Fonds BArch, R 2 - Reich Ministry of Finance (stock)

Identity area

Reference code

BArch, R 2

Title

Reich Ministry of Finance (stock)

Date(s)

  • (1849-) 1919-1945 (-1961) (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

82142 Aufbewahrungseinheiten

Context area

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Reichsfinanzministerium (RFM), 1919-1945

Content and structure area

Scope and content

History of the Inventory Designer: The Reich Treasury Office, which emerged from the Finance Department (until 1877: Finance Office) of the Reich Chancellery in 1879, became the Reich Ministry of Finance (RFM) in 1919. The RFM initially took over the structure and the responsibilities transferred to the Reich Treasury for the Reich budget, currency, customs duties and excise duties. Only the administration of the Reich's own property, the exploitation of the Reich's property, above all by the army and navy, and the financial supervision of industrial enterprises and the Reich's holdings in industrial enterprises were temporarily transferred to the Reich Treasury, which was newly founded in March 1919 and dissolved again in 1923. The scope of duties of the Reich Ministry of Finance was considerably extended in the course of the Erzberger financial reform of 1919/1920, mainly through responsibility for property and transport taxes. The Länder had to leave their tax apparatus to the Reich, so that the RFM, as the head of the Reich Finance Administration, now had a uniform official substructure in the form of regional tax offices and local tax offices and main customs offices. Since the dissolution of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction (1924), the RFM has also had comprehensive competence for handling the consequences of war. The RFM experienced a further increase in its tasks in connection with the abolition of the sovereignty of the Länder in 1934, as a result of which the finance ministries of the Länder were placed under the supervision of the RFM. Only the Prussian Ministry of Finance was able to retain its independence and was not incorporated into the RFM until September 1944 and only formally. Inventory description: Inventory history Until 1936, most of the files of the RFM that had been created until 1929 as well as numerous files of the "Neue Registratur" from 1930 onwards, including the household files of the Wehrmacht, the SS and the concentration camps, had already been handed over to the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam. Since only part of the war-related relocations were included, large parts of these files were destroyed during the air raid on Potsdam in April 1945, including almost all secret files after 1925 as well as numerous files of the new registry, in particular on official and pension matters, employee and worker questions. Losses have also occurred in the files stored by the Reichsarchiv. The household records of the Wehrmacht, the SS and the concentration camps mentioned above are considered destroyed today. Further losses of files have occurred due to the destruction of files in the authority itself and at the places of removal. This applies in particular to the files for the treatment of anti-grass roots and anti-rich, Jewish and confiscated assets of the "Eylert" and "Maedel" units of the RFM, which were moved to Sigmaringen. These files were most likely burned shortly before the end of the war together with the documents of the Sigmaringen tax office. After the end of the war, depending on the place of relocation, parts of the records were transferred to both the Federal Archive in Koblenz and the then German Central Archive in Potsdam (DZA). In the 1960s, the Federal Archives in Koblenz took over from the Federal Ministry of Finance, above all, the files of the registries running until 1945, which were initially kept by the "Restverwaltung" and from 1946 by the "Archiv des ehemaligen Reichsfinanzministeriums". The files of the Reich Archives that had been transferred to the Potsdam DZA were mainly the files of the Reich Archives in the Sraßfurt and Schönebeck potash shafts, as well as confiscated documents returned from the Soviet Union in 1955. Until 1990, the entire collection of the Reich Ministry of Finance was held in roughly equal parts in the Central State Archives of the GDR and in the Federal Archives in Koblenz. In both archives the tradition was recorded successively and recorded in provisional finding aids (indexes and card indexes). Due to the different overdelivery focal points of both sub-stocks, the respective classification of the sub-stocks was carried out according to different criteria. While the Potsdam part of the stock with a focus on traditions was structured according to the departmental structure until 1930, the Koblenz structure followed the uniform file plan of the Reich Finance Administration introduced in 1929. In addition, the records kept as holdings 21.01 in the Central State Archives of the GDR were divided into two signature sequences, depending on the time of their creation. A-signatures received files with provenance Reichsschatzamt created until 1919, B-signatures the files of the RFM. When the two parts of the records were merged in 1990, the different signature sequences had to be merged in order to clearly identify the individual files. The signatures of the Koblenz files were retained, the old A-signatures with 40000 and the B-signatures with 50000 were added. Since the year 2000, the two traditional parts of the book have been gradually merged into online sub-find books, starting with the budget files of the specialist departments. Content characterization: The overdelivery of the RFM more or less comprehensively covers the entire range of tasks of the authority with the following overdelivery focal points: - Preparation of the Reich's budget, in particular files on the preparation of the budget of the specialist departments, on the Army, Navy and Colonial budgets, on the debt management of the Reich as well as on Reich guarantees, Reich participations, export credits, on banks, currency and foreign exchange matters - Organisational and administrative matters of the Reich Finance Administration, Real Estate and Reich Construction Administration, in particular v.a. files for the accommodation of the offices of the Reich Finance Administration, the Reich Real Estate Register as well as files for the utilization of military real-estate - customs duties, in particular files on customs legislation, on the handling of the customs tariff for individual goods and on trade relations with foreign countries - Reich taxes and excise duties, in particular Files on income and sales tax, on the Reich Valuation Act and Bodenschätzungsgesetz as well as on excise duties on spirits, tobacco, sugar and sweetener - state taxes, state and municipal finances, financial equalisation - settlement of the First World War, in particular reparations, Saar and occupation matters - armaments financing and war damage of both world wars The inventory includes approx. 4000 personnel files mainly of employees of the higher service in the RFM (approx. 600) and in the subordinate area State of development: Indexes Temporary indexes for Koblenz partial tradition Online index of household files A - Ar (2007) Online index of household files B - Lu (2006) Online index of household files F (2007/2008) Publication index of household files PM-Su (2005) Publication index of household files Ve-WM (2003) Citation method: BArch, R 2/...

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Federal Archives (Archivtektonik) >> North German Confederation and German Reich (1867/1871-1945) >> Finance, Building and Regional Planning

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Conditions governing reproduction

Rechteinformation beim Datenlieferanten zu klären.

Language of material

  • German

Script of material

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    This description was automatically translated with the help of www.DeepL.com. Translation errors are possible. Please note that the document itself has not been translated.

    Physical characteristics and technical requirements

    Schriftgut

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    Related units of description

    Amtliche Druckschriften: <br />
    Amtliche Druckschriften (der Provenienzstelle)<br />
    Amtsblatt der Reichsfinanzverwaltung 1919ff [RD 47/4]<br />
    Reichssteuerblatt 1920ff [RD 47/37]<br />
    Reichszollblatt 1906ff [RD 47/108]<br />
    Reichshaushaltsplan 1874-1944 [RD 47/1]<br />
    Reichshaushalts- und Besoldungsblatt 1922-1944 (1922-1936 u.d.T. Reichsbesoldungsblatt 1937-1945) [RD 47/31]
    <br /><br />
    Literatur: <br />
    Literatur (zur Provenienzstelle)<br />
    Groth, Karl: Die Reichsfinanzverwaltung, Berlin 1944<br />
    Pausch, Alfons: Von der Reichsschatzkammer zum Bundesfinanzministerium, Bonn 1969<br />
    Hettlage, Karl M., Die Finanzverwaltung. In: Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte, Bd. 4, 1985, S. 177-201

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    Note

    Original description: Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

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    Description identifier

    DE-1958_6aeb04ec-4086-4703-80af-efba9643db21

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    Dates of creation revision deletion

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