Preliminary remark: Karl Ludwig Eugen Schall (born on 25 November 1885), died on 30 January 1980) joined the Grenadier Regiment of Queen Olga (1st Württembergische) No. 119 in 1904 as a junior flag officer, reached the rank of lieutenant general there until World War I, after the outbreak of the war took part as company officer in the battles of the regiment on the West and East Front and was wounded twice. From 1915 Schall worked as a captain and general staff officer, often occupying changing general staff positions at General Command XIII Army Corps, at the 26th Infantry Division, the 14th Infantry Division, General Command V, and at the General Command of the German Armed Forces. Army Corps, 18th Reserve Division, General Command IV Reserve Corps and 10th Reserve Corps. He participated in the fights in Flanders, in the Somme, in the Champagne, in the Ardennes and Argonne, in the Meuse and near Verdun until his demobilisation in 1918. He was mainly concerned with strength and loss reports, interrogation of prisoners, evaluation of aerial photographs, mapping, position building and pioneer questions. From 1933 he again held several changing positions in the General Staff of the V. Army Corps as a Major, in 1939 was Commander of the Stuttgart II Military District as Lieutenant Colonel, from 1940 as Lieutenant Colonel, later as Colonel General Staff Officer in the 554th Army Corps. Infantry Division, with the Army Group A, with the Commander-in-Chief in Serbia, then Chief of the Field Commandantur 747 in Nîmes and was last transferred in 1944 against his own wishes as a war history teacher to the Kriegsakademie. As a pensioner Schall still studied archaeology in Tübingen until his doctorate. Further information on Karl Schall's life can be found in a handwritten curriculum vitae in Bü. 182, in the diaries in Bü. 181 and in the personal file in stock M 430/2, Bü. 1804 with information on his military career until 1919.Parts of the estate of Karl Schall, above all written material from his military service and extensive collections, were offered to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart by his son Brigadegeneral a.D. Wolfgang Schall in March 1980 and, after an initial inspection at the estate's premises in April 1980, were handed over to the library of the Hauptstaatsarchiv and the archival records in Department IV (Military Archives) have since formed the M 660 estate of Karl Schall. Since the estate of Karl Schall got into complete disarray and no pre-archival classification scheme was recognizable, it was necessary to develop a classification scheme after the indexing, which should do justice to the multi-layered structures and most different documentation forms, particularly since in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart no uniform classification scheme for estates finds application. The documents from the officers' activities, correspondence and personal papers, which besides their general historical significance have a close personal connection to the deceased, were clearly separated from the multi-layered collections. The structure of the documents from the officer's activity reflects the military career of Schall. These are mostly personal copies of official documents in the form of hectographies, prints and other copies, as well as drafts and private documents. A document, which had been taken from the business transactions of the office, was reintegrated into the relevant holdings of the military unit in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart. There is a reference in this repertory. The private correspondence was sorted according to correspondent groups and correspondents. Posters and wall attacks, military maps and non-military maps were incorporated into the corresponding collections of the Main State Archives J 151, M 640 and M 650 mainly for conservation reasons. Nevertheless, these pieces have also been incorporated into the present repertory in the form of references, whereby the ordering scheme of the map holdings M 640 for military maps and M 65 0 for non-military maps has been adopted. Maps which have a recognisable connection to documents in Part A have been left there or reunited and have also been incorporated into the collections of the estate as references. For the collection of newspaper clippings, individual newspapers, printed publications and manuscripts from the fields of history, contemporary history, politics, religion, language, literature, science and technology, it seemed necessary to develop as finely structured a classification scheme as possible, since this collection, with approx. 500 numbers, represents the largest part of the collection and was previously only divided into the categories1. Military, 2nd Politics and Contemporary History, 3rd Science and within these categories only chronologically ordered, which made the chronological classification of the frequently undated newspaper clippings possible. It seemed appropriate to make the very multi-layered estate accessible by means of as comprehensive a list of subjects, places and persons as possible. Only a few small map sections from maps that are already available, sketches and notes that seemed to be no longer comprehensible individually and were not in any recognizable connection to other documents, file folders and packaging material were collected. The estate of Karl Schall contains above all informative material about the type of warfare in the First World War. Of particular importance is also the material on non-Württemberg units, most of whose records were destroyed in a bombing raid on Potsdam in April 1945. The drawings on the maps from World War I provide extensive information on the course of the front, combat directions, troop movements, position building and destruction in the front areas and thus complement the M 640 map holdings well. Also noteworthy is the extensive written material on the trials before the military tribunal in Nuremberg against the generals Curt Ritter von Geitner, Hubert Lanz, Karl von Roques and Eugen Wössner, which contains excerpts from the indictments and defence material. In the collections the history of the 20th century up to the 70s is reflected in an astonishingly comprehensive and descriptive way. The collection is not subject to any restrictions of use. In January and February 1984, the M 660 estate of Karl Schall was listed and arranged by Markus Baudisch, a candidate archive inspector, as a rehearsal work in the context of the state examination for the upper archive service and comprises 697 books in 1.55 metres.

1st Deputy General Command XIII (K.W.) Army Corps: When Emperor Wilhelm II declared a state of war on the Reich's territory on 31 July 1914, the Prussian Law on the State of Siege of 4 June 1851, which conferred executive power on the military commanders, came into force at the same time (1). The military commanders were the commanding generals of the individual army corps and the governors and commanders of fortresses whose orders had to be obeyed by the civilian authorities. For the first day of mobilization, 2 August 1914, the mobilization plan provided for the establishment of the deputy command authorities, which, after the previous command authorities had moved away, were to take over their command and business area independently on the sixth day of mobilization (2). At the same time, the powers of the military commander were transferred to the deputy commanding general, who led the supreme command of the remaining occupying, replacement and garrison troops. Only responsible to the emperor as the "Most High Warlord", the military commander was not bound to instructions of the Bundesrat, the chancellor or the war ministry. According to Article 68 of the Reich Constitution, the military commander assumed responsibility for handling the state of siege in his area of command. The constitution allowed him to intervene in the legal situation by declaring the intensified state of war, to restrict constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and to establish war courts. In Württemberg, however, the declaration of the intensified state of war was dispensed with, since the existing laws offered a sufficient basis for the ability of the deputy commanding general to act (3). Although the cooperation between military commanders and civilian authorities was not regulated uniformly until October 1918, in Württemberg, similar to Bavaria, there was from the outset a coordination between the military and civilian executive powers. This was particularly encouraged by the union of the offices of Minister of War and Deputy Commanding General in the hands of General von Marchtalers (4). Army corps were from 2.8.1914 to 1.9.1914 general of the infantry retired Otto von Hügel, from 1.9.1914 to 21.1.1916 general of the infantry Otto von Marchtaler and from 21.1.1916 to end of war general of the infantry retired Paul von Schaefer. Chief of Staff was Major General 2. D. Theodor von Stroebel (5) from the beginning to the end of the war. At the beginning of the mobilization, 7 officers and 14 sub-officials transferred to the Deputy General Command, which had its official seat at Kriegsbergstraße 32. It soon became apparent that the business volume was expanding considerably, individual lines of business were growing strongly and new ones were being added, so that an increase in the number of employees and the expansion of the premises became necessary. The new tasks brought a further strong enlargement of the administrative apparatus under the sign of the "Vaterländischen Hilfsdienst" and the Hindenburg Programme (6). The scope of duties of the Deputy General Command included military, economic and political matters. Various authorities were subordinated to him: the Deputy Infantry Brigades, the Landwehr Inspectorate, since 1917 the Military Central Police Station and the Post- and Deport Monitoring Centre (Schubpol) Stuttgart. The distribution of responsibilities changed several times in line with the expansion of tasks. According to the business distribution plan (Appendix), which came into effect on 27 August 1917, the central task was initially to ensure that the field army could meet its needs for crew and war material. The recruitment and training of replacements, the establishment of the "troop units ordered by the War Minister and the transfer of replacement crews to the field troops were priority tasks" (Departments l a and Il b). A subdivision la 3, specially created for horse affairs, which dealt with the recruitment and military and civilian use of horses in the troops and at home, underlines the great importance of the horse as a riding, working and pack animal in the First World War. In addition to military tasks in the narrower sense, including the handling of all officers' affairs (Department Ha), the Deputy General Command was primarily responsible for political and administrative tasks. In August 1917, the Ile defence department was set up, which carried out security measures against feared enemy attacks on the transport network and important war operations by organising railway protection and air defence. The surveillance of railway and border traffic, passport and registration regulations and the inspection of foreigners served to protect military secrets and defend against espionage and sabotage. This area also includes the various efforts made to control correspondence. A central chemical office (department Il e Abwiss.) should uncover and decipher secret documents. Another task of the Deputy General Command was the accommodation and care of prisoners of war in camps and their employment in industry and agriculture (Department Il f). With the duration of the war, the shortage of raw materials and food grew as a result of Germany's exclusion from the world economy. Rationing and coercive management were inevitable. In addition, there was a shortage of labour, which required the mobilisation of all material and human resources. The Hindenburg Programme attempted to adapt the production of war material to the increased demand. The 'Vaterländische Hilfsdienstgesetz' was intended to solve the problem of job creation (7). In November 1916, the Prussian War Ministry established a War Office "for the management of all matters related to the overall conduct of the war concerning the procurement, use and nutrition of workers, as well as the procurement of raw materials, weapons and ammunition," to which the Deputy General Commands were subordinated in all matters of war economics (8) . The Deputy General Command was responsible for the management of the labor market, measures to ensure food security for the population and troops, the allocation of labor and raw materials, and measures to increase industrial production necessary for the needs of war. For example, the control office of the Daimler plants made it possible to monitor arms production, but it also allowed influence to be exerted on the working conditions and wages of the employees and the pricing of the companies. The supervision of political life in the area of command was carried out via § 9b of the Siege Act, which allowed intervention in all areas of public life to maintain security and order (9). The militarization of war-important enterprises served to avoid demonstrations and strikes. The right of association and assembly was restricted. Censorship became a useful instrument to influence the mood of the people in the sense of the rulers. It covered the pre- and post-censorship of the press, letters, telegrams and mail, as well as the import of newspapers and magazines. The communications intended for the public on domestic political issues or military news were also subject to censorship. The attempt to strengthen the will of the population to persevere through official propaganda, called "war enlightenment" (10), was added to this. For this purpose propaganda lectures were established in the deputy general commandos, Captain (ret.) Heinrich Hermelink, Professor of Church History in Marburg, was hired as a reconnaissance officer of the XIII Army Corps. Under Ludendorff the Oberzensurbehörde became the executive organ of the Supreme Army Command, which increasingly restricted the independence of the military commanders. Since April 1917, for all Deputy General Commands, the guidelines of the Press Office, to which the Supreme Censorship Authority was subject, had been decisive for the handling of propaganda and censorship. There was information for workers and women, for the troops war propaganda was carried out as patriotic instruction. Other divisions of the Deputy General Command were the Court Division (Division III), which was responsible for military justice and also dealt with legal and police matters in the civil sector. There was also an Administration and War Food Department (Division IV d) and a Medical Department (Division IV b). Veterinary Department (Division IV d) and Supply Department (Division V), which dealt with war disability care and pension matters (11). After the ceasefire was declared in November 1918, the Deputy General Command remained in place. It organised the demobilisation, collection, repatriation, supply and disbanding of units. Accommodations in Württemberg and the evacuation of occupied territories were among the tasks, as was the deployment of security troops (Department la 1). Subordinate evacuation train distribution commissions based in Heilbronn and Mühlacker were responsible for forwarding the goods and war equipment transported back from the field to the homeland. The demobilisation order for the mobile General Command XIII Army Corps came into force on 11.12.1918. Officers and officials of the General Command transferred to the previous Deputy General Command, which continued business by merging with the former mobile General Command under the new name General Command of the XIIIth Army Corps. In February 1919 the General Command was incorporated into the War Ministry. Individual subdivisions of the la department were dissolved, and existing departments were incorporated into the War Ministry. The Rumpfbehörde was led as department Generalkommando of the war ministry and remained as such also in August 1919, when the war ministry was converted into the Reichswehrbefehlsstelle Württemberg (12). On October 1, 1919, the Württemberg War Ministry ceased to exist. For the authorities and facilities of the former army that were still needed, settlement offices were created under the authority of the Reich Ministry of Defence. On October 1, 1919, the Reichswehr Command Post was transformed into the Winding-up Office of the former Württemberg War Ministry. At the same time, the Department General Command XIII Army Corps and the Higher Resolution Staffs 49 - 51, which had been set up since July 1919, were used to form the Office of the former XIII Army Corps. Under the leadership of the supreme von Hoff, both offices were described as the "Abwicklungsamt Württemberg", at the end of the year as the "Heeresabwicklungsamt" of the former XIIIth Army Corps. At the end of March 1921, the Army Processing Office was dissolved, and when the Deputy General Command was established, Registratur Andrä, who headed the Central Office in 1917, was entrusted with the registry and file management. The files were arranged according to the departments valid at the time of their creation, but were numbered consecutively; each number was subdivided again according to Generalia and Spezialia and, if necessary, with additional letters. Blue or green envelopes were used for the general files and red envelopes for the special files. The files were stapled in accordance with the Prussian model of file management, and the registry remained intact both after the transfer to the General Command and after the merger with the War Ministry; however, the files of the departments and areas that were now transferred to other departments of the War Ministry were given the new department names; some were also spun off. Thus the records of Veterinary Department IV d were handed over to Department A 4 of the War Ministry. During this period of transition, documents have already been segregated and destroyed as a result of political events, but also during relocations or new divisions. Already during the November confusion, the personnel department Il d suffered losses; in February 1919, before the department Ile moved to Olgastraße, 11 files on associations and assemblies, radical social democracy, protective custody and security police as well as lists of suspects were sorted out (13). The files of other departments were transferred to other authorities or spun off because the department became independent. Thus, in May 1919, the prisoner-of-war department Il f became independent as the prisoner-of-war homecoming department (Gehea) (14). The records of the pension department V had been transferred to the main pension office. The remaining files also remained in order in the Heeresabwicklungsamt and from October 1920 formed part of the newly established Korpsarchiv, which from 1921 together with the old Kriegsarchiv became the Reichsarchiv branch office. 2. to the order and distortion of the stock: In the Reichsarchiv branch office, the files were first recorded in 1924 by Maximilian Haldenwang, whereby the order by departments according to the last business distribution plan of 1917 was taken as a basis, the individual units were combined into larger clusters and these were numbered consecutively. However, the files of Gas Protection Division IIc were already missing in this inventory; it is not known when and why they were lost. During subsequent administrative work in the holdings of the War Ministry and the Army Processing Office, various files with the provenance of Deputy General Command were added to the holdings. This includes 50 censored books published during the World War. During the November events, these books were confiscated at the press office of the Deputy General Command and shortly afterwards they were taken over into the war collection of the Court Library. The "military" part of the Court Library was transferred to the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart in 1938. It was assumed that these books had the character of censorship copies, that the remainder of the edition had been stamped, and that when the inventory M 630 was dissolved in 1983, the court files of the Upper War Court of the XIIIth Army Corps were assigned to the inventory; further files from the inventory of the Army Processing Office (M 390) were attached as appendices, which were taken from the General Command XIIIth Army Corps Department of the Ministry of War or from the General Command XIIIth Army Corps Department of the Ministry of War. With the new indexing, which began in 1987, it seemed to make sense to leave the entire tradition with the provenances of the Deputy General Command, General Command (from December 1918) and Department General Command of the War Ministry and the Reichswehr (from February to October 1, 1919) in one inventory, since the registry runs through despite the changes. An exception are the files of those areas that were integrated into other departments of the War Ministry in February 1919; here the files created after this time were, if separable, attached to the corresponding holdings. Thus files of the horse department la 3, which after February 1919 merged into the department A 10 of the War Ministry, as well as files of the officer affairs department Ha, which after February 1919 were processed by the personnel department of the War Ministry, were classified in the stocks M 1/4 and M 1/5 respectively. A bundle of files of the "Leitung der Ausflüge für verwundete Stuttgarter Lazarette 1918/20", an independent association, whose files had apparently come to the Army Processing Office after its dissolution and remained with the inventory of 1924, was also separated. It was set up as a separate portfolio in line with provenance (M 324). Conversely, the archival records previously treated as appendices to the holdings and removed from M 390 were integrated into the corresponding departments. In addition, reference is made to individual pieces of documents of the provenance of the former XIII Army Corps's Winding-up Office which are in the inventory and could not be separated because of the thread-stitching. The files of the Court Division III also remained together, although they extend beyond October 1, 1919, since they were continued as a continuous registry also in the time of the Army Processing Office independently and independently. Two tufts from the Herzog Albrecht (M 30/1) Army Group stock were classified according to provenance. The internal order of the stock was maintained in principle. Again, the business distribution plan of April 1917 was used as a basis. This means that even subjects which cannot actually be expected from the title of the respective department remained in its registry context. The heterogeneity of the subjects within a differently designated department is often due to the fact that numerous subject areas belonged earlier to other departments and were only assigned to another department by the business distribution plan of August 1917 - apparently in the course of the streamlining of the authority (cf. table of contents). Within the departments, titles were arranged according to objective criteria, so that the order of the fascicles often differs from the old index. The old bundle count was replaced by a new consecutive numbering of the tufts. A concordance of the old bundle signatures and new bundle numbers was added to make it easier to find cited passages. The individual file units remained, they were only rearranged in exceptional cases. The books (censorship copies) handed over in 1938 were correctly classified by the press department, and the main titles, as they were given in the Haldenwang repertory on the basis of the inscriptions, were also preserved in the individual title recordings. Because of the high source value of the files, which after the losses of the Second World War were of exemplary importance, also as a replacement for the lost Prussian tradition, detailed notes on contents appeared justified; this all the more so as the main title of the thread-stitched and therefore indivisible files sometimes only most incompletely reflects the contents. The notes should clarify both the content and the structure of the file clusters. However, not all sketches, maps and plans could be ejected individually, as they are available in too large a number and are often to be expected anyway. Only where a tuft of files reaches beyond the narrower provenance of "Stellvertretendes Generalkommando" was the further provenance noted.In order to compensate for the disadvantage of the heterogeneity of the files and the partly unusual order, a detailed subject index was compiled which, apart from the keywords "XIII. army corps" and "Württemberg", brings together as far as possible all narrow terms related to the subject matter of the holdings, partly in two parts. From March 1988 to August 1989, the stock was arranged and listed by the scientific employee Anita Raith under the direction of Dr. Bernhard Theil as part of a job creation scheme, who also greatly revised the introduction. Archive employee Werner Urban played a decisive role in the creation of the final editorial office and the indices. The packaging and installation was carried out in August 1989 by working student Angelika Hofmeister. 1144 tufts (= 29.6 m) were in stock. Comments: (1) Article 68 of the Constitution of the Reich provided for a Reich Law regulating the state of war, which, however, did not exist until the end of the Empire. Militär und Innenpolitk im Weltkrieg 1914 - 1918, edited by Wilhelm Deist, Düsseldorf 1970, vol. l, p. XXXI; see also HStAS E 130a Bü. 1146 Richtlinien des Preußischen Kriegsministeriums zum verschärften Kriegszustand (Letter of 25. July 1914)(2) HStAS M 33/1 Bund 80, Annexes to the mobilization provision, cf. also § 20.7 of the mobilization plan 1914/15 in M 1/2 vol. 32(3) Deist (wie Anm. 1) Bd. l, p. 13 ff. besonders Anm. 2(4) Ebd. S. XLV(5) HStAS M 430/2 Bü. 942, 1354, 1795, 2146(6) In March 1917, the Deputy General Command had 134 budgeted officer positions, actually 317 persons were employed. The accommodation of the departments in M 77/1 Bü. 632(7) Deist (as Note 1) p. 506 ff.:(8) HStAS M 1/4 vol. 1272, reprinted at Deist (as Note 1) p. 508 ff., cf. ibid. XLVII(9) Gesetz über den Siegeerungszustand, Handbuch der during des war issued Verordnungen des Stellvertretenden Generalkommandos XIII. (Kgl. Württ.) Armeekorps mit Einschluster nicht veröffentlichtter Erlasses, Stuttgart 1918, p. l ff.(10) Deist (wie Anm. 1) S. LXV(11) The memorandums, which report on the experiences of individual departments during the mobilization, also contain information on the structure, personnel and delimitation of the working areas of a department (fonds M 77/2)(12) Cf. Appendix III of the Introduction to the Repertory of the Collection M 390(13) M 77/1 Bü. 935(14) The files of this department, which is subordinate to the Army Office for the Settlement of Armed Forces, are now in the collection M 400/3 Literature: Deist, Wilhelm: Zur Institution des Militärbefehlshabers im Ersten Weltkrieg. In: Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands 13/17 (1965) S. 222 - 240Mai, Günther: Kriegswirtschaft und Arbeiterbewegung in Württemberg 1914 - 1918. 1983Ders: Das Ende des Kaiserreichs, Politik und Kriegsführung im Ersten Weltkrieg (Deutsche Geschichte der neuesten Zeit) 1987Matuschka, Edgar, Graf von: Organisation History of the Army 1890 - 1918 In: German Military History in 6 Volumes 1648 - 1939 Ed. by the Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt, 3.1983 S 157 - 282Militär- und Innenpolitik im Weltkrieg 1914 - 1918, edited by Wilhelm Deist (Quellen zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus und der politischen Parteien, 2. Reihe Bd. 1,1 und 1,2) 1970Moser, Otto von: The Württembergers in the World War. A History, Memory and Folk Book 2.1928Stuttgart, October 1989Anita RaithBernhard Theil

Description of the holdings: The head of the army archives was the head of archives for the Wehrmacht part of the army with its official seat in Potsdam. The chief of the army archives was in charge of the army archives in Potsdam, Vienna, Munich, Dresden and Stuttgart, the army archives branches in Prague and Gdansk, as well as the representatives in the occupied territories and the Wehrmacht sighting station for prey files. The Chief of the Army Archives was responsible for the recording of files of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, of the High Command of the Army with subordinate offices, of the command authorities, troops, administrative authorities and other institutions of the army (cf. HDv. 30 Correspondence and Business Transactions of the Wehrmacht, Appendix 2). The User Regulations regulated the lending and use of the Army Archives (cf. BArch RH 18/437). After three years of negotiations, the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior and the Reich War Minister agreed in September 1936 that the military files should be taken over by the High Command of the Army. On April 1, 1937, the chief of the army archives and the army archives under his command took over the military archives, which since 1919 had been administered by the Reichsarchiv, its branches in Dresden and Stuttgart, and the war archives in Munich. The Chief of the Army Archives was subordinate to the Chief Quartermaster V in the General Staff of the Army until 1942. With the reorientation of the writing of war history, Hitler subordinated the Chief of the Army Archives to the Commissioner of the Führer for Military History, Colonel Scherff, with effect from 1 July 1942. From 1937 to 1942 Friedrich von Rabenau was the chief of the army archives, from 1942 until the end of the war Karl Ruppert, who had been in charge of the Potsdam army archives since 1937. The management of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam and the office of Chief of Army Archives were merged in 1943. Heeresarchiv Potsdam The Heeresarchiv Potsdam was divided into three departments. Department A administered the Brandenburg-Prussian Army Archives, the archives of which ran from the 17th century until the dissolution of the Prussian army in 1920. Department B kept the files of the volunteer formations formed after World War I and of the Reichswehr. Section C was intended for the recording of Wehrmacht files, i.e. from 1935 with the re-establishment of military sovereignty. The departments of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam were divided into subject areas. Other organisational units included the collections, estates, maps and the picture collection. In 1935, the Berlin Department of the Reichsarchiv (especially the Prussian War Ministry after 1867) and the Central Office of Records for War Losses and War Graves were also subordinated to the Heeresarchiv Potsdam. The Heeresarchiv Potsdam continuously took over the war diaries of all command authorities and troops as well as the court files of the field and war courts in the court file collection centre. The file collection centre West in Berlin-Wannsee mainly recorded loot files from various military offices in France. The organisational structure of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam was not uniform and changed several times until 1945. In territorial matters, the Heeresarchiv Potsdam was bound by the instructions of the commander in Wehrkreis III (Berlin). A British air raid on Potsdam on 14 April 1945 hit the service and magazine building of the chief of the army archives and the army archive Potsdam hard. The holdings of the Brandenburg-Prussian Army Archives were almost destroyed. This concerned, among other things, the files of the Prussian military cabinet, the files of the Prussian Ministry of War, the war files of the unification wars and the most important war diaries with attachments from the First World War. The personal records of the Prussian army and the Reichswehr are considered almost completely destroyed. In 1943 the Heeresarchiv Potsdam outsourced the department for the recording of war diaries to Liegnitz in Silesia. At the end of 1944 this branch was moved back to Potsdam. Later, the Heeresarchiv Potsdam outsourced large quantities of its archives. Shortly before the enclosure of Berlin, the war diaries of the Second World War and a few particularly valuable older files were transferred to Blankenburg in the Harz Mountains and to Bad Reichenhall or Kufstein in "two transports of 4-6 railway wagons each" (Poll). The archives in Blankenburg were confiscated by the Western Allies. These were the war diaries of the Army High Commands, the General Commands, the divisions and other army departments as well as parts of older files. The war diaries of top army authorities were burned in Reichenhall and Kufstein on the orders of Scherff, the Führer's representative for military historiography. The destruction of older files, estates and collections in Reichenhall could be prevented by the responsible official. Heeresarchiv Wien The Chief of the Army Archives took over the War Archive Vienna after the integration of Austria in 1938. It was the central military archive of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy until 1918 and of the Republic of Austria until 1938. After the beginning of World War II, the Army Archives Vienna was assigned the Southeast Files Collection Point for the collection of loot files from the Southeast region. In territorial matters the Army Archives Vienna was bound to the instructions of the commander in the military district XVII (Vienna). Today the War Archives are under the control of the Austrian State Archives. Heeresarchiv München After the foundation of the Reichsarchiv in 1919, the Kriegsarchiv München was able to maintain its status as an independent Bavarian archive and was not subordinated to the Reichsarchiv as a branch of the Reichsarchiv, as were the archives in Dresden and Stuttgart. In 1937, the head of the Heeresarchiv took over the Kriegsarchiv München as the Heeresarchiv München. The Army Archives Munich covered the entire Bavarian military tradition from about 1650 to 1920. After the beginning of World War II, the Army Archives Munich was assigned the file collection point South, in particular for the recording of Italian booty files. In territorial matters, the Heeresarchiv München was bound by the instructions of the commander in Wehrkreis VII (Munich). After the Second World War, the Kriegsarchiv München was subordinated to the Bavarian Hauptstaatsarchiv. Despite losses during the war, the majority of the holdings have been preserved and enable source research into military history before 1919 as a replacement for the lost archive of the Potsdam Army Archives. Army Archives Dresden In 1937, the head of the army archives took over the Dresden branch of the Reichsarchiv from the Reichsarchiv as the Dresden Army Archives. This service was responsible for the stocks of the Saxon Army (XII. (I. Royal Saxon) Army Corps and XIX. (II. Royal Saxon Army Corps). The holdings of the Army Archives Dresden covered a period from 1830 - 1919 without a clear demarcation between the holdings and the Main State Archives Dresden. In territorial matters the Army Archives Dresden was bound to the instructions of the commander in the Military District IV (Dresden). During the Anglo-American air raid on Dresden on 13 February 1945, the personal documents of the Saxon army suffered losses. Despite losses during the war, the majority of the holdings have been preserved and enable source research for military history before 1919 as a replacement for the lost archive of the Potsdam Army Archives. The government of the USSR returned the preserved holdings of the Dresden Army Archives to the government of the GDR after the war. Until reunification they were administered in the military archives of the GDR in Potsdam. The Bundesarchiv-Militärarchiv transferred the holdings to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden in 1991. Heeresarchiv Stuttgart The head of the army archives took over the Reichsarchiv branch Stuttgart from the Reichsarchiv in 1937 as Heeresarchiv Stuttgart. This office was responsible for the holdings of the Württemberg Army Corps (XIII (Royal Württemberg Army Corps) and the XIV (Grand Ducal Baden Army Corps). In territorial matters the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart was bound to the instructions of the commander in the Wehrkreis V (Stuttgart). The Heeresarchiv Stuttgart has been preserved without war losses and, as a replacement for the lost records of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam, enables source research for military history before 1919. Today the Heeresarchiv Stuttgart is subordinated to the Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart. The archives of the XIV (Grand Ducal Baden) Army Corps are stored in the General State Archive in Karlsruhe, although the Grand Duchy of Baden from 1871-1919, in contrast to Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg, did not have a military reserve right. Army Archives Prague Branch The Army Archives Prague branch administered the former Czech army archives and recorded archival material of the Austro-Hungarian army in Bohemia and Moravia. It was in charge of supplementing the official archival material with collections, making the holdings available for use by Wehrmacht offices, and providing information. In territorial matters, the Army Archives Prague branch was bound to the instructions of the Wehrmacht Plenipotentiary at the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia (Wehrkreisbefehlshaber in Böhmen und Mähren). The Gdansk Army Archives Branch The Gdansk Army Archives Branch captured the military archives captured during the Eastern campaigns, in particular the Polish Army Archives. It had to record this material, make it usable and provide information from the files. In territorial matters, the Gdansk Army Archives Branch was bound by the instructions of the Commander of Military District XX (Gdansk). The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Military Commander in France The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Military Commander in France in Paris had to supervise and evaluate the French army archives. He was to inventory sources on German history, copy documents and collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Military Commander in Belgium and Northern France The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Military Commander in Belgium and Northern France in Brussels was to evaluate the Belgian Army Archives, enable their use by German agencies, inventorise sources on German history, copy documents and collect material on contemporary history. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Alsace-Lorraine The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Alsace-Lorraine in Metz was concerned with the re-registration of German army files, the sighting of French prey files, in particular the Maginot Line, and the provision of files for Wehrmacht offices. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in the Netherlands The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in the Netherlands, based in The Hague, was responsible for overseeing and evaluating the Dutch army archives. He was to inventory sources on German history, copy documents and collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the German Forces in Denmark The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the German Forces in Denmark, based in Copenhagen, was to evaluate the Danish Army Archives and collect material on contemporary history. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Norway The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Norway in Oslo took over the management of the Norwegian Army Archives, gave information to German offices and collected contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Italy The Commissioner of the Chief of the Army Archives in Italy was commissioned, after the fall of Italy and the invasion of the Wehrmacht in Italy in 1943, to secure the files of the Italian army for the writing of war history and for evaluation by Wehrmacht offices. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Athens After the occupation of Greece, the Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Athens was responsible for the inspection and safeguarding of the Greek Army records as well as an archival-military inventory. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Belgrade The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives in Belgrade evaluated the Yugoslavian Army files, provided military replacement services, pension offices and information on resettlement issues. Furthermore, he should collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ostland The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ostland in Riga administered and evaluated the military archives and holdings in Riga, Kaunas, Vilnius. He provided information for the military replacement services and recorded German and Polish army files. Furthermore, he should collect contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ukraine The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Wehrmacht Commander Ukraine in Kiev had to evaluate the military archives in Kiev and Kharkov and to record Austrian and Polish military files. He was involved with the collection of contemporary historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commanding General of the Security Forces and Commander in the Army Area North The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commanding General of the Security Forces and Commander in the Army Area North had to evaluate the seized military archives and collect historical material. The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the Rear Army Area Center The Commissioner of the Chief of Army Archives at the Commander of the Rear Army Area Center had to evaluate the seized military archives and collect historical material. Wehrmacht-Sichtungsstelle für Beuteakten The Wehrmacht-Sichtungsstelle für Beuteakten checked the loot files arriving from the front for their salary and forwarded them to Wehrmacht offices, as far as the files seemed important to them for further warfare. In territorial matters, the Wehrmacht sighting post for loot files was bound to the instructions of the commander in Wehrkreis III (Berlin). Preprovenience: Reichsarchiv Content characterization: The files of the RH 18 holdings Chief of Army Archives contain personal and material files of the "Chief of Army Archives" and almost all offices subordinated to him. In addition, the inventory contains regulations and announcements of the respective territorially competent command authority, e.g. of the military commander in France or of the commander in Wehrkreis VII (Munich). The records of the holdings of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam are assigned to the holdings. This includes finding aids of the registries, delivery directories and finding aids of the army archives. These records provide an overview of the numbers and contents of the former holdings and supplement the lost holdings of the Prussian army with organisational documents. The lists of estates contain biographical information. A special feature of the RH 18 collection are its personnel files, which, in contrast to most other personal documents of the Wehrmacht, have not been removed from the collection. The personnel files were classified by the respective services. The permanent exhibition of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam is virtually reconstructed in the online find book for RH 18, arranged according to display cases or themes. War diaries, orders, military conventions, correspondence between well-known generals and contemporary collection material from 1679 until after the end of the First World War were included in the Archivalienschau by the staff of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam. The documents have been filed thematically in display cases. On the reverse side of the documents the responsible subject area of the Heeresarchiv Potsdam, the holdings and the serial number are indicated. The Federal Archives and Military Archives do not present these archival records in their original form, but in microfiches. A large part of the documents was in stock MSg 101, which was completely re-signed to RH 18. State of development: Online-Findbuch Scope, Explanation: 2482 AE Citation method: BArch, RH 18/...