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Archival description
BArch, R 901 · Fonds · 1867-1945
Part of Federal Archives (Archivtektonik)

History of the Inventor: 1867 Interim assumption of the foreign policy tasks for the North German Confederation by the Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; on 1 January 1867, the Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs took over the tasks of the North German Confederation. January 1870 Foundation of the Foreign Office of the North German Confederation, 1871 of the German Rei‧ches as a subordinate authority of the Reich Chancellor with the main departments Politics, Han‧delspolitik, Law (from 1885) and News (from 1915); until 1918 at the same time foreign Ver‧tretung Prussia; 1919 appointment of a politically responsible Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs; 1920 extensive reorganization in regional departments and assumption of cultural-political tasks, 1936 dissolution of the regional departments, reintroduction of the departments inventory description: The Foreign Office, which emerged in 1870 from the Royal Prussian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the North German Confederation (since 1867), underwent numerous reforms and restructurings during the Bismarck period and the Wilhelminian Empire, the Weimar Republic until the end of the National Socialist dictatorship. old office) comprise only a fraction of the total volume (approx. 1.6 shelf kilometres) from this period. The largest part (about 18 shelf kilometres) of the files remaining after the losses in the final phase of the Second World War is now in the Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. In the 1920s, mainly for reasons of space, the Political Archive had deposited most of the local archival material in the Potsdam Reichsarchiv (mainly files of the Imperial Office, the Trade Policy Department and the Legal Department). Together with other holdings, the Reichsarchiv also stored these documents in 1944/45 in the salt mine shafts near Staßfurt (Saxony-Anhalt) to protect them from bombing. Confiscated by the Soviet occupying forces, most of the material was transferred after 1949 to the then German Central Archive Potsdam (later the Central State Archive of the GDR, inventory signature 09.01) via the Ministry for State Security of the GDR in several charges, and after the German division was overcome to the responsibility of the Federal Archive. Residual files of the Trade Policy and Legal Departments (Dept. II and III, 1885-1920), which for official reasons had remained in the Political Archives of the AA and had finally been taken to England after confiscation by the British occupying forces, were recorded by the then Federal Archives after their return to the Federal Republic (1957) in October 1962 under the inventory signature R 85. About 350 file units are currently still in the "Special Archive" at the Russian State Military Archives in Moscow under the ("Fund") stock number 1357. They are described there in 3 finding aids (for further information and contact see www.sonderarchiv.de). The Federal Archives have lent important documents and files to the Political Archive of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin (Auswärtiges Amt, Politisches Archiv, 10117 Berlin; Tel.: 49 (0) 30/5000-3948). They can only be used and evaluated there (see the respective finding aids for further information). Archival evaluation and processing The first archival revision of the volumes took place at the end of the 1950s in what was then the German Central Archive. They were originally described in a total of 44 finding aids from the Reichsarchiv. The file titles of the units of registration recorded in the Potsdam DZA at the time were integrated into the database of the Federal Archives by means of a retroconversion procedure. When processing the data records, numerous corrections were made to the file titles and runtimes. The currently valid archive rules could not always be applied. While maintaining the existing classification, which was predominantly no longer based on the organisational structure of the AA, series or series of bands were formed as required, whereby numerous subordinate series of bands were also created in series. In some cases, the existing factual structure was expanded and supplemented with modern terminology (e.g. legal department). The Potsdam tradition was merged with that of the old Federal Archives in Koblenz (old finding aids for stock R 85, legal department and trade policy department). Characterization of content: Traditional focus Office of the Reich Foreign Minister 1928-1943: Minister's Office and Personal Staff 1928-1944, Personal Press Archive of the Minister 1934-1943 Personnel and Administration Department (incl. Protocol) 1876-1944 [loaned to Political Archive AA] Commercial Policy Department 1869-1920: Exhibition 1875-1920, Service 1885-1914, Railways 1866-1915, Fisheries 1903-1913, Trade, Generalia 1884-1921, Trade, Countries 1868-1920, Foreign Trade 1867-1922, Trade and Shipping, Generalia 1862-1906, Trade and Shipping, Countries 1858-1909, Agriculture 1868-1920, Literature 1847-1917, Marine 1853-1913, Weights and Measures 1911-1920, Medical 1868-1913, Coinage 1867-1913, Minting 1853-1913, Trade, Generalia 1884-1920, Trade, Countries 1868-1909, Agriculture 1868-1920, Trade and Shipping 1847-1917, Marine 1853-1913, Weights and Measures 1911-1920, Medical 1868-1913, Coinage Shipping, Generalia 1887-1914, Inland Navigation, Countries 1907-1913, Shipping, Countries 1844-1913, River Navigation 1869-1913, Telegraphing 1866-1913, Transportation 1890-1920, Insurance 1895-1920, Economics, Generalia 1887-1920, Economics, Countries 1881-1920, Water Management 1907-1913, Customs and Tax, General 1910-1919, Customs and Tax, Countries 1902-1920 Commercial Policy Division 1936-1945: Exhibitions 1936-1943, emigration 1937-1943, railway 1921-1943, finance 1936-1943, fishing 1936-1943, business 1937-1943, health 1937-1942, trade 1936-1945, industry, technology, Trade 1936-1943, Internal Administration of the Länder 1936-1943, Motor Vehicles 1936-1942, Agriculture 1936-1943, Politics 1941-1942, Post, Telegraph and Telephone 1936-1943, Legal 1936-1942, Raw Materials and Goods 1936-1943, Shipping 1936-1943, social policy 1941-1942, taxation 1936-1943, transport 1936-1945, veterinary 1936-1942, roads 1936-1942, economy 1936-1944, customs 1936-1945, trade in war equipment 1936-1944, Handakten 1920-1944, telegram correspondence with the German representations, offices and commercial enterprises 1941-1943 Länderabteilung II und III (1920-1936) [loaned to Political Archive AA] Rechtsabteilung 1858-1945: Emigration, General 1868-1932, Citizenship and Liquidation 1928-1944, Emigration, Countries 1858-1932, International Law Differences 1867-1920, Clergy, School and Abbey Matters 1867-1933, Border Matters 1862-1944, Hand Files 1900-1926, Internal Administration of Individual Countries 1862-1940, Intercessions 1871-1932, Art and Science 1865-1914, Mediatized 1866-1913, Militaria 1869-1942, News 1869-1936, neutrality 1854-1918, passport matters 1816-1932, police matters 1865-1937, postal matters 1829-1932, press 1861-1931, cases, general 1836-1944, cases, countries outside Europe 1869-1936, cases countries Europe 1869-1936, international law 1941-1945, delivery of documents and orders 1937-1945 news and press department 1915-1945: General 1915-1938, war 1914-1921, colonies 1915-1920, head of state 1910-1919, parliaments 1910-1921, state parliaments 1917-1921, imperial government 1916-1924, revolution 1910-1921, League of Nations 1918-1920, parliamentarization and democratization 1918, right to vote 1917-1918, armistice and peace 1914-1923, news about individual countries 1918-1921, news 1914-1921, Business files of the Press Department 1939-1945, German News Office 1940-1943, Interception Service 1942-1943, Foreign Agencies 1942-1945, Own Service 1942-1943, News Material 1933-1945, Press Attachments 1939-1944, Press Archive 1927-1945, Press Information Service 1936-1945, Foreign Information Bodies 1934-1945, Central Office for Foreign Service 1912-1922: Service and business operations 1914-1921, personnel affairs 1912-1921, passport affairs 1917-1920, budget and cash affairs 1914-1922 , relations with institutions and individuals 1914-1920, libraries, publishing houses, bookshops and art dealers 1915-1920, Economic, Political and Military Situation 1915-1920, Propaganda 1914-1921 Department of Cultural Policy 1865-1945 Department of Broadcasting Policy 1939-1945 Department D (Germany) [Liaison Office to the NSDAP] 1939-1943 State of Development: Files from the Personnel and Administration Department and the Country Department were transferred to the Political Archive of the AA as a permanent loan to supplement the holdings there. Citation style: BArch, R 901/...

Federal Foreign Office
BArch, NS 6 · Fonds · 1933-1945
Part of Federal Archives (Archivtektonik)

On April 21, 1933, Hitler appointed his personal secretary Rudolf Hess, the former head of the "Political Central Commission" of the NSDAP, as "deputy of the Führer" and authorized him to decide in his name on all matters concerning the leadership of the party. The main task of the deputy leader and his staff, formed at the headquarters of the NSDAP in Munich, was to "align the Gauleitungen, divisions and affiliated associations of the NSDAP uniformly and to give them political guidelines"(1) This function of a central authority of the internal party leadership had to be fought for and defended first and foremost against the resistance of the Reichsorganisationsleiter Robert Ley, who regarded himself as the main heir of Gregor Strasser and his concentration of power within the party. (2) The "NSDAP liaison staff" set up on 24 March 1933 in the former building of the Prussian State Ministry in Berlin was subordinated to Hess and subsequently served as the Berlin office of the Führer's deputy, without achieving or even exceeding the importance of the Munich staff, also with regard to the later coordination functions vis-à-vis the Reich government. As was already the case when Hess was commissioned to head the Central Political Commission, which had been created at the end of 1932 after Gregor Strasser's dissolution of the Reichsorganisationsleitung, which had developed into a central party-internal power apparatus, as a supervisory organ for its previous main departments III and IV,(3) Hitler's appointment of his private secretary as deputy to the leader was by no means intended to strengthen the position of the party or its Reichsleitung within the National Socialist power structure. While the comparatively generous endowment of the deputy leader's central authority of the party leadership should undoubtedly also serve to curb the power ambitions of other, personally stronger party leaders, the personality of Hess, who had always been a devoted follower of his leader without any independent power within the party leadership, offered a guarantee that a center of power alongside Hitler, as it threatened to develop in the short term in 1932 with Gregor Strasser's rise to "a kind of general secretary of the party with comprehensive powers of attorney" (4), could no longer emerge in the future. Hess could not speak of a supremacy over other "law firms" (law firm of the leader of the NSDAP, Reich Chancellery and - after Hindenburg's death - Presidential Chancellery). Even the later use of the central competences of the office of the deputy of the Führer under the energetic and ruthless leadership of Martin Bormann to develop his known personal position of power could only succeed, since Bormann consciously built up his position, but never only that of Hitler. Rudolf Hess, who was personally rather weak, was, however, granted comprehensive powers in state affairs by the Law of 1 December 1933 on Securing the Unity of Party and State. Like Röhm, the head of the SA staff, Hess was appointed Reich Minister without a portfolio in order to "ensure the closest cooperation between the Party and the State".(5) The position of the deputy leader was decisively strengthened by Hitler's unpublished circular of 27 March, which was issued by the Reichsminister in Berlin. On July 7, 1934, "the deputy of the Führer, Reich Minister Rudolf Hess", was given the position of a "participating" Reich Minister in the legislation without exception.(6) This gave Hess the opportunity to comment on all drafts of laws and ordinances and to assert the party's position. By the "Erlass über die Beteiligung des Stellvertreter des Führers bei der Ernennung von Beamten" (Decree on the Participation of the Deputy Fuehrer in the Appointment of Civil Servants) of 24 September 1935 (7), Hitler also ordered Hess to participate in the appointment of Reich and Land officials in such a way that he received a copy of the proposal for promotion or appointment with more detailed information about the civil servant and was granted a reasonable period of time to comment. As a rule, this deadline was used to obtain the opinion of the local party organisation, particularly on the political position of the candidate. After this decisive expansion of competence, the office of the deputy leader, whose staff comprised "two, three men" when Martin Bormann took over the leadership of the staff in July 1933, (8) took on firmer contours. In 1937, the deputy of the Führer or his staff leader, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, was headed by Rudolf Mackensen, the staff manager, and a number of clerks, representatives, special representatives, heads of offices, and other officials, only some of whom served exclusively on the staff of the Führer's deputy, while the vast majority headed party institutions that only formally served Hess or (9) The latter included (1937): Main Archive of the NSDAP: Head of Headquarters Dr. Uetrecht The Head of the Foreign Organization of the NSDAP: Gauleiter Bohle The Commissioner for Foreign Policy Issues: Ambassador von Ribbentrop The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Head of Headquarters Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. G. Bohle The Commissioner for Foreign Policy Issues: Ambassador of Ribbentrop The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Head of Headquarters Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. G. Bohle The Commissioner for Foreign Policy Issues: Ambassador of Ribbentrop The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Head of Headquarters Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. G. Todt Der Sachbearbeiter für alle Fragen der Volksgesundheit: Hauptdienstleiter Dr. Wagner Commission for Higher Education Policy: Haupttellenleiter Prof. Dr. Wirz The representative for the new building of the Reich: Gauleiter Adolf Wagner The official for questions of job creation, for financial and tax policy: Hauptdienstleiter State Secretary Reinhardt The official for art and culture: Amtsleiter Schulte-Strathaus The official for music: Head of main office Adam The clerk for school questions: Head of main office Wächtler The clerk for practical-technical questions: Head of office Croneiß Party official examination commission for the protection of Nazi literature: Reichsleiter Bouhler The representative for building industry: General Building Inspector Head of Office Speer In 1938, the following were added: Central Office for the Economic Policy Organisations of the NSDAP: Head of Main Office Keppler Commission for Economic Policy: Head of Office Köhler. In addition to the already mentioned office of the deputy of the Führer in Berlin (liaison staff under head of the main office Stenger), there were also: Special representative of the deputy of the Führer: head of the main office Oexle Representatives for special use (e.g. V.): head of the main office Brockhausen and head of the main office Seidel (Nazi camp for civil servants in Tutzing and Reich camp for civil servants in Bad Tölz). De facto, the Munich office of the deputy leader's deputy consisted essentially of two parts, in addition to the leadership of the staff and the adjutants: Internal party affairs and constitutional issues. According to the published organisational overviews, they were headed by 'clerks', referred to as 'Division II or Division III' in the secret business distribution plans (10 ). During the preparation of this finding aid book, a business distribution plan (1938) of Division II, headed from March 1934 until the end of the war by Helmuth Friedrichs, former Gaug Managing Director of the NSDAP in the Gau Hessen-Kassel region, was determined for the first time for the office of the deputy leader's deputy. There the organisational level below the department level was also called "department" instead of "group" or "main office" as was later the case. Division II - Internal Party Matters - Field: Political Issues of the Party and the State Staff: Head of Main Office Helmuth Friedrichs Division II A Establishment and Expansion of the Party, its Structures and Associated Associations. Observation of economic, social and agricultural policy issues. Head: Head of Office Albert Hoffmann Representative: Head of Head Office Erich Eftger II A a Head of Head Office Pannenborg Organisational questions of the whole party, orders and orders of the deputy of the leader, as far as they concern organisational questions. Observation of the organizational relations of the affiliated associations and the divisions to the party and among each other. liaison with organisations outside the Party dealing with human leadership, as far as the organisation's issues are concerned. II A b Head of Headquarters Franz Schmidt II Social, economic and agricultural policy issues, labour front and questions of the Reich's nutritional status. Connection to the NSBO main office and the Reichsamt für Agrarpolitik. II A d Head of main office Long connection to the main offices and affiliated associations and their fields of activity; in particular local politics, civil servants, educators, war victims, NSDStB, women's affairs, people's welfare with the exception of the National Socialist Association of Lecturers, the National Socialist Association of Physicians, the German Labour Front, the Office for Agricultural Policy, the Office for Technology. Division II B Observation of domestic political developments and their impact on the party and the state. Head: Head of Office Gerland Representative: Witt II B a Head of Witt Reporting (in cooperation with all departments of the staff); orders of the deputy of the leader, as far as they concern ideological questions. II B b Head of Gerland Propaganda and Press Liaison Office (film, radio, post and celebration). II B c Head of office Schütt Liaison office training (training questions of the party in connection with the Reichsschulungsamt). II B d Head of the Lindhorst office Connection guide to the RAD Schnurbein connection office SA, SS, NSKK, Arbeitsdienst, HJ. II B e Head of department Gerland Liaison office KdF. II B f Head of Office Gerland Lutze Liaison Office Wehrmacht. II B g Office for Guests of Honour R e i c h s p r t a g e s . Department II C Head of Office Opdenhoff Führungsamt und Personalamt des Stellvertreters des Führers. Recording and supervision of junior leaders of the NSDAP. Processing the personal files of the political leaders to be confirmed by the deputy leader and the leader. Supervision of the Gauamts- and Kreisleiter detached to the staff. Membership system. Division II D Head of Office Opdenhoff Handling of complaints concerning party departments. Head of the Thurner headquarters Supervision of the junior staff members who have been seconded to the staff for one year. For the Department for Questions of Constitutional Law (Division III) set up in the summer of 1934 after the transfer of the authority to participate in the preparation of state legislation, there is no business distribution plan for the office of the deputy of the Führer. In the 1938 and 1939 National Socialist Yearbooks, in addition to the "official in charge of questions of state law", Hauptamtsleiter Sommer, the heads of the departments Dr. Johann Müller, Heim and von Helms are only listed as heads of department (11) This department, which was responsible for "supervising" the legislation and personnel policy of the Reich government, was subdivided, analogous to the individual ministries, into respective organisational units (groups or main offices, offices, main offices) for domestic, legal and economic policy. Since it could itself be regarded as a part of the state administration in terms of civil servant and budgetary law and had almost exclusively to do with draft laws and civil servant issues, it was obvious for Hess to entrust the work of this department to experienced administrative officials with legal knowledge. At the request of the deputy of the Führer, the officials were transferred from the respective Reich or Land departments to the staff of the deputy of the Führer. Until 1941, Head of Division III was the administrative lawyer Walther Sommer in the rank of Ministerial Councillor; his successor became State Secretary Dr. Gerhard Klopfer in 1941. Due to the composition and origin of the staff, Division III was hardly in a position to bring about the originally intended implementation of a radical party position in state legislation and civil servant policy. Rather, we can speak of a mediating function between party offices and ministries. Within this framework, the public authorities expected "their" officials transferred to the staff of the deputy leader to have a supportive influence on the responsible NSDAP department, which was usually actually exercised (12). Nonetheless, it is beyond doubt that the party's right to participate in the appointment and promotion of civil servants, from which only the Wehrmacht was able to keep itself free, had a considerable influence on the civil service and, among other things, had to impair its traditional view of service. Immediately after the England flight of his deputy Rudolf Hess, Hitler made the order on 12 May 1941 that the previous office of the Führer's deputy should bear the name "Party Chancellery" and be subordinated to him personally. The leader was "as before Reichsleiter Martin Bormann" (13). In his decree of 29 May 1941 "On the Position of the Head of the Party Chancellery" Hitler specified "in order to ensure the closest cooperation of the Party Chancellery with the Supreme Reich Authorities: The Head of the Party Chancellery, Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, has the powers of a Reich Minister, he is a member of the Reich Government and of the Council of Ministers for the Defence of the Reich". Hitler then affirmed that the previous head of staff of the office of the deputy leader's deputy did not receive the title of his former superior, but rather all of his powers: "Where in laws, ordinances, decrees, orders and other orders the deputy leader's deputy is named, he shall be replaced by the head of the Party Chancellery" (14). According to the NSDAP's self-image, the Party Chancellery was Hitler's office in his capacity as leader of the party. Their Hitler leader, who was directly responsible for Hitler, had "to process all fundamental plans and suggestions from the area of the party centrally" for Hitler. The instructions issued by Hitler himself or prepared on his behalf for the entire party were sent exclusively via Bormann to the departments responsible for implementation. Not only the political leadership of the party, but also all work arising from the party's supremacy towards the state was to be done in the party chancellery. During the war, these tasks included, as a matter of course, the "versatile deployment of the party organs in total internal warfare" and the work of the party in the integrated and occupied territories. In addition to the party and the Wehrmacht, the focus of the jurisdiction of the party chancellery was on "securing the unity of party and state" (15). In the Ordinance of 29 May 1941 on the Implementation of the Decree of the Führer on the Position of the Head of the Party Chancellery, the Reich Minister and Head of the Reich Chancellery Lammers and the Head of the Party Chancellery ordered the following on 16 January 1942: (16) The Party's participation in the legislation was to be effected exclusively through the head of the Party Chancellery, unless Hitler determined otherwise in individual cases. Proposals and suggestions from the area of the Party, its divisions and affiliated associations could only be forwarded via Bormann, the responsible ministries and other supreme Reich authorities, as far as the legislation was concerned. This practically amounted to a concentration of power on the person of Bormann. The party also played a central role in processing the personal data of the civil servants. In any case, the head of the Party Chancellery had the position of a b e t e i l t e Reich Minister in the preparation of state legislation in legislative work. This also applied to the laws and ordinances of the provinces and governors of the empire. In addition to these formal competences, it was stipulated that, in matters other than legislative matters, the communication between the supreme Reich and Land authorities, insofar as these were responsible regionally for several districts of the NSDAP, on the one hand, and the services of the Party, its divisions and affiliated associations, on the other hand, took place solely via Bormann if these were "fundamental and political questions". Direct traffic was expressly declared inadmissible. Thus an instrument of power equipped with far-reaching competences came under the exclusive leadership of an energetic party functionary who was just as servile upwards as he was after him under brutally ruthless party officials, who of course used it as far as possible to expand his own position of power, which of course was not exclusively based on his position as head of the party office. Bormann's rise from organizer of illegal Freikorpsgruppen and Feme desk murderers to head of the relief fund of the NSDAP and finally to chief of staff of the Führer's deputy, his constant approach to the person of Hitler - from the administration of Hitler personally from various sources funds available, the conversion of the House of Wachenfeld to the "Berghof" and "Berghof" respectively. the expansion of the entire Obersalzberg complex into Hitler's summer residence, up to Hitler's constant company in the Führer's headquarters or "special Führer train" during the war - cannot be traced here in detail (17). The coupling of these two functions - the leadership of the political coordination centre of the party (staff of the deputy leader or party chancellery) and Hitler's constant support and advice, also in personal matters - formed the basis of Bormann's special position of power, which could not easily be equated with the strengthening of the party leadership as such. Structurally, even an energetic head of staff or head of the party office was unable to change the desolate weakness of the NSDAP's Reich leadership. Even under Bormann, the party chancellery did not develop into an all-powerful, bureaucratic command center comparable to communist politburo. Bormann's special position was based on the personal, independent power of attorney as Hitler's personal clerk, which was institutionalized on April 12, 1943 with Bormann's official appointment as "Secretary of the Führer" (18). From Bormann's dominant position in the Führer's headquarters - not actually from his function as head of the Party Chancellery - the path led to the Super and Control Minister of the Reich Government, when the Bormann was not only seen by dissatisfied party and contemporaries in the final years of the war, but is also portrayed in historical studies on the Nazi regime in general (19). The two-pronged organisational structure of the office of the leader's deputy, which was essentially based on the two departments for internal party affairs and for questions of constitutional law, remained basically unchanged, even under the name of the party chancellery. In Division II, the following groups or main offices were added in accordance with the expansion of the tasks: II M (Reich Defence, Planning of Operations for the War Tasks of the Party), II W (Fundamental Questions of the Wehrmacht, Liaison Office to the OKW), II E (Foreign and People's Growth Work of the Party, including Occupied Territories), II F (Nazi Leadership in the Wehrmacht and Nazi Lead Officers) and II V (Staff Leadership Volkssturm). The offices II C and IID, on the other hand, which dealt with the party's junior leaders and personnel issues, were merged to form the II P office. The organisational overview of Division II given below is essentially taken from a note in Division III of 11 April 1945. The offices II A 2, 3 and 5 as well as II B 6 and II W 1 - 4 no longer listed there were supplemented from earlier business distribution plans from 1942 and 1944. Apart from a few exceptions, the names given as heads of organizational units originate from a plan for the introduction of dictation marks dated 26 March 1942 (20) and a telephone directory of 20 Jan 1945 (21), divided into departments and official groups/main offices. Head of Department: Friedrichs Hauptamt II A Management duties and organisation of the party, its divisions, affiliated associations and organisations Neuburg (1945: Keitel) II A 1: Organisational matters and fundamental questions of party structure, fundamental membership issues, staffing plan in cooperation with II P. Examination of content, coordination and publication of orders, circulars and announcements of the party office. Monitoring and evaluation of the announcements of all other Reich management offices. steering of the party's alignment sheets. Design of the arrangement. Collection of guide words, laws and decrees for evaluation for party work. Welsch (as representative) II A 2: The Party's commitment to economic, agricultural, financial and transport policy affairs Stengel (as representative) II A 3: Social policy affairs Elberding II A 5: Volkstumspolitik Seekamp (as representative) II A 6: General complaints and petitions Gerber Hauptamt II B: Ritterbusch (1945: Wall) II B 1: Propaganda and press, events and lectures Buhler (as representative) II B 2: Training and education in the party, adult education, leader training Schenke (as representative) II B 3: Culture and celebration design, written material Dr. Hammerbacher II B 4: Reporting and information system, events and lectures of the Brandes II B 5: Structure Detering (in representation) II B 6: e.g. V. Haar (in representation) Hauptamt II E II E 1: Party political leadership and organisational questions of the working areas of the National Group Norway and Belgium, the Adriatic Coastal Region, the Alpine Foothills and the Party Liaison Office Prague, as well as their coordination within the party to the national political and Germanic control centre. Refugee issues from evacuation areas outside the empire. Evaluation of the reporting material produced by the party sector. II E 2: Party political leadership issues of the AO National Group, the NSDAP and the Gauinspektionen See-Schifffahrt. Intergovernmental work of the party abroad by coordinating within the party and cooperating with the AA. (Domestic I and II) Align the Party's foreign work with the policy of the people and evaluate the foreign policy material generated in the Party sector. II E 3: Treatment of folklore issues within the Reich through the political orientation of German folk growth, consolidation of the endangered German folk growth and treatment of foreign peoples in the territory of the Reich. German folklore groups abroad, folk-political questions in the Generalgouvernement, Protectorate and in the occupied territories. Racial Issues in People's Growth Work. Corresponding work with: Main Office for Folklore Issues, Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, Reichskommissar für die consolidation deutscher Volkstums, VDA, Kärntner Volksbund, Steirischer Heimatbund, Volkstumsreferenten der Gliederungen und angeschlossenen Verbände. Hauptamt II F NS leading officers as leadership in the Wehrmacht. Rudder (1944/45) Hauptamt II M II M 1: Air war measures and operational planning. Beier (1945) II M 2: Securing personnel and material needs. (UK positions, fuel management, home flak, etc.) Zander Hauptamt II P Personalamt Hesseldieck (1945: Walkenhorst) II P 1: General personnel policy, seniority and service issues, pay and pensions. Young drivers and driver selection. II P 2: Disciplinary and appeal matters, judgments of war courts II P 3 Orders and decorations. care for surviving dependants and general care measures. Personal care for the soldiers of the service. Elections and conscripts to the Reichstag II P 4: Kommandiertenheim Rauchstraße. Hauptamt II V Staff management "Volkssturm" Bofinger (1945) Hauptamt II W Wehrmachtsfragen, at the same time liaison office to OKW Passe II W 1: Fundamental Wehrmachtsfragen. Rodegerts II W 2: Leadership office for Wehrmacht issues in parties, divisions, affiliated associations and supervised organisations. Rodegerts (in representation) II W 3: Special tasks of Rodegerts (in representation) II W 4: Questions of welfare and support for party comrades and people comrades vis-à-vis the Wehrmacht Rodegerts (in representation) The organisational structure and distribution of tasks of Division III are best derived from an undated "Provisional Business Distribution Plan of Division III - Party Law, Economy, Church", which was drawn up before 1944 at any rate: (22) Head: State Secretary Head of Command Dr. Klopfer Representative: Ministerialdirektor Dienstleiter Klemm, (at the same time Head of Group III C) Personal advisor: Oberregierungsrat Mainchnittsleiter Dr. Lincke Personalstelle III PSt.: Regierungsamtmann Klein, Regierungsinspektor Hausrath Special tasks: III V: Government Councillor Section Head Dr Beyer Government Councillor Dr Beyer Lang SS-Hauptsturmführer Will SS-Hauptsturmführer Klauß Affairs of the Security Police and the SD, procurement and evaluation of intelligence material, general questions of competence, political science investigations and research tasks, assessment of the political science literature - cooperation with the Party Official Examination Commission -, magazine and press editorial office of the department, affairs of the Black Corps, archive and map office of department III S: Regierungsrat Bereichsleiter Knöpfel Studienrat Dr. Scheele Lehrer Funk Frau Thomas Special orders of the Reichsleiter, Sonderbücherei, Archiv, Reichsschule Feldafing Gruppe III A: (Internal Administration, Folklore) Leiter: Oberregierungsrat Dienstleiter Ancker Vertreter: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Kap III A 1: Ministerialrat Dr. Dr. Hillebrecht Amtsrat Blankenburg Amtsrat Erler Amtsrat Verwaltungs- und Verwaltungsreformfragen; Administrative simplification; New areas; Reichskanzlei III S 2: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Kap Gemeinschaftsleiter Wöll Volkstumsfragen; Nationality matters; Eastern issues; Sammlungssagen III A 3: Currently unoccupied, distributed among III A 2, 4, 7 Public health (incl. (civil status, special sovereign matters); presidential chancellery (especially decorations); Federal Foreign Office; colonial matters Group III B: (economy, labour, nutrition, transport) Head: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Dr. Bärmann 1st representative: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Fröhling 2nd representative: Oberregierungsrat Bereichsleiter Dr. Geißler III B 1: Head: Gauhauptstellenleiter Mittag Organisation der gewerblichen Wirtschaft Gauwirtschaftsberater - Ausschüsse III B 1 a: Regierungsrat Section head Dr. Densow Energie; Ostwirtschaft; Preise; Handel; Handwerk; Entjudungen; Allgemeine Wirtschaftsfragen III B 1 b: Regierungsrat Section head Kopp Produktion der gewerblichen Wirtschaft (außer Kohle, Bergbau, Energie); Rohstoff- und Warenbewirtschaftung; Personalien in der gewerblichen Wirtschaft III B 1 c: Reichsbankrat Vellmer Kohle-Bergbau; money and capital markets; banking and credit; insurance; foreign trade; tourism III B 2: Head: Oberregierungsrat Bereichsleiter Dr. Geißler Basic questions of social policy III B 2 a: Regierungsrat Section head Schwingenstein Amtsrat Gemeinschaftsleiter Fiedler Arbeitseinsatz; Sozialversicherung; Versorgungswerk III B 2 b: Regierungsrat Beimes Lohnpolitik; Gewerbeaufsicht; Berufserziehung III B 2 c: Section Head Gölz Construction Industry; Housing and Settlement; Transport; Post III B 3: Senior Government Council Section Head Kok Government Officer Eisermann Food Industry; Agriculture; Forestry; Hunting; Price Policy in Food, Agriculture and Forestry; Reich Office for the People of the Reich; Reich Nutrition Office; Armament of the German Village; Regional Planning; Battle of Production III B 4: Attorney at Law Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. Dr. (German Federal Law Gazette) On top of that, support of the Gauwirtschaftsberater; conferences; reporting; newsletter "Der Gauwirtschaftsberater"; editing; economic policy training and propaganda; special assignments III B 5: main editor, section leader Vollmann Wirtschaftswissenschaft; archive; business press and magazines; magazine "Nationalsozialistische Wirtschaftspolitik" Group III C: (Justice, law of the NSDAP) Head: Ministerialdirektor Dienstleiter Klemm Representative: Oberregierungsrat Oberreichsleiter Dr. Enke III C 1: Ministerialdirektor Dienstleiter Klemm Reserved special areas: NSRB; Academy for German Law; Participation in personnel matters of the judiciary III C 2: Oberregierungsrat Oberreichsleiter Dr. Enke Justizinspektor Gemeinschaftsleiter Ungethüm Party Law; Civil Law; Commercial Law; Labour Law; Procedural Law; Voluntary Jurisdiction; Bar Law; Civil Cases; Individual Cases III C 3: Oberlandesgerichtsrat Müller Justizinspektor Gemeinschaftsleiter Ungethüm Criminal Law; Wehrmacht Criminal Law; Juvenile Criminal Law; Grace Cases; Compensation Act; Criminal Cases, Individual Cases III C 4: Prosecutor von Kaldenberg Secondary criminal laws; traffic law; criminal proceedings for racial defilement; criminal procedural law; costs and fees; testimony approvals (interrogation law) III C 5: District Court Council Section leader Klemm-Werner participation in III C 2; industrial property law; copyright and publishing law; shipping law; treatment of hostile property III C 6: Higher Regional Court Council Dr. Hopf Strafsachen, Einzelfälle; Heimtückesachen; study and training reform; prison group III D: (Church, school, university, youth leader of the German Reich, Ministry of Propaganda, organization of celebrations, provision for war survivors) Head: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Krüger Representative: Oberregierungsrat Reichsleiter Dr. Schmidt-Römer III D 1: Oberregierungsrat Abschnittleiter Dr. Fruhwirth Central steering of political and denominational affairs in the new areas, insofar as they are not dealt with in Divisions III D 2 to III D 4. Confessional contributions; right to leave and enter the church; cemetery law; public holiday law; acquisition of the right of the dead hand; confessional activities in hospitals; church statistics; general legal issues; insofar as they concern political-confessional matters III D 2: Oberlandesgerichtsrat Dr. Birk Steuerinspektor Wischer Allgemeine Kirchenfragen; Special Questions of the Protestant Church; Special Questions of the Catholic Church; Church and Wehrmacht; Other Churches and Sects; God-believers III D 3: Oberregierungsrat Bereichsleiter Dr. Schmidt-Römer Tax Inspector Wischer Finance and Property Affairs of the Churches, including Church Matters of the Reich Ministry of Finance; Church and Economy III D 4: Government Councillor Dr. Schlapper Tax Inspector Wischer Transfer of clergy and church officials to other professions; Personnel and Salary Matters of Political and Denominational Significance III D 5: Head of Office Dr. Wischer Landwehr Reichspropagandaministerium Restriction of confessional propaganda work and deconfessionalization of political and cultural means of leadership (literature, press, music, film, visual arts); celebration design; Reich Aviation Ministry; Confidential Information III D 6: Head of Studies, Section Head Dr. Anton Allgemeine Erziehungsfragen; personal details of teacher training institutions; HJ participation in educational matters at schools; German education abroad and in the areas incorporated into the Reich III D 7: Regierungsrat Section leader Kristandt Allgemeine Verwaltungs- und Rechtsangelegenheiten der Schule; Schule und Kirche; Landjahr; Heimschule; Kinderlandverschickung; Minderheitenschulwesen; Lehrerbesoldung; Jugendführer des Deutschen Reiches III D 8: z. Philipp Government Inspector Gerst University Affairs, including Personal Data; Technical and Vocational Schools; High Command of the Wehrmacht, in particular Wehrmacht Welfare III D 9: Kreisleiter Dr. Kurt Schmidt Displacement of denominational influences, especially denominational influence on youth outside school and on adult education; denominational interventions in hero worship; denominational superstition (miracles, prophecies, chain letters, pilgrimages, processions, etc.).); denominational influence on foreign peoples in the Reich; the abusive use of National Socialist terms, symbols and institutions as well as German customs by the churches; Churches and Party Group III E: (Finances) Head: Ministerialrat Oberbereichsleiter Dr. Gündel Representative: Oberregierungsrat Gemeinschaftsleiter Dr. Brack Financial policy; property and transport taxes; family burden equalisation; customs and excise taxes; monopolies; budget matters, financial equalisation; financial relations with the incorporated territories and with non-German territories and states; Reich assets and Reich debts; compensation issues Group III P: (civil servant matters and participation in state personnel policy) Head: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Dr. Kernert Representative: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Döll III P 1: Ministerialrat Dienstleiter Dr. Kernert Reserved special areas: III P 2: Landrat Dr. Grazer General and internal administration; questions of junior staff and training III P 3: Landrat Dr. Hoffmann Auswärtiges Amt; Ministry of Labour; Unterrichtsverwaltung III P 4: Oberregierungsrat Oberbereichsleiter Döll Reichsjustizministerium; individual cases according to §§ 42 and 71 DBG III P 5: Oberregierungsrat Abschnittleiter Dr. Grazer Bode Amtsrat Gemeinschaftsleiter Sommer Beamtenrecht; Remuneration Law; Reich Finance Administration; Court of Audit; Prussian Finance Ministry; East Ministry; Colonial Policy Office III P 6: Reich Bank Council Section Head Grimm Reich Economics Ministry; Four-Year Plan; Reichsbank; Freemason Issues III P 7: Oberregierungsrat Section Head Kirn Reich Transport Ministry; Division Reich Minister Speer; Reich Post Ministry III P 8: Head of the section Brändle Beurlaubungen for purposes of the NSDAP; service penal cases - individual cases; civil servants of the simple, middle and upper service of all business areas; OKW; Reich Aviation Minister; Reich Forester III P 9: Regierungsrat Section leader Tent Jewish and mixed-race issues; police, medical, veterinary, and surveying administration; Reich Labor Service; Reich Ministry of Food; Reich Nutrition A business distribution plan for Division I, which was exclusively concerned with the administration of the Reich's agencies and whose leader in the years 1941 - 1943/44 was to be proven to be Hauptdienstleiter Winkler, from 1944 Dienstleiter Zeller (23), could not be determined. Externally, the three departments of the Party Chancellery continued to appear as "managing directors, internal party affairs officers and constitutional affairs officers". In addition to these three departments, which de facto constituted the "Party Chancellery" office, the published organisational overviews also continued to include other institutions de iure as parts of the Party Chancellery, which in practice developed as relatively independent independent entities or whose heads did not appear in their Party Chancellery function or appeared only marginally. Listed are (1942/1944): (24) Special representative at the party chancellery: Oberdienstleiter Oexle Main archive of the NSDAP: Reichsamtsleiter Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944: Bereichsleiter Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht, from 1944 on: Head of the Department Dr. Uetrecht. Brügmann The Head of the Foreign Organization: Gauleiter Bohle The Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Popular Growth (from 1944: The Commissioner of the NSDAP for all Popular Issues): Reichsleiter Himmler The Commissioner for the New Construction of the Reich: Gauleiter Adolf Wagner The Commissioner for all Issues of Technology and its Organization: Commander-in-Chief Dr. Todt, Oberbefehlsleiter Speer The official in charge of all public health issues: (Chief) Befehlsleiter Dr. Conti The head of the NSDAP's Race Policy Office: Ober- bzw. Hauptdienstleiter Dr. Groß The head of the Office of Genealogy: Reichsamtsleiter bzw. Hauptbereichsleiter Dr. Mayer Der Beauftragte für Fragen der Finanz- und Steuerpolitik: Fritz Reinhardt, Reichslager of the NSDAP, Bad Tölz: Seidel, Reichsschule of the NSDAP, Feldafing am Starnberger See: Reichsamtsleiter or Oberdienstleiter Görlitz Remarks: (1) Thus the contemporary terminology of the task description in the organization and yearbooks of the NSDAP; here: Organisationsbuch der NSDAP, edited by the Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP, 2.-4. Aufl., Munich 1937, p. 152 (BArch NSD 9/17). (2) On the overall complex of the relationship between party and state during Nazi rule, cf. in particular Martin Broszat, Der Staat Hitlers. Foundation and development of his internal constitution, Munich 8th edition 1979; Peter Diehl-Thiele, Party and State in the Third Reich. Studies on the relationship between the NSDAP and general internal state administration 1933-1945, Munich 1969. (3) Broszat, Staat Hitlers, p. 80, on the structure of the Reichsorganisationsleitung der NSDAP under Gregor Strasser see p. 73 ff. (4) Broszat, Staat Hitlers, p. 80, on the structure of the Reichsorganisationsleitung der NSDAP under Gregor Strasser cf. p. 79. (5) RGBl. I p. 1016. (6) BArch R 43 II/694. (7) RGBl. I. S 1203. (8) Information from the unprinted essay by Kurt Borsdorff: "Mit Reichsleiter Martin Bormann auf dem Obersalzberg" in BArch NS 6/789; cf. Diehl-Thiele, Partei und Staat, p. 218, note 46 (9) See above all the NSDAP Organization Books available until 1941 (BArch NSD 9/16-19) and the National Socialist Yearbooks published until 1938 "with the cooperation of the Reichsleitung der NSDAP" by Reichsleiter Philipp Bouhler, from 1939 by Reichsorganisationsleiter Robert Ley (BArch NSD 9/22-26). (10) Organisational overviews and business distribution plans of the department of the deputy leader or of the party chancellery are summarised in NS 6/451. (11) NSD 9/25-26. (12) Cf. Broszat, State of Hitler, pp. 311 ff. (13) Printed, inter alia, in the Organisation Book of the NSDAP, 1943, p. 151 (NSD 9/20). (14) RGBl. I p. 295. (15) Cf. the detailed task description of the Party Chancellery in the National Socialist Yearbook 1944, p. 181 f. (NSD 9/28). (16) RGBl. I p. 35. (17) See above all Josef Wulf, Martin Bormann - Hitlers Schatten, Gütersloh 1962, Lew Besymenski, the last notes by Martin Bormann. A document and its author, Stuttgart 1974, and Jochen von Lang, The Secretary. Martin Bormann: The man who ruled Hitler, Stuttgart 1977. The various depictions of Rudolf Hess concentrate above all or even exclusively on his flight to England, the conviction in Nuremberg and in particular the prison time in Spandau, so that a comprehensive, scientific representation of the "deputy of the Führer" and his activities 1933 - 1941 is basically still outstanding. (18) NS 6/159. (19) Cf. in detail Broszat, State of Hitler, pp. 392 ff. (20) All plans and overviews in NS 6/451. (21) NS 6/138; below the group leader level it was not possible to assign the names listed there to certain organizational units. (22) NS 6/451; there also the less detailed organizational overview printed by Diehl-Thiele, Partei und Staat, pp. 222 ff. For the staff at the beginning of 1945, see also the telephone directory of 20 Jan. 1945 in NS 6/138. (23) In addition to the organizational overviews in NS 6/451, see NS Yearbooks 1942 and 1944 (NSD 9/27-28). (24) NS Yearbooks 1942 and 1944 (NSD 9/27-28). Inventory description: Inventory history of written records management in the party office Although file plans and other registry aids have only been handed down in fragments for certain periods of time, even then, a clear picture of the written records management of the Hess and Bormann offices can be drawn. A file plan from the year 1937 is divided into two main areas (10 party, 20 state) and then divided into four levels according to the subject system. Files that could have been listed according to this plan, which was valid until about 1940, are only preserved in the form of single sheets or small processes, so that this file plan was of no particular importance for the indexing of the holdings. On the other hand, an excerpt from the file plan for matters of Reich defence (1) dating from 1939 proved to be a useful aid. It provides for up to 80 small subject series, of which 3 to 18 each are grouped into five groups (operational planning, subject areas, defence, preparation of mobilisation and general affairs); finally, collective folders for routine processes could be created as required. The systematic weaknesses that are typical of small subject series became clearly apparent in the distortion. The division of the records into "destination files", "auxiliary files" and "files for correspondence" is not convincing and could be neglected in the listing of the files of the competent Division M and Group II M respectively. File plans for the mass of the surviving records, i.e. from the time of the Party Chancellery (1941 - 1945), have not been preserved. After all, Rotulus sheets preserved for a sub-area with titles to essentially completed processes show the systematics of the underlying file plan (2). Rotulus leaves for the file numbers 1010/0 to 3230/4 have been preserved, whereby a further stage in the numerical classification was partly formed. The classification was based on the department principle. The file plan was used until the end of the war, as the comparatively closed tradition from Department III shows, and was observed in principle. The reference number consisted of the name of the respective organizational unit and the file number. The fate of the holdings since the conquest of Germany by the Allies corresponds to the history of German contemporary historical sources in the war and post-war period in general. Perhaps there is a specific feature typical of the existence of a political party in that self-destruction by party functionaries accounts for a larger proportion than destruction by enemy action. Of course, the acts of annihilation cannot be proven in detail. Since 1955, the Federal Archives have received splinter-like remnants and a few closed groups of records, essentially from offices of the victorious powers USA and Great Britain, to a lesser extent from authorities and universities in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as about two dozen individual donations from private holdings, whereby takeovers from other holdings of the Federal Archives are added. In 1955, the Federal Archives took over copies of letters from the Chief of the Security Police and the SD to Bormann, of judgments handed over to Bormann by the Reich Minister of Justice, and of other documents from the Provenance Party Chancellery, all relating to events in connection with the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944, all of which - supplemented by a small amount of material from private collections - were combined in the NS 6 "Party Chancellery of the NSDAP" as a special "Collection July 20, 1944" due to their common provenance. The originals of these documents, which had already been transferred to the main archive of the NSDAP before the end of the war, were received by the Bundesarchiv in 1962 in the course of the repatriation of German files from the Federal Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia (USA). These historically highly significant materials were already made accessible in detail by Jürgen Huck in November 1955. His title recordings have been completely incorporated into this finding aid book (p. 94 ff.). The other contributions come from the University Library of Heidelberg, the American Document Center in Berlin, the Federal Records Center in Alexandria, Virginia, and the National Archives of the United States in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress there, and the British file depot in Whaddon Hall. In addition, there were a large number of smaller statements from German authorities and private owners. The holdings received a larger increase in the course of many years of organizing work from other holdings of the Federal Archives, above all from the NS 26 holdings (main archive of the NSDAP) and the "Schumacher Collection", which is to be dissolved altogether. In total, no more than 5 documents of the Party Chancellery should be preserved in the Federal Archives. This rough estimate may disregard the registries of the State Secretary Reinhardt in his capacity as "representative of the deputy of the leader or of the Party Chancellery for matters of job creation, financial and tax policy" and his personal adviser Dr. Hans Gündel, who was head of Group III E Public Finances in the Party Chancellery, remaining in inventory R 2 (Reich Ministry of Finance). Comments: (1) Both file plans in NS 6/69. (2) NS 6/803 - 804. Archival processing While the "Collection 20. July 1944" and which became known according to their core as "Kaltenbrunner Reports", were subjected to a detailed indexing, which already led in 1955 to a finding aid book with a detailed introduction and comprehensive index, the remaining parts of the inventory, fed by a multitude of duties and takeovers, were first recorded in the order of access, provided with provisional signatures, and in some cases marked summarily in terms of content - whereby, if available, the delivery directories of the delivering agency, for example the "Kaltenbrunner Reports", were usually followed. B. of the US Document Center -, Z. T. however, also downright according to archivfachlichen points of view registered. The final organizing and indexing work now carried out on this stock could therefore only partly be concerned with recording a number of accesses that had not been indexed at all up to now. The main task was rather the consolidation, standardisation and, in particular, the overall classification of the archival records - also from other holdings of the Federal Archives - which had been divided into numerous accesses and indexed to varying degrees of intensity up to that point, and which naturally necessitated an examination, but mostly also a reformulation, of the provisional titles found. This applied in particular when, on the one hand, the dissolution of predefined archive units, which had previously only been described in summary form and which had mostly been formed formally in Allied custody, into individual processes was offered, and, on the other hand, the combination of scattered parts of processes into processes or also of scattered individual processes into uniform series, some of which were provided for by the file plan, became possible. The intensive recording to Bormann of the reports of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD on the events in connection with the assassination attempt on 20 July 1944, made almost thirty years ago, was taken over in the finding aid book. Since, of course, it was not necessary to index the remaining components at this extraordinary depth, this complex of archival records described in Section C 8.1 continues to occupy a special position within the holdings, which is also clearly discernible according to formal criteria. This can be justified both on the basis of the exceptional importance of the documented object, proven by the very high user frequency, and on the remarkable quality of the sources. The "originals" of the above-mentioned documents, which arrived in the Federal Archives considerably later (1962) - the indexing in 1955 had been done on the basis of copies taken over from the Federal Archives at the time and made in American custody - had been formed according to American principles of order and were provided with their own provisional archive signatures in the Federal Archives. They have now been adapted to the order and distortion as they were created in 1955 for the distortion of the corresponding copies. This adaptation also extends to the signatures, so that the found distortion of the copies can also be applied without any restriction to the corresponding volume of originals - which now bears the same signature. In principle, attempts were made to adopt predefined registry units, to retain grown processes as archive units, and to use existing titles as a basis for title formation during indexing wherever possible. This attempt, however, could essentially only succeed with the organically grown written material from the years after 1940/41 handed down from Division III in the areas of "Foreign Trade" (C 12), "Money and Capital Markets" (C 14), "Construction Industry" (C 18) and "Housing Construction, Housing Management, Settlements" (C 19) - i.e. from the offices III B 1 and III B 2 - with limitations also in the surviving records of the main offices and the main offices with restrictions. Groups II M (mobilization of the party and distribution of the Reich) and II F (Nazi leadership and education of the Wehrmacht). As a rule, only scattered and incoherent remnants from the other organisational units, i.e. also from the registries of the deputy leader, his staff leader or the head of the party chancellery, the department heads, from the groups II A and II B concerned with the actual party leadership in the narrower sense, as well as from the years 1933 to 1936 in general, reached the holdings. Here, therefore, there was only the choice of registering individual pieces as such - if the historical value made it appear justified - or of combining documents that belonged together thematically or according to formal criteria to form artificial processes in which either the documented object or the formal criterion (e.g. Führer's discussions with Bormann, templates for Reichsleiter Bormann, lectures by Friedrich's head of department to the Führer's deputy) were decisive for the process formation. The relatively complete and complete series of orders, decrees and circulars of the deputy of the leader or of the party chancellery is of central importance not only with regard to the overall wrecked tradition of the entire collection, but also because of its outstanding independent source value. The information contained in these documents (cf. Section C 1) on all areas of the Party Chancellery's leadership and administrative activities was primarily intended for higher Nazi functionaries and constitutes a high-quality collection of sources, both in terms of quality and quantity, for research into the ruling apparatus of both the NSDAP and the Nazi regime in Germany, which could be used not only for special studies on Hess and Bormann's offices, but also for a variety of questions in the research of the Nazi era. It therefore seemed advisable not to leave it - under the influence of the party announcements printed in the Reichsverfügungsblatt - with a conventional recording of titles by volume, which was limited to chronological information, but to make the content of both the subject matter and the text of the decrees, orders and circulars as accessible as possible using the possibilities of automatic data processing. The result of this indexing will be presented in the second part of this finding aid book, while in the first part the series of party announcements will be recorded and listed in purely chronological order within the overall systematics of the stock (Section C 1). As far as possible, the classification of the records is based on the remaining business distribution plans of Divisions II and III. The "regulatory registration principle" was applied insofar as, for practical reasons, it proved necessary to provide for several development sections (Sections C 18 and C 19) at a relatively low organisational level (e.g. head office III B 2 c) in the case of relatively dense parts of the transmission from offices III B 1 and III B 2. In organisational areas with a ruinous tradition, on the other hand, written records of several groups were sometimes combined, e.g. groups II F and II W in section C 5. It goes without saying that in cases in which a classification was not formally possible due to a lack of business signs or due to the dissolution of the registry discipline at the end of the war, a decision was made on the basis of factual aspects. This applies in particular to the documents in connection with 20 July, which went directly to Bormann at the Führer's headquarters without any noteworthy processing by the Party Chancellery and from there went directly to the main archive of the NSDAP. In the classification scheme of the index they now appear under the generic term "Combating political opponents by security police and SD", although an assignment to Bormann's reference files in Chapter B would also have been conceivable. This applies mutatis mutandis to the documents relating to general party management matters, which are combined under "Management, Adjutant's Office" and in Sections C 2 and C 3 and for which there was no recognisable regulatory approach - not even in the form of a reference number - to registration. As it were, those documents were appended to the inventory under the designation "Special Tasks" which did not arise from Bormann's activity as head of the Party Chancellery, but were related to Bormann's activity as an administrator of Hitler's private assets. These are remnants of the traditions of the equipment of the planned "Führer Museum" in Linz and the recovery of the art treasures already "acquired" for this purpose, as well as a few files from the management of the "Führerstiftung Wohnungsbau Linz" and the administration of the "Führerbauten" on the Obersalzberg. A total of three concordances not only ensure that certain signatures of the holdings can be easily identified in the finding aid book (Concordance I), but also guarantee that archival documents cited after Allied signatures (Concordance II), after the provisional numbers of the Federal Archives or after earlier signatures from other holdings of the Federal Archives (Concordance III) remain easily accessible. In principle, an inventory of the Federal Archives is to be used according to the Federal Archives' specially prepared finding aids, since the Allied signatures indicated, for example, in the American "Guides to German Records microfilmed at Alexandria" or other finding aids for confiscated German files, mostly represent an outdated state of order of the files and can only be used for ordering American microfilms. For practical reasons, it should still be possible in individual cases to move from the Allied signature possibly cited in publications to the signature of the original in the Federal Archives. The present finding aid book was created as part of a retro-digitisation project of the Federal Archives and contains the digitised indexing results of the present conventional finding aid. In connection with the planned online launch, the portfolio was revised in 2008. The entire collection was supplemented above all by files and dossiers from the collection "NS Archive of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR". Citation method BArch NS 6/ .... Characterization of the content: The fact that a user of the inventory is repeatedly reminded of the fact that these are only highly unequally distributed debris or even scattered fragments of a formerly quantitatively and qualitatively important registry body, roughly comparable with the inventory of the Reich Chancellery (R 43), is certainly the main reason why considerations of the historical value of the existing traditions must have an ambivalent result. Due to the closed series of the "Verfügungen, Anordnungen und Rundschreiben" and the - admittedly for the most part for a long time published -(1) Überlieferung zum 20. Juli 1944 (1) the holdings certainly belong to the qualitatively most significant from the time of the Nazi rule. However, even against the background of the most recent outstanding importance and competence of the party law firm and in particular of its head, the tradition still received cannot make up for the loss of important parts of the registry. Thus Bormann's much-described closeness and position of trust in relation to Hitler is documented at best in some splintery notes on "Führerbesprechungungen". The party's relationship to the state, Bormann's role in the Nazi power structure, in particular also considerations of the actual power of Hitler's directly assigned offices and the forms of rule exercised by them cannot be conclusively assessed on the basis of Bormann's preserved sources and the party chancellery, in which some important conclusions could rightly have been expected for the aforementioned reason. The fact that, instead, the Nazi regime's efforts to build social housing during the war are very closely documented and can largely make up for the loss of the Reich Housing Commissioner's tradition is a pleasing finding for the detailed researcher in this context, but it is undoubtedly of subordinate importance overall. The question remains as to whether the decisive files - such as the personal registry - will be filed by the applicant.

BArch, R 55 · Fonds · 1920-1945
Part of Federal Archives (Archivtektonik)

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

BArch, R 58 · Fonds · Ca. 17. Jh. - 1945 (1946, 1957-1960)
Part of Federal Archives (Archivtektonik)

History of the Inventory Designer: On October 1, 1939, summary of the (Prussian) Secret State Police Office (Ge‧stapa), the office of the Political Police Commander of the (non-Prussian) Länder, the Reich Criminal Police Office, the Security Police Main Office, and the Sicherheits‧haupt‧amtes (SD Main Office) of the SS in the newly erected Security Police Main Office, which was established by the Chief of Security Police and SD, Reinhard Heydrich (since October 30, 1939). January 1943 Ernst Kaltenbrunner) Reichssi‧cher‧heits‧hauptamt (RSHA); in October 1943 the RSHA was established as follows: Amt I Per‧sonal, Training and Organisation of the Security Police and the SD, Amt II Haushalt und Wirtschaft, Amt III Deutsche Lebensgebiete, Amt IV Gegner-Erforschung und -Be‧kämp‧fung (Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt), Amt V Verbrechensbekämpfung (Reichskriminal‧poli‧zei‧amt), Amt VI Auslandsnachrichtendienst, Amt VII Weltanschauliche Forschung und Aus‧wer‧tung Content characterisation: Part 1 (formerly: ZStA, 17.03): 1917-1945 (138): Personnel, organisation, business administration of various SS and SD offices 1917-1919, 1933-1945 (12), political situation (with reports), labour movement, communist and social democratic actions, church affairs (both domestic and foreign) 1921-1945 (22), training activity (also church political training) 1936-1944 (13), Literaturnach‧weise (historical and contemporary documents) 1927-1943 (9), lecture directories, Seme‧ster and seminar papers, various records 1923-1945 (15), Hexenwesen, Zauberei (with references) 1932-1942 (36), Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt, Berlin 1933-1943 (14), Geheime Staatspolizei Bremen 1934 (1), Staatspolizei(leit)stellen - mit verschiedenen Außen(dienst)stellen und Grenz(polizei)kommissariaten - Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Karlsruhe, Königsberg (Prussia), Munich, Saarbrücken, Prague 1933-1944 (15), Commander of the Security Police and the SD in the Be‧reich of the Military Commander in France, Paris 1944 (1) Part 2 (formerly: BArch, R 58): 1920-1945 (1.670): Administration: Central authorities of the Security Police and SD 1933-1945 (21), Central and Unterbehör‧den 1933-1945 (6), Reichsstiftung für Länderkunde 1943-1944 (5), Correspondence and administration of written records 1933-1945 (20), Procurement, in particular Weapons and equipment 1933-1945 (15), vehicles 1936-1944 (10), literature 1941-1944 (9), budget, cash and accounting 1933-1945 (13), personnel affairs in general 1933-1945 (10), affairs of individual departments and persons 1936-1945 (97), Involvement of university teachers by the Orient Research Centre 1944-1945 (3), Ein‧stellung, education and training 1930-1945 (22), disciplinary measures 1934-1944 (4) Monitoring and prosecution of political opponents: Principles and guidelines 1933-1945 (6), status reports and overviews from the gesam‧ten Reichsgebiet 1931-1944 (34), status reports, v.a. individual state police officers 1933-1939 (68), imposition of protective custody and "special treatment" 1933-1945 (5), Über‧wachung and persecution of the labor movement in general 1928-1944 (27), popular front, united front 1925-1940 (15), German united party 1937-1940 (3), Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and socialist splinter groups 1931-1943 (23), Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and communist splinter groups 1932-1942 (41), individual social democratic, socialist or communist political organizations 1926-1942 (17), socialist and communist youth and sports organizations 1931-1941 (26), "Red Aid" 1930-1939 (16), cultural political organizations, free thinkers 1927-1941 (12), socio-political, professional and other organizations 1920-1941 (7), Ge‧werkschaftsbewegung 1922-1944 (20), anarcho-syndicalist movement 1930-1940 (5), Catholic and Protestant churches 1933-1945 (16), sects and freemasons 1933-1943 (10), Jews in the "Old Empire" 1933-1944 (16), Jews in integrated and occupied territories 1937-1944 (4), Zionist movement 1933-1944 (5), anti-Semitic propaganda 1936-1941 (6), national, liberal, conservative and monarchist opponents 1931-1945 (11) Surveillance of the NSDAP, its branches and the Wehrmacht: NSDAP and Wehrmacht in General 1933-1943 (1), Ribbentrop Office 1937 (1), German Labour Front 1933-1940 (2), Foreign National Socialist and Fascist Groups and Foreign Emigrants in Germany 1934-1942 (1), 20. July 1944, 1944 (1) Supervision of non-political organizations and economic enterprises: non-political organizations 1929-1941 (3), sports, youth and social associations 1930-1942 (2), consumer cooperatives 1934-1941 (6), artificial language organizations (Esperanto and others) 1933-1943 (10), economic enterprises, v.a. Insurances 1933-1942 (13) Defense against and fight against espionage and sabotage: Defense against espionage, treason and sabotage in general 1933-1945 (22), Lan‧desverrat and espionage 1933-1945 (9), sabotage and assassinations 1933-1945 (13) Measures against foreigners and in the integrated, affiliated and occupied Gebie‧ten: Treatment of foreigners in general 1933-1944 (3), foreign workers 1934-1944 (3), prisoners of war 1938-1945 (4), national minorities in Reich territory and in incorporated, affiliated and occupied territories 1934-1944 (1), state police measures in Austria 1938-1943 (7), daily reports of the state police headquarters Vienna 1938-1940 (11), mood and situation reports from Austria 1939-1944 (6), Sudetenland, Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia 1938-1945 (4), incorporated eastern territories and Generalgou‧vernement for the occupied Polish territories 1939-1945 (3), Denmark and Norway 1940-1945 (14), Eupen-Malmedy, associated western territories (Alsace, Lorraine, Luxem‧burg) 1940-1943, occupied western territories (Netherlands, Belgium, France) 1940-1944 (8), Occupied Eastern Territories (Baltic States, USSR) 1941-1945 (24), Yugoslavia, Hungary, Siebenbür‧gen, Macedonia, Operation Zone Adriatic Coastal Country 1941-1945 (6) Persecution and fight against non-political crime: Remainders of the criminal police 1935-1944 (3) Surveillance of public opinion and mood of the people: Principles of reporting by the SS Security Service (SD) 1937-1945 (2), Be‧richte on the 1939 domestic political situation (2), reports from the Reich: General, opponents, cultural areas, folklore and public health, administration and law, economics, Luft‧krieg 1939-1943 (39), SD reports on domestic issues 1943-1944 (10), regional Stimmungs‧berichte 1943-1945 (2), propaganda against foreign reports and "anti-state" influencing of public opinion 1933-1944 (3), combating antinationalsozialisti‧schen Literature 1933-1944 (11), Review and prohibition of books and brochures 1933-1943 (66), monitoring of the press 1933-1945 (55), broadcasting 1933-1945 (20), music, theatre, film, art 1935-1943 (2), science, education and popular education 1939-1945 (1), folklore 1939-1944 (1), situation of the general administration 1939-1945 (4), administration of justice 1939-1942 (1), economy 1939-1943 (1) procurement and evaluation of news from abroad: Foreign news in general 1938-1945 (16), monitoring of trips abroad 1936-1939 (10), German citizens and emigrants abroad 1933-1943 (6), German minorities abroad 1933-1943, news about individual countries: Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Albania, Algeria, Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Bel‧gien, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Morocco, United Kingdom, Yugoslavia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nie‧derlande, Norway, Austria, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Rhodesia, Romania, Schwe‧den, Switzerland, Soviet Union, Spain, South Africa, Syria, Transjordan, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Hungary, Uruguay, Venezuela, United States of America, Cyprus 1931-1945 (188) Individual cases of persecution and surveillance: Lists, files and collective files, v.a. about political opponents from the Weimar Republic 1934-1944 (7), card index about clergy retired from church service, Or‧densangehörige and civil servants 1940-1944 (5), card index of the SD to files about individual Perso‧nen also outside of Germany with personal data and information about the reason of the file keeping, a.o. Emigrants, diplomats, foreign legionnaires, lodge membership, political activity, Spionage‧verdacht, loss of service card 1936-1938 (157), SD file on persons in individual places, especially in northern Germany with a focus on Lower Saxony, including information on profession, organization (including KPD, Freemasons, denominational associations, companies, Be‧hörden), with additional stamp "Jude" o.Dat. if necessary. (223), SD card indexes on Germans and foreigners, especially Ireland, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Tsche‧chen and Hungary 1933-1943 (22) Annex: Personal documents 1883-1945, 1957-1960 (73) Part 3a (formerly: ZPA, PSt 3): 1913-1946 (616): Amt IV Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt (Office IV): political surveillance in the area of various state police (leading) positions 1929-1942 (135), Lage‧berichte 1938-1941 (4), KPD, SPD 1920-1944 (115), political emigration, directories of fugitive political opponents 1931-1944 (34), Distribution of illegal pamphlets 1927-1940 (43), jurisdiction against political opponents and interrogation practice 1933-1943 (21), various areas of surveillance 1913-1946 (27), internals, supplements 1933-1944 (16) Main Security Office of the RFSS: Monthly and situation reports, daily reports 1933-1939 (34), KPD, SPD, Red Massen‧selbstschutz, Red Frontkämpferbund 1924-1940 (50), Rheinischer Separatismus 1919-1940 (7), distribution of illegal pamphlets 1931-1941 (23), jurisdiction against politi‧sche opponents 1931-1938 (9), various areas of surveillance 1931-1939 (23), Perso‧nalangelegenheit Professor Dr. Scheidt 1936-1944 (1) Various offices of the RSHA, including state police (leit)stellen Berlin, Leipzig, Magdeburg, Stettin, Vienna 1920-1945 (73) Supplement: Structure of the main offices and offices of the Reichsführer of the SS o.Dat. (1) Part 3b (formerly: ZStA, 17.01 St 3): 1919-1946 (1.344): Office IV Secret State Police Office: printed reports of the Secret State Police and memorandums 1923-1942 (29), situation reports of the Secret State Police Office 1933-1942 (63), statistical reports of the State Police Offices 1938-1942 (30), reports of the State Police Offices in Germany and the occupied territories 1941-1943 (23), Anwei‧sungen, ordinances, orders and search lists of the Secret State Police, etc. Personal data and reports on doctors and guards in concentration camps 1928-1946 (42), materials of the Secret State Police Office on the dissemination of illegal writings, arrests, investigations, trials and the Tätig‧keit of the party organizations of the KPD 1928-1945 (81), various materials 1930-1945 (33), German, foreign and international organizations, parties and projects vor‧nehmlich of the labor movement 1919-1945 (291); various departments (RSHA and others) 1929-1945 (58); reports and notifications of the state police departments 1921-1945 (417); font collection: Illegal writings with reports and reports of the Secret State Police on their distribution and registration 1926-1945 (203); Supplements: various offices (RSHA and others) 1930-1946 (74) Part 4 (taken over by the Polish archive administration): approx. 17th century - 1945 (771): various agencies (RSHA and others; focus: RSHA Office VII Weltanschauli‧che Research and evaluation, with illegal and confiscated materials), approx. 17th century - approx. 1945 (771) Part 5 (Boberach/Muregger project): approx. 1782 - approx. 1946 (approx. 3,902): SD-Hauptamt and agencies III, VI and VII - Control and prosecution of ideological opponents: Jews, members of Christian denominations, Freemason lodges (with illegal and confiscated materials), ca. 1782 - ca. 1946 (ca. 3,902) State of development: Part 1 (former: ZStA, 17th century)03): Database/Find Index Part 2 (formerly: BArch, R 58): Database/Publication Findbuch: Boberach, Heinz: Reichssicherheitshauptamt (fonds R 58) (Findbücher zu Bestände des Bundesarchivs, Bd. 22), Koblenz 1982, reprint 1992 u. 2000 Annex - Personnel documents: database Part 3a (formerly: ZPA, PSt 3): database/findbuch (1967) Part 3b (formerly: ZStA, 17.01 St 3): database/findbuch, vol. 1-3 (1968) Part 4 (taken over by the Polish archive administration): Provisional directory Part 5 (Boberach/Muregger project): Database/Preliminary Findbuch Reichssicherheitshauptamt R 58 Part I: SD-Hauptamt und Ämter III, VI und VII, edited by Heinz Boberach and Dietrich Muregger Subsequent developments in database citation style: BArch, R 58/...

BArch, R 3102 · Fonds · 1904-1947
Part of Federal Archives (Archivtektonik)

History of the Inventory Designer: 1872 Establishment of the Imperial Statistical Office by the Imperial Chancellor with the issue of a business instruction by the Imperial Chancellor, first subordinated to the Imperial Chancellery, since 1879 to the Imperial Office of the Interior and since 1918 with simultaneous renaming into the Imperial Statistical Office to the Imperial Ministry of Economics, 1934 Merger with the Prussian Statistical Office The task of the Office was the collection of material for Imperial Statistics, its technical and scientific examination, processing and publication, expert reporting on statistical issues. Inventory description: Inventory history Due to the effects of war and the collapse of the German Reich, the records of the Reich Statistical Office suffered heavy losses. At the Berlin headquarters in the Neue Königstraße, parts of the statistical material were destroyed during bomb attacks in May 1945. During the demolition of the building in 1945, the central registry was completely destroyed and approximately 10 of the 200,000 volumes of the library were lost. In the years 1943/44 several departments or departments with their written material had been moved to alternative locations. Much of the material that remained in the territories later occupied by Soviet troops was destroyed, while others were sent to the then Central State Archive in Potsdam. In April, the Dargun and Weimar branches were able to bring important material to Schwerin, from where the staff of the Reich Statistical Office there were able to flee to Hamburg at the end of April with parts of the documents in Schwerin. In Schwerin the original material of industrial production statistics and the mass of price statistics documents fell into Russian hands. The parts of the tax statistics that had been moved to Wernigerode were transported to Derenburg in Hesse before the retreat of the American troops. The stocks brought to Würzburg suffered losses due to bomb damage; the remaining documents were preserved. After 1945, the stock that had been relocated to the western occupation zones and the fragments of the traditions rescued from the Soviet occupation zone were concentrated in three places: 1. in the British occupation zone in the Statistical Office in Hamburg and Minden 2. and in the American occupation zone in the Ministerial Collecting Center in Fürstenhagen near Kassel; from there larger parts were brought to the USA 3. in the French occupation zone in the Office for Statistics and Economic Development in Baden-Baden. Essentially, the documents that fell into the hands of the Western occupying powers at the time were sent to the Federal Archives via the American Document Center in Berlin, the Federal Statistical Office or the USA. Archival evaluation and processing The successive transfer of parts of the collection from the Reich Statistical Office to the Federal Archives has led to a gradual recording of the holdings. The documents on the excise tax statistics, which came to the Federal Archives in 1952 with written documents from other American departments, were indexed in a finding aid book. The material returned from Alexandria in 1958 was provisionally developed in 1959. After a return of the files from the Berlin Document Center in 1962 and further splinter deliveries, a provisional completion of the indexing could be achieved in 1968. All the documents of the Statistical Office of the Reich that had entered the Federal Archives were indexed by a index of finds, whereby parts of the material recorded in the index of consumption statistics were re-signed. The publications of the Statistisches Reichsamt available in the Budnesarchiv at that time were recorded in a second index. Later, the Federal Statistical Office, in particular, was able to adopt further documents from agricultural statistics, industrial production statistics and the Reich Office for Defense Economic Planning and social statistics. Further exhibitor provenances were incorporated from the traditions of the Reichsnährstand and the Reichsstelle für Raumordnung which had been passed on to the Federal Archives. In addition, the Imperial War Museum in London handed over to the Federal Archives some relevant documents of small volume. In the winter of 1975, these additions were also incorporated into the inventory. Characterization of content: The following groups of written documents are to be named as the main focus of the collection: - Social statistics - Industry - Financial and tax statistics - Transport and communications - Abroad - Money and loans, insurance Part 1 (formerly: ZStA 31.02): Organisation and business operations 1922-1945 (186); Population and area 1925, 1933-1943 (28); Cross-sectoral economic activities 1910-1944 (533); Armament and war economy 1933-1947 (312); Industry 1910-1946 (542); Agriculture and forestry, fishing 1913, 1924-1945 (93); Transport and transportation 1924-1945 (475); Post and telegraph 1913-1944 (12); Crafts 1895, 1936-1944 (8); Arts and culture 1930-1944 (88); Medicine and sport 1928-1945 (72); Social services 1909-1945 (164); Education 1937, 1939-1944 (4); Finance and taxes 1913-1945 (177); Money and credit, insurance 1876-1946 (223); Justice and crime statistics 1937-1941 (3); Foreign countries 1904-1944 (640). Part 2 (formerly: BArch R 24): Administration 1923-1945 (16); Trade and transport statistics 1927-1944 (11); Social statistics 1927-1945 (1633); Population, business and cultural statistics 1910-1944 (5); Financial and tax statistics 1913-1945 (527); Summary economic statistics 1934-1945 (53); industrial production statistics 1936-1945 (35); general foreign statistics 1927-1945 (107); statistical communications - Memel 1932-1934 (2). State of development: Findbuch für Teil 1 (1982) Findbuch für Teil 2 (1975) Citation method: BArch, R 3102/...

BArch, NS 18 · Fonds · 1925-1945
Part of Federal Archives (Archivtektonik)

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

Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Abt. Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, GU 119 · Fonds · 1811, (1816), 1835-1974 und o. J.
Part of Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Dept. Main State Archives Stuttgart (Archivtektonik)

1st biographies: The GU 119 holdings essentially comprise documents from the estate of the Wiltrud Princess of Bavaria, Duchess of Urach. The collection also includes partial estates and fragments of estates of relatives of Princess Wiltrud, especially from the House of Bavaria (Wittelsbach). Specifically, these are the estate documents of the parents of Princess Wiltrud, King Ludwig III and Queen Marie Therese of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess Modena), Aunt Wiltrud, Princess Therese of Bavaria, and the grandparents of Wiltrud, Luitpold Prinzregent and Auguste Ferdinande Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany). In the following, the biographies of the personalities represented in the GU 119 inventory, of whom there are partial estates, are briefly discussed. 1.1 Wiltrud Duchess of Urach (née Princess of Bavaria)Wiltrud Marie Alix Princess of Bavaria was born on 10 November 1884 in Munich as the tenth of thirteen children of Ludwig Prince of Bavaria, later Prince Regent and King Ludwig III of Bavaria, and Marie Therese Princess of Bavaria. Only a few documents on the childhood and youth of Princess Wiltrud can be found in the present inventory (subcategory 1.1.1), so that only little information can be given about this period. Accordingly, Princess Wiltrud and her siblings were taught by house teachers. The mother Princess Marie Therese also took care of the upbringing of the children and until Prince Ludwig took office she had hardly any representative duties to fulfil. Prince Ludwig's family lived mainly in Schloss Leutstetten near Lake Starnberg. A large estate belonged to Leutstetten Castle, which belonged to Prince Ludwig's private estate and which he developed into an agricultural model estate. When Prince Ludwig succeeded Prince Regent Luitpold after the death of his father Prince Regent Luitpold in 1912, his wife Princess Marie Therese and his daughter Princess Wiltrud also had to take on more and more representative tasks, about which the information in the present holdings in the category 1.During the First World War Princess Wiltrud supported her mother in her extensive charitable activities. Together with her mother, her sisters and their court ladies she packed gift packages (so-called "Liebesgaben") for the Bavarian soldiers, non-commissioned officers and officers at the front, in which ham, chocolate, canned goods and partly also laundry were packed (cf. subcategories 1.9.1 and 1.9.2). Friends of the royal family from Sárvár (Hungary), where Queen Marie Therese owned a large estate, and from Sulden (South Tyrol), where the royal family often went on mountain tours, also benefited from these gift packages. The recipients of these coveted "gifts of love" often thanked Princess Wiltrud with field letters, sometimes extensive reports on war events and photographs of the front and the occupied territories. These partly quite descriptive materials have been preserved in subcategories 1.9.2 and 1.9.3 of the present inventory. In addition, Princess Wiltrud and her mother visited hospitals and hospitals and gave comfort to the soldiers and officers of the Bavarian army who were lying there. Finally, Princess Wiltrud also worked temporarily in the "war sewing room" set up by her mother in the Nibelungensälen of the Munich Residenz, where 600 to 800 seamstresses and knitters worked. The "Kriegsnähstube" provided the Bavarian troops moving into the field with laundry quickly and unbureaucratically. When in November 1918 the social democratic politician Kurt Eisner proclaimed the republic in Munich, the royal family left Munich and initially withdrew to Schloss Wildenwart. The end of the monarchy in Bavaria was a decisive turning point for Princess Wiltrud and the other members of the House of Bavaria. Princess Wiltrud, like all representatives of the German princely houses, lost her privileges. Princess Wiltrud first lived at Wildenwart Castle until her marriage and on 25 November 1924 Wiltrud Princess of Bavaria married Wilhelm (II) Duke of Urach in Munich. On the following day the church wedding took place, also in Munich. The marriage remained childless. After her marriage, Duchess Wiltrud lived alternately at Schloss Lichtenstein and Palais Urach in Stuttgart. When her husband died in 1928, Duchess Wiltrud also took over the care of the youngest children of Wilhelm (II.) Duke of Urach from his marriage to Amalie Herzogin von Urach (née Duchess of Bavaria). In the 1930s, Duchess Wiltrud moved to the former royal hunting lodge in Oberstdorf, which she had inherited from her father's estate and which she had renovated especially for this purpose. At times Duchess Wiltrud also visited Schloss Lichtenstein and Schloss Wildenwart. Duchess Wiltrud showed an interest in music, fine arts, history and botany, which can be seen in the printed matter and materials preserved in this collection. In addition, she undertook several voyages, including a longer voyage by ship on the "Monte Rosa" in 1935 to Brazil, Senegal and Morocco. From 1901 to 1903 she travelled the Balkans with her mother and younger sisters. During this time she also made a boat trip on the Adriatic with her mother, her younger sisters and Karl Stephan Archduke of Austria, about which she also wrote a travel diary, which was published in excerpts in a magazine. A copy of this journal can be found in Bü 719. She also wrote articles about a trip to the Arlberg (Austria) in magazines (Bü 719). In addition, she frequently travelled to visit her stepchildren, her siblings and their families, and the other relatives, which is not least reflected in the extensive correspondence preserved in this collection. In addition to the aforementioned travel descriptions, Duchess Wiltrud also published poems in magazines and calendars under her name (Bü 842). Like many members of the House of Bavaria, Duchess Wiltrud was deeply religious and had received a strictly Catholic education. The Duchess also maintained close contact with Catholic clergy and nuns, as can be seen from her correspondence with them (especially Bü 249 and 250). Not least the memberships of Duchess Wiltrud in religious associations, brotherhoods and congregations, which are documented in Bü 731, and the multitude of religious publications and the collection of material in the sub-categories 1.11.1 and 1.18.3 bear witness to the religiousness of the Duchess.Wiltrud Princess of Bavaria died on 28 March 1975 in Oberstdorf. She was buried in the cemetery of Großengstingen near Reutlingen. 1.2 Therese Princess of BavariaTherese Charlotte Marianne Auguste Princess of Bavaria was born on 12 November 1850 as the third of four children and sole daughter of Luitpold Prince of Bavaria, later to become Prince Regent of Bavaria, and Auguste Ferdinande Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany).Together with her brothers Ludwig, who was later to rule Bavaria as Prince Regent and King Ludwig III, Leopold and Arnulf, she was taught by her mother and not by house teachers, as was customary in princely houses at the time. As an adult, she spoke twelve languages. In addition to her talent for languages, the princess developed a keen interest in the natural sciences and the geography and culture of foreign countries at an early age. Since she was denied university studies as a woman, Princess Therese acquired her extensive scientific knowledge through self-study. The princess acquired considerable expertise in geography, ethnology, botany and zoology - especially ornithology (ornithology) - and Princess Therese began her extensive travels as a young woman. Together with her brother Prince Leopold and his wife Gisela Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria) she travelled North Africa, Spain, Portugal and France. Princess Therese almost always travelled incognito, often under the name of a "Countess Elpen", and with a small entourage. In 1898 she undertook an expedition of several months to South America, from which she brought a rich collection of zoological, botanical and ethnological material, including over 200 species of fish. These collections were later bequeathed to the Zoologische Staatssammlung München and the Münchner Völkerkundemuseum. Unfortunately, the collections were almost completely destroyed during the Second World War. Princess Therese discovered on her travels also previously unknown animal species, such as the catfish in Colombia, a longhorn beetle in Ecuador and a singing chirp in Trinidad. On her travels to South America, she also explored several Indian tribes in the Amazon region that were unknown to date in European scientific circles. In 1893 Princess Therese travelled North America, where she was particularly interested in the Plains Indians. In addition to ethnological and zoological studies, the princess also conducted botanical studies on her travels. The plants discovered by her in the process found their way into botanical literature with the addition of the name "theresiae". Princess Therese published scientific treatises and travelogues about her numerous journeys: In 1880 the article "A trip to Tunis" about her trip to North Africa was published. The experiences of her trip to Russia were included in the treatise "Travel Impressions and Sketches from Russia", which was published in 1895. The impressions of Princess Therese's travels to Central and South America were processed in the publications "On Mexican Lakes", "My Trip to the Brazilian Tropics", "On the Purpose and Editions of My Trip to South America in 1898", "Writings on a Trip to South America", "On a Trip to the West Indies and South America", "Some Words on Cultural Development in Pre-Spanish Peru" and "Travel Studies from Western South America", published between 1895 and 1908. About the Pueblo Indians she wrote in 1902 the essay "Einiges über die Pueblo-Indianer". Princess Therese published her first essays on her travels under the pseudonym "Th of Bavaria" in order to prevent her a priori being denied recognition as a woman by male experts. In addition to these publications, Princess Therese also documented her travels with the help of the then newly invented roll-film camera, of which only the most important were given to Princess Therese in the course of her life: On December 9, 1897, the princess was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Munich "for her excellent knowledge of the natural sciences, proven by excellent books" ("propter insignem rerum naturalium scientiam praeclaris libris comprobatam"). In 1892 she became an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the Geographic Society in Munich. In 1897 Princess Therese became a corresponding member of the Geographic Society in Lisbon and in 1898 an honorary member of the Geographic Society in Vienna. In 1908 Princess Therese received the Austro-Hungarian Medal of Honor for Science and Art. One year later she was awarded the title of "Officier de l'Instruction publique" by the French Ministry of Education. At the same time, Princess Therese became an honorary member of the Société des Américanistes de Paris, and after the death of her father, Prince Regent Luitpold, the Princess gave up her long journeys and dedicated herself to charitable and social projects and institutions for which she took over the protectorate. At the beginning of the First World War, she set up a hospital for the wounded in her "Villa Amsee" in Lindau. Pictures of this military hospital are available in Bü 986 and 1166 of this collection. Princess Therese, who was abbess of the Damenstift St. Anna in Munich, remained unmarried throughout her life. According to the relevant specialist literature, the princess fell in love at a young age with her cousin Prince Otto, who later became Otto König von Bayern, but who suffered from a mental illness and was therefore out of the question for marriage. Still in later years Princess Therese was interested in the state of health of her cousin King Otto, as the correspondence with Philipp Freiherr von Redwitz and Georg Freiherr von Stengel, the court marshals of King Otto, which is preserved in this collection, proves about the state of health of the king (subcategory 2.1.1.2, Bü 1105, 1107 and 1149). Princess Therese died on 19 September 1925 in Munich. She was buried in the Theatinerkirche in Munich. Princess Therese is remembered in Bavaria today by the "Therese-von-Bayern-Stiftung", founded in 1997 to promote women in science. The foundation supports habilitations and scientific projects of young academics and regularly awards the "Therese-von-Bayern-Preis". In 1997 a television documentary entitled "Princess Therese of Bavaria - Researcher, Collector, World Traveler" about the Princess was produced. Furthermore, in the same year H. Bußmann and E. Neukum-Fichtner the publication ""Ich bleiben ein Wesen eigener Art" - Princess Therese of Bavaria. Ludwig III, King of Bavaria-Ludwig Prince of Bavaria, the later King Ludwig III, was born in Munich on 7 January 1845 as the son of Luitpold Prince of Bavaria, the later Prince Regent, and Auguste Ferdinande Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany), who was educated by house teachers, including the clergyman Karl Rinecker. From 1864 to 1865, the Prince studied philosophy, history, law, economics and art history at the University of Munich, without however obtaining a degree in the individual subjects. In the war of 1866 Ludwig served as lieutenant and orderly officer of his father Prince Luitpold. As the son of a subsequent prince, Prince Ludwig initially had no prospect of the Bavarian royal crown, since it passed to King Ludwig II and King Otto, the sons of Ludwig's uncle King Maximilian II and thus cousins of Prince Ludwig. Instead, however, Ludwig was entitled to the Greek royal throne because Ludwig's uncle Otto had no descendants. However, when King Otto had to leave Greece in 1862 due to a military revolt, Ludwig lost his prospects for the Greek royal throne, and on 20 February 1868 Prince Louis of Bavaria Marie Therese married Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena in Vienna. Prince Ludwig showed great interest in agriculture, veterinary medicine and technology. In 1868 he became Honorary President of the Central Committee of the Agricultural Association of Bavaria. The Leutstetten estate on Lake Starnberg, which he acquired in 1875, was converted by Ludwig into a model agricultural estate, which earned him the nickname "Millibauer" among the population. Finally, Prince Ludwig supported the expansion of the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and the Bavarian Canal Association. Prince Ludwig was politically active in the Catholic Conservative Patriotic Party, the later Centre Party, for which he ran unsuccessfully in the 1871 Reichstag elections. In addition, the Prince was a member of the Reich Council, where he stood up for Bavarian interests and emphasized the interests of the individual states vis-à-vis the Reich. In the Imperial Council, Prince Ludwig also spoke out in favour of direct relative majority voting, which earned him great praise from August Bebel. Bebel said that if in Germany the Emperor were elected by the people from one of the ruling princely houses, then Prince Ludwig would have the best prospects of becoming German Emperor. In the years after 1900 Ludwig also frequently performed representational duties for his father Prinzregent Luitpold. When Prince Regent Luitpold died in 1912, Prince Ludwig succeeded him as Prince Regent of Bavaria in December. Right at the beginning of Prince Ludwig's reign, there were discussions in Bavaria about the royal question. The Centre Party and the Bavarian Prime Minister Georg von Hertling spoke out in favour of transforming the regency into a royalty and thus in favour of deposing Otto, who was a minor due to mental illness. After hard political conflicts and a constitutional amendment, Otto König von Bayern was finally declared deposed, and Prince Regent Ludwig was able to ascend the Bavarian throne as King Ludwig III on 5 November 1913. During the First World War, Ludwig III was commander-in-chief of the Bavarian troops and from 1915 also Prussian Field Marshal, the latter function being limited exclusively to representative tasks. At the beginning of the war Ludwig hoped to be able to extend the Bavarian Palatinate by parts of Alsace. On November 2, 1918, Ludwig announced the establishment of a parliamentary system of government in Bavaria. However, Ludwig could no longer install a new state government with the participation of the majority Social Democrats (MSPD), as he had already been dismissed by the Social Democratic politician Kurt Eisner on November 7, 1918. From Wildenwart Castle he went to Anif Castle near Salzburg, where he issued a declaration on 13 November exempting the officials, officers and soldiers in Bavaria from the oath of allegiance. King Ludwig III continued to refuse to abdicate formally and to renounce his claims to the throne, living temporarily in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Wildenwart Castle after the introduction of the republic in Bavaria. The king also stayed in Sárvár (Hungary), where he died on 18 October 1921. Ludwig III and his wife Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria, who had already died on February 3, 1919, found their final resting place in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Munich. The eulogy at the funeral ceremony on November 5, 1921, was given by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich-Freising. A printed version of the speech can be found in Bü 839 of this collection; illustrations of the funeral are available in Bü 934 and 1170. Ludwig's heart was buried in the Chapel of Grace in Altötting, in accordance with the tradition of the Bavarian royal house (cf. the illustrations in Bü 1087). 1.4 Marie Therese Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena)Marie (Maria) Therese Henriette Dorothea Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena was born on the 2nd of January in Modena. Born in July 1849 in Brno as the only child of Ferdinand Archduke of Austria-Este Prince of Modena and Elisabeth Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena (née Archduchess of Austria), her father died of typhoid fever in Brno on 15 December 1849, just a few months after Marie Therese's birth. Marie Therese's mother married Karl Ferdinand Archduke of Austria in 1854. This marriage produced six children, four of whom reached adulthood. In detail these are: Friedrich Erzherzog von Österreich Herzog von Teschen (1856-1936), Karl Stephan Erzherzog von Österreich (1860-1933), Imperial and Royal Admiral, Eugen Erzherzog von Österreich (1863-1954), High and German Master of the Teutonic Order and Imperial and Royal Field Marshal, and the daughter Maria Christina Erzherzogin von Österreich (1858-1929). The latter married Alfonso XII in 1879. Archduchess Marie Therese was descended from the House of Austria-Este, a line of the House of Austria that ruled the duchies of Modena and Guastalla in Upper Italy until their incorporation into the Kingdom of Italy in 1859. Marie Therese had inherited on her father's side the throne claims of the Stuarts to the English throne through the houses of Savoy and Orléans, which is why she was the legitimate queen of Scotland for the Stuart followers and legitimists as Mary III and the legitimate queen of England, France and Ireland as Mary IV. Of course Marie Therese's claims to the throne on the English, French, Scottish and Irish royal dignity were never claimed by her. Archduchess Marie Therese was educated strictly Catholic and received instruction from house teachers. At the funeral ceremonies for the late Mathilde Archduchess of Austria in 1867, she met Ludwig Prinz of Bavaria, with whom she immediately fell in love. The Archduchess succeeded in marrying Prince Ludwig against the resistance of her family and, above all, her uncle Franz V. Duke of Modena Archduke of Austria-Este. Marie Therese originally wanted to marry Ferdinand (IV), titular Grand Duke of Tuscany, Archduke of Austria-Tuscany, who was the son of Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany, who went into exile in 1859 and lived in exile in Austria and Bohemia. The wedding of Archduchess Marie Therese and Ludwig Prince of Bavaria took place on 20 February 1868 in Vienna. The marriage produced a total of thirteen children, ten of whom reached adulthood. Princess Marie Therese took care of the education of her children. Since she hardly had to fulfil any representation duties in the first years of her marriage, there was enough time for her to do so. Princess Marie Therese devoted herself to social charitable tasks. Since 1889 she headed the Bavarian Red Cross. In this function she also visited Henri Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross (see Bü 584). During the First World War she set up - as already mentioned - a so-called "war sewing room" in the Nibelungensälen of the Munich Residenz, which quickly and unbureaucratically provided the soldiers at the front with laundry. In Leutstetten she set up a so-called Alpinum, in which she almost completely assembled the alpine flora. Princess Marie Therese was also an enthusiastic hobby artist and Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria died at Wildenwart Castle on 3 February 1919. She was first buried in the castle chapel at Schloss Wildenwart. After the death of her husband, her remains were buried together with those of her husband on 5 November 1921 in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Munich. 1.5 Luitpold Prinzregent von BayernLuitpold Prinz von Bayern, the later Prinzregent von Bayern, was born in Würzburg on 12 March 1821 as the son of Ludwig Prinz von Bayern, the later King Ludwig I of Bavaria, and Therese Prinzessin von Bayern (née Prinzessin von Sachsen-Hildburghausen), the later Queen of Bavaria, who was taught by renowned personalities and tutors. The most notable are the theologian Georg von Oettl, who was a pupil of Johann Michael Sailer and later became Bishop of Eichstätt, the painter Domenico Quaglio, the natural philosopher Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert, the philosopher George Philipps and the national economist Friedrich Benedikt von Hermann. The prince had a military career since 1835. Already in 1848 he was promoted to lieutenant general. In 1856 he was appointed commander of the 1st division. From 1861 Luitpold was field witness for the army inspection. He took part in the 1866 war as commander of the 3rd division. In the years after 1866 he was entrusted with the reorganization of the Bavarian military on the model of Prussia. In the war of 1870/71 the prince was detached as a representative of Bavaria to the Great Headquarters. In 1876 Prince Luitpold was appointed Fieldmaster General in the rank of Field Marshal General. Politically Luitpold was in the years before 1866 on the side of the Greater Germans and for a rapprochement to Austria. 10 June 1886 took over Prince Luitpold first the regency for his nephew Ludwig II King of Bavaria, who had been declared mentally ill and unable to govern. After the death of King Ludwig, Luitpold took over the regency for his mentally ill nephew Otto König von Bayern, the brother of King Ludwig II. Although the population was initially reserved towards Luitpold, the Prince Regent soon won the affection of large parts of the Bavarian people. Prince Regent Luitpold ruled strictly constitutionally. Luitpold's reign was retrospectively glorified by his contemporaries as the "Prinzregenten period", which was characterized by economic upswing, an improvement in living conditions and, above all, cultural prosperity. The latter in particular is inseparably linked with the Prinzregenten period. Under Luitpolds regency, Munich developed into a cultural centre in Germany. "Luitpold Prinzregent von Bayern died on 12 December 1912 in Munich. He was buried in the Theatinerkirche in Munich. 1.6 Auguste Ferdinande Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany)Auguste Ferdinande Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany was born on 1 April 1825 in Florence as the daughter of Leopold II. Grand Duke of Tuscany and Maria Anna Grand Duchess of Tuscany (née Princess of Saxony), she married Luitpold Prince of Bavaria on 15 April 1844 in Florence. The marriage produced the sons Ludwig, the later King Ludwig III, Leopold, later Field Marshal, and Arnulf, later Colonel General, and the explorer Princess Therese, the deeply religious Princess Auguste Ferdinande who, together with the house teachers, took care of the strict Catholic education of her children. Princess Auguste Ferdinande showed great interest in the arts - she had a talent for drawing - and in history. Princess Auguste Ferdinande died on 26 April 1864 in Munich. She was buried in the Theatinerkirche in Munich. 2. on the content, order and distortion of the holdings: As mentioned above, the GU 119 holdings include several partial estates of members of the House of Bavaria. By far the largest and most extensive partial legacy is that of the Wiltrud Duchess of Urach, née Princess of Bavaria (category 1). In the following, the contents of the estate of the Duchess Wiltrud will be discussed in more detail.2.1 Estate of Wiltrud Duchess von Urach (née Prinzessin von Bayern)The most extensive part of the estate of the Duchess Wiltrud in the inventory GU 119, apart from the photographs, is the correspondence of the Duchess Wiltrud (section 1.2). Within the correspondence, the letters of relatives of Wiltrud and her husband represent an important and large group. Section 1.2 begins with letters from members of the House of Bavaria (Wittelsbach) to Princess Wiltrud (sub-section 1.2.1). Above all, the letters of her parents Ludwig III King and Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria are to be mentioned here (subcategory 1.2.1.1.1). The correspondence with Wiltrud's siblings and their families must also be mentioned here: in detail, these are letters from Rupprecht Crown Prince of Bavaria, from the princes Karl, Franz and Wolfgang of Bavaria and from the princesses Adelgunde (verh. Princess of Hohenzollern), Maria (Duchess of Calabria, Princess of Bourbon-Sicily), Mathilde (Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha), Hildegard, Helmtrud and Gundelinde (Countess of Preysing-Lichtenegg-Moos) of Bavaria (subcategory 1.2.1.1.2). Letters from the spouses and children of the siblings can also be found in subcategory 1.2.1.1.2. In addition, letters from the other representatives of the royal line (subcategory 1.2.1.1.3) and the ducal line of the House of Bavaria (subcategory 1.2.1.2) as well as from the House of Leuchtenberg (subcategory 1.2.1.3), which is related to the House of Bavaria, can also be expected in the estate of Princess Wiltrud. Finally, subheading 1.2.1 also includes letters from members of the Bavarian court (subheading 1.2.1.4) and servants of the royal family in Bavaria and Sárvár (Hungary) (subheading 1.2.1.5). Among the letters from members of the court, the letters of Bertha Freiin von Wulffen, the educator and later court lady of Princess Wiltrud, are particularly noteworthy (Bü 440-447). The close relatives of Princess Wiltrud also include the members of the House of Austria (Habsburg), with whom Wiltrud's mother Marie Therese was Queen of Bavaria, who was a born Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena, and Wiltrud's grandmother Auguste Ferdinande Princess of Bavaria, who was a born Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany. Last but not least, the House of Bavaria with the House of Austria in the 19th century was also the marriage of the Elisabeth Duchess in Bavaria with Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria and the marriage of her daughter Gisela Archduchess of Austria with Leopold Prince of Bavaria as well as the marriage of the Adelgunde Princess of Bavaria with Franz V. Duke of Modena Archduke of Austria-Este related. The letters of representatives of the House of Austria can be found in subcategory 1.2.2 of this inventory. This includes letters from members of the Austria-Hungary line (subheadings 1.2.2.1 and 1.2.2.2), Austria-Este (Ducal Family of Modena) (subheading 1.2.2.3) and Austria-Tuscany (subheading 1.2.2.4) as well as from members of the Court of the House of Austria (subheading 1.2.2.5). In addition to two letters from the Zita Empress of Austria Queen of Hungary (née Princess of Bourbon-Parma) (Bü 368), the letters of the High and German Master Eugen Archduke of Austria (Bü 180), of the Imperial and Royal Colonel Karl Albrecht Archduke of Austria (Bü 400), of the Imperial and Royal Colonel Karl Albrecht Archduke of Austria (Bü 400), of the Imperial and Royal Colonel Eugen Archduke of Austria (Bü 180) and of the German and Royal Colonel Eugen Archduke of Austria (Bü 180) are also included. Field marshal Friedrich Archduke of Austria (Bü 390) and the aristocrat Archduchess of Austria-Este Duchess of Modena (née Princess of Bavaria) (Bü 346 and 347).) Duke of Urach can be found mainly in subcategory 1.2.3. In addition to letters from her brother-in-law Karl Fürst von Urach (subcategory 1.2.3.1), letters from the children of Duke Wilhelm (II.) from his marriage to Amalie Herzogin von Urach (née Duchess of Bavaria) (subcategory 1.2.3.2) can be expected in the estate of Princess Wiltrud. The letters of the spouses of the children and the grandchildren of Duke Wilhelm (II.) are also included in subheading 1.2.3.2. On the other hand, there are no letters from the husband Wilhelm (II.) Duke of Urach to his wife Wiltrud in this collection. Duchess Wiltrud also had an extensive correspondence with the Altieri, Enzenberg, Thun-Hohenstein, Vetter von der Lilie, Forni and Bayer von Ehrenberg families (subcategory 1.2.3.3), who were related to the House of Urach. The family relations with these families came about through the marriages of the Auguste Eugenie Countess of Württemberg (Countess of Enzenberg, Countess of Thun-Hohenstein) and Mathilde Princess of Urach Countess of Württemberg (Countess of Württemberg). Principessa Altieri), who were half-sisters of Duke Wilhelm (II.), as well as the marriage of the Marie Countess of Württemberg, who was a daughter of Wilhelm Duke of Württemberg and Wilhelmine Princess of Württemberg (née Freiin von Tunderfeld-Rhodis), with the Count of Taubenheim. Subheading 1.2.3.4 contains letters from Urach staff. The relatives of Duke Wilhelm (II.) also include the representatives of the House of Württemberg (subcategory 1.2.4), including Charlotte Queen of Württemberg (née Princess zu Schaumburg-Lippe) (subcategory 1.2.4.1), Albrecht Duke of Württemberg and Philipp Albrecht Duke of Württemberg (subcategory 1.2.4.2), Louis II Prince of Monaco (subcategory 1.2.5) and Elisabeth Princess of and to Liechtenstein (née Princess of Urach) and her husband Karl Prince of and to Liechtenstein (subcategory 1.2.6), from whom letters are available in each case. In addition to the members of the aforementioned princely houses, Princess Wiltrud also corresponded with the members of the other princely houses in Germany and Europe (subcategories 1.2.7 and 1.2.8). The most notable are Elisabeth Queen of Belgians (née Duchess of Bavaria) (Bü 122), the Grand Duchesses Maria Anna (née Infanta of Portugal) and Charlotte of Luxembourg (Bü 247 and 124), Maria Christina Queen of Spain (née Archduchess of Austria) (Bü 243) and Alfonso XIII King of Spain (Bü 504). Among the representatives of the German ruling or former ruling princely houses, Friedrich II Grand Duke of Baden (Bü 359), Max Prince of Saxony (Bü 366), Professor of the Catholic Liturgy and the Languages of the Christian East in Fribourg/Üechtland, and Hermione Princess of Prussia (widowed Princess of Schönaich-Carolath, née Princess Reuß) (Bü 106), the second wife of Emperor Wilhelm II, should be mentioned. A telegram is available from Emperor Wilhelm II, who was visited by Duchess Wiltrud in Haus Doorn/Netherlands (Bü 319). correspondence with the members of the princely houses is followed by letters from members of the nobility (Unterrubrik 1.2.9.1), the barons (Unterrubrik 1.2.9.2) and the nobility (Unterrubrik 1.2.9.3) in Germany and Austria. Letters from aristocrats can also be found in the correspondence series "aristocratic acquaintances from Bavaria" (subcategory 1.2.9.4) and "aristocratic and bourgeois acquaintances from Württemberg" (subcategory 1.2.11). The letters of aristocrats existing in the two correspondence series were explicitly left in the respective series and not classified in subcategories 1.2.9.1 to 1.2.9.3 in order to retain the formation made by Duchess Wiltrud.Among the letters of personalities of public life (subcategory 1.2.13) are especially in Bü 250 the letters of the clergy Michael von Faulhaber, archbishop of Munich-Freising, Giovanni Battista Montini, papal undersecretary of state and later Pope Paul VI, Carl Joseph Leiprecht, bishop of Rottenburg, Sigismund Felix Freiherr von Ow-Felldorf, bishop of Passau, and Prelate Konrad Kümmel (Bü 27), editor of the "Katholisches Sonntagsblatt". Correspondence by Johann Baptista Sproll, bishop of Rottenburg, can be found in Bü 38. Among the letters of writers, the letters of the writers Emmy Giehrl (née Aschenbrenner, pseudonym "Tante Emmy") (Bü 246) and Gertrud Freiin von Le Fort (Bü 68) are particularly noteworthy. Duchess Wiltrud also maintained personal contact with the latter, since Gertrud Freiin von Le Fort had also lived in Oberstdorf since 1939. almost all the correspondence in this collection is so-called unilateral correspondence, which means that only the incoming letters from the correspondence partners in GU 119 are to be expected. Only occasionally can one find letter concepts or drafts by Duchess Wiltrud among these partners, including those from letters that were not sent later. Only some of the letters of Princess Wiltrud to her parents Ludwig III Königin and Marie Therese Königin von Bayern as well as to her aunt Therese Prinzessin von Bayern are included in the inventory of GU 119 in the partial estates of King Ludwig III. (heading 3), Queen Marie Therese (heading 4) and Princess Therese (heading 2) (Bü 1098, 1099, 1101-1103 and 1112). The letters of the parents and the aunt Princess Therese to Princess Wiltrud, on the other hand, are listed in the sub-categories 1.2.1.1.1 and 1.2.1.1.2 in the estate of Princess Wiltrud (Bü 344, 345, 350 and 352-354). If one looks at the running time of Wiltrud's correspondence in the present collection, it is noticeable that, apart from a few exceptions, hardly any letters to Wiltrud are contained from the period after 1960. An interesting insight into the way of thinking of the German nobility in the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century is provided by the extensive correspondence of Duchess Wiltrud kept in GU 119 (category 1).2) as well as the correspondence of the Therese Princess of Bavaria (section 2.1), the Ludwig III King of Bavaria (section 3.1), the Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria (section 4.1) and the Luitpold Prince Regent of Bavaria (section 5.2). In addition, the correspondence for prosopographical and biographical research, especially on the nobility in Germany and Austria, as well as on the history of individual German princely and noble houses, is of particular importance.Duchess Wiltrud's interest in the genealogy of the House of Grimaldi, the Princely Family of Monaco, is reflected in the extensive materials on the history of the House of Monaco and in the correspondence of the Duchess with Louis II, Prince of Monaco and the members of the houses Chabrillan and Lévis-Mirepoix (Bü 520 and 1244). Documents on court life, court society and protocol, especially at the Bavarian royal court, which give an insight into the court and the representative duties of the Prince Regent and later King Ludwig III of Bavaria and his family, can be found in Section 1.5. These include in particular the materials on Ludwig's official visits to Bavarian cities and on state visits, including those of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Bavaria. Individual documents also deal with the Württemberg royal court and the House of Urach. Here the memories of the Emilie von Sonntag of Florestine Herzogin von Urach (née Prinzessin von Monaco) (Bü 144) and of Wilhelm (I.) Herzog von Urach (Bü 356) are to be mentioned, for example. Documents on weddings, birthdays, funerals and other family celebrations and family events in the houses of Bavaria and Urach as well as in other princely houses are to be found in category 1.As already mentioned, the illustrations, photographs and photographs form the most extensive category (1.16) of the GU 119 collection in addition to correspondence. The largest subcategory are the illustrations of persons and group photographs (subcategory 1.16.1). This subheading contains pictures of Princess Wiltrud, her parents, her siblings and other members of the House of Bavaria (subheading 1.16.1.1) as well as members of the Houses of Austria (subheading 1.16.1.2), Hohenberg (subheading 1.16.1.2.2), Urach and Württemberg (subheading 1.16.1.3). There are also illustrations of representatives of the ruling or former ruling princely houses in Europe (subcategory 1.16.1.6) and in Germany (subcategory 1.16.1.7), of the other aristocrats in Germany, Austria and the rest of Europe (subcategories 1.16.1.8 and 1.16.1.9) and of citizens (subcategory 1.16.1.10) and of public figures (subcategory 1.16.1.11). The structure of the illustrations essentially follows the structure of the correspondence, with the illustrations of persons, the group shots and the shots of events, the persons depicted on the shots are usually listed in the Containment note. Often the information on the back of the photographs, most of which were taken by Duchess Wiltrud, was adopted. It was not possible to verify this information in view of the amount of work and time involved. In addition, the identification of persons on photographs which do not show any information on the reverse side often had to be omitted for the same reasons.subheading 1.16.2 includes illustrations of events. This subheading mainly includes recordings of official events, representation commitments (subheading 1.16.2.1) and family celebrations as well as family events (subheading 1.16.2.2). The illustrations of these sub-categories thus represent partial additions to the written documents on court life, court society, representation obligations of the House of Bavaria kept in sub-categories 1.5 and 1.7, as well as family celebrations and family events. 1.16 also includes illustrations of the Duchess Wiltrud's travels, places, buildings and landscapes, works of art, animals, ships, zeppelins, etc. The extensive picture collections listed in section 1.16 supplement the illustrations and picture collections kept in the GU 99 holdings (photo collections and albums of the Dukes and Princes of Urach Counts of Württemberg), some of which also come from the Duchess Wiltrud's possession or were created by her. The illustrations in the holdings GU 99 and GU 119, together with the materials on court life, on the representation obligations of the House of Bavaria and on family celebrations and family events in the houses of Bavaria, Austria and Urach kept in the aforementioned sections 1.5 and 1.7, represent an interesting source for the history of the houses mentioned. In addition, the above image holdings and the materials in sections 1.5 and 1.7 are of significance for the history of culture and mentality and the everyday history of the nobility.2 As already indicated, documents on Duchess Wiltrud are to be expected in the holdings of photo albums and collections of the Dukes and Princes of Urach Counts of Württemberg (holdings GU 99) as well as in the holdings GU 117 (Wilhelm (II.) Duke of Urach) and GU 120 (Karl Prince of Urach).2.2 Partial estate of Princess Therese of BavariaIn addition to documents from the estate of the Wiltrud Duchess of Urach (née Princess of Bavaria), GU 119 also contains partial estates and fragments of estates of other members of the House of Bavaria. The most extensive part of the collection is the one of the explorer Therese Princess of Bavaria (1850-1925), which is listed in category 2. These are documents from the estate of Princess Therese, which have been transferred to her niece Duchess Wiltrud. As can be seen from Bü 297, the materials kept in the inventory of GU 119 were handed over to Duchess Wiltrud by Oberarchivrat Franz Xaver Deybeck of the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich, since they were out of the question for safekeeping in the Department of the Bavarian Main State Archives' Secret House Archives, in which the greater part of the written estate of Princess Therese is kept. Deybeck regarded some of the documents from the princess's estate as "wastepaper", only of "personal value and significance" and thus for the "Hausarchiv ohne Wert", as some of Deybeck's inscriptions on the corresponding envelopes reveal. The structure of the partial estate of Princess Therese is essentially based on the structure of the estate of Duchess Wiltrud. Subcategory 2.1 Correspondence mainly contains letters from relatives in Bavaria (subcategory 2.1.1), Austria, Austria-Este and Austria-Tuscany (subcategory 2.1.2). Among them are letters from Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena) (Bü 1110, 1112, 1120-1122), Adelgunde Archduchess of Austria-Este Duchess of Modena (née Archduchess of Austria-Este Duchess of Modena) (née Archduchess of Austria-Este Princess of Modena). Princess of Bavaria) (Bü 1131), Elisabeth Archduchess of Austria (widowed Archduchess of Austria-Este) (Bü 1123 and 1124) as well as Eugen Archduke of Austria, High and German Master of the Teutonic Order and Field Marshal, Karl Stephan Archduke of Austria, Stephanie Crown Princess of Austria (née Princess of Belgium and later married Princess Lónyay of Nagy-Lónya) (all Bü 1135). Princess Therese also corresponded with members of the Houses of Württemberg and Urach. The queens Pauline, Olga (born Grand Duchess of Russia) and Charlotte (born Princess of Schaumburg-Lippe) of Württemberg (all Bü 1113), Florestine Duchess of Urach (born Princess of Württemberg), Wilhelm (II.) Duke of Urach and Eugenie Countess of Württemberg (all Bü 1114) as well as Auguste Eugenie Countess of Thun-Hohenstein (widowed Countess of Enzenberg) of Thun-Hohenstein (widowed Countess of Enzenberg) of Württemberg (all Bü 1113) are to be mentioned here. Countess of Württemberg) (Bü 1116) and Donna Mathilde Principessa Altieri (née Princess of Urach Countess of Württemberg) (Bü 1115). of the correspondents among the representatives of the other ruling and formerly ruling princely houses in Germany and Europe, Carola Queen of Saxony (née Princess of Saxony) (Bü 1116) and Donna Mathilde Principessa Altieri (née Princess of Urach Countess of Württemberg) (Bü 1115) are here. Princess Wasa) (Bü 1104), Maria Christina Queen of Spain (née Archduchess of Austria) (Bü 1125) as well as Elisabeth Queen of Belgium (née Duchess of Bavaria) and Josephine Queen of Sweden and Norway (née Princess of Leuchtenberg) (both Bü 1136).In addition, two letters of the writer, pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Bertha Freifrau von Suttner (née Countess Kinsky von Chinic und Tettau) (Bü 1152) are included in the partial estate of Princess Therese, the most extensive category after the correspondence in the partial estate of Therese Princess of Bavaria. Particularly worth mentioning are the illustrations of Therese Princess of Bavaria (subcategory 2.7.1.1) and of other members of the House of Bavaria (subcategory 2.7.1.2).2.3 Other partial estates and fragments of estates, especially of representatives of the House of BavariaRubric 3 unites documents from the estate of Ludwig III, King of Bavaria. It contains letters from the princesses Wiltrud and Hildegard to their father King Ludwig III. (Bü 1099, 1103 and 1237) and a notepad of Prince Ludwig, later King Ludwig III, with entries for his military service in 1863 (Bü 1092). In addition, the partial estate of Ludwig III contains telegrams from Johanna Freiin von Malsen to King Ludwig III and to "Countess Elpen" (incognito of Therese Princess of Bavaria), both of whom were in exile in Lucerne, about the illness and death of Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria in 1919 (Bü 1178). There are also ten audiance books of Prince Ludwig from the years 1902 to 1913 which contain information about the names of the persons received in audiences by Prince Ludwig and about the topics discussed in the audiences (Bü 1091). These audience booklets served Princess Wiltrud and her sisters as a reminder for conversations with the court lords, diplomats, ministers and generals. The audience booklets are an interesting source of information about court life at the Bavarian royal court. The partial estate of the Marie Therese Queen of Bavaria kept in category 4 contains only letters and postcards to the Queen. Among them are the letters of Princess Wiltrud (Bü 1098, 1101 and 1102) and Therese Princess of Bavaria (Bü 1126-1128). the documents from the partial estate of the Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, which form category 5, include the correspondence of the Prince Regent with his sister Adelgunde Archduchess of Austria-Este Duchess of Modena (born Princess of Bavaria) (Bü 1155), the printed speech of Bishop Johann Michael Sailer on the occasion of the marriage of Prince Luitpold to Auguste Ferdinande Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany (Bü 1095) and poems of Prince Luitpold with dedications and a. to Olga Grand Duchess of Russia (proclaimed Queen of Württemberg), Marie Princess of Saxony-Altenburg (proclaimed Queen of Hanover) and Alexandra Princess of Saxony-Altenburg (proclaimed Queen of Saxony-Altenburg). The partial estate of Auguste Ferdinande Princess of Bavaria (née Archduchess of Austria-Tuscany) (rubric 6) contains, among other things, a letter from her father, Grand Duke Leopold II. from Tuscany (Bü 1194) to Auguste Ferdinande and letters from Auguste Ferdinand to her court lady Natalie Gräfin von Rotenhan (Bü 1148) the fragment of a diary in Italian (Bü 1188), copies of literary texts (subcategory 6.3) and printed matter of a religious nature (subcategory 6.5); Section 7 unites the estate splinters of Hildegard Princess of Bavaria (subcategory 7.1), Elisabeth Archduchess of Austria (widowed) and Elisabeth of the Holy Roman Empire (widowed). Archduchess of Austria-Este (subcategory 7.2), Mathilde Archduchess of Austria (subcategory 7.3), Therese Freifrau von Giese (subcategory 7.4) and Gustav Freiherr von Perfall (subcategory 7.5). Letters from the Therese Princess of Bavaria to Elisabeth Archduchess of Austria (widowed Archduchess of Austria-Este (Bü 1108), as well as letters from the Alexandra Princess of Bavaria and the Adelgunde Archduchess of Austria-Este Duchess of Modena (née. With the exception of Princess Wiltrud, the Department of Secret Archives of the Bavarian Main State Archives in Munich keeps the main estates of the members of the House of Bavaria represented in this collection. 2.4 The order and indexing of the holdingsThe holdings of GU 119, together with the Archives of the Dukes and Princes of Urach Grafen von Württemberg, were deposited in 1987 in the Main State Archives. There, the archives of the House of Urach form the GU series of inventories within the tectonics (inventory classification). During the reorganization of the archives by Wolfgang Schmierer, director of the archives, the documents of Wiltrud Herzogin von Urach were given the signature GU 119. Where it seemed appropriate, the units found were retained, for example in the correspondence series. In the course of the development work, numerous documents were separated from the GU 119 holdings and above all added to the GU 96 (Miscellaneous and Unclear), GU 117 (Wilhelm II.) Duke of Urach), GU 118 (Amalie Duchess of Urach née Duchess of Bavaria), GU 120 (Karl Prince of Urach), GU 123 (Carola Hilda Princess of Urach), GU 128 (Margarethe Princess of Urach) and GU 134 (Mechthilde Princess of Urach). As a rule, the married ladies listed in the present inventory, especially those of the high nobility, are always listed under the married name, i.e. the surname of the husband, whereby the maiden name is mentioned in brackets in the title entry. In exceptional cases the married ladies are also mentioned under the maiden name, and the married name is then in brackets. In the person index married ladies are listed under both names, with the addition of the respective girl's name or married name after the marriage. For example, Adelgunde Fürstin von Hohenzollern (née Prinzessin von Bayern) is mentioned in the person index under "Hohenzollern, Adelgunde Fürstin von, née Prinzessin von Bayern" and under "Bayern, Adelgunde Prinzessin von, verh. Fürstin von Hohenzollern". In the case of the married members of the count's, baronial and aristocratic houses, the maiden name or married name was determined - insofar as this was possible with justifiable effort and with the help of the Genealogical Manual of the nobility. If the maiden name or married name is already mentioned in a note of the Duchess Wiltrud, this was taken over without examination of the same on the basis of the relevant literature. Since there was no comparable possibility of research for bourgeois wives, only in those cases in which identification was possible on the basis of notes and inscriptions of Duchess Wiltrud, the respective maiden name or married surnames were taken over without checking the information of Duchess Wiltrud. The archives of the inventory of GU 119 may only be inspected with the prior permission of the chief of the House of Urach. The finding aid book of the inventory GU 119 was completed in winter 2007. Before packing, the stock comprises approx. 13 linear metres with 1247 numbers.Stuttgart, November 2007Eberhard Merk

Urach, Wiltrud Gräfin von Württemberg