developed on the basis of a captured "Unified File Plan for the OKW and the OKH. The SS files were assigned to the EAP (= Einheitsaktenplan)-collection groups 160-164 (160 = Development of the SS, 161 = Top Division of the SS, 162 = Territorial Division of the SS, 163 = Advertising, Service, Special Affairs of the General SS, 164 = Concentration Camps and Death's Head Units), within which they were divided into a subject group with one or two subgroups. This order was converted into an alpha numerical signature (e.g. EAP 161-c-28-10); the counting of the file units followed a horizontal line in the numbering 1-N (e.g. EAP 161-c-28-10/1). This complex of files, formed in this way, largely filmed by the Americans and finally transferred to the Federal Archives, was divided here according to provenance. Considerable parts of the archives today consist of the holdings NS 31 (SS-Hauptamt), NS 33 (SS-Führungshauptamt) and NS 34 (SS-Personalhauptamt). The holdings NS 7 (SS- and police jurisdiction), NS 3 (SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt), NS 4 (concentration camps), NS 21 (Ahnenerbe), NS 17 (Leibstandarte SS "Adolf Hitler"), NS 32 (SS-Helferinnenschule Oberehnheim) also received considerable growth from this restitution, NS 2 (Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt-SS) and NS 48 (Sonstige zentrale Einrichtungen der SS, including a few remaining documents from the Institute of Statistical Science and the SS School "Haus Wewelsburg") as well as - to varying degrees - numerous other archival holdings of both party and state provenances. Documents of regional SS offices and institutions, in particular of SS upper sections and SS sections, but also of SS standards, storm bans and storms reached the responsible state archives of the Länder. The found files of Waffen-SS units were handed over to the Military Archives Department of the Federal Archives in Freiburg i. Br. for the RS inventory group there. The orders, orders, decrees and communications of all central SS services, originally combined in the "Befehlsablage", later in the Federal Archives in an "SS-Befehlssammlung", were restructured in chronological series according to exhibitor provenance (Reichsführer-SS, SS-Hauptämter or other subordinate organisational units) and assigned to the corresponding provenance holdings. The consequence of this was that the NS 19 holdings only contain the special category of the so-called "SS orders" and those issued by the Reichsführer-SS without any additions, as well as the orders, decrees, and orders issued by the departments of the Personal Staff themselves. The remaining records of the Personal Staff, at that time also called the NS 19 holdings "new", proved, as a glance at the Microfilm-Guides can confirm, to be a tradition that consisted largely of formed records management files, but could not be left in the traditional order or file description. However, in a very time-consuming working procedure, which was fully justified by the quality of the holdings, which could not be overestimated with regard to the authentic documentation of the history of the SS and the National Socialist state, a rearrangement and re-drawing according to events or subject series - as far as these had been formed in a meaningful appendix - was carried out, as a rule without regard to the original file units. The primary goal was to create clearly defined and described procedures from larger complexes of written documents with little or no factual connection. The fact that this often led to archival archival units, whose size is very small, often only minimal, had to be accepted, as well as the resulting disappointment of the user to find only a few sheets of archival material behind an important title. As a rule, more comprehensive archive units appear with detailed "Contained" and "Herein" notes, so that their exhaustive description of content is also guaranteed. The indexing begun by Elisabeth Kinder at the end of the 1960s was based on the "Guidelines for the Title Recording of Modern Files" (Instruction for Archival Activity No. 29), which were valid at the time in the Federal Archives and entered into force on 15 January 1963. The recorded running times of the archive units, most of which were newly created in the archives, consistently follow the date that can be determined first and last in the records. Deviations are usually indicated. Only where it seemed important and above all expedient, especially in the case of individual documents, are monthly and daily data given. Terms of annexes falling within the time frame of the actual transaction, also of other documents which are obviously "outliers" in terms of time, are listed in brackets, time data indexed in square brackets. Cassations were handled with the utmost caution in the cataloguing of this collection of archival records of the Nazi regime - apart from duplicates and the collection of copies from the "Schumacher Collection". Even in those cases where the reasons for cassation in the archives did suggest a cassation, it was decided in principle to preserve the archival records. In this context, the problem of the destruction of files of important authorities and departments of the Nazi state, which sometimes touched on political dimensions as well, especially when these were directly linked to the ideology and extermination machinery of the Nazi state, such as those of the SS and especially of the Reichsführer-SS, should be remembered. 1] The classification of the holdings carried out after the completion of the title records could not, as for example in the case of a large number of ministerial file holdings, be based on prescribed file plans or other highly developed registration aids. Therefore, it was necessary to find an objective structure independent of the registry, which was primarily based on the above-described competence structure of the Personal Staff and, in a broader sense, also on the overall organizational responsibilities of the Reich leadership of the SS, as defined by the various main offices and other central offices. From the registry order outlined above, only the above-mentioned "command file" (in Section C.1) and the "personnel file" (Sections C.2 and C.7.6) can be identified in general terms. The fact that this rather factual-technical classification is accentuated by Himmler's special, sometimes peculiarly quirky personal fields of interest in a conspicuous way, sometimes even superimposed, so in the areas of health care, race and population policy, science, nutrition, plant breeding and inventions, gives the stock of his Personal Staff a special, from the traditions of the other SS-main offices deviating, just "personal" coloring. It is true that the individual areas of classification are to be understood primarily as related to the SS. So education and training means first of all education and training of the SS. Science stands above all for the "science" pursued by the SS and misunderstood, even perverted, in its ideological sense. And economy refers primarily to the SS economic enterprises. It is not difficult to recognize, however, that a mixture with "SS-free" dimensions of the concepts and areas could not always be avoided. The chapter on finances documents not only the financing of the SS but also some aspects of state financial policy. In addition to the administration and the completely ideologized health policy ideas of the SS, some files also concern state administration, as well as state health policy. Section C.19 (Reichsverteidigung...) also concerns the warfare of the Wehrmacht in addition to the widely documented establishment, organization and deployment of Himmler's Waffen SS. Ultimately, however, this mixture appears to be a reflection of the mixture of state and party official competences that was consistently practised in Himmler's power apparatus, i.e. here mostly "SS-like" competences, apart from the fact that a convincing archival separation would mostly have been possible only at the "sheet level" and thus too costly. Cross-references were applied relatively sparingly. On the other hand, titles that apply to several subject areas appear several times in case of doubt, i.e. in each of the appropriate sections. Since its return to the Federal Archives, the holdings have been usable from the outset and at all times due to the declaration of disclosure [2] requested by the Allies from the Federal Government before the return of German files. And it is undoubtedly one of the most frequently used archives of the Federal Archives since then. In the more than three decades it was used unchanged strongly for all purposes of use, essentially of course for historical research, but also for the numerous domestic and foreign lawsuits for Nazi violent crimes and Nazi war crimes up to the late seventies. This led not only to the unusually long duration of his indexing - the processing of the holdings could not be a reason for temporarily excluding the archives from use for reasons of both archival expertise and politics - but also to different citation methods in the numerous publications he was called upon to produce, corresponding to the respective state of indexing. In addition to the American EAP signatures used almost exclusively, especially in very early publications, the "old" NS-19 signatures assigned immediately after the repatriation, but still before the indexing, were also frequently used, and from the late 1960s these were increasingly combined with the "old" NS-19 signatures assigned in the L

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 "Reichsstelle für Garten- und Weinbauerzeugnisse" (Reichsstelle) was established on 01 November 1936. The legal basis for the establishment was the Act on the Sale of Horticultural and Viticultural Products of 30 September 1936 (RGBL. I p. 854). The Reich Office carried out a state economic activity. Its main task was to monitor and direct the import of the products farmed, in terms of quantity, place and time, in accordance with the requirements of the internal market and, at the same time, to guide the pricing of these products in such a way as to avoid, as far as possible, disturbances resulting from the difference between world prices and domestic prices. The Reich Office was thus also involved in the internal market equalization process and in stock management. They were the only means by which horticultural and wine-growing products imported from a customs territory or a customs exclusion area could be placed on the market in the customs territory. All horticultural and wine-growing products to be imported from a customs foreign country or from a customs exclusion area which were subject to the Act on the Trade in Horticultural and Wine-growing Products of 30 September 1936 were therefore to be offered for sale to the Reich Agency. The takeover by the Reich Office was effected by means of a takeover certificate, the issuance of which the importer applied for from the Reich Office. The Reich agency was not obliged to take over the offered horticultural and wine-growing products. The import of the goods could therefore be stopped at any time. The horticultural and wine-growing products placed on the domestic market by the domestic producer were not subject to the restrictions of the Horticultural and Wine-growing Products Trade Act in view of the market organisation implemented for them. Only the products imported from a customs foreign country or a customs exclusion area were managed by the Reich Office. Its scope resulted from Article III of the seventh Regulation implementing and supplementing the Law on the marketing of horticultural and wine-growing products of 7 June 1940 (RGBl. I p. 862). The Imperial Agency mainly imported products from the following countries: - European countries of origin: Baltic States, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Hungary and Portugal. - Non-European countries of origin: Afghanistan, Egypt, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, India, Iran, Cameroon, Canada, Mexico, Palestine, Somalia, South African Union, Syria, Turkey, USA, West Indies and Cameroon. Imported products have been grouped into the following product groups: - Vegetables, fruit, tropical fruits, potatoes, vegetable seeds, flower seeds, tobacco seeds, caraway seeds, azaleas, cut flowers and reindeer lichen. The Reich Office was divided into main departments, departments and subject areas. The division into departments and their subdivision into subject areas resulted from the business allocation plan. The "Überwachungsstelle für Gartenbau-Erzeugnisse, Getränke und sonstige Lebensmittel" (Überwachungsstelle), which was established on 24 September 1934 (Deutscher Reichs- und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1934 No. 209), was merged with the Reichsstelle to form the "Reichsstelle für Garten- und Weinbauerzeugnisse als Überwachungsstelle" (Reichsstelle as Überwachungsstelle) by ordinance of 6 December 1938 (Deutscher Reichs- und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1938 No. 291). The merger brought together, as far as possible, bodies of the same or a similar nature from the two services, such as money, assets, staff and materials management, registers, the law firm, the post office and the branches located in the same place. The former Main Department III of the Reich Office and the country groups I - VI of the Surveillance Office were also merged, so that the applications for the issue of foreign exchange certificates and takeover certificates could be dealt with in one operation. The Reich Office as a supervisory office was now divided into 5 main departments, 6 departments, 21 subdivisions and 15 subject areas. The range of tasks of the Reich Office as such, however, remained unchanged in principle. In addition, the tasks of the supervisory authority remained essentially unchanged, namely the examination of applications for foreign exchange certificates submitted by importers from a formal and economic point of view, in particular in accordance with the rules on foreign exchange control, the import of vegetables, fruit, juices, wines, tea and live plants, and their allocation. It also issued foreign exchange certificates applied for and checked that the importers used the certificates issued in due time and in the proper manner. The tasks of the Reich Office as a supervisory authority were thus also determined by the Foreign Exchange Control Act. Pursuant to § 2 (2) of this Act, in addition to the foreign exchange offices, the monitoring offices also took their measures and made their decisions in accordance with guidelines drawn up by the Reich Office for Foreign Exchange Management in agreement with the Reich Minister for Economic Affairs and the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture. These directives delimited the tasks of the supervisory authorities in that they supervised the import and payment of goods and controlled purchase prices. They also had to take measures in the field of internal management (e.g. processing and export bans). The Reich Office as well as the Surveillance Office were corporations under public law, i.e. legal entities of their own, which financed themselves and were not maintained from Reich funds. They were subject to the supervision of the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The Reichstelle, as the supervisory authority, also had to obtain approval for the scale of fees from this authority. Examples of chargeable events were the issue of foreign exchange certificates and the issue of expert opinions on private settlement transactions. However, the monitoring agency carried out book and company audits free of charge, unless the audit revealed that a company had violated official orders. After the outbreak of the war, the Reich Office was confronted with new tasks as a supervisory office with regard to the procurement of goods. All enemy states and a large part of the neutral states failed as suppliers, while the demand for food imports of all kinds grew steadily. As a result, prices abroad also rose sharply, so that the Reich Office's previous task of raising foreign prices to the German price level by means of differential amounts became illusory and was finally reversed in the opposite direction, namely that of reducing the price of imported goods. The other task, the territorial control of the import of goods, had already been transferred to a greater extent to the main associations (e.g.: Main Association of the German Horticultural Industry) at the outbreak of the war, so that only the area of responsibility of the supervisory authority remained. The Reich office as such was therefore closed at the beginning of July 1943. In the course of the effects of the war, the surveillance agency took on ever greater dimensions as the difficulties in procuring goods grew. After the end of the war, the assets of the Reichsstelle were liquidated by the Allies. The storage and import point in Hamburg was authorized by § 5 No. 2 of the Ordinance of the Central Office for Food and Agriculture of 17 August 1946 (Official Gazette for Food and Agriculture No. 2 of 24 August 1946) and by decree of the Food and Agriculture Council in Stuttgart of 04 July 1946 to liquidate the assets of the Reich Office, insofar as they were located in the American and British occupation zone. The branch office in Bavaria was handled by the office of the trade associations. A trustee was appointed to carry out the liquidation, who received his activity permit from the competent British supervisory authority and headed the 'Liquidation Office of the Reich Office for Horticultural and Viticultural Products as a Supervisory Office' in Berlin and the 'Liquidation Office of the Main Association of the German Horticultural Industry and Reich Office for Horticultural and Viticultural Products as a Supervisory Office - Munich Branch'. The final dispute over the assets of the former Reich offices within the four occupation zones was reserved for the decision of the Allied Control Council. Inventory description: Inventory description The files of the Reich Office for Horticultural and Viticultural Products were transferred to the Federal Archives in Koblenz in 1974 from the Oberfinanzdirektion Berlin, which was responsible for handling the Reich's food supply. The 248 files have a term from 1930 to 1973, whereby the mass of the files originated between 1936 and 1945. The documents contain above all documents which have arisen as a result of the Reich Office's business relations with the importers: agreements on quantities and prices for various products, currency certificates and takeover certificates, notes on business trips and company audits. The inventory can also be used to a limited extent as a substitute for the insufficient inventory of inventory R 3601 (Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture) due to war damage. No cassations were made. A file plan for the Reich Office did not exist. There was also no registry in the Reich office. The order of the files and their filing was carried out by the employees of the Reich Office according to their respective tasks and priorities. The rules of procedure are therefore partly unconventional and unsystematic. Consequently, there are documents in the files with different thematic classifications. Only an order according to individual countries is recognizable. The classification in the finding aid is based on this order by country. Only a few files were prearchived with titles. The file titles were therefore formed according to the predominant factual content of the file. The units of description were, if necessary, indexed more deeply by means of contained annotations. Characterisation of content: The main focus of the text is on documents relating to the business activities of the Reich Office, in particular ministerial decrees and materials for foreign trade with European and non-European countries: BArch, R 15-IV/...