History of the inventor: Under the chairmanship of the factory owner and war-disabled reserve officer Franz Seldte, the Stahlhelm was founded in Magdeburg on 25 December 1918. In particular, former soldiers and officers of the Infantry Regiment 66 quartered in Magdeburg, to which Franz Seldte also belonged, were among the first members. The primary purpose was to "maintain peace and order," i.e., to protect oneself and the police against revolutionary unrest, to "foster comradeship founded in the field," to represent the interests of former front-line soldiers and their relatives (1), and to promote entry into the Free Corps. Almost a year after its foundation, on 21 September 1919, the Stahlhelm with its already existing local groups and other similar groups constituted itself as the Reichsbund der Frontsoldaten (Reich League of Front Soldiers). Magdeburg (2) initially became the administrative centre. The 1st Reichsfrontsoldatentag took place there on 14 March 1920, in the course of which Franz Seldte was elected the 1st Federal Leader of the steel helmet and replaced the previous chairman Dr. Gustav Bünger (3). Seldte maintained this position until the dissolution of the Confederation in 1935. In the following two years, the Federation succeeded in gradually expanding its organization beyond Central Germany, including in Berlin, Brandenburg, Lower Saxony, Pomerania, Silesia and Westphalia. If the steel helmet confessed itself to the new republican form of government when it was founded and as standing above the parties, this gradually changed. He approached the political right, including the German National People's Party (DNVP), and oriented himself "German-racial". The local group in Halle under its leader, the DNVP functionary Kurt Werner, played a major role in this (4). This development was temporarily halted by the prohibition of the steel helmet in Prussia on 2 July 1922, which was effective until 26 January 1923, following the assassination attempt on Reich Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau. In the turbulent year 1923, which was characterized by domestic political conflicts, occupation of the Ruhr, inflation, famine, separatist and communist uprisings and the climax of which was the Hitler-Ludendorff Putsch, which took place in Munich on November 8-9, the anti-democratic orientation of the steel helmet took on more and more form. Again the radical part of the alliance, the Gau Halle, in particular its new leader Theodor Duesterberg, was leading the way (5). If a national dictatorship was now advocated for the stabilization of conditions, coup d'état - at least in its official announcements - was rejected (6). On 9 March 1924 Theodor Duesterberg was appointed the 2nd Federal Leader alongside Franz Seldte. In the official presentation as a milestone in the history of steel helmets, in reality the mutual relationship was marked by repeated differences. With the increasing establishment of parliamentary democracy in the German Reich, the top management of the Stahlhelm was now thinking about the future. The Front Fighters Association wanted to be more than just a pure veteran association. He wanted to "implant" the propagated "spirit of front comradeship" to the entire German people (7). Under the motto "Über die Organisation zur Macht" (8), since the spring of 1924 its activities were extended to include young people (Jungstahlhelm and Scharnhorst) and the generation of over 24-year-olds (Stahlhelm-Landsturm, later Ringstahlhelm) who had no longer been able to participate in the First World War. Here above all the pre-military training stood in the foreground, the steel helmet understood itself nevertheless also as reservoir of the Reichswehr. In 1929, the steel helmet student association "Langemarck" was founded, which brought together the student youth. The steady growth of the covenant exerted an attraction on other federations, which led to them joining the steel helmet (9). In addition to the organizational expansion, the steel helmet also attempted to influence the politics of the Weimar Republic in other ways, albeit with strict emphasis on its "non-partisanship". To achieve this goal, in addition to mass events, propaganda campaigns and appeals to the patriotic sense of duty, personalities with political influence close to the steel helmet also served. The Reich President of Hindenburg was appointed honorary member. The transformation from an original self-protection organization to a political defense organization took on concrete forms. In the mid-twenties, however, it soon became clear that the Frontkämpferbund was often at odds with its principle of "standing above the parties" and its claim to political leadership. One had to leave the extra-parliamentary level in order to gain weight in politics. "Into the state" was now the slogan (10). Although they avoided founding their own party, they formed alliances with others, such as the DVP and the German nationalists, to whom close personal ties had always existed. In the Reich and Prussian state elections of 1928, for example, Stahlhelm members were placed on DNVP lists (11). However, these remained fruitless attempts, which only led to conflicts, which finally prompted the federal leadership to conduct politics on its own initiative (12). First the Federation specified its antirepublican oriented program in the first and second "Steel Helmet Embassies" as well as the "Fürstenwalder Hassbotschaft" (13). According to its self-image, the Federation saw itself as the spearhead of a freedom movement whose goals were "the external and internal liberation of Germany" (14). At the Front Soldier Days in Berlin and Hamburg in 1927 and 1928, as well as at several other propaganda demonstrations, the steel helmet publicly displayed its aversion to the Republic. However, a series of unfortunate decisions, including the 1928 referendum to amend the constitution and the 1929 referendum against the Young Plan, combined with disagreements in federal leadership and political inexperience, showed that the activities of the Stahlhelm in this area were limited. Subsequently, disputes arose, especially with the growing National Socialists, over who should take the lead in the right-wing camp. During the Reichstag elections in September 1930, it became clear that the NSDAP played the leading role. Increasingly, members of the steel helmet, in part even entire local groups, joined this party and the organizations belonging to it (above all SA and SS). The meeting of the leading right-wing parties and associations held in Bad Harzburg in October 1931 and the merger to form the "Harzburger Front" were unable to bridge the existing gap. In the 1932 Reich presidential elections, the competition between the NSDAP and the steel helmet again came to light, with both of their own candidates entering the race: Adolf Hitler stood for the National Socialists, Theodor Duesterberg for the front soldiers (15). After the disastrous outcome of the Reich presidential elections for the Federation, disillusionment spread. The steel helmet put its political ambitions on ice and now turned its attention again increasingly to military sports activities and voluntary work, which was regarded as a substitute for compulsory military service (16). The assumption of political power by the NSDAP in January 1933 was welcomed despite all differences. Among other things, several steel helmets participated in the auxiliary police founded by Hermann Göring in February of the same year together with SA and SS in equalization measures (17). Franz Seldte received the post of Reich Labour Minister (18) in Adolf Hitler's cabinet. In June 1933 the gradual dissolution of the Frontsoldatenbund began. The Scharnhorst-Bund for youths up to the age of 18 was integrated into the Hitler Youth, while the over-18 to 35-year-olds were subordinated to the SA as "Wehrstahlhelm". As a result of the enormous increase in members, a reorganisation of the SA was ordered at the end of 1933. In the course of this now also the core steel helmet (members over 35 years) came as a SA reserve under their command (19). In March 1934 it came to the reestablishment into the National Socialist German Frontkämpferbund (steel helmet). On 7 November 1935 the Frontsoldatenbund was finally dissolved, after it had led only a shadowy existence since the beginning of the "Third Reich". In 1951 a new organization was founded in Cologne under the name of Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten (Steel Helmet, Federation of Front Soldiers). In 1952 the former Field Marshal Albert Kesselring was elected as its federal leader. Notes (1) See Graff, Siegmund: Foundation and Development of the Federal Government, in: Der Stahlhelm. Memories and Pictures, Vol. 1, p. 30-32. (2) See ibid., p. 38. (3) Due to the so-called "Kapp Putsch", which had begun one day earlier, it was, however, only a board meeting and not a mass event like the later Front Soldier Days, which took place annually until 1933, see Berghahn: Stahlhelm, p. 28. (4) See ibid.., (5) Duesterberg, former professional officer, had already been a member of the Halle Stahlhelm since the end of 1919 and at the same time managing director of the Halle-Merseburg constituency of the DNVP, see Berghahn: Stahlhelm, p. 24-25. On 21 April he became the leader of the Halle Stahlhelm-Gaus. (6) Cf. on this subject Berghahn: Stahlhelm, S. 39-53. (7) S. Graff: Gründung, S. 53 (8) S. Berghahn: Stahlhelm, S. 64. (9) So e.g. the Cherusker-und Westfalenbund in October 1924 and the Bund Reichsflagge in October 1927, s. Mahlke: Stahlhelm, S. 150, Sp. 2. (10) This term initially led to misunderstandings in the sense of a turn towards the Republic. In reality one wanted to penetrate the state from within and transform it according to one's own goals, see Berghahn: Stahlhelm, p. 103; Mahlke: Stahlhelm, p. 149, Sp. 1; Graff: Gründung, p. 62-63. (11) Cf. Berghahn: Stahlhelm, p. 109ff. (12) See ibid., p. 112. (13) S. Mahlke: Stahlhelm, p. 151, Sp. 2. (14) S. Graff: Gründung, p. 63. (15) Finally, Hindenburg won again with 53 votes, see Berghahn: Stahlhelm, p. 219. (16) See Berghahn: Stahlhelm, p. 232. (17) S. ibid., p. 252ff. (18) He held this office, albeit without much political influence, until the end of the Third Reich. (19) Cf. Mahlke: Stahlhelm, S. 155, Sp. 1-2. Inventory Description: History of the Inventory With the dissolution of the steel helmet in 1935, the files of the Federal Government reached the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam. The stock was removed around 1944/45 and thus escaped destruction - the Reichsarchiv was bombed on 14 April 1945. The files remained in Potsdam after the Second World War, now in the area of the Soviet occupation zone, and were taken over by the German Central Archive (DZA; later: Central State Archive of the GDR), which was founded there in 1946. They were archived there under the inventory signature 61 Sta 1. In the course of the reunification of the German states in 1990, the documents finally reached the Federal Archives through the integration of the Central State Archives of the GDR. To date, the Federal Archives themselves had preserved only minor remains of the steel helmet under the signature R 72, which had been acquired from private sources (see Gerhard Granier: Das Bundesarchiv und seine Bestände, 3. Aufl., Boppard 1977, p. 437). Archival evaluation and processing The first verifiable processing of the disordered holdings kept in the German Central Archives took place in the years 1957-1960. The work was made more difficult by the fact that the archives did not have any organisational documents or file directories of the steel helmet. In 1967, through the mediation of V.R. Berghahn (author of the book "Der Stahlhelm Bund der Frontsoldaten 1918-1935, Düsseldorf 1966"), the DZA was able to acquire a copy of a list of contributions from the Stahlhelm-Bundesamt from 1935. This list originally came from the possession of Dr. Heinz Brauweiler, last head of the political department of the Stahlhelm-Bundesamt, and was intended to list all files to be handed over to the Reichsarchiv. With the help of this directory, the indexing according to the principles of order and indexing for the state archives of the GDR was completed in 1970. A revision in 1967 of the files of the classification groups 1 (correspondence of the Federal Government), 2 (printed publications) and 4 (pictures) with the help of the above-mentioned list of duties produced the following picture: Classification groups 1: Available: 193 volumes Missing: 28 volumes = approx. 12 classification groups 2: Available: 117 volumes Missing: 55 volumes = approx. 47Classification groups 4: Available: 70 volumes Missing: 33 volumes = approx. 32The particularly high losses in groups 2 and 4 in particular can be explained by a presumably incomplete transfer to the Reich Archives as well as losses during the war-related relocation of the Reich Archives' holdings. In 2003 the steel helmet was re-signed from its former location in the Koblenz office of the Federal Archives and merged with the old Potsdam part under the stock signature R 72. Subsequently, the data from the finding aids were converted into electronic form and transferred to the Basys database. Since the indexing data from the finding aids did not comply with the modern indexing guidelines of the Federal Archives, a revision of the data was necessary, which was carried out in the years 2007-2011. The main focus was on the creation of volume and series sequences, streamlining of the contained notes by highlighting the essential content, review and adjustment, partial modification of the classification. From the collection "NS-Archive of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR" files of the provenance steel helmet were extracted and integrated into the stock R 72. Classification groups 1-3 were particularly affected by this work. Characterization of the contents: The collection provides a good insight into the organizational development of the steel helmet and its affiliated associations, especially at the level of the federal leadership and the regional associations or Gaue, as well as into its activities of various kinds, especially from the beginning of the twenties until its dissolution in 1935. The files of the classification groups 1 and 3 represent the largest part of the transmission of the steel helmet. While in classification group 1 the correspondence of the federal leadership with the regional steel helmet associations as well as other associations, organisations and private persons on the one hand, and on the other hand the files on the Front Soldier Days form the focus of content, in group 3 primarily domestic and foreign policy questions as well as events during the Weimar Republic or at the beginning of the Third Reich are documented. Personal documents are only available on a larger scale to the extent that they concern higher-ranking members of the steel helmet or persons from contemporary history or public life. Membership lists or local group passes are only part of the stock in extremely small quantities. State of development: Findbuch Nachträge in Datenbank Umfang, Explanation: 2336 AE Citation method: BArch, R 72/...
