7 Treffer anzeigen

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/...

Contains: Ratajski, Cyryl, Polish politician, 1925 Ratgeb, Swabian painter, 1940 Rath, Ernst vom, Counsellor, German diplomat, 1939 Rath, Klaus Wilhelm, Macht u. ökonomisches Gesetz (German writings on science), Frankfurt, Klostermann, 31 pp. L 50, 1933 Rath, Emmerich, won 1905 the first Berlin Army Baggage Marck, 1937 Raht, Hermann, Bergassessor, 1936 Rath, Dr.-Ing.e.h. Walther vom, deputy chairman of the supervisory board of IG-Farbenindustrie, 1940 Rathgen, Prof. Gründer and long-time director of the laboratory of the National Museums in Berlin, city councillor, 1942 Rathgen, Karl, director of the Seminar für Nationalökonomie u. Kolonialpolitik, 1921 Ratjen, Christioph, the S. Fischer publishing house was acquired by a limited partnership in which Peter Suhrkamp, Berlin, Philipp F., and Peter Suhrkamp, Berlin, were the deputy chairman of the supervisory board of IG-Farbenindustrie, 1940 Rathgen, Prof. Gründer and long-time director of the laboratory of the National Museums in Berlin, 1921 Ratjen, Christioph, the S. Fischer publishing house was acquired by a limited partnership. Reemtsma, Hamburg, Clemens ABS, Bonn, Chrioph Ratjen, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 1937 Rathke, Maximilian, deserved pioneer of the potash industry, General Director in Kassel, 1933 Ratzel, Friedrich, journalist and scholar, 1941 Ratzenhofer, Gustav, soldier and philosopher, 1942 Rau, Dr.h.c. Edmund, Württemberg civil servant, 1930 Rau, Hans, foreign correspondent, interpreter, foreign correspondent in the editorial office of the "Deutscher", 1934 Rau, Karl, Breslauer Musiker (plays 33 instruments), 1936 Rau, Walter, owner of Walter Rau Neutzer Ölwerke AG, owner Walter Rau Teutoburger Margarinewerke in Hilker, 1934 Rau, Karl Heinrich, Nestor Deutsche Nationalökonomie, 1942 Rauch, Prof.Dr. Ehrr.., Professor of Art History at the University of Giessen, 1937 Rauch, Christian Daniel Friedrich, German sculptor, 1927 Rauch, von, General der Kavallerie, 1935 Rauch, Dipl.-Ing. Hans, Oberstadtbaurat in Munich, 1923 Rauch, Karl, editor of the "Literarische Welt, Neue Folge 1933", 1933 Rauch, Caspar Walter, draughtsman, 1940 Rauchberg, Dr. Heinrich, sudetendt. Völkerrechtler, 1931 Raucheisen, Michael, artist (musician), pianist and professor, 1937 Rauecker, Prof.Dr. B., author: "Die neue deutsche Sozialpolitik erschienen: Academy of Science. Research and for the Care of the Germans", "Vom Wesen des Staates", 1935 Rault, Victor, President of the Saarland, 1929 Raumer, Dr. Hans von, German civil servant, Reich Minister, 1940 Raupenstrauch, Dr. Gustav Adolf, inventor of lysol, Siebenbürger Sachse, 1939 Rausch, Bernhard, head of Stahlhelm-Selbsthilfe, 1931 Rauscher, Arno, former mayor of Potsdam, 1934 Rauscher, E., Chief Engineer, "Die Umstellung von der Friedens- auf die Kriegsfertigung" (Writings on War Economic Research and Training), 1938 Rauscher, Ulrich, German envoy in Warsaw, 1930 Rauschning, Hermann, leading president of the Gdansk Senate, 1939 Rausenberger, Prof.Dr. Fritz, engineer, invention of the 42-centimeter mortar and the long-range gun with a range of up to 120 kilometers, 1938 Rautenkranz, Hermann von Pionier der deutschen Bundeswehr, 1938 Rausenberger, Hermann von Schaeffler, German pioneer of the war, 1938 Rausenberger, Prof.Dr. Fritz, engineer, invention of the 42-centimeter mortar and the long-range gun. Erdölindustrie, 1943 Rave, Paul Ortwin, Deputy Director of the Berlin National Gallery, 1944 Ravené, Louis, German. Industrialist, 1944 Rawengel, Anna therese, member of the municipal council, member of the Reichstag, supporter of the German nationalists, 1932 Rawitzki, Arthur, director of the WDB, 1932 Raymundus, Pater, o. Dat. Razus, Martin, deputy of the Slav national party, ev. priest and Slovak poet, 1937

Contains among other things: Reichskolonialamt: "The Colonial Germans from D e u t s c h - O s t a f r i k a in Belgian Captivity". Print, 1918 "Kriegs-Zeitschrift der Hamburg-Amerika-Linie Nr. 31". Pressure, 10.8.1918 American law against espionage and other political crimes. Print, 15.6.1917 British parliamentary printed matter concerning trade with the enemy, 16.4.1918 "Report of the chief machinist Lehmann about his experiences in Russian-Siberian and English war captivity", without date.

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

History of the Inventor: Established in June 1936 by Heinrich Himmler's decree as Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police; the Main Office was responsible for the administrative and protective police (including traffic and water police), the gendarmerie, the municipal and Feuerschutzpoli‧zei police, and the Technical Emergency Aid Long text: Overview of the internal official organization of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei The Law on the Reconstruction of the Reich of 30 June 1936 provides for a comprehensive overview of the internal administrative organization of the Main Office. Jan. 1934 (RGBl. I,75) the police sovereignty rights of the countries were transferred to the Reich. As a result, a police department (III) was established in the Reich Ministry of the Interior on May 1, 1934, which, after the merger of the Reich Ministry of the Interior with the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in November 1934, was united with the police department (II) of the latter. Organizationally, this development came to an end on 17 June 1936 with the appointment of Heinrich Himmler as "Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior" (RGBl. I,487). By decree of 26 June 1936 (MBliV, 946), the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police divided his authority into the main offices of Ordnungspolizei and Sicherheitspolizei and subordinated them to their own bosses. The head of the Ordnungspolizei was Kurt Daluege, the former head of the police department of the Reich and Prussian Ministry of the Interior, who became ministerial director and SS-Obergruppenführer (most recently general colonel of the police and SS-Oberstgruppenführer). On 31 August 1943 he was replaced by the General of Police and Waffen-SS Alfred Wünnenberg (m.d.F.b.) until the end of the war. The administrative police, the protective police (including traffic and water police), the gendarmerie, the municipal police, the fire police and the technical emergency aid belonged to the department of the order police. The Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei was divided into "offices", of which there were initially only two: the Office of Administration and Law (VuR) and the Command Office (Kdo). The Administration and Law Office was responsible for handling all administrative police, legal and economic tasks of the entire Ordnungspolizei. Until the end of 1938, it was divided into departments, then into official groups, groups, sub-groups and subject areas. In the course of the organisational changes in the main office of the Ordnungspolizei it was dissolved in September 1943 (see below) and was headed by Ministerialdirektor Bracht until 1943. The command office dealt with all management and other general service matters of the order police. It was initially divided into offices and, since the end of 1940, into groups of offices according to the military model, etc. such as the Office of Administration and Law. From September 1943 there were special inspections at the Command Office for the technical fields of work (communication and motor vehicle systems, weapons and equipment) as well as for veterinary, air-raid protection and fire-fighting matters. The heads of the office were Lieutenant General von Bomhard (until October 1942), Lieutenant General Winkelmann (until March 1944), Major General Diermann (until July 1944) and Major General Flade (until May 1945). These two core offices of the Ordnungspolizei main office were joined by two other offices in the course of 1941. By circular decree of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police of 14 January 1941, the Colonial Police Office was established in preparation for the colonial deployment of the Ordnungspolizei. However, it lost its importance with the deterioration of the military situation in 1943 and was dissolved in March 1943 by order of the Führer. On 9 May 1941, the Fire Brigades Office was formed as the fourth office and on 30 December 1941, the Technical Emergency Assistance Office was formed as the fifth office in the Ordnungs- Polizei main office. Fundamental changes in the organization of the Ordnungspolizei main office occurred after Himmler's appointment as Reich Interior Minister (August 1943). With effect from 15 September 1943, the offices of Administration and Law, Fire Brigades and Technical Emergency Aid were dissolved. The tasks of the Office of Administration and Law were mainly transferred to the two new bodies, the Economic Administration Office and the Legal Office. However, the legal office was dissolved at the beginning of December 1943. The majority of his areas of work came to the Office of Economic Administration. By the end of the war, this office had essentially taken over the tasks and position of the old administration and law office again. Its chief became the SS-Obergruppenführer and general of the Waffen-SS and police August Frank from the SS-Wirtschaftsverwaltungshauptamt. Most of the areas previously dealt with by the Fire Brigades and Technical Emergency Aid Offices fell to the Command Office, parts also to the newly formed "Reichsämter" Volunteer Fire Brigades and Technical Emergency Aid. The designation "Reichsamt" expressed the special character of these organizations as public corporations. As an office directly subordinated to the head of the Ordnungspolizei, the Sanitäts-Amt, which was detached from the Kommando-Amt (Amtsgruppe III) on 1 Oct. 1944, is to be mentioned. Relocation measures during the war (For this and the following section compare: Jürgen Huck; alternative places and file fate of the main office Ordnungspolizei in the 2nd World War in: Neufeldt, Huck, Tessin: Zur Geschichte der Ordnungspolizei 1936 - 1945; Koblenz 1957) Until 1942, most of the Ordnungspolizei main office was housed in the old office building of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in Berlin NW 7, Unter den Linden 72/74. In the course of the year 1942, the office administration and law was transferred to Berlin-Halensee, Kurfürstendamm 106/107. His successor, the Wirtschaftsverwaltungsamt, had to leave the building as a result of bombing and in February 1944 moved into an office building in Berlin-Lichterfelde, Unter den Eichen 126, together with the official groups I (Economy) and III (Accommodation) and the group "Personnel". The official group II (administration) sat in the barracks camp in Berlin-Zehlendorf, Potsdamer Chaussee, and the official group IV (supply and law) in the building Unter den Linden 72/74 until its dissolution in February 1944. At the end of March 1944, after parts of the group "Personal" and the official group II had already gone to Biesenthal, the entire economic administration office was transferred to the alternative camp "Heidenberg" near Biesenthal/Mark in the district of Oberbarnim. After the air raid of 23/24 November 1943 had severely damaged the building Unter den Linden 72/74, the Kommando Office was transferred to the barracks of the alternative camp "Paula" near Biesenthal in December 1943. Only the inspection L (Luftschutz) remained in the service building in Berlin, Schadowstraße 2, until April 20, 1945. The inspection Feuerschutzpolizei (in the Offiziersschule der Ordnungspolizei in Eberswalde), parts of the inspection Veterinärwesen (in Cottbus) and parts of the personnel groups (in the Offiziersschule der Ordnungspolizei in Berlin-Köpenick) were accommodated elsewhere. The group "War History" was transferred to the Waffenschule der Ordnungspolizei in Dresden-Hellerau in August 1943 and one year later to the castle of Prince Carl von Trauttmannsdorff in Bischofteinitz near Taus (Bohemia). On the other hand, the parts of the motor vehicle inspection initially transferred to Dresden were moved to Biesenthal in November 1944, so that this inspection was closed in the "Paula" camp until April 1945. In March 1945, the relocation to Potsdam-Babelsberg was ordered for the offices of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei in and around Berlin. As a result of the rushing war events, this and other projects (Suhl and Weimar) could not be carried out. At the end of March/beginning of April 1945 it was therefore decided to divide the main office of the Ordnungspolizei into a south and a north staff. The division of services between the two staffs is opaque. The mass, however, has been assigned to the south staff. In the 2nd half of April, the "Süd" task force moved to the officers' school of the Ordnungspolizei in Fürstenfeldbruck. A large part of his staff was dismissed here. On April 28, 1945, the miniaturized working staff drove to Eben/Achensee (Tyrol) and was captured by the Americans in mid-May 1945 in Rottach-Egern (Tegernsee). The "North" task force left Biesenthal on 18 April 1945, reached Flensburg via Lübeck at the beginning of May and was captured there by the English at the Harriesleefeld fire brigade school. Inventory description: Inventory history Reference: Koblenz Inventory Fate of the files of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei The mass of files of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei must be considered lost. The processes that led to this loss are still largely in the dark. We are relatively well informed about the fate of larger parts of the old registries of the Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, which mainly contained files of the former police departments of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and the Reich Ministry of the Interior as well as those of the Prussian State Police dissolved in 1935/36, and about the files of the group "War History". The old registries of the Chief of the Ordnungspolizei were located in the so-called "Archive of the Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei", which was renamed "Aktenverwaltung des Hauptamtes Ordnungspolizei" from October 1941 on the objection of the General Director of the State Archives. During the war, the holdings of this file administration can be found in the service buildings Unter den Linden, Kurfürstendamm and Breitestraße. From 1941 to 1944, about 8,500 volumes of files from the police department registries of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, taken over by the head of the Ordnungspolizei, were handed over to the Prussian Secret State Archives in Berlin-Dahlem. The Secret State Archives had for the most part outsourced these files to Central German mines. From there, together with the other outsourced holdings, they probably came to the Central State Archives II of the GDR in Merseburg. Files of unknown size of the police department of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, mainly through the Schutz- und Kriminalpolizei-, which had been taken over by the head of the Ordnungspolizei in 1936, arrived in 1941/42 from the Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei to the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam, where they were most probably destroyed by the air raid of 14./15. 4. 1945. The files of the Prussian State Police from 1933 to 1935, which were transferred to the Wehrmacht in 1935, appear to have been transferred to the Army Archives in Potsdam during the war. Here they were probably burned as a result of the air raid of April 1945. Far more incomplete than the old registries are our knowledge about the fate of the current registries at the Main Office Ordnungspolizei. At the end of the war the following registrations have to be proved: O - Adjutantur O - HB Head Office O - Jurist O - Kdo Adjutantur O - Kdo WF Weltanschauliche Führung O - Kdo Org/Ia Organisation, Einsatz, Führung O - Kdo I - Ib Nachschuf O - Kdo I Ausb Ausbildung O - Kdo I Sp. Sport O - Kdo I KrG War History O - Kdo II P O - Kdo II P Allg) Personal Data O - Kdo II P R 1) O - Kdo II P Disciplinary Matters 2) O - Kdo II P KrO War Orders and Decorations of Honor 3) O - Kdo In K Inspection Motor Vehicles 4) O - Kdo In N Inspection Communications 5) O - Kdo In WG Inspection Weapons and Appliances 6) O - Kdo In L inspection air raid protection 7) O - Kdo In F inspection fire police 8) O - Kdo In Vet inspection veterinary 9) O - W personal data 10) O - W verse supply 11) O - W I economy 12) O - W II administration and law 13) O - W III accommodation 14) O - medical 15) O - I. - S Inspector General of the Schutzpolizei O - I. - G Inspector General of the Gendarmerie and Schutzpolizei der Gemeinden 16) O - I. - Sch Inspector General of the Schools O - I. - FSchP Inspector General for Fire-fighting 17) (Fire Police and Fire Brigades) O - I. - FwSch Inspector General for Firefighting 18) extinguishing system (fire schools, factory fire brigades and fire show) 19) O - RTN Reichsamt Technische Nothilfe 20) O - RFw Reichsamt Freiwillige Feuerwehren 21) Secret registry Most of these 35 running registries seem to have been completely lost. Only the following incomplete news about their whereabouts have become known to the Federal Archives so far. A part of the personnel files of the command office (registries O-Kdo II P) seems to have been moved in 1943/44 in agreement with the Reichsamt Technische Nothilfe to the castle Eisenhardt in Belzig/Mark (TN school). His fate is unknown. Another part came in spring 1945 first to the police administration Gera, then to Weimar or Gschenda, Kr. Arnstadt, was temporarily brought back to Biesenthal and went in April 1945 with the south staff to Fürstenfeldbruck. Already in Biesenthal the mass of files about the law for civil servants burned, and further losses entered on the march from there to Fürstenfeldbruck by low-flying fire. In Fürstenfeldbruck and at the beginning of May 1945 in Eben, the mass of the files carried along by members of the South Staff was burned. The personnel files of the Economic Administration Office (registry O-W Pers.) were moved to Thuringian towns together with those of the Commando Office in the spring of 1945. They arrived via the police administration in Gera at the Linda police supply camp near Neustadt a. d. Orla - according to other news also to Gschwenda - and returned to Biesenthal for a short time when the Americans arrived, after considerable parts had been burned in Thuringia due to a misunderstood radio message. From there, they were taken to Fürstenfeldbruck by the hourly staff in April 1945, losing their lives in air raids. Here and in Eben, most of the files were destroyed at the end of April/beginning of May 1945. According to other sources, however, it was burned in Maurach/Achensee at the beginning of May 1945 according to further files. A special fate had the files of the group "War History" of the command office (registry O-Kdo I KrG). In the course of the war, a "special archive" had been created for the group through the release of material from the area of the Ordnungspolizei that was important for the history of the war. Among its best sands, the diaries of the SS Police Division established in 1939, the 35th SS (Police) Grenadier Division established in 1945, the SS Police Regiments, the Police Shooting Regiments, the police battalions and other police troop units, as well as a collection of the most important decrees of the Main Office of the Ordnungspolizei (Ordnungspolizei - Ordnungspolizei - Order Police Department) are to be emphasized. These valuable documents were completely destroyed at the end of April/beginning of May 1945 by members of the group "War History" in Bischofteinitz/Bohemia. It is still unclear to what extent the records of the chief of the Ordnungspolizei are kept today by GDR offices. It is only certain that the holdings "Reichsministerium des Innern" of the Central State Archives I in Potsdam under Dept. III contain 46 volumes about the police from the period 1934 to 1937 and personnel files from the main office of the Ordnungspolizei. The remains of the personnel group registries not destroyed in Fürstenfeldbruck and Eben, and apparently also parts of other registries of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei, were confiscated by the Americans. After the occupation of the Offiziersschule der Ordnungspolizei in Fürstenfeldbruck, the police inspected the files they had found, took them to a warehouse, transported them away in the autumn of 1945, leaving behind the person of no interest to them. The material remaining there from the personnel registry of the Economic Administration Office was transferred directly to the Federal Archives in November 1954 via the Bavarian Main State Archives, Dept. I, that of the Command Office in January 1955 and in July 1957 from the Bavarian Police School Fürstenfeldbruck. As early as December 1956, about 550 personnel notebooks of the Kommando-Amtes with the initial letters M - Z had arrived here, which, initially confiscated, had been handed over by the American military government to the Command of the Schutzpolizei in Wiesbaden in 1949 and there - with a stock of originally about 900 notebooks - had been reduced by the handing over of documents about reused police personnel to their office. The main mass of the removed files, however, was first transferred to the file depot of the U.S. Army (Departmental Records Branch) in Alexandria/Virginia and filmed within the Records Group 1010/EAP 170 - 175 (Microfilm Guide 39). The transfer from there to the Federal Archives took place in April 1962. Further file takeovers took place from documents that had initially been brought together in the Document Center in Berlin - first in 1957 personal files on gendarmerie officials via the Hessian Ministry of the Interior, then in 1962 on a larger scale and directly in connection with the so-called Schumacher Collection of documents from various organizational units and at about the same time Daluege's reconstructed files from biographical materials of the Adjutantur of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei. Other provenances that have been grouped according to biographical criteria can still be found in the Berlin Document Center. In the summer of 1957, the former chief of the command office, Lieutenant General of the Ordnungspolizei a. D. Adolf v. Bomhard, two volumes of files personally secured by him (R 19/282 and 283) and, in addition, the documents listed under C in the Annex. 1958 followed tax, salary and wage documents of former employees of the main witness office of the Ordnungspolizei of the Versorgungsanstalt des Bundes und der Länder in Karlsruhe. Finally, files of the Reich Office Voluntary Fire Brigades were handed over by the Oberfinanzdirektion Hamburg in 1957 and 1964. Archival evaluation and processing Reference: Koblenz stock In view of the insignificance or absence of other records handed down by the police and the need under pension law for proof of service time for members of the police force, a thorough cassation was dispensed with. On the other hand, in order to fill at least some of the gaps in the status quo, not only the official printed matter of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei was listed, but also important matters concerning the Ordnungspolizei from the holdings of the Federal Archives R 43 (Reich Chancellery), R 18 (Reich Ministry of the Interior), R 2 (Reich Ministry of Finance), R 22 (Reich Ministry of Justice), NS 19 (Personal Staff Reichsführer SS), NS 7 (SS and Police Jurisdiction) and R 36 (Deutscher Gemeindetag (German Community Day) were incorporated, without the aim of completeness. On the other hand, the stocks R 20 (chief of the gang combat units; schools of the order police) and R 70 (police services of integrated, affiliated and occupied areas of the 2nd world war), which must be consulted anyway with appropriate investigations, were completely omitted. When classifying the stock, it was not possible to structure the stock in accordance with the registry principle, given the incomplete nature of the preserved files, any more than it was possible to do a close analogy to the administrative structure of the main office. Therefore, an ideal structure of the competence area of the Main Office Ordnungspolizei was developed which was adapted to the importance of the subject areas actually handed down in the inventory. Dr. Neufeldt, Mr. Huck, Mr. Schatz, Dr. Boberach, Dr. Werner and Mr. Marschall were particularly involved in the chronological order in which the inventory was developed. Koblenz, October 1974 Content characterization: Adjutant of the Chief of Ordnungspolizei 1933-1945 (24), Dienststellenverwaltung 1933-1945 (50), Nachrichten- und Befehlsblätter, Erlasses, Besprechungungen 1933-1945 (41), Orga‧nisation and Zuständigkeit 1933-1945 (58), Haushalt 1933-1944 (9), General service law and police service law 1931-1945 (37), courses and schools 1930-1945 (89), assessment, promotion, secondment and transfer of members of the police 1931-1945 (38), remuneration and pensions 1933-1945 (19), Criminal and disciplinary matters 1937-1945 (8), uniforms and orders 1933-1945 (8), Comradeship Association of German Police Officers 1933-1945 (6), personnel statistics 1938-1945 (7), accommodation, equipment and armament 1933-1945 (8), Sanitäts- und Vete‧rinärwesen, Polizeisport 1933-1945 (12), Polizeiverwaltungs- und Vollzugsdienst 1935-1945 (93), Einsatz von Polizeiverbände und -einheiten 1933-1945 (108), Personalakte 1917-1945 (1.067), State Hospital of Police in Berlin. Medical records (ZX) of patients 1940-1945 (1946) (3,149), file of the State Hospital of Police in Berlin (n.a.) State of development: Findbuch (1974) Citation method: BArch, R 19/...

History of the Inventory Designer: 1. On the history of the Deutsche Reichspost Prehistory up to 1867 In Germany, a uniform postal system had not been able to develop due to the territorial fragmentation of the Reich. Still in the first half of the 19th century, 17 independent state postal regions existed alongside the "Reichs-Post" of the Princes of Thurn and Taxis, which had already been commissioned by the Emperor in the 16th century to carry out the postal shelf and which had since then operated primarily in the smaller and smallest German territories. The conclusion of agreements between individual Länder of the German Confederation, including the establishment of the German-Austrian Postal Association in 1850, did indeed lead to unity in postal traffic; however, in 1866 there were still 9 postal regions in Germany. The post office in the Kingdom of Prussia had developed into the most important national post office at the national level. From the North German Confederation to the Foundation of the Reich (1867-1871) The constitution of the North German Confederation of 24 June 1867 declared the postal and telegraph system to be a federal matter. In the structure of the North German postal administration, the upper postal directorates existing in Prussia since 1849 were taken over as central authorities. The Prussian postal system was thus transferred to the Federation and the North German postal administrations were merged into it, so that the Norddeutsche Bundespost (1868-1871) under the leadership of Prussia was the first unified state postal service on German soil. The Federal Chancellery was in charge of its upper management, and the former Prussian General Post Office was integrated into it as Department I. In addition, the Directorate-General for Telegraphs was renamed Division II. The Post Office in the German Reich from 1871 to 1919 The foundation stone of the Deutsche Reichspost is the Reich Constitution of 16 April 1871. The only area of transport in which the Reich was able to directly promote its state and transport policy purposes was the postal and telegraph system. The Reichspost, which was set up as a direct Reich administration, extended its effectiveness to the entire territory of the Reich with the exception of the states of Bavaria and Württemberg, which had the so-called Postreservat granted to them for their internal postal relations. The postal service and the telegraph system, which were still independent at that time, were therefore a matter for the Reich. On 1 January 1876, both administrations merged organizationally with the creation of the "Reichspost- und Telegraphenverwaltung" (Reich Post and Telegraph Administration) as the highest authority, which consisted of the General Post Office and the General Directorate of Telegraphs. Both were subject to the postmaster general and formed first the I. and II. Department of the Reich Chancellery. The connection between post and telegraph created in this way was no longer solved afterwards. In addition, the postmaster general was removed from the Reich Chancellery and made independent. The Imperial Decree of 23 February 1880 also consolidated the General Post Office and the General Telegraph Office organisationally. The now established Reichspostamt was thus on an equal footing with the other supreme Reich authorities. He was directed by the Prussian Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan (1831-1897), who had already become the head of the General Post Office in 1870. The new design of the imperial postal system undoubtedly meant progress for traffic development. Economic advancement, the increasing importance of German foreign trade, the acquisition of colonies and the opening up of the oceans, and thus the global political and economic importance of Germany, posed special challenges for the postal service and telegraphy. Under Heinrich von Stephan's leadership, the Universal Postal Union was created in 1874. Foreign and colonial post offices took up their work. During the 1st World War the field post, which had existed in Prussia since the 18th century during the war, was reactivated. It was subordinate to the Field Chief Postmaster in the Great Headquarters and was subdivided into Army Post Offices, Field Post Inspections, Offices and Stations. In the occupied territories, the Deutsche Reichspost eliminated the state postal administrations there and created its own postal facilities in Belgium, Poland and Romania. The German Post and Telegraph Administration operating in the Baltic States in the postal area of the Commander-in-Chief East (November 1915 to December 1918; since August 1918: Military Post Office of the Commander-in-Chief East) was a military office and attached to the Oberost staff. Weimar Republic (1919-1933) The Reich Constitution of 1919 brought significant progress by unifying the postal and telecommunications systems in the hands of the Reich. In connection with the creation of Reich Ministers with parliamentary responsibility by the Law on the Provisional Imperial Authority of 10 February 1919, the decree of the Reich President of 21 March 1919 laid down the new names of the supreme Reich authorities. The Reichspostamt was also renamed the Reichspostministerium. A further consequence of the state revolution of 1918/19 were the state treaties of 29 and 31 March 1920, which also transferred the postal administrations of Württemberg and Bavaria to the Reich. However, they still retained a certain special position. The Oberpostdirektion Stuttgart was responsible for all internal affairs of the traffic area assigned to it, the Land of Württemberg, insofar as they were not generally reserved for the Reich Ministry of Posts, and for Bavaria even a separate Department VII (since 1924 Department VI) was created with its seat in Munich, a State Secretary at the head and the same extensive competence as in the Oberpostdirektion in Stuttgart. The character of the Reichspost was decisively influenced by the Reichspostfinanzgesetz, which came into force on 1 April 1924. The most important point was the separation of the post office from the rest of the Reich's budget. This made the Deutsche Reichspost economically independent as a special fund of the Reich. The Reichspostfinanzgesetz created the administrative board of the Deutsche Reichspost under the chairmanship of the Reichspost Minister. The Board of Directors had to decide on all significant business, financial and personnel matters. The implementation of the decisions of the Board of Administration was the responsibility of the Minister or the responsible structural parts of the Reich Ministry of Posts. National Socialism (1933-1945) From the outset, the authority left no doubt as to its attitude to National Socialism: "For the Deutsche Reichspost it was a matter of course to put National Socialist ideas into practice with all its might wherever it was possible, and to serve the Führer with all its being and doing". The formal repeal of the Reichspostfinanzgesetz by the Gesetz zur Vereinfachung und Verbilligung der Verwaltung of 27 February 1934 did not change anything about the special asset status of the Deutsche Reichspost, but it brought some fundamental changes. For example, the Administrative Board was dissolved and replaced by an Advisory Board, which had no decisive powers but only an advisory function. The law eliminated both Division VI in Munich and the special position of the Oberpostdirektion Stuttgart, after Hitler had rejected as premature an attempt by the Reichspost and Reich Traffic Minister, Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach, to repeal it, which he had already made in May 1933. From 1 April 1934, the last special agreements of the Reichspost with the states of Bavaria and Württemberg expired, so that it was only from this point on that the "complete uniformity of the postal and telecommunications system in law and administration for the entire territory of the Reich" was established. On 1 October 1934, the Oberpostdirektionen received the designation "Reichspostdirektionen". The offices and offices were subordinated to them. By "Führererlass" of 2 February 1937, the personal union between the Reich Transport Minister and the Reich Post Minister, which had existed since 1932, was abolished and Wilhelm Ohnesorge (1872 to 1962) was again appointed Reich Post Minister. The occasion was the subordination of the Reichsbahn to Reich sovereignty. The unconditional capitulation of Germany at the end of the Second World War also meant the end of the German Reichspost. His written fixation of this fact was found in Articles 5 and 9 of a declaration of the Allied Control Council of June 5, 1945, according to which "all facilities and objects of the ... intelligence ... to hold at the disposal of the Allies' representatives" and "until the establishment of supervision over all means of communication" any broadcasting operation was prohibited. The postal and telecommunications services and the operation of their facilities were finally restarted at different times and separately by the respective Commanders-in-Chief according to the four occupation zones of Germany. 2 The tasks of the Deutsche Reichspost (German Imperial Postal Service) in the fields of social and technical progress as well as the effects of important inventions inevitably necessitated both the quantitative expansion of communication relations and their continuous improvement up to the introduction and application of new services in the postal and telegraph sectors. One of the main tasks of the Deutsche Reichspost, the carriage of news items, did not initially extend to all postal items. In the beginning, only closed letters and political newspapers that did not remain in the sender's town were affected by the so-called post compulsion. All open items (especially postcards and printed matter) for a place other than the place of dispatch and letters, parcels etc. for recipients in the place of dispatch could also be collected, transported and distributed by so-called private transport companies. Such "private posts" settled above all in large cities and increasingly opposed the German Reichspost as fierce competitors, for example through lower fee rates. The Reichspost had to get rid of this competition, especially since it was obliged to maintain expensive and sometimes even unprofitable delivery facilities even in the remotest areas of the Reich. The Postal Act Amendment of 20 Dec. 1899 therefore prohibited all commercially operated private post offices in the German Reich from 1 April 1900 and extended the postal obligation to sealed letters within the place of dispatch. The carriage of passengers From time immemorial, Swiss Post also dealt with the carriage of passengers. Before the advent of the railways, passenger transport by stagecoach was the most important means of public transport and, as such, was also part of the postal monopoly in many countries. The expansion of the railway network initially limited this traffic activity of the post office, but after the invention and further perfection of the automobile it gained importance again. Thus, since 1906/07, bus routes have been established ("Postkraftwagen-Überlandverkehr", often also called "Kraftposten" for short). They were expanded mainly in the years 1924 to 1929, so that on 1 April 1929 the Deutsche Reichspost operated almost 2000 Kraftpost lines with an operating length of more than 37,000 km and by that time had already carried 68 million passengers. The enormous economic and technical upswing in Germany after the foundation of the German Empire also meant that the Imperial Post and Telegraph Administration had to make use of its cash register facilities for the ever more flowing payment transactions. In addition to the banks, Swiss Post took over the regulation of cashless payment transactions: on 1 January 1909, the postal transfer and postal cheque service was opened in Germany (13 Postscheckkämter). Both the number of accounts and the amount of assets increased steadily in the following decades, with the exception of the two world wars. The banking activities of the Deutsche Reichspost, 'which serve to fulfil state activities and not to compete with the private sector', were divided into five main branches: postal order service, cash on delivery service, postal order service, postal transfer service, cheque service and postal savings bank service. The latter was introduced only after the annexation of Austria (a post office savings bank had existed here since 1883) on 1 January 1939. Telegraphs and radio telegraphy Although telegraphs were administered by an independent authority equivalent to the general post office before the Reichspost was founded, they had been closely related to the post office since 1854. In that year, the telegraph service in small communities in Prussia was transferred to the respective post office. Own telegraph stations usually existed only in cities and larger municipalities, where the operation was profitable. In 1871 there were a total of 3,535 telegraph stations in the German Reich (including Bavaria and Württemberg) with 107,485 km of telegraph lines and an annual output of over 10 million telegrams. By the beginning of the First World War, this figure had been six times higher. In contrast to the USA, where the population quickly made use of telephone traffic, the German public apparently did not initially want to make friends with the new telephone system. As early as 1877, General Postmaster Stephan had the first telephone line set up between the General Post Office in Leipzig and the General Telegraph Office in Französische Straße, and soon thereafter arranged for attempts to be made at longer distances. As late as 1880, however, Stephans' call for participation in a city telephone system in Berlin met with little approval, so that the first local traffic exchange began operations here in January 1881 with only 8 subscribers. However, the advantages of telephone traffic were soon recognised and the spread of the telephone increased rapidly. The 24-hour telephone service was first introduced in Munich in 1884, and Berlin opened its 10,000th telephone station in May 1889. As early as 1896 there were 130,000 "telephone stations" in Germany; in 1920 there were about 1.8 million, in 1930 over 3 million and in 1940 almost 5 million connections. Since the practical testing of Hertzian electromagnetic waves, i.e. since 1895, Swiss Post has paid great attention to the development and expansion of wireless telegraphy. From the very beginning, there was no doubt that the Reichspost was responsible for radio communications (as a type of communication). After the first radio telegraphy devices had been produced in Germany by Siemens and AEG and the first public radio stations had been put into operation in 1890, a regulated radio service began in the German Reich. In the following decades, the Reichspost retained the exclusive right to install and operate radio equipment. However, it was not in a position to carry out all the associated services itself and therefore delegated some of this right to other companies. Thus there were finally 3 groups of radio services: - the radio service operated by the Reichspost with its own radio stations (maritime radio, aeronautical radio), - the radio service operated by companies. The "Transradio AG für drahtlose Überseeverkehr" carried out the entire overseas radio traffic in the years 1921-1932 on behalf of the Deutsche Reichspost. Deep sea radio, train radio and police radio have been granted rights in their fields in a similar manner, - the radio services of public transport carriers such as Reichsbahn, Reichsautobahnen and waterways. Radio and television The exclusive competence for radio broadcasting also extended to radio broadcasting, which was established after the First World War. Legal and organisational issues had to be resolved for this new area of activity of Swiss Post more than for other areas. There are two phases to the relationship between the postal service and broadcasting: a) From 1923 to 1933, the Deutsche Reichspost was responsible for all legislative matters, the issuing of user regulations, the granting of licenses, the fixing and collection of fees, the setting up of transmitters, the technical operation and monitoring of economic management. The Reich Ministry of the Interior, together with the Länder governments, was responsible for the fundamental regulation of the political and cultural issues arising in the course of programme planning. The Reichspost left the broadcasting operations themselves to companies to which it granted a licence. The Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft, founded in 1923, acted as the umbrella organization, in which the Deutsche Reichspost held a major share through a majority of capital and votes and was headed by the Broadcasting Commissioner of the Deutsche Reichspost. b) In 1933, the newly created Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda assumed responsibility for all organizational and managerial issues relating to broadcasting; the Deutsche Reichspost remained only responsible for the cable network and transmitters, for licenses, fee collection and accounting. As a result of the Reichskulturkammergesetz of 22 September 1933, the Reichsrundfunkkammer was at the forefront of broadcasting, in which the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft and several other associations were represented. This marked the beginning of the absolute subordination of broadcasting to the National Socialist dictatorship. The first attempts at television were made in the 1920s, also under the direction of the Deutsche Reichspost. Swiss Post continued to play a major role in the scientific and technical development of television in the following years. After an improved Braun tube had been shown at the Funkausstellung Berlin in 1932, the 1933 annual report of the Deutsche Reichspost described trial television broadcasts in a large urban area as practically feasible. In March 1935, the Deutsche Reichspost set up the world's first public television station at the Reichspostmuseum in Berlin, where the public could follow the reception of the programmes free of charge. The Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda and the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft (RRG) shared the programming. The Reichspost Ministry subsidiary "Reichspost-Fernseh-GmbH" (since 1939) and the Reichsministerium für Luftfahrt (Reich Ministry of Aviation) were responsible for the transmitters "in view of their special significance for air traffic control and national air protection". 3. the organization and structure of the Deutsche Reichspost Of all the branches of the Reich administration, Die Post possessed the most extensive and clearly structured official substructure. It was taken over by the Prussian postal service in 1871 and was divided into the following 3 stages until the destruction of the German Reich in 1945: Since 1880, the new supreme Reich authority had been divided into three departments: Post (I), Telegraph (and soon Telephone) (II) and Personnel, Budget, Accounting and Construction (III). A short time later Stephan was appointed Secretary of State and was thus placed on an equal footing with the heads of the other Imperial Offices established in the meantime. Division III was divided in 1896. General administrative matters were assigned to the new Division III, while Division IV was now responsible for personnel, cash management and accounting. Later, cash and accounting were transferred back to Division III and Division IV retained only personnel matters. From 1919, now as the Reich Post Ministry, a fifth department for radio communications and a sixth for social affairs expanded the organizational structure. Section VI, however, fell away again after inflation in 1924, and at the same time sections III and V exchanged their designations, so that in this section the household, cash register and building trade, in that the telegraph and radio trade were dealt with, while section II was responsible for the telephone trade, initially still united with the telegraph building trade. On 1 June 1926 another department for economic and organisational questions was added, which was formed from the previous economic department. Since 1926 there have been eight departments: Abt. I Postwesen Abt. II Telegraphen- und Fernsprechtechnik und Fernsprachbetrieb Abt. III Telegraphenbetrieb und Funkwesen Abt. IV Personalwesen Abt. V Haushalts-, Kassen, Postscheck- und Bauwesen Abt. VI in Munich, for Bavaria, dissolved in 1934 Abt. VII for Württemberg, dissolved in 1934 Abt. VIII Wirtschaftsabteilung. From 1934 Abt. VI, later referred to as Abt. für Kraftfahrwesen, Maschinentechnik und Beschaffungswesen. From 30.11. 1942 Abt. VII: Independence of all radio and television affairs from Abt. III (since 1940 already under the direct control of State Secretary Flanze [at the same time President of the Reichspostzentralamt] as the "Special Department Fl") Under National Socialist rule in 1938, the Ministry was expanded by a Central Department (Min-Z) for political tasks and questions of personnel management. During the war, a foreign policy department, a colonial department and an eastern department were added. A special division F 1 for broadcasting affairs was also set up temporarily. During the Second World War, the organization of the postal system in the annexed and occupied territories was determined by the nature and intensity of its integration into the National Socialist sphere of power. In the annexed areas, the postal administration was completely taken over by the Deutsche Reichspost. In most occupied territories, on the other hand, the postal services of the respective countries remained unchanged. Next to them, the field post continued to work. A German service post was created in various administrative areas to supply the German occupation authorities, such as the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" (1939-1945), the Netherlands (1940-1945), Norway (1942-1945), the Adriatic and Alpine regions (both 1943-1945), the East and the Ukraine (both 1941-1944). The German service posts "Ostland" and "Ukraine", each under a general postal commissioner, simultaneously provided the business of the "Deutsche Post Ostland" and "Deutsche Post Ukraine", which were fictitious as Landespost. The attempts made by the Reich Ministry of Posts to establish a central management of the intelligence system of all annexed and invaded territories failed because of the principle of the unity of the administration in the respective territory. The Reich Ministry of Posts had a number of specialist offices for the handling of special subjects, such as the field post office, the motor vehicle office, the building administration office and the cheque office. The following departments were directly affiliated or subordinated to the Reich Ministry of Posts: - the General Post Office as the body responsible for the entire administration of the post office and telegraph system - the Postal Money Order Office. From 1 April 1912 it was placed under the control of the Postal Newspaper Office, from 1 January 1918 also under the control of the Berlin Postal Directorate; - the Postal Insurance Commission for Accident and Other Matters, which was transferred to the newly founded Versorgungsanstalt der Deutschen Reichspost on 1 August 1926. With this public corporation, the previously differently regulated supplementary provision for postal staff was standardised: two thirds of the contributions were paid by the Deutsche Reichspost and one third by the insured themselves. - the Reichsamt Telegraph Technical Office, founded in 1920. In 1928, it took over other tasks from the Reich Post Ministry area, such as railway postal issues, postal statistics, training and educational matters, cash and accounting and procurement, and was renamed the Reich Post Central Office - the Reich Post Museum, created in 1872; - the Reich Post Building Inspectorate, formed in 1937 to realize the postal service needs in the structural redesign of Berlin. - the Postal Savings Bank Office in Vienna, which was taken over after the annexation of Austria in March 1938. In direct subordination to the Reich Ministry of Posts, it was responsible for the central account management of the Postal Savings Bank Service after it had been extended to the Old Empire. The "Postschutz", a paramilitary association under the umbrella of the Postal Ministry, had a special position. In June 1935, the Reich leadership of the SS and the Supreme SA leadership agreed on binding regulations regarding the affiliation of postal workers to the SA or SS. The postal service and thus also the postal security service were given priority over 'any use by the SA and SS. The claim for purposes of the SA and SS outside the postal service must not be to the detriment of the proper operation of the postal service', it said. Postal security was uniformed and uniformly armed. The research institute of the Deutsche Reichspost, founded on 1 January 1937, investigated special problems in television technology. The Reichspostforschungsanstalt was responsible for the coordination of all television armaments projects and orders to industry. It dealt with the further development of the research areas for military purposes. The scope of tasks is outlined in a document signed by Ohnesorge: "1. television; 2. general physics, in particular atomic physics, optics, acoustics, electronics; 3. chemistry; 4. special tasks for the four-year plan". The Reichsdruckerei was not integrated into the structure of the Reichspost, but was associated with its top management in personal union. On 1 Apr. 1879 it was placed under the control of the Reichspost- und Telegraphenverwaltung as an independent imperial enterprise. Through its products it maintained very close relations with the Reichspost, since, for example, postage stamps, postal cheques, the Reichskursbuch, etc. were produced for the account of the post office cashier. The Oberpostdirektionen/Reichspostdirektionen The Oberpostdirektionen (OPD) as intermediate authorities between the Berlin headquarters and the post offices were established as early as 1850 in Prussia. After their transfer to the Reichspost, they were among the higher Reich authorities. The Ministry of Postal Affairs has delegated more and more responsibilities to the OPDen, so that their freedom of action grew steadily and they gradually became the focus of the postal administration. 1928 saw the establishment of Managing Directorates of Higher Postal Services, which together assumed responsibility for certain tasks for a district group (= several OPD districts) (e.g. training and education, procurement and utilities). 1934-1945 as Reichspostdirektionen (RPD), they were subject to many changes in their area and in their number. In 1943 there were 51 RPD. The post office cheque offices (established in 1909), the telegraph building offices and the telegraph tool offices (established in 1920) were responsible for several OPD/RPDs and thus also to be regarded as intermediate authorities. The Post Offices The Post Offices, referred to in the area of the Deutsche Reichspost as Verkehrsämter and Amtsstellen, formed the local offices of the lowest level; they were subordinate to the OPD/RPD closest to each other. The local offices included not only the post offices, which were divided into three classes until 1924 (only since 1924 did they have a uniform designation as post offices), but also the post agencies, postal assistance offices, railway post offices, telegraph and telephone offices as well as public pay telephones in the municipalities which were subordinate to them. In 1942 there were about 70,000 such offices and offices in the German Reich. Inventory description: Introduction The history of the Deutsche Reichspost Prehistory up to 1867 Due to the territorial fragmentation of the Reich, a uniform postal system had not been able to develop in Germany. Still in the first half of the 19th century, 17 independent state postal regions existed alongside the "Reichs-Post" of the Princes of Thurn and Taxis, which had already been commissioned by the Emperor in the 16th century to carry out the postal shelf and which had since then operated primarily in the smaller and smallest German territories. The conclusion of treaties between individual Länder of the German Confederation, including the establishment of the German-Austrian Postal Association in 1850, did indeed lead to the unification of postal traffic; however, in 1866 there were still 9 land despatch areas in Germany. The post office in the Kingdom of Prussia had developed into the most important national post office at the national level. The Prussian postal area included the duchy of Anhalt, the principalities of Waldeck-Pyrmont and Oldenburg-Birkenfeld, parts of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Sondershausen, parts of Saxony-Weimar, as well as post offices in Hamburg and Bremen. From 1866 the Duchy of Lauenburg and the Province of Hanover, from 1867 Schleswig-Holstein and the Oldenburg Principality of Lübeck as well as former Bavarian areas in the Rhön, Spessart, the exclave Caulsdorf and from 1 July 1867 the states in Thuringia and Southern Germany which had previously been united in the Thurn und Taxischer Postverein were added. From the North German Confederation to the Foundation of the Reich (1867-1871) The constitution of the North German Confederation of 24 June 1867 declared the postal and telegraph system to be a federal matter. In the structure of the North German postal administration, the upper postal directorates existing in Prussia since 1849 were taken over as central authorities. The Prussian postal system was thus transferred to the Federation and the North German postal administrations were merged into it, so that the Norddeutsche Bundespost (1868-1871) under the leadership of Prussia was the first unified state postal service on German soil. The Federal Chancellery was in charge of its upper management, and the former Prussian General Post Office was integrated into it as Department I. In addition, the Directorate-General for Telegraphs was renamed Division II. The Post Office in the German Reich from 1871 to 1919 The cornerstone of the Deutsche Reichspost was the Reich Constitution of 16 April 1871. The only area of transport in which the Reich was able to directly promote its state and transport policy purposes was the postal and telegraph system. The Reichspost, which was set up as a direct Reich administration, extended its effectiveness to the entire territory of the Reich with the exception of the states of Bavaria and Württemberg, which had the so-called Postreservat granted to them for their internal postal relations. The postal system and the telegraph system, which were still independent at that time, were therefore a matter for the Reich. On 1 January 1876, both administrations merged organizationally with the creation of the "Reichspost- und Telegrafenverwaltung" as the highest authority, consisting of the Generalpostamt and the Generaldirektion der Telegrafen. Both were subject to the postmaster general and formed first the I. and II. Department of the Reich Chancellery. The connection between the postal and telegraph systems created in this way was no longer resolved afterwards. In addition, the postmaster general was removed from the Reich Chancellery and made independent. The Imperial Decree of 23 February 1880 also combined the General Post Office and the General Telegraph Office organisationally. The now established Reichspostamt was thus on an equal footing with the other supreme Reich authorities. He was directed by the Prussian Postmaster General Heinrich von Stephan (1831-1897), who had already become the head of the General Post Office in 1870. The new design of the imperial postal system undoubtedly meant progress for traffic development. Economic advancement, the increasing importance of German foreign trade, the acquisition of colonies and the opening up of the oceans, and thus the global political and economic importance of Germany, posed special challenges for the postal service and telegraphy. Under Heinrich von Stephan's leadership, the Universal Postal Union was created in 1874; foreign and colonial post offices began their work. During the 1st World War the field post, which had existed in Prussia since the 18th century during the war, was reactivated. It was subordinate to the Field Chief Postmaster in the Great Headquarters and was subdivided into Army Post Offices, Field Post Inspections, Offices and Stations. In the occupied territories, the Deutsche Reichspost eliminated the state postal administrations there and created its own postal facilities in Belgium, Poland and Romania. The German Post and Telegraph Administration operating in the Baltic States in the postal area of the Supreme Commander East (November 1915 to December 1918; since August 1918: Military Post Office of the Supreme Commander East) was a military office and attached to the Oberost Staff. Weimar Republic (1919-1933) The Reich Constitution of 1919 brought significant progress by unifying the postal and telecommunications systems in the hands of the Reich. In connection with the creation of Reich Ministers with parliamentary responsibility by the law on the provisional power of the Reich of 10 February 1919, the decree of the Reich President of 21 March 1919 laid down the new names of the supreme Reich authorities. The Reichspostamt was also renamed the Reichspostministerium. A further consequence of the state revolution of 1918/19 were the state treaties of 29 and 31 March 1920, which also transferred the postal administrations of Württemberg and Bavaria to the Reich. However, they still retained a certain special position. The Oberpostdirektion Stuttgart was responsible for all internal affairs of the traffic area assigned to it, the State of Württemberg, insofar as they were not generally reserved for the Reich Ministry of Posts, and for Bavaria even a separate Department VII (since 1924 Department VI) was created with its seat in Munich, a State Secretary at the head and the same extensive competence as in the Oberpostdirektion in Stuttgart. The character of the Reichspost was decisively influenced by the Reichs-postfinanzgesetz, which came into force on 1 April 1924. The most important point was the separation of the post office from the rest of the Reich's budget. This made the Deutsche Reichspost economically independent as a special fund of the Reich. The Reichspostfinanzgesetz created the administrative board of the Deutsche Reichspost under the chairmanship of the Reichspost Minister. The Board of Directors had to decide on all significant business, financial and personnel matters. The implementation of the decisions of the Board of Administration was the responsibility of the Minister or the responsible structural parts of the Reich Ministry of Posts. National Socialism (1933-1945) From the outset, the authority left no doubt as to its attitude to National Socialism: "For the Deutsche Reichspost it was a matter of course to put National Socialist ideas into practice with all its might wherever it was possible, and to serve the Führer with all its being and doing". The formal repeal of the Reichspostfinanzgesetz by the Gesetz zur Vereinfachung und Verbilligung der Verwaltung of 27 February 1934 did not change anything about the special asset status of the Deutsche Reichspost, but it brought some fundamental changes. For example, the Administrative Board was dissolved and replaced by an Advisory Board, which had no decisive powers but only an advisory function. The law eliminated both Division VI in Munich and the special position of the Oberpostdirektion Stuttgart, after Hitler had rejected as premature an attempt by the Reichspost and Reich Traffic Minister, Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach, to repeal it, which he had already made in May 1933. From 1 April 1934, the last special agreements of the Reichspost with the states of Bavaria and Württemberg expired, so that it was only from this point on that the "complete uniformity of the postal and telecommunications system in law and administration for the entire territory of the Reich" was established. On 1 October 1934, the Oberpostdirektionen received the designation "Reichspostdirektionen". The offices and offices were subordinated to them. By "Führererlass" of 2 February 1937, the personal union between the Reich Transport Minister and the Reich Post Minister, which had existed since 1932, was abolished and Wilhelm Ohnesorge (1872 to 1962) was again appointed Reich Post Minister. The occasion was the subordination of the Reichsbahn to Reich sovereignty. The unconditional capitulation of Germany at the end of the Second World War also meant the end of the German Reichspost. His written fixation of this fact was found in Articles 5 and 9 of a declaration of the Allied Control Council of June 5, 1945, according to which "all facilities and objects of the ... intelligence ... to hold at the disposal of the Allies' representatives" and "until the establishment of supervision over all means of communication" any broadcasting operation was prohibited. The postal and telecommunications services and the operation of their facilities were finally restarted at different times and separately by the respective Commanders-in-Chief according to the four occupation zones of Germany. The tasks of the Deutsche Reichspost (German Imperial Postal Service) were social and technical progress, as well as the effects of important inventions, which inevitably led to both the quantitative expansion of communication relations and their continuous improvement, right up to the introduction and application of new services in the postal, telegraph and radio sectors. One of the main tasks of the Deutsche Reichspost, the carriage of news items, did not initially extend to all postal items. In the beginning, only closed letters and political newspapers that did not remain in the sender's town were affected by the so-called post compulsion. All open items (especially postcards and printed matter) for a place other than the place of dispatch and letters, parcels etc. for recipients in the place of dispatch could also be collected, transported and distributed by so-called private transport companies. Such "private posts" settled above all in large cities and increasingly opposed the German Reichspost as fierce competitors, for example through lower fee rates. The Reichspost had to get rid of this competition, especially since it was obliged to maintain expensive and sometimes even unprofitable delivery facilities even in the remotest areas of the Reich. The Postal Act Amendment of 20 Dec. 1899 therefore prohibited all commercially operated private post offices in the German Reich from 1 April 1900 and extended the postal obligation to sealed letters within the place of dispatch. The carriage of passengers From time immemorial, Swiss Post also dealt with the carriage of passengers. Before the advent of the railways, passenger transport by stagecoach was the most important means of public transport and, as such, was also part of the postal monopoly in many countries. The expansion of the railway network initially limited this traffic activity of the post office, but after the invention and further perfection of the automobile it gained importance again. Thus, since 1906/07, bus routes have been established ("Postkraftwagen-Überlandverkehr", often also called "Kraftposten" for short). They were expanded mainly in the years 1924 to 1929, so that on 1 April 1929 the Deutsche Reichspost operated almost 2000 Kraftpost lines with an operating length of more than 37,000 km and by that time had already carried 68 million passengers. The enormous economic and technical upswing in Germany after the foundation of the German Empire also meant that the Imperial Post Office and Telegraph Administration had to make use of their cash register facilities for the ever-increasing flow of payment transactions. In addition to the banks, Swiss Post took over the regulation of cashless payment transactions: on 1 January 1909, the postal transfer and postal cheque service was opened in Germany (13 Postscheckkämter). Both the number of accounts and the amount of assets increased steadily in the following decades, with the exception of the two world wars. The banking activity of the Deutsche Reichspost, 'which serves the fulfilment of state activities, not competition with the private sector', was divided into five main branches: postal order service, postal COD service, postal order service, postal transfer and cheque service, postal savings bank service. The latter was introduced only after the annexation of Austria (a post office savings bank had existed here since 1883) on 1 January 1939. Telegraphy and radio telegraphy Although telegraphy was administered by an independent authority equivalent to the general post office before the Reichspost was founded, it had been closely related to the post office since 1854. In that year, in Prussia, the telegraph service in small communities was transferred to the respective postal service. Own telegraph stations usually existed only in cities and larger municipalities, where the operation was profitable. In 1871 there were a total of 3,535 telegraph stations in the German Reich (including Bavaria and Württemberg) with 107,485 km of telegraph lines and an annual output of over 10 million telegrams. By the beginning of the First World War, this figure had been six times higher. In contrast to the USA, where the population quickly made use of telephone traffic, the German public apparently did not initially want to make friends with the new telephone system. As early as 1877, General Postmaster Stephan had the first telephone line set up between the General Post Office in Leipzig and the General Telegraph Office in Französische Straße, and soon thereafter arranged for attempts to be made at longer distances. As late as 1880, however, Stephans' call for participation in a city telephone system in Berlin met with little approval, so that the first local traffic exchange began operations here in January 1881 with only 8 subscribers. However, the advantages of telephone traffic were soon recognised and the spread of the telephone increased rapidly. The 24-hour telephone service was first introduced in Munich in 1884, and Berlin opened its 10,000th telephone station in May 1889. As early as 1896 there were 130,000 "telephone stations" in Germany; in 1920 there were about 1.8 million, in 1930 over 3 million and in 1940 almost 5 million connections. Since the practical testing of Hertzian electromagnetic waves, i.e. since 1895, Swiss Post has paid great attention to the development and expansion of wireless telegraphy. From the very beginning, there was no doubt that the Reichspost was responsible for radio communications (as a type of communication). After the first radio telegraphy devices had been produced in Germany by Siemens and AEG and the first public radio stations had been put into operation in 1890, a regulated radio service began in the German Reich. In the following decades, the Reichspost retained the exclusive right to install and operate radio equipment. However, it was not in a position to carry out all the associated services itself and therefore delegated some of this right to other companies. Thus there were finally 3 groups of radio services: - the radio service operated by the Reichspost with its own radio stations (maritime radio, aeronautical radio), - the radio service operated by companies. The "Transradio AG für drahtlose Überseeverkehr" carried out the entire overseas radio traffic in the years 1921-1932 on behalf of the Deutsche Reichspost. Deep sea radio, train radio and police radio have been granted rights in their fields in a similar manner, - the radio services of public transport carriers such as Reichsbahn, Reichsautobahnen and waterways. Radio and television The exclusive competence for radio broadcasting also extended to radio broadcasting, which was established after the First World War. Legal and organisational issues had to be resolved for this new area of activity of Swiss Post more than for other areas. There are two phases to the relationship between the postal service and broadcasting: a) From 1923 to 1933, the Deutsche Reichspost was responsible for all legislative matters, the issuing of user regulations, the granting of licenses, the fixing and collection of fees, the setting up of transmitters, the technical operation and monitoring of economic management. The Reich Ministry of the Interior, together with the Länder governments, was responsible for the fundamental regulation of the political and cultural issues arising in the course of programme planning. The Reichspost left the broadcasting operations themselves to companies to which it granted a licence. The Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft, founded in 1923, acted as the umbrella organization, in which the Deutsche Reichspost held a major share through a majority of capital and votes and was headed by the Broadcasting Commissioner of the Deutsche Reichspost. b) In 1933, the newly created Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda assumed responsibility for all organizational and managerial issues relating to broadcasting; the Deutsche Reichspost remained only responsible for the cable network and transmitters, for licenses, fee collection and accounting. As a result of the Reichskulturkammergesetz of 22 September 1933, the Reichsrundfunkkammer was at the forefront of broadcasting, in which the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft and several other associations were represented. This marked the beginning of the absolute subordination of broadcasting to the National Socialist dictatorship. The first attempts at television were made in the 1920s, also under the direction of the Deutsche Reichspost. Swiss Post continued to play a major role in the scientific and technical development of television in the following years. After an improved Braun tube had been shown at the Funkausstellung Berlin in 1932, the 1933 annual report of the Deutsche Reichspost described trial television broadcasts in a large urban area as practically feasible. In March 1935, the Deutsche Reichspost set up the world's first public television station at the Reichspostmuseum in Berlin, where the public could follow the reception of the programmes free of charge. The Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda and the Reichsrundfunkgesellschaft (RRG) shared the programming. The Reichspost Ministry subsidiary "Reichspost-Fernseh-GmbH" (since 1939) and the Reichsministerium für Luftfahrt (Reich Ministry of Aviation) were responsible for the transmitters "in view of their special significance for air traffic control and national air protection". The organisation and structure of the Deutsche Reichspost Of all the branches of the Reich administration, Die Post possessed the most extensive and clearly structured official substructure. It was taken over by the Prussian postal service in 1871 and was divided into the following 3 stages until the destruction of the German Reich in 1945: The Reichspostamt / Reichspostministerium Since 1880, the supreme Reichsbehörde has been divided into three departments: Post (I), Telegraph (and soon Telephone) (II) and Personnel, Budget, Accounting and Construction (III). A short time later Stephan was appointed Secretary of State and was thus placed on an equal footing with the heads of the other Imperial Offices established in the meantime. Division III was divided in 1896. General administrative matters were assigned to the new Division III, while Division IV was now responsible for personnel, cash management and accounting. Later, cash and accounting were transferred back to Division III and Division IV retained only personnel matters. From 1919, now as the Reich Post Ministry, a fifth department for radio communications and a sixth for social affairs expanded the organizational structure. Section VI, however, was discontinued after inflation in 1924, and at the same time Sections III and V exchanged their designations, so that in this Section the household, cash register and building trade, in that Section the telegraph and radio trade were dealt with, while Section II was responsible for the telephone trade, initially still combined with the telegraph building trade. On 1 June 1926 another department for economic and organisational questions was added, which was formed from the previous economic department. Since 1926 there have been eight departments: Abt. I Postwesen Abt. II Telegrafen- und Fernsprechtechnik und Fernsprachbetrieb Abt. III Telegrafenbetrieb und Funkwesen Abt. IV Personalwesen Abt. V Haushalts-, Kassen, Postscheck- und Bauwesen Abt. VI in Munich, for Bavaria, dissolved in 1934 Abt. VII for Württemberg, dissolved in 1934 Abt. VIII Wirtschaftsabteilung. From 1934 Abt. VI, later referred to as Abt. für Kraftfahrwesen, Maschinentechnik und Beschaffungswesen. From 30.11. 1942 Abt. VII: Independence of all radio and television affairs from Abt. III (since 1940 already under the direct control of State Secretary Flanze [at the same time President of the Reichspostzentralamt] as the "Special Department Fl") Under National Socialist rule in 1938, the Ministry was expanded by a Central Department (Min-Z) for political tasks and questions of personnel management. During the war, a foreign policy department, a colonial department and an eastern department were added. A special division F 1 for broadcasting affairs was also set up temporarily. During the Second World War, the organization of the postal system in the annexed and occupied territories was determined by the nature and intensity of its integration into the National Socialist sphere of power. In the annexed areas, the postal administration was completely taken over by the Deutsche Reichspost. In most occupied territories, on the other hand, the postal services of the respective countries remained unchanged. Next to them, the field post continued to work. A German service post was created in various administrative areas to supply the German occupation authorities, such as the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" (1939-1945), the Netherlands (1940-1945), Norway (1942-1945), the Adriatic and Alpine regions (both 1943-1945), the East and the Ukraine (both 1941-1944). The German service posts "Ostland" and "Ukraine", each under a general postal commissioner, simultaneously provided the business of the "Deutsche Post Ostland" and "Deutsche Post Ukraine", which were fictitious as Landespost. The attempts made by the Reich Ministry of Posts to establish a central management of the intelligence system of all annexed and invaded territories failed because of the principle of the unity of the administration in the respective territory. The Reich Ministry of Posts had a number of specialist offices for the handling of special subjects, such as the field post office, the motor vehicle office, the building administration office and the cheque office. The following departments were directly affiliated or subordinated to the Reich Ministry of Posts: - the General Post Office as the body responsible for the entire administration of the post office and telegraph system, - the Postal Money Order Office. From 1 April 1912 it was subordinated to the Oberpostdirektion Berlin as the postal accounting office from 1 April 1912, - the Postzeitungsamt, from 1 January 1918 also subordinated to the Oberpostdirektion Berlin, - the Postversicherungskommission für Angelegenheiten der Unfall- u.a. -fürsorge, which was transferred to the newly founded Versorgungsanstalt der Deutschen Reichspost on 1 August 1926. With this public corporation, the previously differently regulated supplementary provision for postal staff was unified: two thirds of the contributions were paid by the Deutsche Reichspost and one third by the insured themselves, - the Telegrafentechnische Reichsamt, founded in 1920. In 1928, it assumed further tasks from the Reich Post Ministry, such as railway postal issues, postal statistics, training and teaching matters, cash and accounting and procurement, and was renamed the Reich Post Central Office, - the Reich Post Museum, created in 1872, - the Reich Post Building Inspectorate, formed in 1937 to meet the postal service's needs in the structural redesign of Berlin, - the Postal Savings Bank Office in Vienna, which was taken over after the annexation of Austria in March 1938. In direct subordination to the Reich Ministry of Posts, it was responsible for the central account management of the Postal Savings Bank Service after it had been extended to the Old Empire. The "Postschutz", a paramilitary association under the umbrella of the Postal Ministry, had a special position. In June 1935, the Reich leadership of the SS and the Supreme SA leadership agreed on binding regulations regarding the affiliation of postal workers to the SA or SS. The postal service and thus also the postal security service were given priority over 'any use by the SA and SS. The claim for purposes of the SA and SS outside the postal service must not be to the detriment of the proper operation of the postal service', it said. Postal security was uniformed and uniformly armed. The research institute of the Deutsche Reichspost, founded on 1 January 1937, investigated special problems in television technology. The Reichspostforschungsanstalt was responsible for the coordination of all television armaments projects and orders to industry. It dealt with the further development of research areas for military purposes. The tasks are outlined in a document signed by Ohnesorge: "1. television; 2. general physics, in particular nuclear physics, optics, acoustics, electronics; 3. chemistry; 4. special tasks for the four-year plan". The Reichsdruckerei was not integrated into the structure of the Reichspost, but was associated with its top management in personal union. On 1 April 1879 it was placed under the control of the Reich Post and Telegraph Administration as an independent Reich enterprise. Through its products it maintained very close relations with the Reichspost, since, for example, postage stamps, postal cheques, the Reichskursbuch, etc. were produced for the account of the post office cashier. The Oberpostdirektionen/Reichspostdirektionen The Oberpostdirektionen (OPD) as intermediate authorities between the Berlin headquarters and the post offices were established as early as 1850 in Prussia. After their transfer to the Reichspost, they were among the higher Reich authorities. The Ministry of Postal Affairs has delegated more and more responsibilities to the OPDen, so that their freedom of action grew steadily and they gradually became the focus of the postal administration. 1928 saw the establishment of managing higher postal directorates, which together took over the leadership of a district group (several OPD districts) for certain tasks (e.g. training and education as well as procurement and supply). 1934 to 1945 as Reichspostdirektionen (RPD), they were subject to many changes in their area and in their number. In 1943 there were 51 RPD. The post office cheque offices (formed in 1909), the telegraph construction offices and the telegraph tool offices (set up in 1920) were responsible for several OPD/RPDs and thus also to be regarded as intermediate authorities. The Post Offices The Post Offices, referred to in the area of the Deutsche Reichspost as Verkehrsämter and Amtsstellen, formed the local offices of the lowest level; they were subordinate to the OPD/RPD closest to each other. The local offices included not only the post offices, which were divided into three classes until 1924 (only since 1924 did they have a uniform designation as post offices), but also the post agencies, postal assistance offices, railway post offices, telegraph and telephone offices as well as public pay telephones in the municipalities which were subordinate to them. In 1942 there were about 70,000 such offices and offices in the German Reich. The division into "secret archive" and "secret registry" was characteristic of the registry relations in the RPM until 1928. The general files and most important special files from the "Secret Registry" were transferred to the "Secret Archive", as were historically valuable files from the dissolved postal administrations of the German Länder, so that the "Secret Archive" developed more and more into a selection archive. In contrast, the "secret registry" was the actual general registry of the RPM. It consisted of a frequently changing number of registries. In the mid-twenties there were seventeen of them. The number of registries was greatly reduced by the formation of so-called specialist parties for individual fields of activity, such as Bp (Postbankverkehr) or Zp (Postal Newspapers). On January 1, 1928, a file plan was put into effect in the RPM and a little later in the entire area of the Deutsche Reichspost, the main features of which were still valid in the Deutsche Bundespost and in the Deutsche Post of the GDR until their end. It consisted of eight main groups, which essentially correspond to the present classification of the file stock, here on the basis of the file plan from the year 1938 under consideration of structural conditions of the inventory creator. In the period from 1933 to 1941, the Reich Ministry of Posts had handed over about 2,200 historically valuable file units, which were no longer needed in the service, to the Reich Archives. Towards the end of the war, most of the files, together with other holdings, were moved to the potash shafts near Staßfurt and Schönebeck. They survived the war there without any significant casualties. The files that had not been removed from the Reichsarchiv, above all the partial holdings of the Reichsdruckerei, were burnt during the air raid on Potsdam in April 1945. Losses were also recorded in the files remaining in the various departments of the RPM, in particular in a total of 15 alternative offices in the countryside, where the documents had been successively transferred since 1943, but also in the RPM building itself, which had been severely damaged by several bomb hits in the years 1943 to 1945. The total file loss of the RPM after 1945 was estimated at 2,417 files. The existing files formed the basis for the later named component R 4701 I, which until 1990 was located in the Central State Archives in Potsdam (ZStA) and was transferred to the Federal Archives with German unity. The holdings in the Federal Archives at the time of the retroconversion of the finding aids in 2009 For the period from 1945 onwards, the RPM file holdings must be viewed in a differentiated way, because its four parts have reached the Federal Archives in very different ways and accordingly had received not only their own history of tradition, but also their own finding aids, their own signatures, etc. For example, the letters B, D, GA, and P were used as signature additions, which sometimes proved to be quite impractical, not only in archival practice. For a long time it had been planned to record all parts in a common finding aid book. Since around 1990, the following distinguishing features have been used, but these have hardly had any effect on everyday archival life. Part R 4701 I, formerly R 47.01 - Potsdam until 1990 This is the bulk of the collection stored in the Central State Archives in Potsdam. As a rule, the designation R 4701 I was not used, but only R 4701 with the following signature, formerly R 47.01. This also contained the above-mentioned files with the additional identification letters. This part of the collection, which was outsourced by the Reichsarchiv, was transferred to the then Deutsche Zentralarchiv Potsdam in 1950. The DZA Potsdam received the majority of the files in 1957, 1960 and 1966 from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the GDR, but initially only the old files with a term until 1928 were handed over. The files since the introduction of the file plan in 1928 still remained in the GDR Ministry and were only handed over to the ZStA Potsdam in 1983, but by far not completely (cf. remarks on R 4701 II). In addition, RPM files from former storage sites in Potsdam had also been transferred to the DZA Potsdam in 1961. Also at the beginning of the 1960s, all files that were stored in

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