The first preparatory correspondence from the years 1876ff. for the initiation of a dogma-free mission and the first discussions of the association in the religious-church newspapers and magazines has been handed down (from the preface by Wolfgang Eger, 1981). Extensive material is also devoted to the founding conference in Frankfurt/M. on 11 April 1883, the constituent assembly in Weimar on 4 and 5 June 1884, the first period of the association from Weimar to Mannheim (1884-1885) and from Gotha to Braunschweig (1886-1887) as well as the winning of the Grand Duke of Weimar as protector of the association.The first president of the East Asia Mission, the Swiss priest Ernst Buß from Glarus, stated on the occasion of the foundation of the Mission in his welcoming speech in Weimar in June 1884: "...But now also in the soul of the heathen, although often very atrophied, lie germs and remnants of eternal truth and healthy religious life, which are intimately related to the spirit of the Gospel. If these are lovingly chosen, this is taken up and the Gospel is brought close to the Gentile in such a way that he feels: that is my own better self, that is only the full height and beauty of what I myself suspected and sought for, but was not able to find! Then the Gospel will find receptive ground, then it can take root in the people's minds, then it will bring forth the blessed fruits of the Spirit in Asia and Africa as well as in us. But once the spirit of Jesus Christ has penetrated the heart of a people, this spirit will already create for itself the worship and ecclesiastical forms that are appropriate to it on that ground, perhaps quite different from what we are accustomed to, perhaps more exuberant, perhaps more poorer - God does not demand that all his children stammer the father's name with the same sounds - but at any rate folksy ones that correspond to the national character. But if they are popular forms, they will also exert a popular attraction and facilitate the connection. Christianity, far from being denationalized, becomes itself a national element, a leaven that gradually permeates an entire people, can educate entire peoples from within to Christian morality..." The draft statutes of the Association (1883-1884) and the statutes adopted in 1886, the minutes of meetings of the Central Committee, the Business Committee, the General Assembly, staff meetings and house conferences, as well as the first statutes of branch associations, are available.The General Evangelical-Protestant Missionary Association regards mission in the non-Christian world as an undeniable duty of the whole Christianity, founded in the command and promise of Jesus as well as in the divine destiny of Christianity, and therefore has the task of contributing to its part so that the redemption through Jesus Christ, the blessings of Christian knowledge of God, Christian life and Christian culture more and more become the common property of all peoples.He recognizes in the non-Christian religions with Paul and the most outstanding church teachers of the first centuries of the Christian calendar germs of divine truth and sets himself the goal of their development and completion in the Christian religion. He wants to solve his tasks in the sense of the Evangelical-Protestant faith and in doing so gives room to every conviction that has grown on the basis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On this basis it seeks the union and collaboration of all those who are permeated by the need for mission in the spirit of the Gospel and the Reformation, whatever their theological direction or confessional and ecclesial denomination.He complements the already existing Protestant mission associations by considering the mission areas which have not yet been tackled by them, or have been tackled only with little success, and by seeking primarily also to involve those circles of Protestant Christianity in the mission work which have so far kept themselves away from it, so that the mission ceases to be only the work of a small fraction of the church".Also available are the documents for the foundation of a missionary library (1887), the establishment of a scholarship (1887), the "third" association period from Braunschweig to Zurich (1887-1888) and the following annual meetings.The first annual report by Ernst Faber from Shanghai (1887) and the reports on the Faberhospital, on building and property issues, school facilities, on the occupation of the parish office of the German Protestant congregation in Shanghai, Tsientsin, Beijing and Tokyo, on the time of the First World War and National Socialism and on the time after 1945 are particularly interesting material. Finally, there are the minutes of the Tsingtau College of Missionaries, the negotiations on the construction of a student residence in Tokyo (1965), extensive documents on the connections to the Swiss East Asia Mission, to the national associations - with the conference reports of the national associations - and to the national churches.The medical mission in China, which began in 1902, is documented with remarkable hospital reports from Kaumi, the Faber Hospital, Tsining and Tsingtau (wish hospital), as well as more recent material on contacts with Japanese in Germany. Again and again financial, asset and property issues in Germany and in Mission, including German-Japanese study projects, are on record, as is the connection to Kyodan, to the Working Communities for World Mission and Ecumenical Mission (e.g. to the Japan Committee of German Missions).Classification Group 3 contains the correspondence with the mission inspectors and missionaries, doctors, nurses and other DOAM staff, arranged in alphabetical order. Of particular interest are the letters of Ernst Faber from Shanghai and Hong Kong from 1884ff. Often the application, employment and mission documents of the mission staff are also available. The numerous activity and situation reports, which were regularly sent to the Heimatleitung, provide interesting insights into the often renouncing and endangered missionary work. In this department the various advertisements, newsletters, pamphlets, travel activities, construction and financial planning, conferences represent a focal point. Some unpublished manuscripts and sermons deserve special attention in addition to the printed material in the archive.in classification group 2 materials on the mission locations and stations have been handed down. Documents about the German Protestant congregation in Shanghai (1886ff.) together with its statutes, about the German Protestant congregation in Tokyo (1884ff.) together with statutes, church building, German and theological school (also in Yokohama), about the Tokyo station, the new building of a student dormitory in Tokyo are available as well as materials about Tsingtau with the Faberhospital, the school and the reports about the political unrest there (1927ff.).), the Kyoto station with the preaching stations Osaka and Suzuki, the prisoner of war chaplaincy during and after the First World War, the fire of the German Protestant Church in connection with the great earthquake of 1923, as well as the Kiautschoumission, the Fukuoka House and the Tomizaka Seminar House. Often the personnel documents of the missionaries are also available again or supplement the corresponding documents of Group 2, so that the files of Divisions 2 and 3 are to be consulted for all personnel questions.The extensive Group 4 comprises all accounting, cash and property documents of the East Asia Mission. The first account books date from the years 1889ff. Invoicing documents, e.g. of the station cash registers, can also be found in group 3. the group V mentioned by Wolfang Eger at this point (photos, clichés, glass slides) has meanwhile been divided and assigned to other stocks (180.06., 180.07.). Group VI (books, periodicals, printed publications), which was created in the first indexing phase, was formed to 180.08..

Contains among other things: Notes to letter of Rev. Anderson, Tanganyika of 17.1.1952; final report on the former property of the Berlin Mission Society in Tanganyika, 14.10.1952; movable and immovable property in East Africa; land ownership in East Africa, copy of 20.10.1930

History of the Inventory Designer: The "Reichsstelle für Garten- und Weinbauerzeugnisse" (Reichsstelle) was established on 01 November 1936. The legal basis for the establishment was the Act on the Sale of Horticultural and Viticultural Products of 30 September 1936 (RGBL. I p. 854). The Reich Office carried out a state economic activity. Its main task was to monitor and direct the import of the products farmed, in terms of quantity, place and time, in accordance with the requirements of the internal market and, at the same time, to guide the pricing of these products in such a way as to avoid, as far as possible, disturbances resulting from the difference between world prices and domestic prices. The Reich Office was thus also involved in the internal market equalization process and in stock management. They were the only means by which horticultural and wine-growing products imported from a customs territory or a customs exclusion area could be placed on the market in the customs territory. All horticultural and wine-growing products to be imported from a customs foreign country or from a customs exclusion area which were subject to the Act on the Trade in Horticultural and Wine-growing Products of 30 September 1936 were therefore to be offered for sale to the Reich Agency. The takeover by the Reich Office was effected by means of a takeover certificate, the issuance of which the importer applied for from the Reich Office. The Reich agency was not obliged to take over the offered horticultural and wine-growing products. The import of the goods could therefore be stopped at any time. The horticultural and wine-growing products placed on the domestic market by the domestic producer were not subject to the restrictions of the Horticultural and Wine-growing Products Trade Act in view of the market organisation implemented for them. Only the products imported from a customs foreign country or a customs exclusion area were managed by the Reich Office. Its scope resulted from Article III of the seventh Regulation implementing and supplementing the Law on the marketing of horticultural and wine-growing products of 7 June 1940 (RGBl. I p. 862). The Imperial Agency mainly imported products from the following countries: - European countries of origin: Baltic States, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Spain, Hungary and Portugal. - Non-European countries of origin: Afghanistan, Egypt, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, India, Iran, Cameroon, Canada, Mexico, Palestine, Somalia, South African Union, Syria, Turkey, USA, West Indies and Cameroon. Imported products have been grouped into the following product groups: - Vegetables, fruit, tropical fruits, potatoes, vegetable seeds, flower seeds, tobacco seeds, caraway seeds, azaleas, cut flowers and reindeer lichen. The Reich Office was divided into main departments, departments and subject areas. The division into departments and their subdivision into subject areas resulted from the business allocation plan. The "Überwachungsstelle für Gartenbau-Erzeugnisse, Getränke und sonstige Lebensmittel" (Überwachungsstelle), which was established on 24 September 1934 (Deutscher Reichs- und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1934 No. 209), was merged with the Reichsstelle to form the "Reichsstelle für Garten- und Weinbauerzeugnisse als Überwachungsstelle" (Reichsstelle as Überwachungsstelle) by ordinance of 6 December 1938 (Deutscher Reichs- und Preußischer Staatsanzeiger 1938 No. 291). The merger brought together, as far as possible, bodies of the same or a similar nature from the two services, such as money, assets, staff and materials management, registers, the law firm, the post office and the branches located in the same place. The former Main Department III of the Reich Office and the country groups I - VI of the Surveillance Office were also merged, so that the applications for the issue of foreign exchange certificates and takeover certificates could be dealt with in one operation. The Reich Office as a supervisory office was now divided into 5 main departments, 6 departments, 21 subdivisions and 15 subject areas. The range of tasks of the Reich Office as such, however, remained unchanged in principle. In addition, the tasks of the supervisory authority remained essentially unchanged, namely the examination of applications for foreign exchange certificates submitted by importers from a formal and economic point of view, in particular in accordance with the rules on foreign exchange control, the import of vegetables, fruit, juices, wines, tea and live plants, and their allocation. It also issued foreign exchange certificates applied for and checked that the importers used the certificates issued in due time and in the proper manner. The tasks of the Reich Office as a supervisory authority were thus also determined by the Foreign Exchange Control Act. Pursuant to § 2 (2) of this Act, in addition to the foreign exchange offices, the monitoring offices also took their measures and made their decisions in accordance with guidelines drawn up by the Reich Office for Foreign Exchange Management in agreement with the Reich Minister for Economic Affairs and the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture. These directives delimited the tasks of the supervisory authorities in that they supervised the import and payment of goods and controlled purchase prices. They also had to take measures in the field of internal management (e.g. processing and export bans). The Reich Office as well as the Surveillance Office were corporations under public law, i.e. legal entities of their own, which financed themselves and were not maintained from Reich funds. They were subject to the supervision of the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture. The Reichstelle, as the supervisory authority, also had to obtain approval for the scale of fees from this authority. Examples of chargeable events were the issue of foreign exchange certificates and the issue of expert opinions on private settlement transactions. However, the monitoring agency carried out book and company audits free of charge, unless the audit revealed that a company had violated official orders. After the outbreak of the war, the Reich Office was confronted with new tasks as a supervisory office with regard to the procurement of goods. All enemy states and a large part of the neutral states failed as suppliers, while the demand for food imports of all kinds grew steadily. As a result, prices abroad also rose sharply, so that the Reich Office's previous task of raising foreign prices to the German price level by means of differential amounts became illusory and was finally reversed in the opposite direction, namely that of reducing the price of imported goods. The other task, the territorial control of the import of goods, had already been transferred to a greater extent to the main associations (e.g.: Main Association of the German Horticultural Industry) at the outbreak of the war, so that only the area of responsibility of the supervisory authority remained. The Reich office as such was therefore closed at the beginning of July 1943. In the course of the effects of the war, the surveillance agency took on ever greater dimensions as the difficulties in procuring goods grew. After the end of the war, the assets of the Reichsstelle were liquidated by the Allies. The storage and import point in Hamburg was authorized by § 5 No. 2 of the Ordinance of the Central Office for Food and Agriculture of 17 August 1946 (Official Gazette for Food and Agriculture No. 2 of 24 August 1946) and by decree of the Food and Agriculture Council in Stuttgart of 04 July 1946 to liquidate the assets of the Reich Office, insofar as they were located in the American and British occupation zone. The branch office in Bavaria was handled by the office of the trade associations. A trustee was appointed to carry out the liquidation, who received his activity permit from the competent British supervisory authority and headed the 'Liquidation Office of the Reich Office for Horticultural and Viticultural Products as a Supervisory Office' in Berlin and the 'Liquidation Office of the Main Association of the German Horticultural Industry and Reich Office for Horticultural and Viticultural Products as a Supervisory Office - Munich Branch'. The final dispute over the assets of the former Reich offices within the four occupation zones was reserved for the decision of the Allied Control Council. Inventory description: Inventory description The files of the Reich Office for Horticultural and Viticultural Products were transferred to the Federal Archives in Koblenz in 1974 from the Oberfinanzdirektion Berlin, which was responsible for handling the Reich's food supply. The 248 files have a term from 1930 to 1973, whereby the mass of the files originated between 1936 and 1945. The documents contain above all documents which have arisen as a result of the Reich Office's business relations with the importers: agreements on quantities and prices for various products, currency certificates and takeover certificates, notes on business trips and company audits. The inventory can also be used to a limited extent as a substitute for the insufficient inventory of inventory R 3601 (Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture) due to war damage. No cassations were made. A file plan for the Reich Office did not exist. There was also no registry in the Reich office. The order of the files and their filing was carried out by the employees of the Reich Office according to their respective tasks and priorities. The rules of procedure are therefore partly unconventional and unsystematic. Consequently, there are documents in the files with different thematic classifications. Only an order according to individual countries is recognizable. The classification in the finding aid is based on this order by country. Only a few files were prearchived with titles. The file titles were therefore formed according to the predominant factual content of the file. The units of description were, if necessary, indexed more deeply by means of contained annotations. Characterisation of content: The main focus of the text is on documents relating to the business activities of the Reich Office, in particular ministerial decrees and materials for foreign trade with European and non-European countries: BArch, R 15-IV/...