Fonds UK.01 - UK.01 - University Curator 1819-1945

Administrative history/biographical information: Details from the Findbuch, compiled in 1961 by Archivdirektor Kossack (corrected and edited version): Der Universitäts-Kurator in Berlin - Behörden- und Bestandsgeschichtlicher Rückblick (The University Curator in Berlin - Review of Authorities and Inventory History) Heinz Kossack compiled a review of the history of authorities of the office of curator at the University of Berlin from the time the university was founded until 1945 in 1960. The order and distortion of this inventory made it necessary to give such a retrospective so that all those who use it would be aware of its importance and significance for the history of the university. The relationship between university and state, which was controversial among scientists and scholars, especially in the time of the feudal-absolutist state, confronts us in one way or another in this inventory when reviewing the archives. The state authority, be it in the form of the absolute or constitutional monarchy, the republic or the National Socialist dictatorship, enforces its demands against the university through a representative "on the spot" and controls the implementation of the given instructions and directives. This commissioner is the curator, although it should be noted that in Berlin the Ministry for Spiritual, Teaching and Medical Affairs carried out the most important curatorial tasks itself until 1923. Therefore the existence begins only with the employment of the extraordinary government plenipotentiary in the year 1819. Authority history I. The curator up to the appointment of the a. o. government plenipotentiary 1810-1819 By the regulation because of improved mechanism of the provincial authorities from 30 April 1815 (Pr. GS. 1815, S. 85ff) § 16 it was decreed that each chief president should be as "constant Commissarius curator of the university, which is in the province entrusted to him". The term "curator" appears in this ordinance, although the university's statutes of 1816 do not know it. The tasks of this curator were specified in the decree of 26 December 1808 (Pr. GS. p. 467ff) in § 10 (3) concerning the improved establishment of provincial, police and financial authorities (Pr. GS. p. 467ff) as follows: "the internal establishment of the universities the economic curate the appointment and employment of teachers of the university". For the University of Berlin, however, the Ministry of Spiritual, Teaching and Medical Affairs, formed by the Allerhöchste Kabinetts-Order of 3 November 1817 from the former Department of Cult and Public Education of the Ministry of the Interior, had reserved the performance of the so-called curatorial affairs for itself. Therefore, nothing is known about this period of the curator's activity at the University of Berlin. TWO. The Extraordinary Government Plenipotentiary 1819-1848 The Instruction for the Extraordinary Government Plenipotentiaries at the Universities of 18 November 1819 (Pr. GS. 1819, p. 233ff), issued by King Frederick William III of Prussia with the countersignature of the State Chancellor of Hardenberg in the execution of the Karlovy Vary resolutions for Prussia, initiated the blackest period in the history of the university on the one hand, but on the other hand it created clearer conditions in the history of the authorities. This instruction, which made the Government Plenipotentiary's task of lace-making both against the university teachers and against the students, transferred in Section IV that § 16 of the Decree was repealed because of improved establishment of the Provincial Authorities of 30 April 1815, according to which each Chief President was to be the curator of the university in the province entrusted to him. The powers of the trustees should be transferred to the government officials. However, in order not to eliminate the chief presidents completely, it was ordered that they should support the government plenipotentiaries by all means. Section V pointed out that the Government Plenipotentiaries are in the same position as the Trustees and clearly specified the tasks of the Government Plenipotentiaries: 1. they are to be regarded as deputies of the Ministry, as are the Trustees. Therefore, their orders must be executed by the academic authorities and all reports, including those of the directors of institutes and collections, must go through their hands. 2. are directly subordinated to the Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs and report only to it. They also receive their orders and resolutions only from the ministry. 3. You will receive the necessary service personnel. If necessary, all "subalterns" of the universities should be made available to them. However, a special reservation was made at the University of Berlin, in that the instruction of 18 November 1819 ordered that it was reserved for the Ministry to carry out the curatorial duties directly, but to transfer them to the government representative to such an extent that he could act in the best interests of the university. By decree of the Minister of 20 November 1819, the University was informed that the Geh. Oberregierungsrat Schultz had been appointed Government Plenipotentiary. However, the following restriction has been made: "Since the Instruction for the Government Plenipotentiaries reserves to the Minister the right to delegate to him part of the business of the Board of Trustees of the Royal University within himself, the Privy Council of the Supreme Government Schultz has been provisionally instructed in general to establish a personal relationship with the University, its staff and its institutes and facilities, to maintain itself in continuous and ongoing knowledge thereof, to investigate the shortcomings and needs of the University in all its branches and to bring them to the attention of the Ministerio together with appropriate proposals for their secondment, to see for itself that the orders made or approved by the Ministerio, whatever part of the university institutions or the institutes and collections belonging thereto they also concern, are promptly and fully implemented, and to report to the Ministerio on their implementation." Schultz ran the business until May 1824, when he was succeeded under the same circumstances by the Beckedorff supreme government council. The Cabinet Order of 21 May 1824 regulated in particular the position of the Government Plenipotentiary to the Rector and the sub-officials of the University. Thereafter, the Government Plenipotentiary was the Rector's superior in charge of supervising the Rector's conduct of office. Furthermore, the subordinates of the University were obliged to obey the orders of the Government Plenipotentiary in the matters which he dealt with directly. Because of the matters concerning the Rector and Senate, the Government Plenipotentiary could issue his instructions to the sub-officials by the Rector. Beckedorff retired in June 1827. By ministerial decree of 14 June 1827, it was decreed that the rector and the university judge should now act jointly as deputy government representatives. This regulation existed until 1841. After confirmation by the ministry, the rector was entrusted with the performance of this activity with the university judge. However, by decree of 13 April 1841, this transitional arrangement was repealed and the duties of the Government Plenipotentiary were entrusted to the Director of the Ministry's Education Department, Oberregierungsrat von Ladenberg, with effect from 1 June 1841. After an instruction for v. Ladenberg as temporary curator and extraordinary government representative, it was particularly emphasized because of the tasks of the curator that v. Ladenberg should only perform these tasks to the extent that they were not processed by the ministry. We therefore find this restriction in the corresponding decrees on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, according to this instruction, the rector and the university judge were again deputy government plenipotentiaries, i.e. the government plenipotentiary could delegate his duties to the rector and the university judge in the absence of the rector and the university judge. In April 1848, following the decision of the Federal Assembly, the exceptional legislation of the German Confederation enacted in 1819 was repealed. The Federal Decrees on the use of extraordinary government plenipotentiaries at universities also fell within the scope of this resolution. III The Board of Trustees of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin 1848-1923 By decree of the Minister for Spiritual, Teaching and Medical Affairs of 18 July 1848, Ladenberg was recalled from office as a government representative and instructed to limit himself to the pure functions of a curator. These functions consisted according to § 10 (3) of the decree of 28 September 1808 (Pr. GS. 1806-1810, p. 467) in: a.) the internal institution; b.) the economic board of trustees; c.) the appointment and employment of teachers because of improved establishment of the provincial, police and financial authorities (Pr. GS. 1806-1810, p. 467). At the same time, the decree stated that the final provisions on university boards of trustees should only be recast after a general reform of universities had been carried out. However, this reform did not take place until 1918. Since von Ladenberg was entrusted with the direction of the Ministry, he appointed the then Rector and Deputy University Judge to administer the duties of the Board of Trustees by decree of 16 November 1848. Since then, the duties of curator have remained with the University of Berlin until 1923, unless they were handled by the ministry itself, with the respective rector and university judge. The official designation was: "Deputy Curators" or "Royal Board of Trustees of the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin". The activities of the Board of Trustees consisted in the processing of: 1. matriculation matters; 2. scholarship matters; 3. administrative matters. To 1.): Here, the Board of Trustees was particularly active in the admission of students in accordance with the ministerial regulations issued for this purpose. Too 2.): Granting support to needy and dignified students, continuing the administration of scholarship foundations and their revision. To 3.): The administrative matters concerned the authorisation to allocate budgetary appropriations up to RM 6000 per year. Furthermore, student statistics had to be prepared for the ministry and other special orders had to be handled by the ministry. At a later stage it seems that the personnel files of professors and other employees have been added. The tasks of this board of trustees were therefore rather limited. Therefore also the file material available from this time is relatively small and little productive. The staffing was carried out in such a way that, in addition to the Government Plenipotentiary, a clerical secretary was active. The latter was named curatorial-secretary after the abolition of the institution of the government plenipotentiary. His tasks were: a.) The keeping of the journal, a file repertory and an index; b.) The preparation of all copies; c.) The stapling and rotating of the files; d.) The preparation of various lists. The report of the curatorial secretary Schleusener of 26 February 1858 shows that the registry at that time contained 335 volumes of files. Furthermore, according to Schleusener's report, 250-260 new things were received each year and 140 letters were issued and "mundiert" (mouthed). This office of curatorial secretary was maintained until 1923. After Daudé, the curatorial secretary had the following duties in 1887: a.) Completion of registration work and management of the journal; b.) Acceptance of applications for enrolment (4 semesters, subsequent enrolment); c.) The registration of the student (4 semesters, subsequent enrolment).) Preparation of expeditions and clean copies of the correspondence of the Board of Trustees; d.) Preparation of expeditions and clean copies concerning the administration of the title "Insgemein" and the support fund; e.) Provision of information to students regarding the admission requirements for their studies. In addition, the curatorial secretary had to work on some tasks in the closer university service, since he obviously could not be fully employed in his own field of work. The distribution of business remained essentially the same until 1923. IV. The administrative director at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin 1923-1936 The statutes of the University of Berlin of 1930, which were issued on the basis of the decision of the Prussian State Ministry of 20 March 1923, provided in § 5, p. 2 an administrative director with the following duties: "The external administration of the institutes, seminars and institutions including the clinics outside the Charité on behalf of the minister. He oversees the university's budget, treasury and accounting." Under Articles 83-84 of the Statutes, the Administrative Director was required to exercise certain powers in the appointment of officials in grades A 7 to A 11. Erich Wende, "Grundlagen des Preußischen Hochschulrechts", p. 59, speaks of the administrative director as the minister's representative in the external affairs of the natural science and humanities institutes and institutions and the clinics outside the Charité. The remaining tasks of the former Board of Trustees have been transferred to the Rector, who is supported by the University Council. There is no doubt that these are mainly the tasks that had to be carried out with enrolment. Compared to the former board of trustees, however, the number of employees has now increased to about 10 (civil servants, employees, clerks). After the fall of communism (loc. cit., p. 53 et seq.), the creation of the office of Administrative Director is the result of a fundamental university reform that had been discussed long before the outbreak of the First World War. The first administrative director at the University of Berlin was the former university judge Geh. Regierungsrat Dr. Wollenberg, who was replaced by Dr. Büchsel in 1925. V. The University Curator in Berlin 1936-1945 The institution of the Administrative Director remained in existence until 1936. With effect from 1 April 1936, by decree of the Reich Minister for Science, Education and Popular Education of 2 April 1936 (W Ib No. 861, Z II), the position of Administrative Director was transformed into that of Curator. The former Administrative Director Dr. Büchsel, who worked as curator until 1944 with minor interruptions, was entrusted with the management of the business. The tasks of the university curator in Berlin, as the official name was, seem to have been very extensive, measured by the number of staff (34 civil servants, employees and typists). There is a business allocation plan which divides the entire administrative area into 7 working groups (see Annex). In order to achieve a settlement of competences between rector and curator, the Minister for Science, Education and Popular Education issued a corresponding draft of a speaker by decree of 9 March 1942 (WA 278/42), the further fate of which could not be established. The draft is based on the assumption that the curator for the area of external operating resources and the stock of equipment and personnel, which only enables teaching and research to be carried out, is the local representative of the Reich Ministry. According to the a.m. draft, the external administration of higher education institutions included the following tasks: 1. the appointment and employment of all university staff outside the teaching staff and scientific officials, but including assistants, and the supervision of these groups of persons; 2. the handling of all civil servants' and remuneration-related matters for all officials belonging to the higher education sector, in this case including university teachers and scientific officials, and the keeping of the personal files of these officials. 3. the swearing in of the civil servants listed under 1. with the exception of the assistants; 4. the management of the budgetary, cash and accounting system; 5. the entire external administration of the institutes, seminars, clinics and other institutions; 6. the management of the building and property administration; 7. the representation of the state university administration vis-à-vis other authorities and the representation of the state and the university in legal transactions and legal disputes before and outside the court. The curator also had the Central Registration Office for Supply Aspirants for the area of the entire scientific administration in the former German Reich, whose activity, however, ended in 1944 as a result of transfer to another office. Furthermore, the respective administrative director or curator was administrative director of the University Hospital and chairman of several examination commissions (e.g. food chemist examination, insurance expert examination). This complex of tasks remained essentially unchanged until 1945. With the collapse of the Nazi state, the activities of the curator's office also ended. This marks the end of a development phase in the administrative history of the university. Provenance: University Curator 1819-1945 Order and Classification: Business Distribution Plan for the Office of the Curator of the University of Berlin (Basis of Classification after 1928) Department I: Office Director Affairs General Affairs of the Institutes Personnel Affairs of the Office Property Management (Main Building, Assembly Building, Lecture Hall Building) Management of Fund Controls Support Control of the Processing of All Correspondence of all Departments Department II: Officials Natural Science and Medical Institutes and Clinics Budgets Affairs Foundations Building Matters of University Institutes Division III A: Assistants Lecturers Teaching Assignments Student Affairs Fee Schedule Scientific Assistants Faculty Affairs Humanities Institute Division III B: Professors Professors-Witwen "Professoren emer. Veterinary institutes Lecturers Construction matters of veterinary institutes Division IV: Employees Wage earners. Division L: University Institutes of Physical Education Sports Affairs Division V, Audit Office Division VI: Payroll Office Statistics pp. Form administration postage stamps inventory list. Division VII or VII B: official housing pp. Property levies pp. Property management Building matters of the agricultural department Fuel supply pp. Photographic demonstrations pp. Agricultural Institutes Humanities Institutes, insofar as not included in III A. Zentral-Vormerkungsstelle Preface: Archive Director Heinz Kossack listed the holdings in 1961 and compiled an extensive finding aid book. The units of distortion already taken over into the archive software some time ago were checked, corrected and supplemented in 2016/17. Some file units (mostly no. XX/1) were probably not assigned to this collection until later - these numbers did not exist in the find book Kossack 1961. Information from the find book Kossack 1961 created (excerpt): The inventory of the university curator was partly scattered according to signatures and partly mixed with other inventories, partly in the magazine, partly in the archivist's workroom. Order and registration work seems never to have been carried out on the inventory. There were no major losses in the portfolio. The entire collection was recorded and arranged by Heinz Kossack in the period from January 1960 to February 1961. The distortion could take place at first only after the Bärschen principle. The order was then established in the holdings of the Government Plenipotentiary according to the old signatures. In the case of the administrative director and curator, the order could be established according to the present file plan (administrative structure principle). Period to: 1950 Period from: 1819 Citation method: HU UA, University Curator.01, No. XXX. HU UA, UK.01, No. XXX. Inventory history: History of the files and the registry: At first it could be established that the registry was structured according to the following system: a) Government Plenipotentiary, from 1819, Board of Trustees from 1848, Administrative Director 1923 to 1928, subject formation according to keywords alphabetically. Hand stapled files were kept. The file number was formed, applying the letter with number. Example: Litt. A. No. 1/ VollII. From this time a file index or repertory could not be found. If a new file was created, the subject was added to the corresponding letter under the following number. It was not possible to determine whether a central registry existed, but it can be assumed. On the basis of a file handover register from 1848, it could be established that the holdings of the government authorised representative have been almost completely preserved. b) Administrative Director 1928 - 1936 In 1928, as a result of the office reform, the use of filing cabinets was switched to in 1928. The previous keyword system was abandoned at the same time. The numbering system was introduced. The reference number, which was now the same as the reference number, consisted of three digits. The structure of the file plan was such that the numerical series I 100 - I 199 fundamental matters: included personnel, insurance, organisational and support matters. The numbers II 200 - II 399 included: Cash and accounting matters, building and property matters, legal and procedural matters, student body matters, examination matters. Numbers III 400 - III 640 include the building budgets, material and personnel matters of the faculties, seminars and institutes. Numbers IV 650 - IV 700 included the construction budget, the material and human resources of the university hospital and the dental institute. The new file number formed in this way was e.g: "VD 126/30" State of development, extent: Ordered and completely listed; extent: approx. 35 running metres

University Archive of the Humboldt University Berlin >> B (Royal) Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin (1810-1945) >> B 01 University management and administration >> B 01.02 University curator

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Original description: Archiv der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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