Fonds BArch, R 8028 - Mirbach's Telegraphic Office (inventory)

470 Aufbewahrungseinheiten

Mirbachs Telegraphisches Büro, 1910-1930

History of the Inventory Designer: Mirbach's Telegrafisches Büro (MTB) was founded at the beginning of the 20th century in the Rhineland as a small news agency by the editor Mirbach. Together with Professor Arthur Jung, he owned the "International Telegraph Agency (ITA)" in Cologne until November 1920. After separating from his cooperation partner Jung, Mirbach initially resumed work in his former correspondence office. The situation in the German Reich at that time played an important role in the further development of the MTB. After the defeat of the Imperial German Empire in World War I, the newly created Saar region, consisting of the southern part of the Rhine Province as well as the Saarpfalz and the western part of the Bavarian Palatinate, was separated from the German Empire by the territorial provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1920 it was placed under French administration with a mandate from the League of Nations. The occupation of the Saar region by French troops was accompanied by the spread of French propaganda (1). This was mainly due to the purchase of some German newspapers, such as the "Südwestdeutsche Abendzeitung" by the French military administration (2). Renamed "Neuer Saar Kurier", the newspaper now appeared bilingual and was supplied with information by French news services. The German Reich government and the Foreign Office felt compelled to counteract France's efforts to separate the Palatinate. Similar efforts of the occupying powers could also be observed in the other ceded territories of Alsace-Lorraine, Rhineland, Eupen-Malmedy, Posen, North Schleswig, in parts of Upper Silesia and in the border regions. In order to counteract the propaganda of the occupying powers, the Reich government agreed to the proposal of the publishing director Kristian Kraus to create an intelligence service that would supply the ceded and occupied as well as the border regions with news from the German Reich. Kraus had been organizing the intelligence service for the Saar region and occupied areas of the Rhineland on behalf of the Reich government since 1919. This intelligence service should be further developed. Mirbach's telegraphic office was considered at that time to be the "management of the Rheinische Korrespondenz"(3). Kraus was interested in taking over the MTB, as he explains in a letter to the press department of the Reich government. After the negotiations between Kraus, Mirbach and the government the MTB was integrated into the "Reichsstelle zur Versorgung der besetzten und abgetretenen deutschen Gebiete mit deutschen Nachrichten". From 1920 to 1929, Kraus was the managing director and literary director of this Reich office, also known as the "Allgemeines Politisches Informationsbüro G.m.b.H." (General Political Information Office G.b.H.), based in Berlin (4). At the same time, the news agency Polwona was founded, also managed by Kraus, which opened several branches in the occupied and ceded German territories (5). These news agencies were outwardly issued as private-sector enterprises, but were financially dependent on the Reich. Daily messages were transmitted by telephone from Berlin to the Polwona branches. These were established in Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurter Depeschenbüro), Mannheim (Oberrheinisches Nachrichtenbüro), Saarbrücken (Saarkorrespondenz), Cologne (Mirbachs Telegraphisches Büro), Königsberg (Norel - Ost Korrespondenz) and Flensburg (Korrespondenzbüro Nordschleswig) (6). From there, the news was forwarded to the provincial press in the area. Thus the citizens in the occupied or ceded territories remained informed about politics, economy and current issues in the German Reich and were also strengthened in their sense of belonging to the German Reich. In return, the branches had the task of sending news from the occupied territories to Berlin, in particular interviews with important representatives of the occupying powers. Comments: (1) BArch R 8028 / 1 fol. 139, 166. (2) BArch R 8028/ 1 fol. 139. (3) BArch R 8028/ 1 fol. 92. (4) BArch (former BDC, RKK/ RSK Personal- und Sachakte, Kraus, Kristian. (5) BArch R 8028/ 1 fol. 180. (6) BArch R 8028/1 fol. 42. Abbreviations: MTB - Mirbach's Telegraphic Office Polwona - Political West - East - News Agency O.N.B. - Upper Rhine News Agency W.T.B. - Wolff's Telegraphic Office S.C.B. - is not clearly identifiable from the files, probably "Saar Correspondenz Büro" "Dako" - "Danziger Korrespondenzbüro" Description of the holdings: Inventory history The holdings were confiscated by the Red Army towards the end of the Second World War and handed over to the German Central Archive (later: Central State Archive of the GDR based in Potsdam) in the 1950s in the course of file returns from the Soviet Union. The inventory signature there was 61 Mi 1. With the transfer to the Federal Archives, the inventory signature was changed to R 8028. Archive processing In the course of the processing of the inventory, a finding index was created in the Central State Archives of the GDR, on the basis of which the present finding aid book with the database BASYS-S was compiled. The existing classification has been adopted. In the course of processing, series and tape sequences were created. After the inspection of the files some editorial and contentwise revisions at the data records already existing in BASYS -S were made. There were no cassations or additions. Citation BArch R 8028/........................................................... State of development: Online-Findbuch (2008) Citation method: BArch, R 8028/...

Federal Archives (Archivtektonik) >> North German Confederation and German Reich (1867/1871-1945) >> Organizations, associations and commercial enterprises >> media

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Schriftgut

https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/basys2-invenio/direktlink/e890f7e1-5528-4f39-82a9-e521613bd392/

Verwandtes Archivgut im Bundesarchiv: <br />
R 43 Reichskanzlei<br />
R 34 Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro
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Literatur: <br />
Höhne, Hansjoachim, und Wilke, Jürgen, Telegraphenbüros und Nachrichtenagenturen in Deutschland. Untersuchungen zu ihrer Geschichte. München/New York/London/Paris: K.G. Saur GmbH & Co. KG 1991, in Publizistik 4(1991), S. 538-540) .<br />
.<br />
Wilke, Jürgen, Presseanweisungen im zwanzigsten Jahrhundert. Erster Weltkrieg - Drittes Reich - DDR. Köln, Weimar, Wien 2007: Böhlau.<br />
Wilke, Jürgen, 400 Jahre Zeitung. Zeitung und Zeitunglesen am Rhein. Eltville 2007: Burgverein.<br />
Wilke, Jürgen, Grundzüge der Medien- und Kommunikationsgeschichte. Von den Anfängen bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Köln, Weimar, Wien: Böhlau 2000.<br />
Wilke, Jürgen, Nachrichtenauswahl und Medienrealität in vier Jahrhunderten. Eine Modellstudie zur Verbindung von historischer und empirischer Publizistikwissenschaft. Berlin, New York: de Gruyter 1984.

Original description: Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek

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