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Description of the holdings: The head of the army archives was the head of archives for the Wehrmacht part of the army with its official seat in Potsdam. The chief of the army archives was in charge of the army archives in Potsdam, Vienna, Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart, the army archives branches in Prague and Gdansk, as well as the representatives in the occupied territories and the Wehrmacht sighting station for prey files. The Chief of the Army Archives was responsible for the recording of files of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, of the High Command of the Army with subordinate offices, of the command authorities, troops, administrative authorities and other institutions of the army (cf. HDv. 30 Correspondence and Business Transactions of the Wehrmacht, Appendix 2). The User Regulations regulated the lending and use of the Army Archives (cf. BArch RH 18/437). After three years of negotiations, the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior and the Reich War Minister agreed in September 1936 that the military files should be taken over by the High Command of the Army. On April 1, 1937, the chief of the army archives and the army archives under his command took over the military archives, which since 1919 had been administered by the Reichsarchiv, its branches in Dresden and Stuttgart, and the war archives in Munich. The Chief of the Army Archives was subordinate to the Chief Quartermaster V in the General Staff of the Army until 1942. With the reorientation of the writing of war history, Hitler subordinated the Chief of the Army Archives to the Commissioner of the Führer for Military History, Colonel Scherff, with effect from 1 July 1942. From 1937 to 1942 Friedrich von Rabenau was the chief of the army archives, from 1942 until the end of the war Karl Ruppert, who had been in charge of the Potsdam army archives since 1937. The management of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam and the office of Chief of Army Archives were merged in 1943. Heeresarchiv Potsdam The Heeresarchiv Potsdam was divided into three departments. Department A administered the Brandenburg-Prussian Army Archives, the archives of which ran from the 17th century until the dissolution of the Prussian army in 1920. Department B kept the files of the volunteer formations formed after World War I and of the Reichswehr. Section C was intended for the recording of Wehrmacht files, i.e. from 1935 with the re-establishment of military sovereignty. The departments of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam were divided into subject areas. Other organisational units included the collections, estates, maps and the picture collection. In 1935, the Berlin Department of the Reichsarchiv (especially the Prussian War Ministry after 1867) and the Central Office of Records for War Losses and War Graves were also subordinated to the Heeresarchiv Potsdam. The Heeresarchiv Potsdam continuously took over the war diaries of all command authorities and troops as well as the court files of the field and war courts in the court file collection centre. The file collection centre West in Berlin-Wannsee mainly recorded loot files from various military offices in France. The organisational structure of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam was not uniform and changed several times until 1945. In territorial matters, the Heeresarchiv Potsdam was bound by the instructions of the commander in Wehrkreis III (Berlin). A British air raid on Potsdam on 14 April 1945 hit the service and magazine building of the chief of the army archives and the army archive Potsdam hard. The holdings of the Brandenburg-Prussian Army Archives were almost destroyed. This concerned, among other things, the files of the Prussian military cabinet, the files of the Prussian Ministry of War, the war files of the unification wars and the most important war diaries with attachments from the First World War. The personal records of the Prussian army and the Reichswehr are considered almost completely destroyed. In 1943 the Heeresarchiv Potsdam outsourced the department for the recording of war diaries to Liegnitz in Silesia. At the end of 1944 this branch was moved back to Potsdam. Later, the Heeresarchiv Potsdam outsourced large quantities of its archives. Shortly before the enclosure of Berlin, the war diaries of the Second World War and a few particularly valuable older files were transferred to Blankenburg in the Harz Mountains and to Bad Reichenhall or Kufstein in "two transports of 4-6 railway wagons each" (Poll). The archives in Blankenburg were confiscated by the Western Allies. These were the war diaries of the Army High Commands, the General Commands, the divisions and other army departments as well as parts of older files. The war diaries of top army authorities were burned in Reichenhall and Kufstein on the orders of Scherff, the Führer's representative for military historiography. The destruction of older files, estates and collections in Reichenhall could be prevented by the responsible official. Heeresarchiv Wien The Chief of the Army Archives took over the War Archive Vienna after the integration of Austria in 1938. It was the central military archive of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy until 1918 and of the Republic of Austria until 1938. After the beginning of World War II, the Army Archives Vienna was assigned the Southeast Files Collection Point for the collection of loot files from the Southeast region. In territorial matters the Army Archives Vienna was bound to the instructions of the commander in the military district XVII (Vienna). Today the War Archives are under the control of the Austrian State Archives. Heeresarchiv München After the foundation of the Reichsarchiv in 1919, the Kriegsarchiv München was able to maintain its status as an independent Bavarian archive and was not subordinated to the Reichsarchiv as a branch of the Reichsarchiv, as were the archives in Dresden and Stuttgart. In 1937, the head of the Heeresarchiv took over the Kriegsarchiv München as the Heeresarchiv München. The Army Archives Munich covered the entire Bavarian military tradition from about 1650 to 1920. After the beginning of World War II, the Army Archives Munich was assigned the file collection point South, in particular for the recording of Italian booty files. In territorial matters, the Heeresarchiv München was bound by the instructions of the commander in Wehrkreis VII (Munich). After the Second World War, the Kriegsarchiv München was subordinated to the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv. Despite losses during the war, the majority of the holdings have been preserved and enable source research into military history before 1919 as a replacement for the lost archive of the Potsdam Army Archives. Army Archives Dresden In 1937, the head of the army archives took over the Dresden branch of the Reichsarchiv from the Reichsarchiv as the Dresden Army Archives. This service was responsible for the stocks of the Saxon Army (XII. (I. Royal Saxon) Army Corps and XIX. (II. Royal Saxon Army Corps). The holdings of the Army Archives Dresden covered a period from 1830 - 1919 without a clear demarcation between the holdings and the Main State Archives Dresden. In territorial matters the Army Archives Dresden was bound to the instructions of the commander in the Military District IV (Dresden). During the Anglo-American air raid on Dresden on 13 February 1945, the personal documents of the Saxon army suffered losses. Despite losses during the war, the majority of the holdings have been preserved and enable source research for military history before 1919 as a replacement for the lost archive of the Potsdam Army Archives. The government of the USSR returned the preserved holdings of the Dresden Army Archives to the government of the GDR after the war. Until reunification they were administered in the military archives of the GDR in Potsdam. The Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv transferred the holdings to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden in 1991. Heeresarchiv Stuttgart The head of the army archives took over the Reichsarchiv branch Stuttgart from the Reichsarchiv in 1937 as Heeresarchiv Stuttgart. This office was responsible for the holdings of the Württemberg Army Corps (XIII (Royal Württemberg Army Corps) and the XIV (Grand Ducal Baden Army Corps). In territorial matters the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart was bound to the instructions of the commander in the Wehrkreis V (Stuttgart). The Heeresarchiv Stuttgart has been preserved without war losses and, as a replacement for the lost records of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam, enables source research for military history before 1919. Today the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart is subordinated to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart. The archives of the XIV (Grand Ducal Baden) Army Corps are stored in the General State Archive in Karlsruhe, although the Grand Duchy of Baden from 1871-1919, in contrast to Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg, did not have a military reserve right. Army Archives Prague Branch The Army Archives Prague branch administered the former Czech army archives and recorded archival material of the Austro-Hungarian army in Bohemia and Moravia. It was in charge of supplementing the official archival material with collections, making the holdings available for use by Wehrmacht offices, and providing information. In territorial matters, the Army Archives Prague branch was bound to the instructions of the Wehrmacht Plenipotentiary at the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia (Wehrkreisbefehlshaber in Böhmen und Mähren). The Gdansk Army Archives Branch The Gdansk Army Archives Branch captured the military archives captured during the Eastern campaigns, in particular the Polish Army Archives. It had to record this material, make it usable and provide information from the files. In territorial matters, the Gdansk Army Archives Branch was bound by the instructions of the Commander of Military District XX (Gdansk). The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Military Commander in France The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Military Commander in France in Paris had to supervise and evaluate the French army archives. He was to inventory sources on German history, copy documents and collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Military Commander in Belgium and Northern France The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Military Commander in Belgium and Northern France in Brussels was to evaluate the Belgian Army Archives, enable their use by German agencies, inventorise sources on German history, copy documents and collect material on contemporary history. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Alsace-Lorraine The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Alsace-Lorraine in Metz was concerned with the re-registration of German army files, the sighting of French prey files, in particular the Maginot Line, and the provision of files for Wehrmacht offices. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in the Netherlands The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in the Netherlands, based in The Hague, was responsible for overseeing and evaluating the Dutch army archives. He was to inventory sources on German history, copy documents and collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the German Forces in Denmark The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the German Forces in Denmark, based in Copenhagen, was to evaluate the Danish Army Archives and collect material on contemporary history. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Norway The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Norway in Oslo took over the management of the Norwegian Army Archives, gave information to German offices and collected contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Italy The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Italy was commissioned, after the fall of Italy and the invasion of the Wehrmacht in Italy in 1943, to secure the files of the Italian army for the writing of war history and for evaluation by Wehrmacht offices. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Athens After the occupation of Greece, the Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Athens was responsible for the inspection and safeguarding of the Greek Army records as well as an archival-military inventory. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Belgrade The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Belgrade evaluated the Yugoslavian Army files, provided military replacement services, pension offices and information on resettlement issues. Furthermore, he should collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ostland The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ostland in Riga administered and evaluated the military archives and holdings in Riga, Kaunas, Vilnius. He provided information for the military replacement services and recorded German and Polish army files. Furthermore, he should collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ukraine The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ukraine in Kiev had to evaluate the military archives in Kiev and Kharkov and to record Austrian and Polish military files. He was involved with the collection of contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commanding General of the Security Forces and Commander in the Army Area North The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commanding General of the Security Forces and Commander in the Army Area North had to evaluate the seized military archives and collect historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the Rear Army Area Center The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the Rear Army Area Center had to evaluate the seized military archives and collect historical material. Wehrmacht-Sichtungsstelle für Beuteakten The Wehrmacht-Sichtungsstelle für Beuteakten checked the loot files arriving from the front for their salary and forwarded them to Wehrmacht offices, as far as the files seemed important to them for further warfare. In territorial matters, the Wehrmacht sighting post for loot files was bound to the instructions of the commander in Wehrkreis III (Berlin). Preprovenience: Reichsarchiv Content characterization: The files of the RH 18 holdings Chief of Army Archives contain personal and material files of the "Chief of Army Archives" and almost all offices subordinated to him. In addition, the inventory contains regulations and announcements of the respective territorially competent command authority, e.g. of the military commander in France or of the commander in Wehrkreis VII (Munich). The records of the holdings of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam are assigned to the holdings. This includes finding aids of the registries, delivery directories and finding aids of the army archives. These records provide an overview of the numbers and contents of the former holdings and supplement the lost holdings of the Prussian army with organisational documents. The lists of estates contain biographical information. A special feature of the RH 18 collection are its personnel files, which, in contrast to most other personal documents of the Wehrmacht, have not been removed from the collection. The personnel files were classified by the respective services. The permanent exhibition of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam is virtually reconstructed in the online find book for RH 18, arranged according to display cases or themes. War diaries, orders, military conventions, correspondence between well-known generals and contemporary collection material from 1679 until after the end of the First World War were included in the Archivalienschau by the staff of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam. The documents have been filed thematically in display cases. On the reverse side of the documents the responsible subject area of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam, the holdings and the serial number are indicated. The Federal Archives and Military Archives do not present these archival records in their original form, but in microfiches. A large part of the documents was in stock MSg 101, which was completely re-signed to RH 18. State of development: Online-Findbuch Scope, Explanation: 2482 AE Citation method: BArch, RH 18/...

1. the history of the collection: The term "wall attacks" for the posters kept in this inventory is contemporary. It refers to the simple mounting: not like advertising posters on splendid advertising pillars, but on simple wall walls they were fastened visibly for everyone. The war situation requires simple use. Wall attacks were often used in the occupied territories. But even in the home country there was little room for such posters. The poor equipment of these posters is a consequence of this situation. The war situation allowed only simple, often newspaper-thin paper. As a rule, there was no graphic design, but the text poster predominates, on which at most the title (often the word "Bekanntmachung") is highlighted in large letters. Sometimes the paper is dyed with a signal colour, which can perhaps be interpreted as a preliminary stage of a graphic design. A more elaborate design for political posters only emerged during the First World War (Ursula Zeller. The Early Period of the Political Image Poster in Germany (1848-1918), Stuttgart 1987, especially Chapter 7). The advertising posters contained in this collection for the subscription of war loans offer charming examples of this. Such graphically designed and aesthetically "beautiful" posters, however, only make up a vanishing part of the collection of wall attacks. After all, it contains pieces by artists such as Hanns Anker, Lucian Bernhard, Alexander U. Cay, Fritz Erler, Louis Oppenheim and Egon Tschirch. However, most of the pieces kept in this collection are not such posters, but pure text posters without a graphic or even pictorial design. The collection of wall attacks was established in the army archive, Stuttgart branch, in the 1920s and continued for decades. Little is known about the motifs, the conception of the collection and the practical collecting activity from this period. A general interest in wall attacks can be established early on: some wall attacks were already reprinted in reduced size in brochures during the war (such booklets can be found in the HSTAS collection of publications) and even sold in the front area (cf. J 151 No. 1240). From the available material it can be concluded that the employees of the Army Archives in principle included every piece in their collection that they could get hold of. In comparison to today's collection concepts, a broad collection was intended. It was by no means restricted to German or even southwest German wall attacks. However, the existing collection sources were not always able to meet the high demands: often gaps remained which could only be taken into account with a few pieces or not at all. A lot can be said about the collection sources. It can be assumed that some of the wall stops were taken from files, which can be seen today in the perforations at the edges of the former multiple-folded piece. Other pieces contain official notes on the poster on the back or at the bottom. By the way, the group that carries a stamp "Landsturm Infanterie Bataillon Calw" or Leonberg is comparatively large. The fact that a third (523) of the 1622 Wall attacks of the western front came from the stage commandantur Roubaix can only be explained by the fact that a Württemberg regiment was stationed there, apparently like the two Landsturm infantry battalions mentioned a source for the collection of the army archive. Other stage commandantures for which such a connection was missing are accordingly sporadically considered. Stamps show that pieces were also taken from related institutions (in exchange?): namely from the Königlich Württembergischen Armeemuseum and from the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig. A larger group of pieces has been extracted from the pamphlet collection of the Army Archives (now part of the Main State Archives J 150) and integrated into the collection of wall attacks. Over a certain period, the two collections held in the Army Archives overlapped. In addition - but to a lesser extent - wall stops were taken from Luck's collection and from estates (Hahn's estate, later also Haußmann's estate) and added to the collection. Some accesses from the Staatsarchiv Ludwigsburg might be relatively young. The collection of wall attacks was added to the collection of the Main State Archives before 1974 from the holdings of the Army Archives. It was given the signature J 151. The background to the abolition of the quite sensible delimitation of the holdings between the collections of the Military Archives and the J holdings of the Main State Archives can no longer be discerned. Even before this relocation, the collection of wall attacks was arranged by the student Markus Braun in the army archive in 1954 and provisionally indexed by a twelve-page find book. The collection continued to receive further additions, especially from estates. The comprehensive conception of the collection failed in practice due to the limitations of the collection sources. Not all areas could be documented equally intensively. The collection covers the period from 1914 to 1948, including the post-war period of the Second World War. In quantitative terms, the focus is clearly on the First World War (2582 wall attacks totalling approx. 2700) and here again on wall attacks from the western front (1622 vs. 599 from the eastern front). These are mainly wall attacks by the (German) occupying power, to a lesser extent also those of Austrian provenance. Only a few wall attacks were made by the opponents (France and Russia) at that time. Another group are the pieces used in Germany (on the "home front") themselves. As provenances (publishers of the Wall attacks) both civilian (Generalgouvernement Belgium, French mayor's offices) and military authorities (army high commandos, stage inspections and commandant's offices) are represented, often combined with each other (at the level of stage commandant's offices and mayor's offices). In terms of content, these are often ordinances and communications from the crew to the local population. The wall attacks serve, for example, to announce war economic measures such as setting maximum prices, recording stocks that can be used for military purposes, announcing the punishment of locals or to incite desired behaviour among the population of the occupied area, such as observance of curfews, blackout measures or a ban on meetings. An interesting group are the wall attacks with "information" about the war situation, with which the resistance should be broken or at least discouraged. In the homeland, wall attacks served to call for recruits, to call for donations and to propaganda against the hostile powers, but also to strengthen national self-confidence, to advertise cultural events and to announce war economic measures. 2. processing of the stock: The merit of the work of the student Markus Braun of 1954 lay more in the order of the extensive collection than in its indexing. Braun limited the indexing to a group entry, for which the scheme "Regulations and notices: Etappenkommandantur XY, year, number of pieces" is typical. Wall attacks of the same kind were united to form a group and this group was described as generally as possible in the manner indicated. For reasons of time, it was probably not the intention to go into the contents of the individual pieces, which Braun, however, signed individually. Already the supplements to the finding aid book by later supplements tend in contrast to an individual indexing, thus to a description of each individual piece. Such a thorough indexing is finally standard for the poster collections begun in the 1970s in the Main State Archives (J 153, J 154 and J 154/5), which, unlike the Wall attacks, have no historical relevance. With the exception of minor changes, however, the order of the brown wall stops could essentially be maintained. The structure of his find book is therefore almost identical to that of the present one. Also, the old Braun signature runs in principle parallel with the present Numerus currens (which determines the place of storage). But since Braun started the counting with 1 again with each new larger group, a concordance of the signatures is attached to the find book. The individual development was therefore the aim of the reworking begun in October 1989. At the same time, it served to introduce the aspirants trained in the Main State Archives to the cataloguing of posters as an example for the work on collections. On the occasion of the reworking, better packaging was also provided. The wall stops were repackaged in acid-free DIN A 1 envelopes, also in order to avoid as far as possible the folds (especially cross folds) harmful to the very thin paper. Smaller cracks were also repaired. The new indexing was based on the MIDEPLAK (EDP) mask developed in cooperation with LAD in the summer of 1989 and a data sheet designed for this purpose. This data entry mask, which can be used under the MIDOSA program package, should not only be usable for wall stops, but should also be able to be used for IT data entry for all types of posters (advertising posters and political posters). The description of the wall stops is arranged according to the following scheme in the finding aid book: The order number in the upper left corner is only relevant for the order of the description and references from the index. For storage in the magazine and also for ordering the pieces, only the order number is used, which can be found at the end of the description of the individual unit. The title of the poster is treated as a quotation and is therefore enclosed in quotation marks. If necessary, additions are added for identification. Most of the titles are "regulation", "notice" and the like, and the editor then had to further specify the content in his own words. Several titles on a wall attack are quite conceivable. The title is reproduced in the original language, only in Slavic languages it is translated or transcribed. The runtime usually specifies the print or publication date. In the next line, the reason for the occurrence of the wall stop - as far as known - is given, but this is comparatively seldom the case with the wall stops. This is followed by information about the publisher, graphics, print, persons responsible in terms of press law, etc. The formal information includes the format of the poster and the number of pieces stored. The description of the visual representation takes place in a separate block. Since the stock at hand is mainly made up of text posters, an actual image description is omitted in over 90 percent of cases. In the case of pure text posters, a reference is made here to special features in the design (multiple columns, highlighting, colouring) or to the languages used (in extreme cases up to seven different ones). At the time of the creation of graphically designed political posters, such things can already be seen as elements of a graphic design. Before the final order signature, the provenances (here in the sense of collection sources) and the preliminary signatures must be indicated. Within the same category, the wall stops are usually arranged chronologically. Pieces that cannot be dated or only dated to the year appear at the end. As a rule, the date of a prescription is decisive for dating. In the case of wall attacks with ordinances of different dates, the last date closer to the publication date is decisive for the chronological classification. In the case of local meetings, the order is alphabetical. A folder with various French food ration cards from the Second World War was taken from the collection and incorporated into the relevant collection J 524, which has since been opened. The collection of wall attacks contains around 2,700 copies without counting the duplicates. The reworking of the wall attacks took place from autumn 1989 to summer 1993 under the direction of the undersigned within the framework of the introductory and intermediate practical courses of the candidates of the 26th, 27th, 28th and 30th training courses. The cooperating candidates were: Hartmut Obst, Andrea Rösler, Petra Schad, Jutta Stockhammer and Martina Wagner from 26., Bettina Heiß, Sybille Kraiss, Barbara Löslein, Jörg Martin, Armin Roether, Daniel Stihler, Martin Walter and Regina Witzmann from 27.Andrea Binz, Armin Braun, Daniela Deckwart, Astrid Groh, Katja Hoffmann and Nicole Röck from the 28th and Michael Bing, Dorothea Kiwitt, Michael Konrad, Manuela Nordmeyer, Annelie Jägersküpper and Christian Schlafner from the 30th training course. Neuenstein, September 1996Dr. Peter Schiffer In the spring of 1998, approximately 370 wall attacks from the time of the First World War, which were presumably delivered there in the 1950s, were transferred from the Heilbronn City Archives to the Main State Archives. The largest part of the collection is made up of wall attacks of the Roubaix stage commandant, the smaller part of those of the VI Army Command and stage inspections 2, 4, 5 and 6 and other editors. With the exception of the pieces kept in the Supplement to fonds J 151 under serial number 2717-2734, these are almost exclusively duplicates or other multiple copies of wall attacks that already exist in fonds J 151. In detail, the following status numbers have been increased by this delivery: 5, 16, 770-773, 775, 778, 780, 783, 788, 794, 872, 874, 875, 877, 879, 881, 883, 885, 887-893, 895-897, 909, 911, 913, 978-1306 (without serial numbers 980-984, 987-990, 993-998, 1001, 1003, 1004, 1006, 1009-1012, 1014, 1022, 1025, 1030, 1031, 1033, 1035, 1036, 1040, 1047, 1050, 1051, 1053, 1057, 1058, 1062-1070, 1075, 1076, 1078-1080, 1092, 1110, 1112, 1114, 1120, 1127, 1130, 1131, 1136, 1138, 1141, 1145, 1155, 1164, 1165, 1167, 1171, 1173, 1174, 1178, 1180, 1183, 1190-1193, 1196, 1203, 1207, 1209, 1213, 1216, 1218-1220, 1222, 1236, 1238, 1240, 1244, 1249, 1250, 1255-1258, 1267, 1272, 1300), 1336, 1477, 1479, 1480, 1602, 2312. May 1998 Eberhard Merk In 2002 Eberhard Merk revised and corrected the title listings and the overall index. In the summer of 2003, Wolf-Dieter Dorn's file of the distortion of the wall attacks, which was only available as a Word document, was converted into an Access database from which the online version of the finding aid book could be generated. The duplicated index with detailed index is still based on the Word document. September 2003 Regina Keyler

The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) is one of the largest "robbery organisations" of the "Third Reich". Equipped with the authority to "secure" material in the occupied territories for the fight against the "ideological opponents" of National Socialism, he brought countless books, documents and other cultural assets from the possession of libraries, institutes, archives, private individuals, etc. into his hands in the occupied western and eastern territories; in addition, he was actively involved in art theft. The evaluation of the cultural property to be captured and secured by the ERR was to be carried out by the "Hohe Schule" or the "Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage" in Frankfurt, at least as far as research on the "Jewish question" could be useful, to which even "materials" of an incommensurable scope were then directed. The haste with which the "seizures" had to be made within a few years or months in areas often far from the borders of the German Reich, made final decisions about the whereabouts of the captured property, especially in the territory of the Soviet Union, at most theoretically visible; in its mass it remained in the territories cleared by German troops. In addition to the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, the East Library and the Central Library of Rosenberg in Berlin were the main places of reception, apparently for material on the "Study of Bolshevism". There were also numerous other recipients, such as the Wehrmacht (for entertainment literature, but also for "military files and archive material" from the occupied Eastern territories, which had to be handed over to the Danzig branch of the Army Archives). The following decrees are the basis for the establishment and mission of the task force: Führererlass of 29.1.1940 concerning the establishment of the "Hohe Schule": The Hohe Schule is to become the central site of National Socialist research, teaching and education. Their construction will take place after the war. However, in order to promote the preparations that have begun, I order Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg to continue this preparatory work - especially in the field of research and the establishment of the library. The services of the Party and the State shall give him every assistance in this work. Decree of the chief of the OKW of 4.7.1940 to the commander-in-chief of the army and the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht in the Netherlands: Reichsleiter Rosenberg has applied to the Führer: 1. to search the state libraries and archives for writings of value to Germany, 2. to search the chancelleries of the high church authorities and lodges for political actions directed against us, and to confiscate the material in question. The Führer has ordered that this proposal be complied with and that the Secret State Police - supported by archivists of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg - be entrusted with the investigation. The head of the security police, SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich, has been notified; he will contact the responsible military commanders for the purpose of executing the order. This measure will be implemented in all the territories we occupy in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. It is requested to inform the subordinate services. Order of the chief of the OKW of 17.9.1940: To the commander-in-chief of the army for the military administration in occupied France In addition to the s.Zt. The Führer has decided, on the basis of the instructions given by the Führer to Reichsleiter Rosenberg to search lodges, libraries and archives in the occupied territories of the West for material of value to Germany and to secure it through the Gestapo: "The conditions before the war in France and before the declaration of war on 1.9.1939 are decisive for the possessions. After this deadline, transfers of ownership to the French Reichsleiter Rosenberg have been completed. State or the like are void and legally ineffective (e.g. Polish and Slovak library in Paris, holdings of the Palais Rothschild and other abandoned Jewish property). Reservations regarding search, seizure and removal to Germany on the basis of such objections shall not be accepted. Reichsleiter Rosenberg or his representative Reichshauptstellenleiter Ebert has clear instructions from the Führer personally regarding the right of access. He is authorised to transport the cultural goods that appear valuable to him to Germany and to secure them here. The Führer has reserved the right to decide on their use. It is requested that the relevant military commanders or services be instructed accordingly. Führer decree of 1.3.1942: Jews, Freemasons and the ideological opponents of National Socialism allied with them are the authors of the present war directed against the Reich. The systematic spiritual combat of these powers is a task necessary for war. I have therefore commissioned Reichsleiter Rosenberg to carry out this task in agreement with the head of the OKW. Its task force for the occupied territories has the right to investigate libraries, archives, lodges and other ideological and cultural institutions of all kinds for corresponding material and to seize it for the ideological tasks of the NSDAP and the later scientific research projects of the high school. The same regulation applies to cultural objects which are in the possession or property of Jews, of stray origin or of origin which cannot be clarified unobjectionably. The implementing regulations for cooperation with the Wehrmacht are issued by the head of the OKW in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg. The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under German administration are taken by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. For a short time the full name of the office was "Einsatzstab der Dienststellen des Reichsleiters Rosenberg für die besetzten westlichen Gebiete und die Niederlande", then "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die besetzten Gebiete". The addition "for the occupied territories" was omitted according to the order of the Joint Staff Committee of 17.11.1944. The headquarters of the Joint Staff Committee was initially Paris. The expansion of the tasks made it necessary to relocate her to Berlin, where she temporarily stayed in the office building at Margarethenstrasse 17. The later office in Berlin, Bismarckstraße 1, was destroyed by an air raid. Organisation and structure: The structure of the ERR consisted in its main features of staff management, main working groups and working groups (set up regionally), occasionally also special detachments, branch offices, etc. The ERR was structured in such a way that it was able to provide a clear overview of the various departments. In addition, there were special staffs which were mainly charged with the "recording of cultural assets", which took place in constant collision with the equal interests of other authorities, such as the Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (in France with regard to the recording of musical works, musical manuscripts and instruments by the Special Staff for Music) and the Reichsführer-SS (for example with regard to the recording of prehistory and early history). The organisation and distribution of responsibilities of the staff management were adapted to the respective tasks of the ERR institution, which were constantly expanding until 1943 and have been changing ever since. The constant change of tasks, organisation and personnel conditions became a principle for the large number of the departments themselves active in the "worked" areas, which were also completely dependent on the politico-military and administrative conditions in these areas, caused by the respective military, civil or national administrations, and not least by the perpetual conflicts of competence of the party and imperial authorities touching or fighting each other in their areas of interest and ambitions. The development of the ERR began in France with the institution "Einsatzstab Westen" under the leadership of Kurt von Behr. Soon the "Westen" task force was divided into three independent main working groups: France (Paris), Belgium and Northern France (Brussels), Netherlands (Amsterdam). At the same time, V. Behr was the head of the Western Office, which was responsible for securing furnishings for the occupied eastern territories, the so-called M Action. This office was in itself "detached" to the East Ministry; according to Rosenberg's order of 24.11.1944, it was "taken back" to the task force. In the first half of 1944, both the M campaign and the "art collection campaign" were extended to southern France. Probably related to this is the establishment of the South of France Working Group, which finally set up a branch office in Nice and an external command in Marseilles. From the very beginning of its activity in France, the ERR had not confined itself to securing only material from libraries, archives, etc. for the "ideological struggle". He also began to collect and secure art treasures and thus entered into a certain competition with the actions carried out on behalf of Hitler ("Linz" Führer order) and Göring as well as with the art protection carried out by the military commander. Institutionally, he created a special task force "Fine Arts" (SBK) for this task, to which the collection points for fine arts in the Louvre and Jeu de Paume belonged. The Special Staff was only responsible for securing and inventorying the objects of art; the right of disposal over the objects of art - including those seized by the Office of the West in the course of the M Action and handed over to the Special Staff - had been reserved to the "Führer", a demand that was later extended to all works of art "that were or will be confiscated by German authorities in the territories occupied by German troops". The SBK maintained its activity in France to a certain extent until its dissolution. The struggle for responsibility for seized works of art continued until the end of the war, up to and including issues of relocation to Germany (Führer construction and salvage sites such as Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee, etc.) and ultimately works of art to be seized in Austrian mines (Alt-Aussee). The activities of the Italian working group are described in the report of its leader of 28.8.1944 as follows: "The procurement of material on the activities of ideological opponents will continue to be at the forefront of our work in Italy. In the form of translations, reports and evaluation work, this material is prepared by AG Italy and forwarded to the management. At the beginning of 1941, the ERR extended its activities to the Balkans and further to Greece. A Sonderkommando Greece was formed, which was dissolved in 1941. A Sonderkommando Saloniki is still provable until 1942. ERR services were also established in 1941 in Serbia - Special Staff of the Commanding General and Commander of Serbia, an Agram Liaison Office and a Belgrade Liaison Office for the Yugoslav Territories. Efforts to gain a foothold in Hungary failed apparently because of the resistance or influence of the envoy Dr. Veesenmayer. Later, a main working group for the southeast (Belgrade) can be proved, which was formed with effect from 15 February 1944 from the working group for the southeast, which in turn could have originated from the command "Southeast", proven for 1942, which was transferred from Belgrade to Thessaloniki on 10 July 1942. In Denmark, the ERR established a service in Copenhagen. Any approach to "profitable" activity was soon nullified by Dr. Best, representative of the German Reich in Denmark: "Confiscation in the style of the other occupied territories would never come into question". Immediately after his appointment as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMbO), Rosenberg began to direct the initiative of his task force to the eastern territories as well. On April 2, 1941, Rosenberg had already conceived a Führer's order to instruct him "to carry out the same tasks as in the occupied western territories in all the countries occupied or still occupied by the German Wehrmacht within the framework of this war". Until the Führer's order of 1 March 1942 was issued, Rosenberg referred to "the orders issued by the Führer for the West and the tasks carried out in the Western territories by the departments of Art, Archive and Library Protection within the framework of military administration". Rosenberg's guidelines on the protection of cultural assets for "research into the activities of opponents of National Socialism and for National Socialist research" were issued to the Reichskommissariate Ostland and Ukraine on 20.8.1941 and 3.10.1941 respectively. By decree of 27.4.In 1942 Rosenberg finally commissioned the RKO and RKU as the RMbO to once again expressly "commission the ERR for the occupied Eastern territories with the recording and uniform processing of cultural assets, research material and scientific institutions from libraries, museums, etc.", which are found in public, ecclesiastical or private spaces". With the same decree, a central office was founded for the collection and recovery of cultural assets in the occupied Eastern territories. A special department for the collection and recovery of cultural assets was set up at the Reichskommissariaten (Imperial Commissionariats), whose leadership was entrusted to the head of the responsible main working group. For the two Reichskommissariate the main working group Ostland (Riga) with the working groups existed at first: Estonia (Reval), Lithuania (Vilnius), Latvia (Riga), White Ruthenia (Minsk) and the main working group Ukraine (Kiev, later Bialystok). With effect from 1.5.1943 the AG Weißruthenien was elevated to the main working group Mitte. In all HAG areas, in addition to the working groups, mobile staffs, known as "Sonderkommandos" or "Außenstellen", whose activities extended as far as the Crimea and the Caucasus region, worked directly under their command or under the command of the staff. The special staffs included, among others "Sonderstab Bildende Kunst", "Sonderstab Vorgeschichte", "Sonderstab Archive", "Sonderstab Sippenkunde", "Sonderstab Wissenschaft", "Sonderstab Volkskunde", "Sonderstab Presse" (founded 1944), "Sonderstab Dr. Abb", "Sonderstab Musik", "Sonderstab Zentralbibliothek" of the "Hohen Schule" (ZBHS), "Sonderstab weltanschauliche Information in Berlin". Structure of the staff leadership 1942 Staff leader: Utikal deputy: Ebeling 1st Division Organisation: Langkopf Group Indoor Service Group Human Resources Group Procurement Group Readiness to drive 2nd Division West and Southeast: by Ingram Group Planning Group Report 3rd Division East: Dr. Will Group Planning Group Report 4th Division Evaluation: Dr. Brethauer; Deputy: Dr. Wunder; from 1.11.1942: Lommatzsch Group General Group Library Group Inventory Group Photograph 5 Dept. Special Tasks: Rehbock Structure of the staff leadership 1944 Staff leader: Utikal representative: The senior head of department department I (head of department I: SEF Rehbock; head of department z.b.V.: SEF Brethauer) group I/1 personal adviser of the chief of staff: Rehbock group I/2 mob- and locksmith matters: Rehbock Group I/3 Personal Representative of the Chief of Staff for the Art Recording Action and Head of the Louvre Working Group: Rehbock Group I/4 Defense Representative of the Operational Staff: HEF Braune Group I/5 Procurement, Courier Service, Supply: OEF Jach Group I/6 Publications: HEF Tenschert Group I/7 Special Reports: EF Tost Division II (Head of Division: OSEF Dr. Will; Deputy: SEF Dr. Zeiß) Division IIa: Western Division, covering France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Southeast: SEF Dr. Zeiß Division IIb: Division East, covering the occupied territories of the Soviet Union: OSEF Dr. Will Division III (Head of Division: SEF Zölffel) Division IIIa: SEF Zölffel Group III/1 Legal Affairs, Orders and Communications: SEF Zölffel Gruppe III/2 Wehrmachttfragen, Marschpapiere, Veranstaltungen, Marketenderei: HEF Gummert Abteilung IIIb: HEF Webendoerfer Gruppe III/3 Personal: HEF Sklaschus Gruppe III/4 Business Distribution: HEF Webendoerfer Gruppe III/5 Registratur: OEF Hechler Hauptabteilung IV (Head of Department: OSEF Dr. Wunder; Deputy: SEF Lommatzsch) Translation Office: OEF Dr. Benrath Gruppe IV/1 Archiv: HEF Dr. Mücke Group IV/3 Material preparation: HEF Reichardt Group IV/4 Evaluation by scientists: HEF Rudolph Group IV/5 Book control centre: HEF Ruhbaum Group IV/6 East Library: HEF Dr. Müller Abbreviations DBFU The commander's representative for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP EF Einsatzführer ERR Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg HAG Hauptarbeitsgruppe HEF Haupteinsatzführer IMT Internationales Militärtribunal MTS Maschinen-Traktoren-Station NKWD Volkskommissariat für Innere Angelegenheiten NSDAP National Socialist German Workers' Party NSPO National Socialist Party Organization OEF Upper Operations Leader OKH Army High Command OKW Wehrmacht High Command OSEF Wehrmacht Upper Staff Operations Leader RKO Reichskommissar für das Ostland RKU Reichskommissar für die Ukraine RMbO Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete SEF Stabseinsatzführer WKP (b) Communistische Partei der Sovietunion ZbV zur besonderen Verwendung Inventory description: Inventory history In the 1960s, scattered files of the ERR were brought into the Federal Archives, with various returns of written material from the USA and predominantly in association with other provenances from the Rosenberg business area as well as with individual levies from the Rehse Collection, which were formed into an inventory there. Most of these files are written documents which were last found in the alternative office of the ERR in Ratibor. A part of the staff and the management of the Ostbücherei with large stocks of books were evacuated from Berlin to there. The remains of documents rescued by the members of the HAG Ostland, Ukraine and White Ruthenia were also recorded in Ratibor. The preserved files should come from holdings that were moved from Ratibor to the west. Subsequent additions to the holdings were mainly made by levies from the military archives, by re-enlargements of microfilms from the YIVO Institute, New York, by late recorded files from American repatriation, by three volumes from the dissolved holdings of the Rosenberg offices of the Central State Archives of the GDR (62 Tue 1) and by personal documents from the so-called "NS Archive of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR". The documents preserved at the end of the war and accessible to the Western Allies were used as evidence for the IMT process. The essential components were then left to the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC), Paris. ERR documents can also be found today in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, in the YIVO Institute for Jewish Reserch, Washington, and in the Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (NIOD), Amsterdam. Documents from Rosenberg offices also reached archives of the former Soviet Union. An extensive collection (especially the provenance ERR) is kept in the Tsentral`nyi derzhavnyi arhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukraïny (TsDAVO Ukraïny) in Kiev, further files in the Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv (RGVA) in Moscow and in the Lithuanian Central State Archives, Vilnius. The Federal Archives, Bildarchiv, holds an extensive collection of photographs from the ERR (holdings Fig. 131). Inventories, directories and transport lists by the ERR of "seized objects" are contained in the holdings of B 323 Treuhandverwaltung von Kulturgut. Archive processing The NS 30 collection is a conglomerate of scattered files and individual documents. In the interest of rapid utilisation, the documents were recorded provisionally without costly evaluation and administrative work. Mrs. Elisabeth Kinder produced the preliminary finding aid book in 1968, from which essential elements of this introduction are taken. The "new entries" were recorded by the undersigned in 2003/2004. Citation method BArch NS 30/ .... State of development: Findbuch (1968/2005), Online-Findbuch (2004). Citation style: BArch, NS 30/...

Content and Evaluation The Supreme (Land) Government was founded in 1806 as a collegial authority in the execution of the manifesto of King Frederick I's organization. It seems that the contemporary chancellory lists were uncertain about their correct spelling, at any rate the variants "Oberregierung" and - according to the predecessor authority in Ellwangen - "Oberlandesregierung" were represented almost equally frequently in the written material. The name is also misleading, because the authority was not a government in the current sense, but only a department of the Ministry of the Interior with responsibility for the so-called Regiminal Subject. According to the opinion of the time, this included in particular the safeguarding of the royal sovereignty rights, police matters throughout the country with the exception of the residential cities of Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg, the supervision of all state officials with the exception of the administration of justice, and the confirmation of elections to magistrate and other offices, Issues of subjects' and citizens' rights including emigration (deduction and after-tax), participation in military conscription, matters of prisons, breeding, labour and orphanages, poor institutions, trade, commerce and crafts as well as fire insurance. In 1807 the government college was divided into three subdepartments. In addition to the Department of Criminal Investigation, the Department of Police was established for security and police matters and the Department of Lending for feudal matters. On July 1, 1811, the responsibilities of the Department of Criminal Investigation and the Department of Police were reassigned to the Section of Internal Administration. In 1817 the newly founded district governments finally took over the tasks of this section. The present collection contains the special files of the category 'Princes' from the registry of the Supreme Government or the Section of Internal Administration, which is arranged alphabetically according to categories, although this title is rather misleading. In fact, the written records hardly concern relations with princely houses, and also the possessions of the often feared domestic and foreign class rulers located in Württemberg play at best a subordinate role in the holdings at hand. On the contrary, the contemporary registrars used the term 'princes' as a synonym for 'sovereigns', but they were not completely consistent, as the few files relating to cities or the monastery of St. Wolfgang in Engen show. In the main, the files deal with the interaction with the directly or indirectly neighbouring sovereign states, more than three quarters of the material concern relations with the Empire of France, the Grand Duchy of Baden and the Kingdom of Bavaria. In accordance with the turbulent times, war events, military, police (searches) and security matters play a prominent role, as do disputes over competing claims to sovereignty in the newly acquired former imperial territories and cities, trade blockades and customs harassment, as well as a colourful conglomeration of reciprocal attacks by authorities, officials and ordinary citizens on actual or alleged possessions of the respective neighbours and the retaliatory measures taken by them, but also efforts to achieve a contractual balance (borders, rights, disparities).) are represented. The files prove - particularly impressive in the case of the Landgraviate of Nellenburg, which was first allocated to Württemberg in 1806, the provisional Württemberg offices of Weiltingen and Nördlingen or the areas around Wiesensteig and Geislingen, Tettnang, Ravensburg and Ulm, which were also only briefly owned by Bavaria - the restlessness and often misunderstandings in the Paris treaties of 1810 until the settlement, The situation in the border regions was marked by provocations and acts of violence, the break-up of grown structures (such as parish priests), the abrupt interruption of road connections, the capping of rights, customs and habits by the new borders, and the liquidation of the structures created by the previous owners and the conditions left behind in the towns and regions that had finally become Württemberg after the State Treaty of 1810. D 44 is an almost flawless provenance collection, only in isolated cases do the files originate from predecessor or successor authorities (Bü 112: 'Retardatenkommission'; Bü 441 and 562: Oberlandesregierung Ellwangen; Bü 528: Fürststift Ellwangen). The local or regional assignment of each file follows the use of the registry of the upper government, which has assigned each operation to a particular ruling dynasty, but has not always done so correctly. Therefore, individual title recordings can reflect facts or events that cannot actually be expected from their territorial-dynastic classification, as for example in Bü 159, which contemporary registrars have assigned to the Grand Duchy of Hesse, but which contains mainly correspondence with the government in Karlsruhe due to the former Hanaulichberg places of reference in Baden since 1803. The - also already contemporary - assignment of the Büschel 379 to the Grand Duchy of Baden is not at all comprehensible from a factual point of view, since it is a matter of the request of the court chamber of Hesse and Darmstadt in Arnsberg for extradition of the documents relating to the Teutonic Order commander Mülheim from the archives of the Grand Master government in Mergentheim. Originally, the collection was divided into 59 bundles or federations, the contents of which were reproduced in the Marquart repertory (1912) only in keywords. In the course of the reworking these bundles were dissolved into a total of 673 individually recorded files with a total volume of 4.4 linear metres. The main running time ranges from 1806 to 1817, pre-files (mostly copies) go back to 1460, individual post-files have been added until 1834. Ludwigsburg, November 2010 Dr. Peter Steuer

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