The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) is one of the largest "robbery organisations" of the "Third Reich". Equipped with the authority to "secure" material in the occupied territories for the fight against the "ideological opponents" of National Socialism, he brought countless books, documents and other cultural assets from the possession of libraries, institutes, archives, private individuals, etc. into his hands in the occupied western and eastern territories; in addition, he was actively involved in art theft. The evaluation of the cultural property to be captured and secured by the ERR was to be carried out by the "Hohe Schule" or the "Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage" in Frankfurt, at least as far as research on the "Jewish question" could be useful, to which even "materials" of an incommensurable scope were then directed. The haste with which the "seizures" had to be made within a few years or months in areas often far from the borders of the German Reich, made final decisions about the whereabouts of the captured property, especially in the territory of the Soviet Union, at most theoretically visible; in its mass it remained in the territories cleared by German troops. In addition to the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, the East Library and the Central Library of Rosenberg in Berlin were the main places of reception, apparently for material on the "Study of Bolshevism". There were also numerous other recipients, such as the Wehrmacht (for entertainment literature, but also for "military files and archive material" from the occupied Eastern territories, which had to be handed over to the Danzig branch of the Army Archives). The following decrees are the basis for the establishment and mission of the task force: Führererlass of 29.1.1940 concerning the establishment of the "Hohe Schule": The Hohe Schule is to become the central site of National Socialist research, teaching and education. Their construction will take place after the war. However, in order to promote the preparations that have begun, I order Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg to continue this preparatory work - especially in the field of research and the establishment of the library. The services of the Party and the State shall give him every assistance in this work. Decree of the chief of the OKW of 4.7.1940 to the commander-in-chief of the army and the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht in the Netherlands: Reichsleiter Rosenberg has applied to the Führer: 1. to search the state libraries and archives for writings of value to Germany, 2. to search the chancelleries of the high church authorities and lodges for political actions directed against us, and to confiscate the material in question. The Führer has ordered that this proposal be complied with and that the Secret State Police - supported by archivists of the Reichsleiter Rosenberg - be entrusted with the investigation. The head of the security police, SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich, has been notified; he will contact the responsible military commanders for the purpose of executing the order. This measure will be implemented in all the territories we occupy in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. It is requested to inform the subordinate services. Order of the chief of the OKW of 17.9.1940: To the commander-in-chief of the army for the military administration in occupied France In addition to the s.Zt. The Führer has decided, on the basis of the instructions given by the Führer to Reichsleiter Rosenberg to search lodges, libraries and archives in the occupied territories of the West for material of value to Germany and to secure it through the Gestapo: "The conditions before the war in France and before the declaration of war on 1.9.1939 are decisive for the possessions. After this deadline, transfers of ownership to the French Reichsleiter Rosenberg have been completed. State or the like are void and legally ineffective (e.g. Polish and Slovak library in Paris, holdings of the Palais Rothschild and other abandoned Jewish property). Reservations regarding search, seizure and removal to Germany on the basis of such objections shall not be accepted. Reichsleiter Rosenberg or his representative Reichshauptstellenleiter Ebert has clear instructions from the Führer personally regarding the right of access. He is authorised to transport the cultural goods that appear valuable to him to Germany and to secure them here. The Führer has reserved the right to decide on their use. It is requested that the relevant military commanders or services be instructed accordingly. Führer decree of 1.3.1942: Jews, Freemasons and the ideological opponents of National Socialism allied with them are the authors of the present war directed against the Reich. The systematic spiritual combat of these powers is a task necessary for war. I have therefore commissioned Reichsleiter Rosenberg to carry out this task in agreement with the head of the OKW. Its task force for the occupied territories has the right to investigate libraries, archives, lodges and other ideological and cultural institutions of all kinds for corresponding material and to seize it for the ideological tasks of the NSDAP and the later scientific research projects of the high school. The same regulation applies to cultural objects which are in the possession or property of Jews, of stray origin or of origin which cannot be clarified unobjectionably. The implementing regulations for cooperation with the Wehrmacht are issued by the head of the OKW in agreement with Reichsleiter Rosenberg. The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under German administration are taken by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. For a short time the full name of the office was "Einsatzstab der Dienststellen des Reichsleiters Rosenberg für die besetzten westlichen Gebiete und die Niederlande", then "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die besetzten Gebiete". The addition "for the occupied territories" was omitted according to the order of the Joint Staff Committee of 17.11.1944. The headquarters of the Joint Staff Committee was initially Paris. The expansion of the tasks made it necessary to relocate her to Berlin, where she temporarily stayed in the office building at Margarethenstrasse 17. The later office in Berlin, Bismarckstraße 1, was destroyed by an air raid. Organisation and structure: The structure of the ERR consisted in its main features of staff management, main working groups and working groups (set up regionally), occasionally also special detachments, branch offices, etc. The ERR was structured in such a way that it was able to provide a clear overview of the various departments. In addition, there were special staffs which were mainly charged with the "recording of cultural assets", which took place in constant collision with the equal interests of other authorities, such as the Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda (in France with regard to the recording of musical works, musical manuscripts and instruments by the Special Staff for Music) and the Reichsführer-SS (for example with regard to the recording of prehistory and early history). The organisation and distribution of responsibilities of the staff management were adapted to the respective tasks of the ERR institution, which were constantly expanding until 1943 and have been changing ever since. The constant change of tasks, organisation and personnel conditions became a principle for the large number of the departments themselves active in the "worked" areas, which were also completely dependent on the politico-military and administrative conditions in these areas, caused by the respective military, civil or national administrations, and not least by the perpetual conflicts of competence of the party and imperial authorities touching or fighting each other in their areas of interest and ambitions. The development of the ERR began in France with the institution "Einsatzstab Westen" under the leadership of Kurt von Behr. Soon the "Westen" task force was divided into three independent main working groups: France (Paris), Belgium and Northern France (Brussels), Netherlands (Amsterdam). At the same time, V. Behr was the head of the Western Office, which was responsible for securing furnishings for the occupied eastern territories, the so-called M Action. This office was in itself "detached" to the East Ministry; according to Rosenberg's order of 24.11.1944, it was "taken back" to the task force. In the first half of 1944, both the M campaign and the "art collection campaign" were extended to southern France. Probably related to this is the establishment of the South of France Working Group, which finally set up a branch office in Nice and an external command in Marseilles. From the very beginning of its activity in France, the ERR had not confined itself to securing only material from libraries, archives, etc. for the "ideological struggle". He also began to collect and secure art treasures and thus entered into a certain competition with the actions carried out on behalf of Hitler ("Linz" Führer order) and Göring as well as with the art protection carried out by the military commander. Institutionally, he created a special task force "Fine Arts" (SBK) for this task, to which the collection points for fine arts in the Louvre and Jeu de Paume belonged. The Special Staff was only responsible for securing and inventorying the objects of art; the right of disposal over the objects of art - including those seized by the Office of the West in the course of the M Action and handed over to the Special Staff - had been reserved to the "Führer", a demand that was later extended to all works of art "that were or will be confiscated by German authorities in the territories occupied by German troops". The SBK maintained its activity in France to a certain extent until its dissolution. The struggle for responsibility for seized works of art continued until the end of the war, up to and including issues of relocation to Germany (Führer construction and salvage sites such as Neuschwanstein and Herrenchiemsee, etc.) and ultimately works of art to be seized in Austrian mines (Alt-Aussee). The activities of the Italian working group are described in the report of its leader of 28.8.1944 as follows: "The procurement of material on the activities of ideological opponents will continue to be at the forefront of our work in Italy. In the form of translations, reports and evaluation work, this material is prepared by AG Italy and forwarded to the management. At the beginning of 1941, the ERR extended its activities to the Balkans and further to Greece. A Sonderkommando Greece was formed, which was dissolved in 1941. A Sonderkommando Saloniki is still provable until 1942. ERR services were also established in 1941 in Serbia - Special Staff of the Commanding General and Commander of Serbia, an Agram Liaison Office and a Belgrade Liaison Office for the Yugoslav Territories. Efforts to gain a foothold in Hungary failed apparently because of the resistance or influence of the envoy Dr. Veesenmayer. Later, a main working group for the southeast (Belgrade) can be proved, which was formed with effect from 15 February 1944 from the working group for the southeast, which in turn could have originated from the command "Southeast", proven for 1942, which was transferred from Belgrade to Thessaloniki on 10 July 1942. In Denmark, the ERR established a service in Copenhagen. Any approach to "profitable" activity was soon nullified by Dr. Best, representative of the German Reich in Denmark: "Confiscation in the style of the other occupied territories would never come into question". Immediately after his appointment as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMbO), Rosenberg began to direct the initiative of his task force to the eastern territories as well. On April 2, 1941, Rosenberg had already conceived a Führer's order to instruct him "to carry out the same tasks as in the occupied western territories in all the countries occupied or still occupied by the German Wehrmacht within the framework of this war". Until the Führer's order of 1 March 1942 was issued, Rosenberg referred to "the orders issued by the Führer for the West and the tasks carried out in the Western territories by the departments of Art, Archive and Library Protection within the framework of military administration". Rosenberg's guidelines on the protection of cultural assets for "research into the activities of opponents of National Socialism and for National Socialist research" were issued to the Reichskommissariate Ostland and Ukraine on 20.8.1941 and 3.10.1941 respectively. By decree of 27.4.In 1942 Rosenberg finally commissioned the RKO and RKU as the RMbO to once again expressly "commission the ERR for the occupied Eastern territories with the recording and uniform processing of cultural assets, research material and scientific institutions from libraries, museums, etc.", which are found in public, ecclesiastical or private spaces". With the same decree, a central office was founded for the collection and recovery of cultural assets in the occupied Eastern territories. A special department for the collection and recovery of cultural assets was set up at the Reichskommissariaten (Imperial Commissionariats), whose leadership was entrusted to the head of the responsible main working group. For the two Reichskommissariate the main working group Ostland (Riga) with the working groups existed at first: Estonia (Reval), Lithuania (Vilnius), Latvia (Riga), White Ruthenia (Minsk) and the main working group Ukraine (Kiev, later Bialystok). With effect from 1.5.1943 the AG Weißruthenien was elevated to the main working group Mitte. In all HAG areas, in addition to the working groups, mobile staffs, known as "Sonderkommandos" or "Außenstellen", whose activities extended as far as the Crimea and the Caucasus region, worked directly under their command or under the command of the staff. The special staffs included, among others "Sonderstab Bildende Kunst", "Sonderstab Vorgeschichte", "Sonderstab Archive", "Sonderstab Sippenkunde", "Sonderstab Wissenschaft", "Sonderstab Volkskunde", "Sonderstab Presse" (founded 1944), "Sonderstab Dr. Abb", "Sonderstab Musik", "Sonderstab Zentralbibliothek" of the "Hohen Schule" (ZBHS), "Sonderstab weltanschauliche Information in Berlin". Structure of the staff leadership 1942 Staff leader: Utikal deputy: Ebeling 1st Division Organisation: Langkopf Group Indoor Service Group Human Resources Group Procurement Group Readiness to drive 2nd Division West and Southeast: by Ingram Group Planning Group Report 3rd Division East: Dr. Will Group Planning Group Report 4th Division Evaluation: Dr. Brethauer; Deputy: Dr. Wunder; from 1.11.1942: Lommatzsch Group General Group Library Group Inventory Group Photograph 5 Dept. Special Tasks: Rehbock Structure of the staff leadership 1944 Staff leader: Utikal representative: The senior head of department department I (head of department I: SEF Rehbock; head of department z.b.V.: SEF Brethauer) group I/1 personal adviser of the chief of staff: Rehbock group I/2 mob- and locksmith matters: Rehbock Group I/3 Personal Representative of the Chief of Staff for the Art Recording Action and Head of the Louvre Working Group: Rehbock Group I/4 Defense Representative of the Operational Staff: HEF Braune Group I/5 Procurement, Courier Service, Supply: OEF Jach Group I/6 Publications: HEF Tenschert Group I/7 Special Reports: EF Tost Division II (Head of Division: OSEF Dr. Will; Deputy: SEF Dr. Zeiß) Division IIa: Western Division, covering France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Southeast: SEF Dr. Zeiß Division IIb: Division East, covering the occupied territories of the Soviet Union: OSEF Dr. Will Division III (Head of Division: SEF Zölffel) Division IIIa: SEF Zölffel Group III/1 Legal Affairs, Orders and Communications: SEF Zölffel Gruppe III/2 Wehrmachttfragen, Marschpapiere, Veranstaltungen, Marketenderei: HEF Gummert Abteilung IIIb: HEF Webendoerfer Gruppe III/3 Personal: HEF Sklaschus Gruppe III/4 Business Distribution: HEF Webendoerfer Gruppe III/5 Registratur: OEF Hechler Hauptabteilung IV (Head of Department: OSEF Dr. Wunder; Deputy: SEF Lommatzsch) Translation Office: OEF Dr. Benrath Gruppe IV/1 Archiv: HEF Dr. Mücke Group IV/3 Material preparation: HEF Reichardt Group IV/4 Evaluation by scientists: HEF Rudolph Group IV/5 Book control centre: HEF Ruhbaum Group IV/6 East Library: HEF Dr. Müller Abbreviations DBFU The commander's representative for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological training and education of the NSDAP EF Einsatzführer ERR Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg HAG Hauptarbeitsgruppe HEF Haupteinsatzführer IMT Internationales Militärtribunal MTS Maschinen-Traktoren-Station NKWD Volkskommissariat für Innere Angelegenheiten NSDAP National Socialist German Workers' Party NSPO National Socialist Party Organization OEF Upper Operations Leader OKH Army High Command OKW Wehrmacht High Command OSEF Wehrmacht Upper Staff Operations Leader RKO Reichskommissar für das Ostland RKU Reichskommissar für die Ukraine RMbO Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete SEF Stabseinsatzführer WKP (b) Communistische Partei der Sovietunion ZbV zur besonderen Verwendung Inventory description: Inventory history In the 1960s, scattered files of the ERR were brought into the Federal Archives, with various returns of written material from the USA and predominantly in association with other provenances from the Rosenberg business area as well as with individual levies from the Rehse Collection, which were formed into an inventory there. Most of these files are written documents which were last found in the alternative office of the ERR in Ratibor. A part of the staff and the management of the Ostbücherei with large stocks of books were evacuated from Berlin to there. The remains of documents rescued by the members of the HAG Ostland, Ukraine and White Ruthenia were also recorded in Ratibor. The preserved files should come from holdings that were moved from Ratibor to the west. Subsequent additions to the holdings were mainly made by levies from the military archives, by re-enlargements of microfilms from the YIVO Institute, New York, by late recorded files from American repatriation, by three volumes from the dissolved holdings of the Rosenberg offices of the Central State Archives of the GDR (62 Tue 1) and by personal documents from the so-called "NS Archive of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR". The documents preserved at the end of the war and accessible to the Western Allies were used as evidence for the IMT process. The essential components were then left to the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC), Paris. ERR documents can also be found today in the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, in the YIVO Institute for Jewish Reserch, Washington, and in the Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (NIOD), Amsterdam. Documents from Rosenberg offices also reached archives of the former Soviet Union. An extensive collection (especially the provenance ERR) is kept in the Tsentral`nyi derzhavnyi arhiv vyshchykh orhaniv vlady ta upravlinnia Ukraïny (TsDAVO Ukraïny) in Kiev, further files in the Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi voennyi arkhiv (RGVA) in Moscow and in the Lithuanian Central State Archives, Vilnius. The Federal Archives, Bildarchiv, holds an extensive collection of photographs from the ERR (holdings Fig. 131). Inventories, directories and transport lists by the ERR of "seized objects" are contained in the holdings of B 323 Treuhandverwaltung von Kulturgut. Archive processing The NS 30 collection is a conglomerate of scattered files and individual documents. In the interest of rapid utilisation, the documents were recorded provisionally without costly evaluation and administrative work. Mrs. Elisabeth Kinder produced the preliminary finding aid book in 1968, from which essential elements of this introduction are taken. The "new entries" were recorded by the undersigned in 2003/2004. Citation method BArch NS 30/ .... State of development: Findbuch (1968/2005), Online-Findbuch (2004). Citation style: BArch, NS 30/...
