Showing 2 results

History of the Inventory Designer: Under the name Rechnungshof des Norddeutschen Bund (Court of Audit of the North German Confederation), the Prussian Chamber of Upper Legislation took control of the budget of the German Reich for the financial years 1867-1869 for the first time, renaming the authority the Rechnungshof des Deutschen Reiches (Court of Audit of the German Reich). In addition to controlling the Reich's budget, the Oberrechnungskammer, in its function as Court of Audit, was responsible for auditing the budget of Alsace-Lorraine (1874-1919) and for controlling the budget of the protectorate (since 1892/95 Africa, since 1898 all protectorates). The Court of Audit (Rechungshof, RH) was chaired by the Chief President of the Chamber of Appeal; its members were appointed by the Emperor at the suggestion of the Federal Council. The task of auditing the accounts of the Reich's budget had to be transferred to the Upper Chamber of Accounts by repeated individual legislation, usually on an annual basis. Article 86 p. 2 of the Weimar Constitution ("The audit of accounts is regulated by the Reich Law") established the audit of accounts for the Reich Administration under constitutional law. The Reich Budget Code of 31.12.1922 accordingly provided for the fundamental audit of the Reich budget by the Court of Audit of the German Reich (legalization of the audit of the "economic efficiency of the administration"). Thus, for the first time, auditing was fixed as a right of the state; at the same time, the establishment of the Court of Audit as an independent Reich authority independent of the Reich government was regulated. The Imperial Budget Code determined - as an important objective of the Court of Audit after examination of the submitted annual accounts - to prepare memoranda on the most important audit results and to submit proposals to the Imperial Government for the amendment and interpretation of laws in order to remedy identified deficiencies in the administration. The Court of Audit of the Weimar Republic represented a college of President, Directors and Councillors, which decided all fundamental matters by majority vote in the Plenary Assembly. In order to decide on matters that were limited in scope and only concerned individual administrative areas, the Reich Budget Code granted the formation of senates consisting of at least 3 members. In addition, the expert activity could be carried out at the request of the Reich Ministers, the Reich Parliament and the Reich Council; in addition, companies with their own legal personality could also be audited by the Court of Audit. The President and the other members of the Court of Audit were now appointed by the President of the Reich, countersigned by the Reich Minister of Finance. The President of the Court of Audit was also responsible for the management of the Prussian Chamber of Accounts. From October 1, 1922, however, he no longer headed the Prussian but the Reichsbehörde full-time. Presidents of the Court of Audit were: 1869-1890: Karl Ewald von Stünzner 1890-1898: Arthur Paul Ferdinand von Wolff 1898-1914: Eduard Ludwig Karl von Magdeburg 1914-1922: Ernst Holz 1922-1938 Friedrich Ernst Moritz Saemisch 1938-1945 Heinrich Müller 1922 was also appointed Reichssparkommissara with the task, together with the Reich Minister of Finance, of examining the entire budget and drawing up expert opinions on it. He was supported by the savings committee of the Reichstag. In December 1933 this office was closed again and the tasks were transferred to the new presidential department of the Court of Audit. As the supreme audit and control authority, the Court of Audit was responsible for supervising the entire Reich budget by examining the budget accounts, including the unscheduled income and expenditure of all Reich administrations, the accounts for the entire non-monetary property of the Reich as well as the books and accounting documents of the enterprises of the Reich. Since the end of the First World War, the Court of Audit has also had to increasingly control the use of Reich funds, which flowed into the private economy in the form of loans, credits, guarantees, subsidies and participations, by including both important business enterprises and a rich country of smaller enterprises in its audit area. The internal structure of the RH remained essentially unchanged throughout its existence. It was divided into the presidential department and a changing number of audit departments, to which the authorities and companies to be audited were allocated according to objective criteria. For the collection and cartographic indexing of laws, ordinances, administrative provisions, official regulations and other documents required for auditing the accounts, a news agency was attached to the Presidential Department, which from 1937 was known as the "Archive". In 1933 the Court of Audit was confirmed as an independent supreme Reich authority vis-à-vis the Reich government, but the previous procedure of majority decisions was abolished and the President was largely granted authority to issue directives to all organs of the Court of Audit. With the exception of the Wehrmacht control and the use audit of state subsidies to the NSDAP, the Court was initially able to perform its duties within the framework of financial control to the full extent even after 1933. In 1934, the office of the Reich Savings Commissioner, who was responsible for advising the Reich government on all matters relating to budget management and the appropriate design, simplification and cost reduction of the administration, was dissolved and its most important functions transferred to an office of the Presidential Department of the Court of Audit. Also from 1934, the Act on the Maintenance and Increase of Purchasing Power (Gesetz zur Erhaltung und Hebung der Kaufkraft) made it possible to extend the jurisdiction of the Court of Audit to include the auditing of corporations, institutions and other legal entities under public law (finally laid down by law in the Reich Auditing Ordinance of 30 March 1938). In the course of the imperial reform efforts of the Third Reich, the "Law on the Budgetary Management, Accounting and Auditing of the Länder and on the Fourth Amendment to the Reich Budget Code" of 17 June 1936 brought important changes: with the beginning of the 1936 accounting year, the auditing of the budget and economic management of the Länder was transferred to the Technical University. For this purpose, based on the already existing State Audit Offices, the Regional Court set up in 1937 foreign departments responsible for one or more Länder, initially in Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Leipzig (from 1940 Dresden) and Munich. Later Vienna (1939), Poznan (1942) and Metz (1942) were added. These external departments of the Court of Audit were assigned "accounting offices" by the Länder as preliminary audit offices in accordance with the "Vorprüfordnung für die Länder" of 9 April 1937. After 1938, especially during the war, the focus of the audit activities of the Court of Audit shifted: on the one hand, the audit of the administrations in the so-called "Old Empire" was reduced, on the other hand, however, the jurisdiction of the Court of Audit was extended to all German administrations in the occupied territories and also exercised there to a large extent. Only the Generalgouvernement and the autonomous protectorate government had their own examination offices. . Inventory description: Inventory history The majority of the RH's registry, which is already in the Reichsarchiv, was transferred to the former Central State Archives of the GDR after the war. At the end of the war, a further part of the existing records was still kept in the RH buildings in Potsdam and Berlin and was archived after 1946. The losses caused by the Allied air raid on Potsdam in April 1945 amount to approx. 9 running metres. Since the Prussian Oberrechungskammer took over the examination of Reichaufgabe für Kunst, Wissenschaft, kirchliche Angelegenheiten und Forstwirtschaft in 1934 (the Prussian Oberrechungskammer already had corresponding departments for these areas), these records - as well as the previous files of the Court of Audit in the holdings of Rep. 138 of the Geheimes Staatsarchiv, Stiftung prußischer Kulturbesitz. Archival evaluation and processing The registries of the Court of Audit distinguished three groups of files according to the tasks of the authority, which are also reflected in the classification: - General files - Technical files with special audit documents and instructions - Audit files for the actual audit negotiations. In this finding aid book, both the relevant files of the tradition kept until 1990 in the Central State Archives as fonds R 2301 and the files kept in the Federal Archives as fonds R 47 are recorded. Although the necessary standardisation of individual development information was achieved by merging the two parts of the transmission, a complete re-drawing did not take place. The general files were kept according to a uniform file plan and are summarised at the beginning of the inventory. The specialist and examination files are arranged according to the most recently valid business distribution plan. In addition, the files of the "archive" are listed separately as a relatively independent structural part with various special registries. The creation of archival file titles, volume sequences and series was usually required when the files were recorded; the creation of identical titles was unavoidable due to the specific nature of the structure. Characterisation of content: The Court of Audit's transmission more or less comprehensively covers the authority's entire spectrum of tasks with the following focal points: - Organisational, legal, administrative and operational matters - Court of Audit and Reich Savings Commissioner - Civil servant duties and rights - Affairs of employees and workers - Budget, cash, accounting and auditing - Specialist and audit files on individual authorities and companies such as the Reich Ministry of Finance, the Reich Ministry of Labor, the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the Reich Office for Regional Planning, the Reich Nourishment State, Reich offices and main associations, Vereinigte Industrieunternehmungen AG und Untergesellschaften (VIAG), Kleinbahnunternehmen und Wohnungsbauunternehmen, Hauptversorgungs- und Versorgungsämter sowie Wehrmachttversorgungsämter - Collection of administrative reports, statutes and other printed matter from local and district administrations (locations A-Z) - Budgets and budget accounts of the Länder and municipal institutions - Gesetzsammelmappen In addition, 3089 personnel files are part of the inventory. , citation style: BArch, R 2301/...

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