Contains: isolated cases
History of the Ministry: The Württemberg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, initially also known as the Cabinet Ministry and headed by two ministers, had existed since January 1, 1806. According to the Organization Manifesto of January 18, 1806, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had been the "Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Württemberg" since then. March 1806 it had "all negotiations with foreigners, the maintenance and strict observance of existing treatises, correspondence with foreign ministers, the execution of the King's public correspondence with other regents and governors, the affairs of the royal house, the ceremonial with foreigners, the ceremonial inside, the management of the postal service, matters of the order, raising of rank, the use for the royal subjects abroad, issuing of passports and certification of documents intended for the same". It also supervised the police in the residences of Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg. By decree of 12 February 1812, this area was separated from the Ministry and an independent Ministry of Police with extended powers was set up. 8 November 1816, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was responsible for the organisation of the Privy Council, which was essentially the tasks described in the organisational manifesto. Only the post office was subordinated to the Ministry of the Interior, as far as it did not fall within the area of the House of Thurn und Taxis. The Chancellor of the Order, usually the Minister of Foreign Affairs, was now responsible for the affairs of the Order, while the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior shared responsibility for the administration of the affairs of the nobility. A Royal Rescript of 19 July 1819 approved the division of the Ministry's internal service into two sections, a general political section and a legal section. The latter was responsible for political and diplomatic relations, the latter for consular and international legal assistance. The Transport Department, established in 1864 alongside the Political Department, supervised the general directorates of the Württemberg Posts and Telegraphs and the State Railways. The Ministry also included the envoys, consuls and other diplomatic agents, the Haus- und Staatsarchiv, the Lehenrat and the Zensurkommission until its abolition in 1848. After the foundation of the Reich in 1871, the Ministry continued to exist with limited responsibilities. After the President's decree had merged the Chancellery of the Political Department with that of the State Ministry with effect from 1 January 1920, the Foreign Ministry was finally abolished by the Act of 29 April 1920; the remaining tasks fell to the State Ministry. The overall registry: The records of the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were arranged according to a classification scheme. Within the individual categories, the files were usually arranged chronologically according to main fascicles, which in turn were arranged and numbered according to subfascicles. The headings could change over time (e.g. "uses"). If the order in the registry of the ministry had already been disturbed, it became completely unclear due to the numerous deliveries between 1872 and 1938 to the Haus- und Staatsarchiv; because these ministerial files, sometimes mixed with documents of subordinate authorities, were distributed among the holdings between E 36 and E 65, depending on the date of delivery. The order begun in the 1960s has the aim of forming "classified inventories" according to the categories used in the Foreign Ministry. The categories that belong together are grouped together in one inventory, whereas the categories "Varia" and "Uses" are dissolved and classified under the corresponding categories. Found condition and formation of the inventory E 40/72: The inventory E40/72 consists of the following categories:1. "War material" from the inventories E 36 Verz. 18, E 46 and E 52, extent approx. 3.3 running m2. "German Affairs 1866-1871" from the inventory E 41 I. Appendix, volume approx. 2.5 m3. "War" (concerning I. World War) from the inventory E 49 Verz. 12, circumference approx. 7.5 m4. "Uses" and "Varia" (concerning military matters) as well as documents without recognizable registry designations from the holdings E 36 Verz. 14 and 58, E 41 Verz. 63 and E 49 Delivery 1938, volume approx. 0.7 linear metres. m Accordingly, the larger part of the holdings consists of documents from the First World War. Obviously the formation of the registry at the ministry could not keep up with the general temporal development, because under the file number "War 1 General" serial files were formed, which comprised 41 bundles (altogether 5.5 m) with 16339 quadrangles when the ministry was abolished. The situation was similar with the file number "Krieg 4 Kriegsziele und Friedensschluss" (war 4 war aims and peace agreement) (a total of 1.5 m), although a distinction was made between general files and the classification by states. It was only gradually, especially towards the end of the war, that the creation of files was begun; documents were also taken from the general files, and it was therefore necessary to dissolve these two large blocks in favour of the principle of files. Moisture and mold damages were determined in places, whereby after consultation higher place with larger damages, above all with threatening further writing loss the documents were copied. Gaps in the general files are also striking; indications suggest that some documents were subsequently added to the legation files and to the "federal files" (B. A. ); individual secret files kept in the "iron cabinet" seem to have been lost. The extensive collection of newspaper clippings, which is now to be found in the fact files and represents a unique documentation, is also worth mentioning. Since the total stock E 40/72 is composed of chronologically arranged rubrics, the classification according to the principle of the fact files appeared necessary here as well; however, overlaps could not be completely avoided. Files from the Conference and Army Ministries were added to the holdings E 272 and E 273, documents from the provenance of the War Ministry were handed over to the Military Archives, and only duplicates and blank sheets were collected. Pagination applied to various clusters of the total stock has become obsolete. Stuttgart, July 1997Wilfried Braunn Preliminary remark for the new edition of the Findbuch 2011: During the incorporation of the oldest delivery of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (former signature E 36) into the new inventory structure in 2007, it turned out that in particular in Verz. 60, which was arranged exclusively according to country categories, there were numerous other files concerning war and military matters. Since the content of these documents did not differ significantly from that of the documents already contained in E 40/72, a general classification in the holdings on general foreign policy (E 40/14 or E 40/18) did not appear to be in the spirit of the new resistance structure drawn up in the 1990s. In order to ensure that the structure of the inventory can also be traced from the user's point of view, these supplements were therefore incorporated into the existing inventory and the finding aid book was reissued due to its extensive growth. Minor content overlaps arise with holdings E 40/54 (police) in relation to rural policing and gendarmerie matters and E 40/59 (deduction, emigration and immigration, travel, citizenship) in relation to Württembergers in foreign military services (e.g. Foreign Legion) and the obligation of Württembergers to conscribe abroad. 1074 tufts or 16.0 linear metres of shelving are now held in the holdings.Stuttgart, March 2011Johannes Renz