History of the Inventor: The first war societies were founded immediately after the establishment of the war raw materials department on August 13, 1914 in the legal form of a stock corporation. In principle, these trading companies performed the tasks assigned to them completely independently and were only controlled in their business activities by state commissioners of the War Ministry, the Reich Office of the Interior, the Prussian Ministry of Trade and Commerce, the Reich Navy Office or other Reich authorities. Particularly in the case of commercial and technical tasks, the support of trade and industry was needed to relieve the administration of its administrative tasks. Only in this way was it believed possible to compensate for the deficits in the economic and organisational preparations. Legally, the war societies were established in the form of stock corporations, limited liability companies, accounting offices or war committees. Conceptually, they were to be distinguished from the forced syndicates, the central business associations and the state authorities themselves. As the supply situation deteriorated, additional tasks were added. In addition to the procurement, administration and distribution of raw materials, the mobilization and supplementation of existing domestic material stocks had to be dealt with. For this purpose, the state set up mobilization centers, commodity import organizations and requisition organizations were established in the occupied territories, and the domestic production of raw materials and their substitutes was promoted through direct influence on industrial capacities, the establishment of new plants and the promotion of scientific developments. Accordingly, the field of activity of the aid organisations also expanded to include technical tasks (sorting, processing, storage and transport of raw materials), production promotion and foreign trade. Of the approximately 350 organizations existing at the end of the war, 105 were under the authority of the War Food Office (later: Reich Food Ministry), 120 under the authority of Reichswirt‧schaftsamt (later: Reich Economics Ministry), five under the authority of the Reich Office of the Interior (later: Reich Ministry of the Interior), and 120 under the authority of the Prussian War Ministry or the War Office (later: Reich Economics Ministry). It should be borne in mind that only about one third of these organisations were of an administrative nature; only these organisations can be regarded as having a relationship of subordination in the administrative sense. Another third of the other organisations are so-called war societies, i.e. companies founded for the purposes of the war economy, mostly with equity interests of the Reich and the Länder, and supervised by Reich offices or specially appointed Reich Commissioners under commercial law (AG, GmbH). The organizations of the remaining third are to be regarded as self-governing bodies of the individual branches of industry with the character of voluntary or compulsory syndicates under the influence of the Reich. The dissolution of war societies was primarily governed by the provisions of the Articles of Association, which, in accordance with the purpose of the societies, provided for the commencement of liquidation at the end of the war or within one year of the conclusion of a peace treaty with all the major powers. Where there was no time limit or the district societies were continued by a subsequent agreement due to the continuing shortage of supplies, an explicit resolution to dissolve them was required. In the interest of a quick, uniform and final dismantling of the war economy, on 15 July 1921, at the instigation of the Reich Treasury, all war societies were finally given the easier opportunity of dissolution through a transition to the Reich without liquidation. Inventory description: Inventory history In 1943 and 1944, the inventories of the wartime economic organizations of World War I were first relocated to Staßfurt on a selective basis and then to Schönebeck, taking into account all of the inventories and parts initially left behind. In the course of the post-war events, they were transferred to the German Central Archive, Dept. Merseburg, where they remained until 1955. In July/August 1955, the holdings of the war organizations of World War I were transferred to the central archive in Potsdam. Archival evaluation and processing In the years 1959-1960, work began on arranging and recording individual smaller holdings for which the Reichsarchiv had no or only inadequate finding aids. Characterisation of content: The following documents have been handed down: - management and organisation, 1916-1920 - personnel matters, 1917-1919 - price monitoring and trade, 1917-1920. State of development: find index approx. 1980 citation method: BArch, R 8715/...
