History of the Inventor: The Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda is instructed and authorized to combine the members of the branches of activity that concern his sphere of duties into public corporations"[1] With this clear sentence, the Reichskulturkammergesetz of September 22, 1933 was introduced and the nationalization and supervision of German culture began, namely the forced unification of all those active in the field of culture in an association, the Reichskulturkammer. In addition to its headquarters, the Reichskulturkammer consisted of the following individual chambers: 1st Reichsschrifttumskammer (Bundesarchiv Bestand R 56-V) 2nd Reichspressekammer (R 56-IV) 3rd Reichsrundfunkkammer 4th Reichstheaterkammer (R 56-III) 5. Reichsmusikkammer (R 56-II) 6th Reichskammer der bildenden Künste 7th Reichsfilmkammer (R 56-VI) The Reichsfilmkammer was established before the foundation of the Reichskulturkammer, on 14 July 1933[2] as a "temporary film chamber". The Reichsrundfunkkammer was dissolved again on 28 October 1939 and the members distributed among the other individual chambers.[3] The tasks and organization of the individual chambers can be found in the introductions to the corresponding finding aids. With the First Decree on the Implementation of the Reichskulturkammergesetz of 1 November 1933[4], the individual chambers were given the status of public corporations, which in turn were merged into a single public corporation, namely the Reichskulturkammer. Provisions which the individual chambers were allowed to enact had the rank of indirect imperial law, but were limited to the area of chamber membership. Paragraph 10 of that first regulation stated that admission to an individual chamber could be refused "if facts exist from which it follows that the person in question does not possess the reliability and aptitude necessary for the performance of his duties"[5] The President of the individual chamber concerned decided on the aptitude and aptitude. A rejection meant a ban on the profession, because the cultural practice of the profession outside the chambers was not permitted. When the Reich Chamber of Culture and its individual chambers were established, however, there were no rejections or prohibitions at first, as the individual chambers automatically took over all those involved in culture who were organised in the professional associations responsible for their area. These professional associations formed part of the chamber as professional associations (e.g. Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnenangehöriger in der Reichstheaterkammer or Deutscher Sängerbund in der Reichsmusikkammer). Thus the members of the professional associations acquired the membership in the single chambers, without examination of the "reliability or suitability". Thus, at the beginning, "non-Aryans" or other groups of people who did not correspond to the "ideal image" of the National Socialists were also in the chambers. For Propaganda Minister Goebbels this was a problem which he tried to solve with the appointment of Hans Hinkels as Third Managing Director of the Reich Chamber of Culture on 1 May 1935. State Commissioner Hinkel was entrusted with dealing with personnel issues in the individual chambers. This meant nothing less than the expulsion of the Jews and other groups of people from the chambers who were undesirable to the National Socialists. Hinkel was responsible for the "cleansing" of the chambers as the "commissioner for the supervision of the intellectual and artistic non-Aryans in German Reich territory". The presidents of the individual chambers were not spared either. Only Max Amann remained president of the Reichspressekammer. It was also Hinkel who took over the transformation of the professional associations into student councils, which was completed in 1935. § 15 of the First Ordinance on the Implementation of the Reichskulturkammergesetz already provided for a division into "professional associations or student councils". What at first glance hardly seemed to be a difference had considerable legal consequences. While the professional associations were still independent corporations with private assets, the newly founded professional associations were only regarded as administrative offices of the chambers without their own legal personality. The former professional associations were thus gradually nationalised and expropriated as a result of this transformation. A particular problem with the presentation of the tasks of the Reich Chamber of Culture was the interdependence with the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. The president of the RKK, Joseph Goebbels, was at the same time Reich Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, his deputy (vice-president) the acting state secretary in the Ministry of Propaganda, at the beginning Reich Press Head Walter Funk. The organisational supervision of the individual chambers was carried out by the RKK headquarters, with its seat in the Ministry of Propaganda. Hans Schmidt-Leonhardt, head of the IC (Legal) department, was initially appointed as its managing director. As a counterpart to the individual chambers, individual specialist departments (press, literature, music, visual arts, theatre, film and radio) were created in the Ministry of Propaganda, whereby the heads of department were at the same time the respective chamber presidents in personal union. The linkages also existed at the lowest Gau level. There was already the usual interweaving of state and party in the Third Reich by the union of the head of the regional office of the Ministry of Propaganda and the head of the NSDAP's main propaganda department in one person. These functionaries now still held the post of Provincial Cultural Administrator and thus the supervision of the local offices of the individual chambers. In support of the Presidents, a Presidential Council was set up in each Chamber. The Presidential Council consisted of seven representatives of the corresponding cultural sector. The persons were appointed by Goebbels himself and the respective chamber president had to appoint a managing director from this circle who was directly entrusted with administrative tasks. On 15 November 1935, Hinkel announced the establishment of the Reich Cultural Senate, in which particularly deserving persons of cultural life would come together and serve as a cultural-political source of ideas for Goebbels. In reality, this Senate was only representative. In it were all chamber presidents, the respective presidential councils, the vice-presidents and the three managing directors of the RKK, who carried the title Reichskulturwalter. But only 3 years later, with Goebbels order of 05 April 1938 (Az. I B 1000)[6], the office of the Reichskulturwalter was abolished again. Only one management remained in the Reich Chamber of Culture with the tasks of "training and propaganda" and supervision of the regional divisions of the individual chambers. The specialist supervision of the individual chambers was now carried out by the specialist departments in the RMVP, the organisational supervision by the responsible administrative departments. The personal union of the offices of Head of Department of the Ministry and President of the Chamber was also abolished. Hinkel himself had been head of the Department IIA (Cultural Activities of Nonarians) since 01 April 1938. After the beginning of the Second World War, the focus was on troop support as an "important task of the war". The troop support consisted essentially of organising performances on front stages and supplying the troops themselves with parlour games, musical instruments, etc. The troops were then given the opportunity to play on the front stages. Organizationally, the RMVP first installed its own "Troop Support" department, which moved to the new "BeKa" department (Special Cultural Tasks)[7] in 1940. The department BeKA was the successor of the department IIA, its head remained Hans Hinkel. By decree of 30 April 1941[8] the "Hauptgeschäftsführung der RKK" was founded. Hinkel received the position of "Secretary General of the RKK" in this main management, which was divided into five departments: Department A (Heinz Tackmann): Administration (Personnel, Budget and Legal Affairs) Department B (Walter Owens): Professional tasks (aptitude test and support of young people, orientation and supervision of career guidance, job creation and social affairs of cultural professions) Department C (Erich Kochanowski): Propaganda (liaison with the departments of party and state, representation of the RKK in film and radio, press affairs, as well as political training and orientation of cultural workers) Department D (Helmuth von Loebell): Cultural personal data (political assessment of cultural workers, exclusion procedures and decisions on complaints, special permits for "non-Aryans", examination of cultural enterprises for Jewish influence, cultural activities of foreigners) Department E (Hans Erich Schrade): Special tasks (troop support, cultural support of the returned ethnic Germans and foreign workers, supervision of the mentally and culturally active Jews in the Reich territory) The BeKA department, which had been de facto dissolved with the founding of the RKK's main management, was renamed "Generalreferat Reichskulturkammersachen"[9] in the RMVP in August 1941. At the same time, the department heads of the main management of the RKK remained in personal union speakers of this general department. The above tasks did not change until the end of the war. On 1 May 1944, Hans Hinkel's key position in the Reich Chamber of Culture became clear once again. On this day, Goebbels appointed Hinkel as Vice President of the RKK, and Hans Erich Schrade assumed the duties of Secretary General. Before that Hinkel had already been appointed "Special Trustee of the Work for the Professions Creating Culture", "Reichsfilmintendanten" and Head of the Film Department in the RMVP. He was also given overall responsibility for the broadcasting entertainment programme. Notes [1] Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 661. [2] Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 483. [3] 5th VO on the implementation of the Reichskulturkammergesetz. 4]Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 797 [5] Reichsgesetzblatt 1933 I, p. 797 [6] Newsletter of the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda No. 5 of 9 April 1938 (R 55/20617). 7] GVPL of 01 Nov 1940 (R 55/20776). [8] R 55/163. [9] GVPL of Nov. 1, 1942 (R 55/20621). Hans Hinkel - Career in the Reich Chamber of Culture 1933 Prussian State Director in Alfred Rosenberg's "Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur" State Commissioner in the Prussian Ministry of Culture Head of the Prussian Theatre Committee 1 May 1935 3. Managing Director in the RKK Headquarters Commissioner for the Supervision of Intellectually and Artistically Active Non-Aryans in the German Reich (as a separate department in the Propaganda Department of the RMVP) 15. Nov. 1935 Reichskulturwalter im Reichssenat 1936 Head of Department II at the headquarters of the RKK 5 April 1938 Head of Department IIA (Supervision of Cultural Activities of Nonarians) in the RMVP July 1940 Chief Executive of the RKK 30. April 1941 General Secretary in the General Management of the RKK August 1941 Head of the General Department for Reich Culture Chamber Matters in the RMVP until 1945 Special trustee of the work for the culture-creating professions Overall responsible for the entertainment programme in the Rundfunk Reichsfilmintendant Head of the Film Department in the RMVP Vice-President of the RKK (from 1. April 1941 onward) May 1944) Inventory description: Inventory history A part of the files (R 56-I/1-147) transferred from the Berlin Document Center to the Federal Archives between 1959 and 1962 has already been recorded by Dr. Wolfram Werner. For a more detailed history of their transmission, see the introduction to the corresponding finding aid book (finding aid books on the holdings of the Federal Archives, volume 31). These are mainly files from the Hinkel office. Newly added were the material files from the "Reichskulturkammer" collections of the former BDC. The contents were as follows: 1. manuscripts of films, novels and plays 2. household matters with the Landeskulturwaltern 3. files of a private service nature (i.e. requests for jobs and petitions, as well as congratulations, mostly from private persons, to Hinkel) Archival processing The titles of the files available in the Koblenz part of the stock are recorded in the present online find book edited by Mr Tim Storch. The signatures assigned at that time were retained. The classification was based on the order already created by Dr. Werner. Due to the new situation of traditions it had to be extended by the item "budget". The classification point "Goebbels-Stiftung für Bühnenschaffende" (Goebbels Foundation for Stage Designers) still existing in the old find book has been removed and is now to be found in the holdings R 56-III (Reichstheaterkammer). It remains to be mentioned that part of the tradition from the former BDC was not recorded in the holdings of the Reichskulturkammer and its individual chambers, but was included in holdings R 55 (Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda) due to the determination of provenance (R 55/21300-21564). This can be explained by the organisational link between the RKK and the RMVP. Foreign provenances were handed over to the responsible archive (Landesarchiv Berlin). These were files of the Reichspropagandaamt Berlin, the NSDAP-Gauleitung Berlin and the Landeskulturwalters Berlin. Publications, in particular circulars of the DAF and newsletters of the RMVP, have also been sorted out and handed over to the library. Citation BArch R 56 I/... State of development: publication index (1987), online index (2006). Citation style: BArch, R 56-I/...
