History of the inventor: The Reichsministerium owes its origins primarily to party-political considerations. When the German Democratic Party resumed government responsibility as a coalition partner on October 2, 1919, it was given three ministerial seats in the Reichstag in accordance with its strength, in addition to the deputy chancellor of the Reich, which were partly provided in the current cabinet by new formation. The consequence was the formation of a new Reich Ministry for Reparationsangelegenheiten. On 21.10.1919 Dr. Otto Gessler (21.10. resp. 07.11.1919 - 26.03.1920 in the Reichskabinett Gustav Bauer) was appointed the first Reich Minister of this department. The function continued: Dr. Walther Rathenau (28.05. - 25.10.1921 in the 1st Reichskabinett Dr. Josef Wirth), Dr. Heinrich Friedrich Albert (29.03. - 12.08.1923 in the Reichskabinett Dr. Wilhelm Cuno), Robert Schmidt (13.08. - 29.11.1923 in the 1st and 2nd Reichskabinett Dr. Gustav Stresemann). By decree of the Reich President of 07.11.1919 (RGBl. S. 1875) the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction was established de iure to carry out the obligations imposed on the German Reich by the Peace Treaty of Versailles (28.06.1919) in the economic field. Actually, it was the Ministry of Reparations, because the reconstruction was aimed at the former Western war zones outside the Reich. The following tasks were transferred to the new ministry: - the immediate economic reparation (Part VIII of the Peace Treaty), - the settlement of claims and debts against the previously hostile states (Part X, Section 3 of the Peace Treaty), - the liquidation (Part X, Section 4 of the Peace Treaty), - the compensation of foreign, colonial and displaced Germans, - the compensation of war damage suffered by German shipping companies (maritime and inland navigation as well as fishing). The Ministry's organisation was adapted to this task and hardly changed during the entire duration of its existence: Division A: Economic reparations, including the reconstruction of destroyed areas, in particular returns and reparations. Division B: liquidations, compensation, pre-war debts. Division C: Delivery of seagoing and inland waterway vessels; war damage caused by sea and inland waterway transport. Division C 1: Delivery of fishing vessels; war damage caused by sea fishing. Section D: Personnel matters. Division E: Financial Affairs. Section F: Legal Affairs. General Department G: General and Peace Treaty Affairs. Department K: Colonial Central Administration as the processing office of the former Reichskolonial Ministry (since 01.04.1920). The Ministry was assisted by an advisory board for reparations issues to advise it on questions of economic reparations. The latter consisted of members of the Reich Council and representatives of the Reichstag factions and interested business circles. The first meeting of the advisory board was held on 26.04.1920. Only a few more followed. Also the importance of the advisory board seems to have been low. Throughout its existence, the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction stood in the shadow of the Foreign Office and the Reich Ministry of Finance, from whose areas of responsibility certain parts had been separated in order to provide a basis for the new department. Even the addition of the processing tasks of the Reichskolonial Ministry, which was dissolved with effect from 01.04.1920, did not make this basis more favourable. On the contrary, the dependence on the A u s w ä r t i g e s A m t , from which the R e i c h s k o l o n i a l a m t or ministry had only emerged in 1907, became even more tangible. The extent to which the new ministry was able to assert itself between and alongside the other Reich ministries, expand its position and thus prove its raison d'être depended to a large extent on the personality and leadership of the reconstruction ministers. The ultimate question was whether the Ministry of Reconstruction should play a leading role in the reparations problem, which was so important for Germany's fate, or whether it should only be the "extended arm" of the Foreign Office in foreign policy terms, in the financial sense only the "executive organ" of the Reich Ministry of Finance. This task was extremely difficult after the unfavourable, party-politically conditioned start of the reconstruction ministry and its position between two ministries of outstanding importance. Accordingly, the appreciation of the Ministry of Reconstruction among the respective government parties fluctuated. The tendency to represent a minister was always low. So the ministry had to get along in the 4 ½ years of its existence altogether three years long without minister. Gessler's term in office imposed decisive structures on the ministry, which were maintained until the end. It played the highest political role under Rathenau. In the two protocols of the Wiesbaden Agreement of 6 and 7 October 1921, he reached for the first time a Franco-German agreement on a plan for German supplies of goods (reconstruction material) to France; these supplies were limited in time and value, no longer unmeasured as before. Two large organisations in Germany and France were planned for a centralised execution of the German reparations payments. From beginning to end, the actual leadership of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction was essentially in the hands of the only State Secretary, Dr. Ing. E. h. Gustav Müller, whose responsibility was all the greater since the Ministry usually had no minister. After the termination of the passive resistance in the Ruhr struggle (26.09.1923) and the stabilization of the German currency (20.11.1923), the reparations commission decided on 29.11.1923 to establish two international committees of experts to regulate reparations payments on a new basis in the future. The proposals of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction to reorganize the handling of the matters it had previously dealt with were intended to secure its continued existence. In contrast, the A u s w ä r t i g e s A m t and the Reich Ministry of Finance advocated the dissolution of the Ministry of Reconstruction. Finally, the austerity measures introduced within the Reich administration since the creation of Rentenmark provided the justification for the dissolution of the ministry. By the decree of the Reich President of 08.05.1924 (RGBl. I p. 443) the ministry was dissolved on 11.05.1924, long before the Dawes Plan became effective as a new regulation of the reparations problem on 01.09.1924. The affairs of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction were almost exclusively taken over by the Reich Ministry of Finance, in whose downstream division the remaining administration for Reich tasks had to deal with the handling of reparations and colonial affairs from 1930 to 1933. Inventory description: Inventory history The records of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction and most of its subordinate departments had for the most part already been taken over by the Reichsarchiv Potsdam before the outbreak of the war. The ministerial files as well as the documents of the subordinate division of the trustee for the enemy property survived the war and were stored in the Central State Archives Potsdam under the inventory signature 33.01. In contrast, the files of 13 subordinate authorities and offices were not relocated and burned in early April 1945 during the destruction of the Reichsarchiv Potsdam. The following stocks were destroyed at that time: Reich Compensation Commission Reich Commissioner at the Committee for the Determination of War Damages in East Prussia Reich Commissioner for the Liquidation of Foreign Companies Reich Commissioner for the Discussion of Violence against German Civilians in Enemy Land Reich Committee for Shipbuilding and Ship Delivery Reich Commissioner for the Return of Railway Material GermanFrench furniture export commission Kehl Reichsrücklieferungskommission Deutsche Kohlenkommission Essen Reichsausgleichsamt Reichsentschädigungsamt Staatskommissar für die Wiederherstellung der Universitätsbibliothek Löwen Archivische Bewertung un Bearbeitung The archival documents handed over from the Federal Finance Court in Bonn to the Federal Archives in Koblenz in the spring of 1955 were grouped together under the inventory signature R 38. In the course of the unification of both German states, both parts of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction could be reunited under the now valid signature R 3301. The former Koblenz part was re-signed and connected to the Potsdam part, i.e. the Koblenz signatures were added with the number 2000 (example: old R 38 / 3 - new R 3301/2003). The traditional files originate mainly from the areas of Generalreferat G and Ministerialregistratur. Occasionally, the files were continued by the Reich Ministry of Finance, which was later responsible for carrying out the tasks, but remained in the hands of the Reich Ministry for Reconstruction due to the context in which they originated and thus have a different duration. Some volumes are older; some of them were begun at the outbreak of war in 1914 at the Reichsamt des Innern, have been continued at the Reichswirtschaftsamt since 1917 and were handed over to the Ministry of Reconstruction in 1919. Characterisation of the content: The main focus of the traditions are the files of the General Department, materials on compensation, liquidations, reparations, sanctions, restitutions and substitutions as well as on destruction and claims for compensation. In addition, documents on the budget, organisation and implementation of the reconstruction have been handed down. State of development: Findbuch 2004 Citation method: BArch, R 3301/...