History of the Inventory Designer: After the dissolution of the "Historical Reich Commission", the Reich Institute for the History of the New Germany was founded in Berlin with effect from 1 July 1935. The Jewish Question Research Department, established in 1936, was based in Munich. The Reichsinstitut was subject to the supervision of the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and People's Education. It had the task of "researching and presenting modern German history, especially the period between the French Revolution and the National Socialist Revolution (1789-1933)", both in the form of source publications and independent presentations. The numerous research assignments included, among others Foreign Policy of Prussia 1858 - 1871 (adopted by the "Historische Reichskommission"), History of Philosophy, Research on the Jewish Question and Reich and Enemies of the Reich. Until December 1941, the Reichsinstitut was headed by Prof. Dr. Walter Frank, (temporarily) replaced by Dr. Karl Richard Ganzer. In Ganzer's absence and after his death in October 1943, Prof. Dr. Erich Botzenhart took over the performance of his official duties. Inventory description: Inventory history In the last years of the war, essential parts of the Reichsinstitut had been relocated to Göttingen, including service and business records (destroyed there), an extensive contemporary press archive with biographical collections on contemporary personalities, parts of the Steininger Biographical Collection with material on Hitler, Ludendorff and other prominent contemporaries, a series of transcripts from Colonel Bauer's papers and parts of the reference library. The surviving documents were handed over to the University of Göttingen at the end of the war. From there in 1953 the approximately 27 linear metres of newspaper clippings were transferred to the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, where they were later integrated into the collection there. The files remaining in Berlin were transferred to the Berlin main archive (Rep. 300 Reichsinstitut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands and Rep. 336 Biographische Sammlung Carl Steininger). In 1969 the Federal Archives took over the files of the Reichsinstitut (Rep. 300) and formed the inventory R 1. The Handakten Ganzer originate from a collection of the Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden from 1974. The daily reports of the HAPAG representative Arndt von Hotzendorff from 1914-1918 to the general director Albert Ballin, which were handed down as "Depot Hamburg - America - Line", had reached the Reichsinstitut in June 1939 in connection with research work of Colonel Nicolai, where they were recovered from fire debris in 1945. In 1990, the series of reports was submitted to the Hamburg State Archives, where it was integrated into the archive of HAPAG LLOYD AG. In the Federal Archives the documents can be used on film. Archivische Bearbeitung The list drawn up in 1945/1948 by the former archivist of the Reichsinstitut Johannes Grandinger was subsequently changed only by supplementing the new entries. Classification and distortion have been revised to the extent necessary for the present version of the finding aid book, in some cases in conjunction with re-signings. Characterization of the contents: Files of the Reichsinstitut were largely lost during the war through bombing and targeted destruction. The mass of the tradition is made up of the hand files of the accounting clerk for the Reich Institute in the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Popular Education, Councillor Klöhn. Only a few files from the registry of the Reichsinstitut were secured, including circulars of the ministry and the access register of the library. The collection also contains some manuscripts of scientific papers as well as files of the provisional director Ganzer. State of development: Findbuch (2005), Online-Findbuch (2005). A collection of newspaper clippings from the Reichsinstitut is kept at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. Citation style: BArch, R 1/...
