1st Biographical Information on Wolfgang Kapp Wolfgang Kapp was born in New York on July 24, 1858, the son of the lawyer Friedrich Kapp, who had played an important role in the bourgeois-democratic revolution of 1848 and had to emigrate to the United States because of his participation in the Baden uprising. Wolfgang Kapp's mother was Louise Engels and was the daughter of the Major General and Commander of Cologne Engels. The family was originally called d'Ange and immigrated from France to Germany in 1687 after the Edict of Nantes. In 1870 Friedrich Kapp returned to Germany with his family; he lived in Berlin and was a national liberal, later a liberal member of the Reichstag from 1872-1877 and 1881-1884; he also worked as a renowned historian. Friedrich Kapp died in 1884, his son Wolfgang studied in Tübingen and Göttingen. He completed his studies in 1880 with a doctorate. Probably in 1881 Wolfgang Kapp married Margarete Rosenow, the daughter of a landowner in Dülzen (district Preußisch Eylau). After his marriage Kapp seems to have familiarized himself with the administration of a large agricultural business on his father-in-law's estate, because it was not until 1885 that he began his actual professional career as a trainee with the government in Minden. In 1886 he joined the Ministry of Finance, Department II, Administration of Direct Taxes, as a government assistant. From 1890 to 1899 he was district administrator in Guben. In 1890, at the beginning of his time as district administrator, Kapp bought the Rittergut Pilzen estate near the Rosenov estate and thus entered the circle of the East Prussian Great Agrarians. Out of his interest for the interests of agriculture a work of agricultural policy content arose in Guben, which attracted a great deal of attention in the Ministry of Agriculture, so that an appointment as a government council followed in 1900. Kapp was appointed to the I. Dept. Administration of Agricultural and Stud Affairs, Department of Agricultural Workers' Affairs, but during the era of Reich Chancellor von Bülow as Commissioner of the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture he was primarily active in the preparation of the customs tariff of 1902 and in the initiation of the new trade agreements of 1904-1906. Kapp gained his first foreign policy experience in negotiations with representatives of foreign countries. Kapp soon gained a closer relationship with the then Reich Chancellor von Bülow, with whom he shared similar political views. During his time at the Ministry of Agriculture, Kapp seems to have had ambitious plans for his future professional and political career and at least aspired to the position of district president. That his plans went even further can be seen from the recording of a conversation between Kaiser Wilhelm II and the General Field Marshal von der Goltz, in which the possibility of Kapp's successor in the Reich Chancellery was considered. However, this conversation, whose date lies between 1909 and 1911, took place at a time when Kapp had already left the Prussian civil service. The reason for his resignation from the Ministry of Agriculture seems to have been his annoyance at not taking his person into account when appointing district presidents. On 5 April 1906, the East Prussian countryside elected the owner of the Pilzen manor as general landscape director. It is very characteristic of Kapp's personality under what circumstances he became known in East Prussia through a trial he conducted against the landscape. The landscapes of the Prussian provinces were self-governing bodies and as such primarily representations of landowners. But the landscape also served as a representative body for state fiscal policy. Its real task, of course, lay outside the political sphere in granting credit to cooperatives. However, the credit policy has had a decisive influence on the distribution of property and the social structure of the provinces and has thus had political repercussions. Through the incorporation of agricultural banks and fire societies in the 19th century, the landscapes had become efficient organisations at provincial level. Kapp took on the new tasks with his own vehemence. He continued the landscape in the specified direction, primarily by developing the branch network of the Landschaftsbank, by merging the landscape with the East Prussian Feuersozietät, by granting more loans, particularly for small property, and by increasing the landscape funds. His policy was aimed at freeing agriculture, which was in a serious crisis at the beginning of the 20th century, from its dependence on state aid and enabling it to help itself by means of credit policy measures. In the course of these efforts, Kapp tackled three major tasks. First and foremost the question of agricultural debt relief, which the Prussian state initiated in 1906 with the law on the debt limit. Kapp was the first to try to make this framework law effective from the initiative of the parties themselves without further state aid by showing different ways of debt relief. The inclusion of life insurance as a means of reducing debt proved particularly effective. Instead of debt repayment, the premium payment was made to an agricultural life insurance company. This ensured that a certain amount of capital was available for debt reduction in the event of death. The second task resulted from the former. The desire to combine public-law life insurance with debt relief necessitated the creation of a number of public-law life insurance institutions, which were merged into an association chaired by Kapp. These facilities were especially designed to prevent the outflow of premium money from the countryside to the large cities, where it had been used especially for the construction of tenements. However, the outflow of capital was only one danger, the other was the rural exodus that began in the 19th century. He tried to strengthen small agricultural holdings with a colonization and agricultural workers' bill, which was accepted by the General Landtag in 1908. This measure was based on the recognition of the untenability of the institution of instants and deputants, who were in the closest dependence on the lord of the manor and who emigrated from this situation in masses to the large cities, where they strengthened the ranks of the industrial proletariat. The organ for settlement policy should be a landscaped settlement bank. The third task that Kapp set himself was the creation of a public-law national insurance scheme following the public-law life insurance scheme. This measure was primarily directed against the Volksversicherungsanstalt "Volksfürsorge", created by the Social Democrats, and was intended to secure capital for agricultural workers to buy their own farms by means of abbreviated insurance. These plans did not lead to the hoped-for success, but ended in a bitter feud with the private insurance companies, especially the Deutsche Volksversicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft. In addition to his functions within the East Prussian landscape, Kapp was also active in various other bodies. In December 1906 he was appointed to the Stock Exchange Committee of the Reichsamt des Innern and in 1912 to the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank. The First World War gave Kapp's life and work a whole new direction. Kapp's biography is too little researched to judge how far he had buried his ambitious plans, which apparently pushed him to the top of the Reich government, or postponed them only for a better opportunity. Although Kapp had been a member of the German Conservative Party since at least 1906, he did not take the path of an existing party to make a political career. This path probably did not correspond to his personality, described as authoritarian, ambitious and independent. He made the great leap into high politics through his sensational conflict with Reich Chancellor von Bethmann Hollweg. In his memo of 26 May 1916 "Die nationalen Kreise und der Reichs-Kanzler", which he sent to 300 public figures, including Bethmann Hollweg himself, he sharply criticised what he considered to be the weak policy of the Reich Chancellor, to whom he v. a. accused him of his alleged pacting with social democracy, his reluctance to America and his rejection of the unrestricted submarine war demanded by extremely militaristic circles, but also of a false war economic policy. The sharp reaction of Bethmann Hollweg, who spoke in a Reichstag session of "pirates of public opinion", among others, who abused "with the flag of the national parties", Kapp perceived as a personal affront to which he reacted with a demand for a duel. On the contrary, Kapp had to take an official reprimand and his re-election as General Landscape Director, which had taken place in March 1916 on a rotational basis, was refused confirmation by the Prussian State Ministry. Since his friends held on to Kapp in the East Prussian landscape, he was re-elected in 1917. This time - since Bethmann Hollweg had been overthrown in the meantime - he was able to take up his post as general landscape director again. At first, the events of 1916 led him even more into politics. Here he expressed solidarity with a circle of extremely reactionary and aggressive military forces around General Ludendorff and Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, who pursued a ruthless internal perseverance policy that tightened up all the forces of the people and a policy of unrestrained annexation and total warfare towards the outside world. Emperor Wilhelm II, who in principle sympathized with this extreme direction, had to refrain from supporting this group out of various considerations of public opinion and the negative attitude of the party majorities in the Reichstag. Kapp and his comrades-in-arms assumed in their political ambitions the complete certainty of the German final victory. They closed their eyes to the already looming possibility of defeat for Germany, especially after America entered the war. The war and peace goals they represented, especially the annexation plans at the expense of Russia and Poland, which were later only surpassed by Hitler, were marked by uncontrolled wishful thinking that in no way corresponded to objective reality. His extreme attitude drove Kapp into a blind hatred against any social and democratic movement; his fierce opposition against social democracy was mainly based on the legend of the dagger thrust against the imperialist Germany struggling to win. This military and National Socialist sharpening, for which Kapp found moral and financial support in certain circles of military leadership, but also among a number of university professors, writers, local politicians, agriculturalists, industrialists and bankers, culminated in the founding of the German National Party, which took place on 2 September 1917 (the "Sedan Day") in the Yorksaal of the East Prussian landscape. Although Kapp was clearly the spiritus rector of this "collection party", two other persons were pushed into the foreground, intended for the eyes of the public: These were the Grand Admiral von Tirpitz as 1st chairman and Duke Johann Albrecht von Mecklenburg as honorary chairman of this party. The German Fatherland Party did not seek seats in the Reichstag, but saw itself as a pool of national forces to bring about Germany's final victory. The statute provided for the immediate dissolution of the party once its purpose had been achieved. In addition to mobilising all forces to achieve military victory, Kapp's founding of the party also had another purpose that was not made so public. Tirpitz, then 68 years old, was to be launched as a "strong man" to replace the "weak" chancellors Bethmann Hollweg and Michaelis. It was obvious that in this case Kapp would join the leadership of the imperial government as advisor to the politically ultimately inexperienced Grand Admiral. The November Revolution of 1918 and the immediate surrender of Germany put an abrupt end to these lofty plans. But Kapp and his friends did not admit defeat. Although the German Fatherland Party was dissolved in December 1918, it was immediately replaced by a new party, the German National People's Party, which developed into a bourgeois mass party during the Weimar Republic, but no longer under Kapp's leadership. After the fall of the Hohenzollern monarchy, Kapp immediately opposed the revolution and the Weimar Republic. He could not or did not want to accept the social and political conditions that had arisen in the meantime; his goal was clearly the restoration of pre-war conditions. The sources, which were only incomplete at that time, do not show when the idea of a coup d'état was born and how the conspiracy developed in all its branches. A close associate of Kapp's, Reichswehrhauptmann Pabst, had already attempted a failed coup in July 1919. Together with Kapp, Pabst created the "National Unification" as a pool of all counter-revolutionary forces and associations. This Reich organisation was to coordinate the preparations for the coup in Prussia and Bavaria, while Kapp was to develop East Prussia into the decisive base of counterrevolution. From here, with the help of the Freikorps operating in the Baltic States, the Reichswehr and the East Prussian Heimatbund, whose chairman was Kapp, the survey was to be carried to Berlin with the immediate aim of preventing the signing of the Versailles Treaty. The approval of the Versailles Treaty by the parliamentary majority has created a new situation. Now Ludendorff, one of the co-conspirators, proposed to carry out the coup directly in Berlin, whereby the Baltic people, who were disguised as work detachments on the large Eastern Elbe goods, were to take over the military support. Meanwhile, the conspirators, headed by Kapp and Reichswehr General Lüttwitz, tried to gain the mass base absolutely necessary for the execution of the coup d'état through a broad-based nationalist smear campaign. The company was already at risk before it could even begin. Kapp had demanded that his military allies inform him at least 14 days before the strike so that he could make the necessary political preparations. That the coup d'état had just begun on 13 March 1920 depended not so much on carefully considered planning, but on coincidences that were not predictable. One of the reasons for the premature strike was the dissolution of the Freikorps, especially the Ehrhardt Brigade, decided by the Reich government. This revealed the fact that, in the absence of a party of their own, the conspirators were unable to avoid relying on the loose organization of the resident defence forces, which to a certain extent were also influenced by social democracy. The whole weakness of the company was evident in the question on which forces the new government should actually be based. While the military saw an arrangement with the strongest party, social democracy, as unavoidable, Kapp categorically rejected pacting with social democracy. He wanted to put the Social Democrat-led government as a whole into protective custody. But now the government was warned; for its part, it issued protective arrest warrants against the heads of the conspirators and left Berlin on March 12. In the early morning of March 13, the Navy Brigade Ehrhardt marched into Berlin without encountering armed resistance, as would have been the duty of the Reichswehr. Kapp proclaimed himself Chancellor of the Reich and began with the reorganisation of the government. The order of the new rulers to arrest the escaped imperial government and to remove the state government if they did not stand on the side of the putschists was only partially executed by the local commanders. The proclamation of the general strike on 13 March and the reports arriving from the most important cities and industrial centres about joint actions of the working class prompted the indirect supporters of Kapp, the large industrialists and the Reichswehr generals, to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Kapp had to see the hopelessness of his company. Eyewitnesses reported that Kapp had spent almost 3 days of his time as Chancellor of the Reich "with gossip". On March 15, the "adventure" was over. Kapp apparently stayed hidden with friends near Berlin for some time after the failed coup and then flew to Sweden in a provided plane. Here he initially lived under different false names in different places, at last in a pension in Robäck, but was soon recognized and temporarily taken into custody. The Swedish government granted asylum to the refugee, but he had to commit himself to refrain from all political activities. When the high treason trial against the heads of the March company in Leipzig began, Kapp was moved by the question of his position in court. At first, he justified his non-appearance with the incompetence of the Ebert government and with the constitution, which in his opinion did not exist. Kapp said that there was no high treason in the legal sense against the "high treason" of social democracy. When in December 1921 one of the co-conspirators, the former district president of Jagow, was sentenced to a fortress sentence by the Imperial Court, Kapp changed his mind. Still in Sweden he worked out a justification for the process ahead of him, in which he denied any guilt in both an objective and a subjective sense. On the contrary, he intended to appear before the court with a charge against the then government. It didn't come to that anymore. Kapp had already fallen ill in Sweden. At the beginning of 1922 he returned to Germany and was remanded in custody. On 24 April 1922, he underwent surgery in Leipzig to remove a malignant tumour from the left eye. Kapp died on 12 June 1922; he was buried on 22 June at the village churchyard in Klein Dexen near his estate Pilzen. 2. inventory history The inventory, which had been formed in its essential parts by Kapp himself, was transferred by the family to the Prussian Secret State Archives as a deposit in 1935. Here the archivist Dr. Weise started already in the year of submission with the archival processing, which could not be completed, however. In the course of the repatriation of the holdings of the Secret State Archives, which had been removed during the Second World War, the Kapp estate was transferred to the Central State Archives, Merseburg Office. In 1951, Irmela Weiland, a trainee, classified and listed the stock here. As a result of the processing a find-book was created, which was until the new processing in the year 1984 the kurrente find-auxiliary. 1984 the stock was to be prepared for the backup filming. It turned out that the processing carried out in 1951 did not meet today's archival requirements, so that a general revision was considered necessary. The graduate archivists Renate Endler and Dr. Elisabeth Schwarze rearranged and simply listed the holdings according to the principles of order and indexing for the state archives of the German Democratic Republic, Potsdam 1964. The found file units were essentially retained, in individual cases they were dissolved and new indexing units were formed. In addition, 0.50 m of unprocessed documents were incorporated into the estate. The old regulatory scheme, which was essentially broken down chronologically, was replaced by a new regulatory scheme based on Kapp's areas of activity. In the course of the revision, the portfolio was re-signed. The relationship between the old and the new signatures was established through a concordance. The new find book replaces the previously valid find book from 1951. The stock is to be quoted: GStA PK, VI. HA Family Archives and Bequests, Nl Wolfgang Kapp, No... 3) Some remarks on the content of the holdings The Kapp estate contains 7.50 running metres of archival material from the period from 1885 to 1922, including some earlier and later individual pieces. The holdings mainly contain documents from Kapp's official and political activities, to a lesser extent also correspondence within the family and documents from the administration of the Knights' Manor Pilzen. The density of transmission to the individual sections of Kapp's professional and political development is quite different. While his activities with the Minden government, in the Prussian Ministry of Finance and as district administrator in Guben are relatively poorly documented, there is a rather dense tradition about his activities as director of the general landscape and as chairman of the German Fatherland Party. The documentation on the preparation and implementation of the coup shows gaps which can be explained, among other things, by the fact that important agreements were only reached orally at the stage of preparing the coup. Moreover, Kapp, who had to flee hastily to Sweden after the coup d'état failed, was no longer able to give this part of his estate the same care as the former one. Overall, however, it is a legacy of great political importance and significance. Merseburg, 2. 10.1984 signed Dr. Elisabeth Schwarze Diplomarchivar Compiled and slightly shortened: Berlin, April 1997 (Ute Dietsch) The clean copy of the find book was made by Britta Baumgarten. Note After the reunification of the two German states, the Merseburg office was closed, the archival records and thus also the Kapp estate were returned to the Secret State Archives in Berlin (1993). From the inventory maps, this reference book was created after maps that no longer existed were replaced (post-distortion of files). XIII Bibliography (selection) Bauer, Max : March 13, 1920 Berlin 1920 Bernstein, Richard : Der Kapp-Putsch und seine Lehren. Berlin 1920 Brammer, Karl : Five days of military dictatorship. Berlin 1920 Documents on the Counterrevolution using official material: The same: Constitutional Foundations and High Treason. According to stenographic reports and official documents of the Jagow trial. Berlin 1922 Erger, Johannes : The Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch. Düsseldorf 1967 Falkenhausen, Fri. from : Wolfgang Kapp. In: Conservative Monthly July/August 1922 Kern, Fritz : Das Kappsche Abenteuer. Impressions and findings. Leipzig/Berlin 1920 Könnemann, Erwin : Residents' Weirs and Time Volunteer Associations. Berlin 1971 Noske, Gustav : From Kiel to Kapp. Berlin 1920 Rothfels, Hans : Article "Wolfgang Kapp" in: Deutsches biogra- phisches Jahrbuch Bd 4 (1922) Berlin/Leipzig 1929, correspondence. 132-143 (Here also a drawing of the works Kapps) Schemann, Ludwig : Wolfgang Kapp and the March company. A word of atonement. Munich/Berlin 1937 Taube, Max : Causes and course of the coup of 13 March 1920 and his teachings for the working class and the middle classes. Munich 1920 Wauer, W. : Behind the scenes of the Kapp government. Berlin 1920 Wortmann, K. Geschichte der Deutschen Vaterlandspartei In: Hallische Forschungen zur neueren Geschichte. Volume 3, Hall 1926 Contents I. Introduction Page II 1 Biographical Information on Wolfgang Kapp Page II 2 History of the Collection Page X 3 Some Remarks on the Content of the Collection Page XI 4 Literature in Selection Page XIII II Structure of the Collection Page XIV III Collection Page XVII (Order Numbers, Title, Duration Page 1-106)) XVII III. holdings (order numbers, file title, duration) Description of holdings: Lebenssdaten: 1858 - 1921 Finds: database; find book, 1 vol.

Development of conciliation committees: With the law about the Vaterländischen Hilfsdienst of 5.12.1916, RGBl. page 1333ff, the Supreme Army Command hoped to be able to oppose the military setbacks with a home front: a second mobilization was to bring the working civilian population to the war economy. The Council of People's Representatives then also immediately repealed this law on 12.11.1918, RGBl. page 13003f. Only one provision of the law remained in force mutatis mutandis: "No one may employ an auxiliary servant employed by authorities or undertakings of importance for warfare or public utilities ... unless the auxiliary servant provides a certificate from his last employer stating that he gave up employment with his consent. If the employer refuses to issue the certificate requested by the person responsible for auxiliary service, the latter shall be entitled to lodge a complaint with a committee, which as a rule shall be formed for each district of a substitute commission and shall consist of a representative of the war office as chairman as well as three representatives each of the employers and the employees. Two of these representatives shall be permanent, the others shall be taken from the professional group to which the person responsible for auxiliary service concerned belongs. If, after examining the case, the Committee recognises that there is a serious reason for its departure, it shall issue a certificate the effects of which replace those of the employer's certificate. In particular, an adequate improvement of working conditions in the patriotic auxiliary service is to be regarded as an important reason [§ 9]. For the appointment of representatives of employers and employees to the committees ... by the War Office, lists of proposals of economic organisations of employers and employees must be obtained [§ 10]. "These committees, which were constituted from 1.1.1917 as provisional committees, then from 1.2.1917 as arbitration committees, quickly developed from their limited beginnings into one of the most important instruments of the collective bargaining parties in their political disputes over wages and working conditions. The procedural files thus reflect the social and economic development from the end of the Empire to the end of the Weimar Republic, in particular the main problems of the post-war period: the reintegration of the war participants into the work process, the economic catastrophe in the wake of the Ruhr war and inflation. With the repeal of the conciliation committees § 65 No. 7, the Law on the Order of National Labour of 20.1.1934, RGBl. page 45ff. finally eliminated the autonomy of collective bargaining, which had already been severely curtailed by the emergency ordinances. In accordance with the semi-military character of the Assistance Service Act, the competence of the conciliation committees corresponded to that of the Landwehr districts. The members of the committee were appointed by the War Office, and the institution was initially assigned to the Deputy General Command of the XIV Army Corps. After the collapse, the ministries changed until the new administration had become well-functioning. The Ministry of Social Welfare, which later became the Ministry of Labour, merged with the Ministry of the Interior in 1924. It was only gradually that the working methods and legal responsibilities of the conciliation committees found their fixed framework. This process was concluded with the conciliation order of the Reich of 30.10.1923, RGBl. page 1043ff. The conciliation ordinance had transferred the powers of the committees to the so-called "arbitration committees". The individual disputes, legal disputes about relationships regulated per se, such as termination effectiveness, etc. were referred to the labour courts. As these did not yet exist in Baden, the conciliation committees carried out their tasks together with the older merchant and trade courts until 1927. The Freiburg Conciliation Committee: The Freiburg Conciliation Committee formed in 1917 for the area of the Freiburg District Command comprised the districts of Freiburg, Emmendingen, Staufen, Waldkirch and Breisach. After the reorganisation of the conciliation system by the decree of 30.10.1923, Freiburg remained the seat of the conciliation committee, but from now on included the districts of Lahr, Kehl; both before the conciliation committee Offenburg; Offenburg, Lörrach and Freiburg with the negotiation branches Lörrach, Lahr and at times Offenburg. The Freiburg Conciliation Committee was dissolved by decree of the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of Baden on 4 July 1933. The dispute over the tasks, independence and legal quality of the arbitration boards in Freiburg, especially in 1921/22, was the subject of too much public controversy; the reference files of the chairman of the arbitration committee, the Freiburg Ordinary for Trade and Labour Law Heinrich Höniger, which are preserved in this collection, provide more information about this than in the parallel holdings. Order and record keeping: The files of the conciliation committees were recorded in the General State Archives by prospective inspectors for short-term training purposes and by employees within the framework of job creation measures. For the indexing, this not only resulted in the constant change of the editors, but also forced the renunciation of obvious evaluation criteria. The uniform but not complete individual case files would have allowed cassation, but this was too much for the editors. At the same time, however, files from individual disputes also contain a wealth of information that is difficult to access about local employment relationships, company sizes, the formation of works councils and the activities of trade unions, which justify the overall archiving. In the Freiburg conciliation committee, other than in the other conciliation committees, the files themselves have already been sorted according to economic sectors and tariff zones; several cases have often been stitched together to form a fascicle. The files of the Freiburg Conciliation Committee were recorded in 1979 by Iris Sonnenstuhl, a candidate archive inspector. The index was produced by Gebhard Füßler, the fair copy of an employee of a job creation scheme. Literature: Huber Rapach, Die Schlichttung von kollektiven Arbeitsstreitigkeiten und ihre Probleme unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der deutschen Entwicklung. Berlin 1964. Diss. Köln 1963, Sozialpolitische Schriften 18.Dezember 1987Konrad KrimmKornelia EnnekingThe holdings bore the signature 445 in the GLA and were transferred to the Freiburg State Archives at the beginning of the 1990s in the course of the equalisation of holdings between the GLA and the StAF. The order of the order numbers was not changed, so that the naming of the preliminary signatures in the index is superfluous. The analog finding aid of the present inventory, including its introduction, was transferred by Judith Zimmermann to Scope Archiv in June 2015. The introduction was slightly shortened. The stock N 200/1 comprises 213 fascicles and measures 3.1 lfd.m.Christof Strauß

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/...