History of the Inventory Designer: Alfred Rosenberg, who had been one of Adolf Hitler's close collaborators since the beginnings of the National Socialist movement, united - especially since 1929/30 - a wealth of political offices and functions in his hand. In order to be able to carry out all the tasks assigned to him, Rosenberg, since his appointment as head of the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP (APA) in April 1933, made use of a private secretariat headed by Thilo von Trotha (b. 12.04.1909, d. 24.02.1938), who was also responsible for the North Division of the APA. In April 1934, by order of the Reich Treasurer, von Trothas, initially only volunteered for Rosenberg, was converted into a full-time regular employment relationship with Rosenberg as Reichsleiter of the NSDAP. As private secretary, he was responsible for processing all correspondence that Rosenberg had to conduct personally as head of the APA, but also as Reichsführer of the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur (KfdK) and as main editor of the "Völkischer Beobachters" (VB). In January 1934, Rosenberg was appointed the Führer's representative for monitoring the entire spiritual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP. Probably because of this new expansion of his duties, on 26 April 1934 Rosenberg ordered the conversion of his private secretariat into a "Rosenberg Chancellery". It continued to be under the direction of Thilo von Trothas, but was now assigned a clearly defined scope of duties: From now on, the Rosenberg Chancellery was responsible for all correspondence conducted by Rosenberg himself within the scope of duties of the APA, the KfdK and other ideological offices as well as for the "NS-Monatshefte", the appointment calendar and the visit regulations of the Reichsleiter. The firm had its own "archive" whose task it was to collect information material and newspaper clippings about Rosenberg. The DBFU was one of the administrators. On 15 August 1937, Rosenberg appointed SA-Sturmbannführer Dr. Werner Koeppen (born 26.09.1910) as his aide. After the death of Trothas in February 1938, Koeppen took over the management of the office and retained it - with temporary interruptions due to military service - until 1945. In August 1941 he was appointed by Rosenberg as his personal adviser and worked for a time as a liaison officer in the Führer's headquarters. During his absence Amandus Langer, whom Rosenberg had appointed as his adjutant in 1941, represented him in the management of the office. Life data of Alfred Rosenberg born 12.01.1893 in Reval Study of architecture in Reval, then in Moscow since 1918 in Germany, 1923 as German naturalized 1919 NSDAP member 1921 with Dietrich Eckart Editor of the "Völkischer Beobachters" February 1923 Main editor of the "Völkischer Beobachters", since 1938 also editor 09.11.1923 Participation in the march to the Feldherrnhalle; during Hitler's captivity with the leadership of the "movement" commissioned 1929 Founder of the Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur 1930 Member of the Reichstag and representative of the NSDAP at the Auswärtigen Ausschuss des Reichstages since 1930 Publisher of the "NS-Monatshefte" 01.04.01.1933 Head of the NSDAP Foreign Policy Office, appointed Reichsleiter of the NSDAP 24.01.1934 Representative of the leader for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP 29.01.1940 commissioned with the preparation of the "High School" of the NSDAP 05.07./17.09.1940 Head of the task force Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the occupied Eastern territories 20.04.1941 Commissioner for the Central Processing of Issues in Eastern Europe 17.07.1941 Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories 16.10.1946 executed in Nuremberg (IMT ruling) Abbreviations APA Foreign Office of the NSDAP DAF German Labour Front DBFU The Führer's representative for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP ERR Operations Staff Reichsleiter Rosenberg HJ Hitlerjugend IMT International Military Tribunal KfdK Combat Alliance for German Culture NS National Socialist NSDAP National Socialist German Workers Party NSKG NS-Kulturgemeinde OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht PPK Party Official Examination Commission for the Protection of NS Writing RMbO Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories SA Storm Departments SD Security Service SPD Social Democratic Party of Germany VB Völkischer Beobachter Inventory Description: During the war, Rosenberg and almost all his offices remained in Berlin. Despite some losses during the heavy bombing raids in November 1943, most of the files of the Rosenberg office seem to have been preserved. The traditional Rosenberg documents (from the state and party areas) were brought to Nuremberg after the end of the war in order to be evaluated for the Allied trials against the war criminals. In the beginning, the documents that could be used as supporting documents were taken from the files, later they were left in them and were content with photocopies. The originals used are likely to be in Washington today, along with other trial documents. The documents collected in Nuremberg were evaluated by various foreign institutions for the creation of their own collections after the processes had been completed. The Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC) in Paris is particularly worthy of mention here. Today, the "Collection Rosenberg" contains a collection of approximately 1,100 documents (mostly from the provenance office of Rosenberg, but also from other Rosenberg offices). Receipts for the individual documents taken from the CDJC are still in the files that have been transferred to the Federal Archives. Further records of Rosenberg's departments can be found at the Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdokumentatie (NIOD), Amsterdam, and at the Yivo-Institute for Jewish Research in New York. Books and journals from Rosenberg's departments are listed in the Hoover Institute and Library and in the Library of Congress. Documents from Rosenberg offices also reached archives of the former Soviet Union. An extensive collection (above all of the provenance ERR) is today kept in the Tsentral`nyi derzhavnyi arhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukraïny (TsDAVO Ukraïny) in Kiev, further files (above all of the provenance foreign policy office) in the Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv (RGVA) in Moscow. Most of the Rosenberg files collected in Nuremberg were brought to Alexandria/Va. and partly filmed there. In March 1963, this file complex, known as Record Group 1008/Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete, was transferred from the USA to the Federal Archives in the course of the file repatriation, where it was divided into provenances in autumn 1963. The files from this return of files to the provenance of "Kanzlei Rosenberg" form the main part of the present collection. Some volumes were added which had been transferred to the Nuremberg State Archives and to the Federal Archives in 1955, as well as several volumes from various American file returns. Further additions were made by one volume each from the Central State Archive of the GDR (62 Ka 2/1) and from the so-called "NS Archive of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR" (ZA VI 6322). Archival processing The majority of the documents had been deposited in the Federal Archives in their original registry context. Individual documents, processes detached from their context as well as volumes in disorder had to be rearranged. The order and distortion corresponded to the original registry context. A complete reorganisation of the stock from a factual point of view would have facilitated its use, but did not appear to be justified from the point of view of labour economics. Only double copies were collected in the manuscript series. The preliminary finding aid for the stock was produced by Mrs. Köhne in 1966. Quotation NS 8/.............................................................. Characterisation of the contents: The collection of manuscripts and newspaper clippings provides a fairly comprehensive picture of Rosenberg's personality from about 1930 to 1945. Due to the fact that the Chancellery was responsible for almost all of Rosenberg's departments, the collection also contains essential supplementary material on the activities of the departments subordinated to Rosenberg; only the department of the Reich Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories, whose affairs Rosenberg had dealt with primarily by its ministerial office, is to be excluded. The filing of the documents took place largely in chronological series, at most separately into the areas VB, KfdK and APA, later also according to correspondence partners. A clear separation of the series from each other in terms of content and time is not discernible. State of development: Findbuch (1966/2005), Online-Findbuch (2004). Citation style: BArch, NS 8/...