Preliminary remark: Very probably at the suggestion of Heeresarchivrat Knoch, who worked from June 1936 to autumn 1943 at the Reichsarchiv branch or at the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart, the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart collected excerpts from newspapers and military journals during these years. The collection, which also contains pieces from earlier years and which has also occasionally included other printed matter and copies of official letters from the Army Archives, primarily comprises documents on general military matters, on war history and on individual military personnel, especially those of the 19th and 20th centuries. As the archival term "Auskunftei" (information agency) (cf. e.g. no. 196) suggests, the Wahl collection was created with the intention of creating a quick and easy means of information for the employees of the army archives. It does not contain any significant individual pieces, nor does it carry much weight overall. If it was nevertheless rearranged and listed, it is because it can still serve its original purpose today and because it is also revealing to the spirit which prevailed at least among some of the staff of the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart during the National Socialist era. These were marked with the respective keyword and partly with detailed information about the excerpts contained in them. The envelopes were arranged in the alphabetical order of the keywords, but the entire collection was unlisted. In the present order and indexing, the previous order was essentially retained; however, where necessary, the keywords were specified or - in individual cases - changed. The purpose of these notes and cross-references is to facilitate the use of the holdings; life data are only given for persons if they could be determined with a justifiable amount of work. The holdings (389 numbers; 0.70 m) were indexed in March and April 1975 by the archivist. Herrmann under supervision of Oberstaatsarchivrat Dr. Fischer, who also completed the present repertory.Stuttgart, June 1975(Fischer)

Preliminary remark: The present collection of material on biographies was received by the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart in December 1975 as a gift from Freiherr Meinrad von Ow, Munich. It formed part of the written estate of General Franz Freiherr von Soden (1856 - 1945) and was collected by him in the years 1919 - 1945. The original reason for this may have been Sodens' plan to "compile a book of honour for the higher leaders". In 1921 or 1924, he succeeded in enriching his collection with material that had grown up in the years 1916/17 to about 20 officers killed in World War II under Lieutenant Colonel Osterberg (cf. No. 379 of the holdings), then Chief of the War Archive, von Soden's collection united documents on the biographies of military personnel, in particular of Württemberg officers, but also of men and women of general importance, as well as of persons who for various reasons found Soden interesting. This writing is of very different nature and quality. It mainly includes obituaries and newspaper articles, often written by Soden, concepts and manuscripts of Sodens on congratulations, eulogies and obituaries, as well as correspondences of Sodens with individual persons represented in the collection and the like. The note "very important" on one of the folders in which the collection was previously kept shows that it was of high value to von Soden. Today it is a welcome addition to the official files, which have not been fully preserved, especially for personnel matters. The collection, which comprised 6 folders when it was transferred to the archive, was created by superimposing the individual documents, newspaper clippings and the like from Soden and giving them a number. The documents received at different times for one and the same person were therefore usually not available. Since the collection lacked an internal order and since von Soden did not create an index either, it was neither usable in practice nor needed consideration of its previous state of order in the current reorganization, in which the material available for each person was combined and the inventory was based on an alphabetical classification. As a rule, the information in the title recordings was taken from the holdings themselves. Only the life data, partly also the first names and with officers the contingent affiliation were often supplemented with other aids (above all the archival holdings M 430/1 - M 430/5 general reference books and biographical encyclopaedias). However, it would only have been possible to achieve completeness in these additions, which are marked as such by square brackets only in justified exceptional cases, with a workload that would be out of proportion to the source value of the holdings. Unless otherwise stated, the officers are always members of the Württemberg army. The note "died" means both "died" and "fallen" or "died as a result of injury". The stock comprises 602 numbers (0, 85 linear metres). It was recorded at the beginning of 1977 by the archivist Herrmann under the supervision of Oberstaatsarchivrat Dr. Fischer, who was also responsible for the revision of the title recordings and the elaboration of the repertory. Stuttgart, August 1977(Fischer)