Inventory historyThe 2668 units of description recorded in this repertory are only a fragment of the original records of the Konsistorium - albeit a quite respectable one - as they were before the authority moved to Düsseldorf in 1934. With the help of the received handwritten or typewritten file directories, the losses or inventory shifts that have occurred can be reconstructed exactly. The chronology spans over forty years:I) As early as 1931, extensive files were collected within the Consistory. The basis for this decision, which was made in the Koblenz office building due to acute lack of space, was a list drawn up in 1929 by Konsistorialoberinspektor Mähler ("sale of files for stamping"). Summary information on the groups of files concerned can be found in Faszikel A II 1 a 9 (serial no. 28):- Travel expenses (A II 1 b 2 and 5) up to 1920- Office requirements (A II 1 b 3) up to 1920- Forms (A II 2 31) up to 1920- Publication of the Official Gazette (A II 2 35) up to 1920- Accounting of the Official Gazette (A II 2 37) up to 1915- Invoices incl. Documents about the church sub-funds up to 1910- Collections up to 1910- Collections yield records up to 1920- Collections concerning the church sub-funds up to 1910- Collections up to 1910- Collections up to 1920- Collections concerning the church sub-funds up to 1910- Collections up to 1910- Collections up to 1920- Collections concerning the church sub-funds up to 1910- Collections up to 1910- Collections up to 1920- Collections up to 1920- Collections up to 1920 Applications for pastors up to 1925- Business diaries up to 1900- Budget files up to 1905- Property files up to 1905- Beiakte up to 1905- Order awards for clergy (B V a 14) up to 1910- Support for clergy and parish widows (B V b 29 u. 86) until 1910- Leave granted to clergy (B V b 64) until 1910- Contributions to the parish widows' and pension fund (B V b 89f.) until 1910- Pension fund accounts (B V b 93f.) until 1910- Remarks on pensions and widows' and orphans' pensions for clergy (B V b 91 u.) 95) until 1910- Aid from the Grant Fund (B V b 104) until 1910- Instructions of the Age Allowances for Ministers (B V b 105) until 1910- Insurance Contributions to the Age Allowance Fund (B V b 106) until 1910- Employment of Vicars from the Vicarage Fund (B VII b 19) until 1905- The teaching vicariate of the candidates (B VII b 17) to 1910 - cash affairs of the vicariate fund (B VII b 20) to 1910II) In September 1934 -directly before the move to Düsseldorf- the following files were destroyed for reasons of space after a note by Mähler:- old diaries until 1914- old budget files until 1915- old files on pensions, widows' pensions etc. until 1920- old files about support for clergy and parish widows- old files about lending of marriage memorial coins- old files about the house collection delivery fund until 1910- old files about "miscellaneous"- old files about the publication of the church official gazette until 1920- old files about instruction of the teaching vicars until 1925- old collections on collection yields up to 1920- old files on church taxes up to 1905- old annual reports of the Superintendents up to 1932The files of the Konsistorium Köln, dissolved in 1825, were also handed over to the Staatsarchiv Düsseldorf in 1934 and survived the war. In today's Main State Archives, this collection with a total of 512 volumes (running time 1786-1838, predominantly 1815-1826) is assigned to Department 2 (Rheinisches Behördenarchiv). (4) A parallel transfer of 525 files of the period 1816-1827 took place to the State Archives Koblenz, where they formed the collection 551. Unfortunately it was completely burned during the air raids on Koblenz in 1944. The same fate suffered stock 443 (princely Wiedische government in Neuwied), in which some Konsistorialakte under the Nr. 143-161 were integrated. Only the finding aids of these two holdings are still available in the Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz. Further consistorial acts were assigned to the following holdings:Best. 309, 1 (French Consistorium General Mainz) No. 1-17Best. 381 (Landeskommission St. Wendel) No. 17-33Best. 382 (Government St. Wendel) No. 420-502Best. 387 (Landgräflich Hessische Regierung Homburg) No. 187-295The holdings 309, 1 and 387 are still in the LHA Koblenz, the remaining two are today on permanent loan in the Landesarchiv Saarbrücken.III) 1936-1937, after lengthy negotiations with the Staatsarchiv Koblenz, the consistorial files in the narrower sense that began in 1826ff. were returned to the Provinzialkirchenarchiv (Provincial Church Archive). It had been in Bonn since 1928, and since 1936 it had its own premises in Hofgarten 13. A 46-page compilation of these extensive holdings by Lic. Rodewald from 1938 is available. (5) These are predominantly the older files of the 19th century, but also, for example, the documents from the war period 1914-1918; in any case, these were files which were "only" of purely historical value and which were considered dispensable for the business.IV) On 14 November 1939, the Konsistorium issued a circular letter to the Superintendents on the possibility of handing over the examination papers of deceased priests to family members. The background was a request by the now Provincial Church archivist Lic. Rosenkranz, who thus sought to alleviate the acute lack of space in the Hofgarten. Initially, 31 pastors whose documents had already been selected by Rosenkranz are listed here. (6) The unsolicited examination papers were then to be destroyed in February 1940. The campaign was continued eight more times until February 1943, when it fell victim to the wartime restrictions on the Consistory's operations. (7) The only condition for the file request was the submission of 50 Pfennig return postage. A total of 908 pastors were listed. It is not possible to determine which documents were actually still requested back by the families and thus saved from later destruction.V) On 12.11.1943, the director of the Koblenz State Archives, Dr. Hirschfeld, in his capacity as air-raid commissary, called on the Konsistorium to outsource the files kept in Düsseldorf (8). This was rejected on the grounds that the (current) personnel files were already in an air-raid shelter recognised as bomb-proof; for the remaining files, structural security measures would now be taken immediately. These can be found documented in a cost estimate of 10.12.1943 by architect Otto Schönhagen, the head of the provincial church building authority: The registry office facing Freiligrathstraße is to be provided with protective walls for -some modest- 720 Reichsmark. It can be assumed that these conversions were carried out at the beginning of 1944. In any case, the files remaining at the Konsistorium itself came through the war without any noticeable losses.VI) On the other hand, the Hofgarten 13 building was completely destroyed during the air raid on Bonn on 18 October 1944. The fire had reached the cellar so quickly that both the older personnel files of the pastors and the Konsistorial inventory returned from Koblenz in 1937 were totally lost. In contrast to the old pertinence holdings, these holdings were not outsourced to the Provinzialkirchenarchiv and the Kirchenbücher. This is by far the greatest loss suffered by the original Consistorial tradition, especially in the 19th century. It is to be quantified on approx. 400-600 volumes of fact files (Generalia and Spezialia) as well as on an even higher number of personnel files. In this repertory, the burnt predecessor volumes are listed under the heading "Remarks"; the frequently occurring spring numbers in the holdings signatures indicate the complete loss of a file. For a very detailed reconstruction of the holdings destroyed in Bonn, which would be possible, the Rodewald List would have to be compared with the existing handwritten file directories. Fortunately, to a certain extent there exists a replacement tradition in the form of files of the Upper Presidium of the Rhine Province in the LHA Koblenz. (9) Important material that has not otherwise been handed down in Düsseldorf is also contained in the Rhine Province Department of the holdings 7 (Evangelical High Council of Churches) in EZA Berlin. (10)VI) On 24 February 1972, the Regional Church Office decided to hand over the long overdue files of the former Consistory to the Regional Church Archive. (11) Previously, despite their duration, some of which dates back to 1826, they were considered to be registry properties and were also administered by the registry. Since also in 1971 in connection with the move into the new office building of the LKA in the Hans-Böckler-Straße a general registration cut took place, the specialties of the church districts and the church communities were pulled out of the Konsistorialakten and summarized to separate stocks (31 church districts as well as 41 local records). Unfortunately, the separation was not complete, so that still considerable file parts remained in the Konsistorial inventory. In the present repertory, it is always noted if the following volumes are in stocks 31 or 41. Conversely, in the typewritten finding aids for these two holdings, it is noted which pre-volumes can be found in the Konsistorial files. note on useThe following file plan of the Konsistorialkanzlei dates from the 19th century and was updated into the 1940s. The term "n.a." (no files available) for individual subgroups can indicate complete loss due to the effects of war. As a rule, however, the relevant files have been removed as outlined above and added to newly created series of holdings. This also applies to all personnel files. The 90 business diaries preserved for the period 1928-1948 are added to the list of units of description listed here. There have been no archival indexing aids for the stock so far. A typewritten alphabetical index of the existing files, created in 1931 by the registry of the time, was available, though without any information on the running time. Two further large-volume handwritten file indexes were first written in one hand around 1850 and then updated over a period of almost 100 years. (12) Many of the files listed there have now been lost. Nevertheless, the two files still retain an important significance, since they indicate the file transfers and re-signings within the Konsistorial registry and the reconstruction of the lost holdings is at all only possible with them.The first partial file recording by auxiliary staff began around 1990. The undersigned has compared the contents of these photographs. It was not possible to completely standardize their extremely different distortion intensities. The present repertory is therefore not "of one mould". The index in this printed version covers only the names of places and persons as well as a few selected terms. A complete keyword search is possible via the database of the Archive of the EKiR. The files of the Konsistorium cover almost all facets of church life in the Rhine Province. The tradition for the time of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime up to 1945 is almost completely preserved. On the other hand, the files from the First World War are largely lost, not to mention the often only rudimentary tradition for the 19th century. With the previous scientific use one cannot avoid the impression that the latent mistrust of wide church circles in the Rhineland towards this authority has been reflected since its foundation up to the research. In addition, there may be an understandable aversion towards individual members of the Consistory who are burdened in the church struggle. It is to be hoped that a relaxed - of course never uncritical - way of dealing with this so expressive material will enrich our knowledge of the Protestant church history of the Rhineland.Düsseldorf, 31 October 2001(Dr. Stefan Flesch)1. Cf. the following Max Bär: Die Behördenverfassung der Rheinprovinz seit 1815 (Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde 35), Bonn 1919 (ND Meisenheim 1965), S. 153-164; Werner Heun: Art. Konsistorium, in: TRE Vol. XIX, S. 483-488; on the general embedding of church law and church politics see Die Geschichte der Evangelischen Kirche der Union, edited by J.F.Gerhard Goeters and Joachim Rogge, Leipzig 1992-1999, passim2. For this bear, a.a.O., p. 162: "The governments were left only with the supervision of the church books, the care for the establishment and maintenance of the church courts, the ordering and execution of the police regulations necessary for the maintenance of the external ecclesiastical order, the supervision of the administration of property and the appointment or confirmation of the secular church servants to be appointed for the ecclesiastical administration of property and the supervision of them and, together with the consistory, the alteration of existing and the introduction of new succession fees and the alteration of existing and the formation of new parish districts."3. today's address: Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 12. cf. History of the City of Koblenz vol. 2, Stuttgart 1993, p. 426f.4The holdings of the North Rhine-Westphalian State Archives. Brief overview, Düsseldorf 1994, p. 98. A 30-page compilation of the files submitted can be found in A II 1 a 9 Bd. I.5. B I a 29 Bd. IV6. Circular No. 11073 in B I a 29 Bd. IV, in alphabetical order: Heinrich Wilhelm Achelis; Hugo Achenbach ( 1908); Julius Achenbach ( 1893); August Bergfried ( 1922); Friedrich Wilhelm Rudolf Böhm ( 1867); Emil Döring ( 1925); Georg Doermer ( 1888); Heinrich Doermer ( 1839); August Ludwig Euler ( 1911); Karl Furck ( 1911); Gustav Adolf Haasen ( 1841); Julius Haastert; Philipp Jakob Heep ( 1899); Gustav Höfer; Paul Kind; Karl Margraf ( 1919); Daniel Gottlieb Müller ( 1892); Andreas Natrop ( 1923); Christian Friedrich Nelson ( 1891); August Penserot ( 1866); Reinhard Potz ( 1920); Eduard Schneegans (born 1810); Philipp Jakob Stierle ( 1887); Eduard Vieten ( 1869); Josef August Voigt ( 1869); Johann Gustav Volkmann ( 1842); Reinhard Vowinkel ( 1898); Friedrich Weinmann ( 1860); Friedrich Wenzel ( 1909); Gustav Wienands ( 1929)7th ibid.March 1940 (48 names), November 1940 (33 names), September 1941 (47 names), February 1942 (123 names), July 1942 (118 names), October 1942 (128 names), November 1942 (176 names), February 1943 (204 names)8. A II 1 a 9 Vol. I (current No. 28). Cf. Petra Weiß's contribution to the overall problem: Die Bergung von Kulturgütern auf der Festung Ehrenbreitstein, in: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte 26 (2000), pp. 421-4529. Cf. Inventory of the Upper Presidium of the Rhine Province, Part 1 (Publications of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Archives Administration, vol. 71), Koblenz 1996, pp. 42-45 and 396-40910. Christa Stache: Das Evangelische Zentralarchiv in Berlin und seine Bestände, Berlin 1992, pp. 61-64 as well as handwritten repertory especially of the department Rheinland (copy available in the AEKR Düsseldorf). The inventory comprises approx. 25 linear metres.11. LKA files 23-2-3 vol. 3 (resolution); cf. also the letter of Archivrat Schmidt of 9.9.1971 in 22-28 vol. 212. All mentioned finding aids are kept in the repertory collection of the Landeskirchlichen Archivs.
BestandsgeschichteThe 2668 indexing units recorded in this repertory form only a fragment of the original registry of the Consistory, albeit a very considerable one, as it was before the authority moved to Düsseldorf in 1934. With the help of the surviving handwritten and typewritten file indexes, the losses and relocations that occurred can be reconstructed exactly. The chronology spans more than forty years:I) As early as 1931, extensive file holdings were catalysed within the consistory. The basis for this decision, which was made due to an acute shortage of space in the Koblenz office building, was a list drawn up in 1929 by Consistorial Chief Inspector Mähler ('Sale of files for destruction'). Fascicle A II 1 a 9 (no. 28) provides summarised information on the file groups concerned:- Travel expenses (A II 1 b 2 and 5) until 1920- Office requirements (A II 1 b 3) until 1920- Forms (A II 2 31) until 1920- Publication of the official gazette (A II 2 35) until 1920- Accounting for the official gazette (A II 2 37) until 1915- Invoices incl. receipts for the church gazette (A II 1 b 2 and 5) until 1920- Invoices for the church gazette (A II 2 37) until 1915. Invoices incl. receipts for the church's ancillary funds until 1910- Collections until 1910- Collection receipts until 1920- Collections relating to applications for parish positions until 1925 Applications for parish positions up to 1925- Business diaries up to 1900- Budget files up to 1905- Property files up to 1905- Supplementary files up to 1905- Religious orders for clergy (B V a 14) up to 1910- Support for clergy and parish widows (B V b 29 u. 86) until 1910- Grants of leave for clergymen (B V b 64) until 1910- Contributions to the parish widows' and pension fund (B V b 89f.) until 1910- Pension fund accounts (B V b 93f.) until 1910- Remarks on pensions and widows' and orphans' allowances for clergymen (B V b 91 and 95) until 1910- Allowances from the subsidy fund (B V b 104) until 1910- Instructions on retirement allowances for clergymen (B V b 105) until 1910- Insurance contributions to the retirement allowance fund (B V b 106) until 1910- Employment of vicars from the vicariate fund (B VII b 19) until 1905- Teaching vicariate of the candidates (B VII b 17) until 1910- Cash matters of the vicariate fund (B VII b 20) until 1910II) In September 1934 - immediately before the move to Düsseldorf - the following files were destroyed for reasons of space according to a note by Mähler: - old diaries up to 1914- old budget files up to 1915- old files on pensions, widow's benefits etc. up to 1920- old files on support payments up to 1920 until 1920- old files on support for clergy and parish widows- old files on the awarding of commemorative marriage coins- old files on the house collection delivery fund until 1910- old files on 'Miscellaneous'- old files on the publication of the church gazette until 1920- old files on the assignment of teaching vicars up to 1925- old collections on collection proceeds up to 1920- old files on church taxes up to 1905- old annual reports of the superintendents up to 1932The files of the Cologne Consistory, which was dissolved in 1825, were also transferred to the Düsseldorf State Archives in 1934 and survived the war. In today's Main State Archives, this collection with a total of 512 volumes (duration 1786-1838, mainly 1815-1826) is assigned to Department 2 (Rheinisches Behördenarchiv). (4) A parallel transfer of 525 files from the period 1816-1827 was made to the Koblenz State Archives, where they formed fonds 551. Unfortunately, this was completely burnt during the air raids on Koblenz in 1944. The same fate befell fonds 443 (Fürstlich Wiedische Regierung in Neuwied), into which some consistorial files were integrated under nos. 143-161. Only the finding aids of these two fonds are still available in the Landeshauptarchiv Koblenz. Further consistorial files were assigned to the following fonds:Fonds 309, 1 (French General Consistory Mainz) No. 1-17Fonds 381 (St. Wendel State Commission) No. 17-33Fonds 382 (St. Wendel Government) No. 420-502Fonds 387 (Landgravial Hessian Government Homburg) No. 187-295The fonds 309, 1 and 387 are still in the LHA Koblenz, the other two are now on permanent loan to the Landesarchiv Saarbrücken.III) In 1936-1937, after lengthy negotiations with the Staatsarchiv Koblenz, the consistorial files in the narrower sense, which began in 1826ff. and had initially also been handed over, were returned to the Provinzialkirchenarchiv. The latter had been located in Bonn since 1928 and had had its own premises at Hofgarten 13 since 1936. There is a 46-page compilation of these extensive holdings by Lic. Rodewald from 1938. (5) These are predominantly the older files from the 19th century, but also, for example, the documents from the 1914-1918 war period; in any case, these were files that were still considered to be of purely historical value and were deemed to be dispensable for business operations.IV) On 14 November 1939, the consistory issued a circular to the superintendents about the possibility of handing over the examination papers of deceased pastors to family members. The background to this was a request from the now provincial church archivist Lic. Rosenkranz, who sought to alleviate the acute shortage of space in the Hofgarten. It initially lists 31 pastors whose documents had already been sought out by Rosenkranz. (6) The examination papers that had not been requested were then to be destroyed in February 1940. The action was continued eight more times until February 1943, when it fell victim to the war-related restrictions in the consistory's operations. (7) The only condition for requesting files was to send in 50 pfennigs return postage. A total of 908 pastors were listed. It is not possible to ascertain which documents were actually requested back by the families and thus saved from later destruction.V) On 12 November 1943, the Koblenz State Archive Director Dr Hirschfeld, in his capacity as air raid warden, asked the Consistory to remove the files stored in Düsseldorf (8). This was rejected on the grounds that the (current) personnel files were already located in an air-raid shelter recognised as bomb-proof; structural safety measures would now be carried out immediately for the remaining files. These are documented in a cost estimate from architect Otto Schönhagen, the head of the provincial church building office, dated 10 December 1943: The registry facing Freiligrathstraße is to be fitted with protective walls for a modest 720 Reichsmarks. It can be assumed that these alterations were realised at the beginning of 1944. In any case, the files remaining at the consistory itself survived the war without any recognisable losses.VI) On the other hand, the building at Hofgarten 13 was completely destroyed in the air raid on Bonn on 18 October 1944. The fire had reached the cellar so quickly that both the older personnel files of the pastors and the consistorial files brought back from Koblenz in 1937 were completely lost. In contrast to the old pertinent holdings of the provincial church archives and the church records, these holdings were not removed from storage. This is by far the greatest loss that the original consistorial records have suffered, especially in the 19th century. It can be quantified as around 400-600 volumes of subject files (generalia and specialia) and an even higher number of personal files. In this repertory, the previous volumes that were burnt are listed under the heading 'Remarks'; the frequently occurring skip numbers in the inventory signatures indicate the complete loss of a file. A detailed reconstruction of the holdings destroyed in Bonn - which is entirely possible - would require a comparison of Rodewald's list with the available handwritten indexes of files. Fortunately, to a certain extent there is a replacement in the form of the files of the Oberpräsidium der Rheinprovinz in the LHA Koblenz. (9) Important material that is otherwise not available in Düsseldorf is also contained in the Rhine Province section of fonds 7 (Evangelischer Oberkirchenrat) in the EZA Berlin. (10)VI) On 24 February 1972, the regional church office decided to transfer the files of the former consistory to the regional church archives, which was long overdue. (11) Until then, they had been regarded as registry property - despite the fact that some of them dated back to 1826 - and were also administered by the registry. As a general pruning of the registry also took place in 1971 in connection with the move to the new LKA office building in Hans-Böckler-Straße, the special files of the church districts and parishes were subsequently removed from the consistorial files and combined into separate holdings (31 church districts and 41 local files). Unfortunately, the separation was not complete, so that a considerable number of files still remained in the consistorial holdings. In this repertory it is always noted when the subsequent volumes are in fonds 31 or 41. Conversely, in the typewritten finding aids for these two fonds, it is noted which previous volumes can be found in the consistorial files.Usage informationThe following printed file plan of the Consistorial Chancellery dates back to the 19th century and was updated until the 1940s. The indication 'n.a.' (no files available) for individual subgroups may indicate complete loss due to the effects of war. As a rule, however, the files in question have been removed as outlined above and added to newly formed fonds. This also applies to all personnel files. In addition to the indexing units listed here, there are also the 90 surviving business diaries for the period 1928-1948, for which no archival cataloguing aids have existed to date. A typewritten alphabetical subject index of the existing files, compiled in 1931 by the registrar's office at the time, was available, albeit without any duration information. Two further large handwritten indexes of files were initially written in one hand around 1850 and then updated over a period of almost 100 years. (12) Many of the files listed there have since been lost. Nevertheless, the two indexes continue to be of great significance, as they indicate the file transfers and resignations within the consistorial registry and only with them is it possible to reconstruct the lost holdings. The undersigned has compared the contents of these records. It was not possible to completely standardise their extremely different levels of indexing intensity. The present repertory is therefore not 'from a single mould'. The index of this printed version only includes the names of places and persons as well as a few selected subject headings. A complete keyword search is possible via the database of the EKiR archive. the files of the consistory cover almost all facets of church life in the Rhine Province. The records for the period of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi regime up to 1945 are almost completely preserved. In contrast, the files from the First World War, for example, are largely lost, not to mention the often rudimentary records from the 19th century. From the scholarly use to date, one cannot help but get the impression that the latent mistrust of wide ecclesiastical circles in the Rhineland towards this authority has been reflected in research since its foundation. In addition, there may have been an understandable aversion towards individual consistory employees who were involved in the church struggle. In many recent works, at any rate, reference is still made to contemporary historical collections and quite relevant bequests without taking the original official records into consideration, and it is to be hoped that a relaxed - and of course never uncritical - approach to this highly informative material will enrich our knowledge of the Protestant church history of the Rhineland. Düsseldorf, 31 October 2001(Dr. Stefan Flesch)1 Cf. on the following Max Bär: Die Behördenverfassung der Rheinprovinz seit 1815 (Publikationen der Gesellschaft für Rheinische Geschichtskunde 35), Bonn 1919 (ND Meisenheim 1965), pp. 153-164; Werner Heun: Art. Konsistorium, in: TRE vol. XIX, pp. 483-488; on the general ecclesiastical law and ecclesiastical politics, see Die Geschichte der Evangelischen Kirche der Union, ed. by J.F.Gerhard Goeters and Joachim Rogge, Leipzig 1992-1999, passim2. On this Bär, op. cit. p. 162: 'The governments were left only with the supervision of the church registers, the care for the establishment and maintenance of the churchyards, the ordering and enforcement of the police regulations necessary for the maintenance of external church order, the supervision of the administration of assets and the appointment or confirmation of the secular church servants to be employed for the administration of church assets and the supervision of them and, together with the consistory, the modification of existing and introduction of new stolgebührentaxes and the modification of existing and formation of new parish districts. '3 Today's address: Konrad-Adenauer-Ufer 12 Cf. history of the city of Koblenz vol. 2, Stuttgart 1993, p. 426f.4 The holdings of the North Rhine-Westphalian Main State Archives. Brief overview, Düsseldorf 1994, p. 98. A 30-page compilation of the files handed over can be found in A II 1 a 9 vol. I.5. B I a 29 vol. IV6. Circular no. 11073 in B I a 29 vol. IV, in alphabetical order: Heinrich Wilhelm Achelis; Hugo Achenbach (+1908); Julius Achenbach (+1893); August Bergfried (+1922); Friedrich Wilhelm Rudolf Böhm (+1867); Emil Döring (+1925); Georg Doermer (+1888); Heinrich Doermer (+1839); August Ludwig Euler (+1911); Karl Furck (+1911); Gustav Adolf Haasen (+1841); Julius Haastert; Philipp Jakob Heep (+1899); Gustav Höfer; Paul Kind; Karl Margraf (+1919); Daniel Gottlieb Müller (+1892); Andreas Natrop (+1923); Christian Friedrich Nelson (+1891); August Penserot (+1866); Reinhard Potz (+1920); Eduard Schneegans (b. 1810); Philipp Jakob Stierle (+1887); Eduard Vieten (+1869); Josef August Voigt (+1869); Johann Gustav Volkmann (+1842); Reinhard Vowinkel (+1898); Friedrich Weinmann (+1860); Friedrich Wenzel (+1909); Gustav Wienands (+1929)7 Ibid. March 1940 (48 names), November 1940 (33 names), September 1941 (47 names), February 1942 (123 names), July 1942 (118 names), October 1942 (128 names), November 1942 (176 names), February 1943 (204 names)8 A II 1 a 9 vol. I (vol. no. 28). Cf. on the overall problem the article by Petra Weiß: Die Bergung von Kulturgütern auf der Festung Ehrenbreitstein, in: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte 26 (2000), pp. 421-4529. Cf. Inventar des Bestandes Oberpräsidium der Rheinprovinz, Teil 1 (Veröffentlichungen der Landesarchivverwaltung Rheinland-Pfalz Bd. 71), Koblenz 1996, pp. 42-45 and 396-40910. Christa Stache: Das Evangelische Zentralarchiv in Berlin und seine Bestände, Berlin 1992, pp. 61-64 as well as a handwritten repertory especially of the Rhineland department (copy available in the AEKR Düsseldorf). The fonds comprise approx. 25 linear metres.11 LKA-Sachakten 23-2-3 Bd. 3 (Beschluss); cf. also the letter from Archivrat Schmidt dated 9 September 1971 in 22-28 Bd. 212. All the finding aids mentioned are kept in the repertory collection of the Landeskirchliches Archiv.
Preliminary remark: The legation of Württemberg at the Baden court, which existed before 1806, was retained after Württemberg was elevated to a kingdom and was occupied until 1848 by an envoy residing in Karlsruhe. During the revolutionary period, Württemberg was represented only temporarily by an official observer in Karlsruhe, since the resumption of relations in 1851 by a chargé d'affaires, until after the establishment of the German Reich in 1871 the legation was lifted. It was rebuilt in 1893 mainly for reasons of courtly representation. Until its final abolition on April 1, 1933, the Württemberg envoy at the Bavarian court, who was also accredited in Darmstadt, was also an envoy in Karlsruhe with headquarters in Munich. The representatives of Württemberg were in Baden:Carl August Ludwig Graf von Taube, Chief Postal Director, Privy Legation Council, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Minister (appointed 1806)Heinrich Levin Graf von Wintzingerode, District Governor of Öhringen, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Minister (1807)von Wimpfen, Major General, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Minister (1811)von Harmensen, Privy Council, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Plenipotentiary Minister (1812)Peter Graf von Gallatin, Privy Legation Council, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary Minister (1812)Friedrich August Freiherr Gremp von Freudenstein, State Council, Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary Minister (1817)Graf von Mülinen, Privy Legation Council, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary Minister (1818)Graf von Bismarck, Lieutenant General, Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary (1820) August Freiherr von Wächter, Privy Legation Council, Chargé d'Affaires (1847)Freiherr von Thumb-Neuburg, Legation Council, Chamberlain, Carrier (1851)Oskar Freiherr von Soden, Legation Council, Chamberlain, Carrier (1866)von Baur-Breitenfeld, Legation Council, Chamberlain, Carrier (1868)Oskar Freiherr von Soden, Privy Council, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary Minister (1893)Karl Moser von Filseck, Privy Legation Council, Chamberlain, Extraordinary Minister and Plenipotentiary Minister (1906)Until 1871, the Minister represented Württemberg in all matters arising in relation to Baden, only for special reasons were negotiations in Karlsruhe not conducted by the Minister, but by special representatives. The volume of work was relatively high and varied in the initial period up to about 1820 - this becomes clear, for example, in the territorial negotiations at that time or in the large number of uses in private affairs - and then fell noticeably, so that envoys von Bismarck could be called upon several times for special missions to northern German courts. After 1850 the mutual consultations between the Württemberg and Baden governments on issues of major European and German policy as well as the internal problems of both countries intensified. In addition, the increased administrative intensity and urgent questions of economic legislation were now also reflected in the business volume of the legation. After the reestablishment in 1893, the envoy was given almost exclusively formal tasks and those of representation. As a rule, he spent a few days in Karlsruhe once or twice a year, usually on the occasion of the court ball or another court event. Negotiations between Württemberg and Baden authorities were usually conducted directly, no longer via the envoy, so that his correspondence - about 100 diary numbers per year - was largely limited to the transmission of congratulations, inquiries and official correspondence and occasional indirect reporting. With the end of the monarchy, these tasks were almost completely eliminated. However, the legation was formally retained and from 1926 on again entrusted with smaller commissions, such as reporting in Baden newspapers. The tradition is not homogeneous. In the first years individual case files predominate, from about 1815/1820 - as with other Württemberg legations - a purely formal classification principle, such as "concepts and reports" or "rescripts and notes" and correspondence files. Mainly new business areas were filed after 1850 by subject, such as "railway files". But it did not come to a continuous registry management, since the new fascicles were put on as required and, provided with a sequential Arabic number, were attached to the already existing files at the end. In this way, the registry consisted of 72 in 1848, 104 in 1866 and dates back to 1818. From 1893 - 1933 the entire written material was filed only according to the chronological order. The content of the written material is also very unequal. Some envoys took part of the processes, so their instruction, to their private files. A number of events only appear in the diary, as they were passed on in original form without additional documents being gathered in the legation. After 1893, for parallel enquiries to Bavaria, Baden and Hesse, often only one joint draft was produced and filed with the Bavarian registry. Some things seem to have been lost or destroyed, for example when the passport register only covers the period from 1811 to 1816. as far as can still be seen, the present collection was archived in four deliveries together with documents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other legations and was added to the collection of "Legation Files" (E 70 and E 73). The documents summarised in inventory E 70 Verzeichnis (Ablieferung) 32 covered the period up to 1817, those of inventory E 70 Verzeichnis 33a the period from 1818 - 1871 and arrived after 1872. The material grown up in Munich was delivered until the year 1910 around 1920, the rest was probably incorporated immediately after the abolition of the legation in 1933 and the stock E 73 Verzeichnis 61. The reorganization could orient itself only little at the given condition. The archival records that had grown up at the legation were separated from the rest of the association and the provenance holdings "Württembergische Gesandtschaft in Baden" were newly formed. The originally planned division into two main parts, "I. 1806 - 1871" and "II. 1893 - 1933", was cancelled when the finding aid book was drawn up and all title entries were subordinated to the classification scheme prescribed by the distortion of other legations. Among them are the reports to the King or the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the general, not thematically limited correspondences with him, among others the first main group. The other files were separated according to their different subjects without regard to the previous state of order, and each of them was re-compiled into the other main groups. The breakdown of these was based on the total business volume. It was not advisable to align the plans with those of other legations, such as Berlin or Munich, which had been preserved. Certain inequalities in the distortion have remained in so far as some subjects, such as "German Question" etc., have been left out, Despite their complexity, a further subdivision was not permitted, whereas on the other hand after 1893 only individual cases still occur or until 1850 almost all affairs of private persons were classified under "Uses", but afterwards also under the subject headings such as "Reporting", "Justice - Individual Cases" and others.In the present finding aid book the indication of the registry signatures, i.e. the tuft counting with Arabic numerals, was omitted for the documents up to 1871, since they could be determined only partly without difficulties and references to these numbers are found only imperfectly in the last diaries before 1871. The previously valid archive signatures E 70 Verzeichnis 32 Faszikel 1-9 and E 70 Verzeichnis 33a Faszikel 1-33 were, however, noted in the title entries. Various old tuft numbers had to be applied when a new tuft was composed entirely or partially of old tufts. For the files from 1893 - 1933 the indication of the old archive signature could be omitted, since with the previous purely chronological storage - apart from isolated fact file beginnings - the written material from 1893 - 1899 was united in E 73 directory 61 fascicles 18 d, from 1900 - 1905 in 18 e, from 1906 - 1913 in 18 b and from 1914 - 1933 in 18 c.As diverse as the content of the title recordings may be, there are clear limits to their scientific evaluation: the continuous reporting to the king up to 1847 forms a closed whole, the other correspondence only covers partial aspects. The same often applies to the fact files, especially if minutes, excerpts or replies to enquiries were forwarded in original form. Parallel transmission is therefore of greater importance. On the Württemberg side, the holdings of the superior Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Ministry are to be mentioned primarily in the Main State Archives, on the Baden side in the General State Archives Karlsruhe the departments 47 - 49 Haus- und Staatsarchiv - II. The inventory was recorded and arranged by the signatory 1974 - 1976 with the temporary cooperation of the aspiring inspectors Bader, Gutenkunst and Kramer and comprises 724 tufts in 6.1 m. Stuttgart 1976gez. G. CordesThe completion of the present finding aid book took place with the help of the data processing on the basis of the program package MIDOSA of the national archive administration Baden-Wuerttemberg in the time from May to August 1987. For the various technical assistance is to be thanked the national archive management. The title recordings present on index cards were entered without substantial changes over screen into the system. At the same time as the inclusion of the title, the index terms were recorded, with a view to a later general index, broken down into a geographical index, a person index and a subject index. The MIDETIT method separates the indices on the basis of corresponding control characters. A concordance was not created for the following reasons: The dissolution of the old serial files and the subsequent creation of material files resulted in the fact that the archives of a former bundle are today located at up to 121 different sites. This basically calls into question the practicability of a concordance that could only have been achieved with unjustifiable effort. The relations, reports and rescripts found in Büschel 34 during the indexing of the holdings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, E 36-38, Verz. 2, were subsequently added to the holdings, and the title entries were included in the present find book. These title entries with the respective serial number and the suffix a are included in the index.Stuttgart, December 1987Kurt Hochstuhl