GRETE HEINZ

A Case Study in Microfilming Documents

The NSJ:?AP Hauptarchiv

In 1959 the Hoover Institution microfilmed approximately one hundred sixty shelf feet of captured documents which constituted the so-called Hauptarchiv of the German National Socialist Party. At the time, these documents reposed in the Berlin Document Center. The experi­ ences of the staff in carrying forward this profect, as well as in pre­ paring a published guide to the archive, are described. The organiza­ tion and historical development of the archive are outlined, and its value to scholarship is delineated.

OvER THE YEARS, the Hoover Institu­ Document Center, administered by the tion has devoted much effort to rescuing U.S. Department of State, might find historically significant archival material itself in an exposed position. The Docu­ from dispersal or obliteration, and suc­ ment Center in Berlin had been estab­ cess has often hinged on timely action lished by the U.S. Army at the close of in far-off places. The Hoover Institution World War II as a repository for those has striven, at the same time, to turn captured German documents which fo­ over this raw material to the interna­ cused on the National Socialist Party tional community of scholars with a min­ ( Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbei­ imum of delay and in a format which terpartei, or NSDAP) and which might realistically takes into account the re­ have to be requisitioned for the war quirements of research. It is not surpris­ trials and denazification proceedings. It ing that these two objectives are only was becoming increasingly clear that partially compatible in such "rescue these documents were valuable not only operations" which, by their very nature, for such short-range political purposes preclude elaborate preliminary planning but also for the work of historians and and close supervision in the acquisition social scientists. Under these circum­ of the material. The microfilming of Col­ stances, the Hoover Institution was en­ lection NSDAP Hauptarchiv provides a couraged by the State Department as case in point and illustrates an attempt well as by individual scholars to help to reconcile this double mission. save the documents for research and In the spring of 1958 the danger strengthen its existing collections on Na­ loomed large that Berlin might again be tional Socialism in the process. Since cut off from the west and that the Berlin the originals could not be transferred (their return to the German Federal Dr. Heinz is on the staff of the Hoover Republic in the coming years had been Institution at Stanford University. &uaranteed), the only alternative was I 461 468 1 College & Research Libraries • November, 1965 to raise funds for microfilming portions ing was restricted to that of the camera of the Berlin Document Center's collec­ process itself. tions.1 Inasmuch as funds were limited and An on-the-spot inspection by a staff the primary objective was to complete memher led to the decision to film the the project, sometimes convenience of entity known as Collection NSDAP library use took second place. The main Hauptarchiv. Although, on cursory ex­ economy measure was filming by flow­ amination, not all the material appeared camera, which automatically reproduces of equal historical value, the desire to both sides of the page and therefore preserve the coherence of the collection, needs little manual assistance. There combined with the difficulty and expense were several unfortunate consequences: of making a selection at a distance of well over half the back pages remained six thousand miles, finally weighed the blank, thus cutting down the size of the scales in favor of unselective microfilm­ frames unnecessarily ( and forcing the ing. user to invert the frame when it was not The systematic microfilming of an blank). At the same time, the How-cam­ archive covering approximately one hun­ era made no allowance for counting dred sixty shelf feet and consisting of frame numbers. Worst of all, it could extremely heterogeneous material that not handle oversized or bound material ranged from stickers and postcards scattered through the folders. Whenever through leaflets, newspaper clippings, this type of material was found, it had correspondence, and pamphlets to bound to be removed from its proper sequence files and whole newspapers presented and filmed at the end by a flat-bed cam­ serious technical problems. However, era, with the result that a large number since the material was divided into 1,421 of folders were split up on separate ·reels numbered folders, grouped into twenty­ of microfilm. This splitting-up process nine numbered topics, with titles in­ was aggravated by the wholly unwar­ scribed on each folder, the sequence to ranted economy measure on the part of be followed in the filming was self-evi­ the German microfilm company of con­ dent. Heedful of eventual library use, tinuing the filming to the very end of the Hoover Institution insisted that all the roll rather than making a break precautions be taken to ensure that the after the last complete folder. From the clear labeling carry over to the film. point of view of preservation, these un­ The burden of all the technical prepara­ welcome features were of small conse­ tion (which included the time-consum­ quence, and the serious stumbling blocks ing task of transcribing the titles from created for the eventual user were diffi­ the unfilmable folder covers to filmable cult to gauge during the execution of little slips) was generously . carried by the project. the personnel of the Berlin Document After several months of correspon­ Center. As a result, the cost of the film- dence and long-distance instructions, mi­

1 In effect, the Hoover Institution's microtilming crofilming actually began in early 1959, project served as a sort of pilot operation ; in sub­ and by the end of that year the !,421 sequent years, many of the Berlin Document Cen­ ter's other collections were also filmed, notably by folders had been filmed. To its dismay, the National Archives. As of now, the only original the Berlin Document Center then dis­ documents retained by the Berlin Document Cen­ ter are those making up its vast "Biographic Col­ covered that a block of nearly five hun­ lection" ; the rest have been turned over to the dred folders (labeled Folders 1426- German government. A positive copy of the entire microfilm of Collection NSDAP Hauptarchiv was 1923) had been separated from Collec­ given to the State Department, which deposited it tion NSDAP Hauptarchiv some years at the National Archives. The Hoover Institution also microfilmed the Rimmler Collection and se­ before it was shown to the Hoover In­ lected parts of the Streicher Collection at the Berlin Document Center, though these are not directly re­ stitution's representative, although there lated to Col1ection NSDAP Hauptarchiv. was no doubt that it had once formed A Case Study in Microfilming Documents I 469

part of the collection. By good fortune, tion of documents by means of an index the Hoover Institution was able to raise to persons and organizations. At the sufficient funds for the additional film­ same time the most misleading folder ing, which in the end nearly doubled titles could be rectified, supplementary the size of the original operation. This information as to contents given, and material, which had not been subjected individual items of particular interest to even the most superficial evaluation to which the titles made no allusion by the Hoover Institution, proved to be highlighted. by far the most significant documenta­ Even the completion of this Guide, tion. based on the scanning of the nearly two It was only after the 134 reels of thousand folders, postponed unduly microfilm were safely in the custody of making the microfilms accessible to re­ the Hoover Institution and the collec­ search. However, the monumental task tion could be scrutinized as an entity of analyzing two hundred forty thousand that the collection's spurious coherence frames and describing the heterogeneous became obvious. The suspicion that it contents assembled in many of the fold­ had not survived intact from the days ers could not even be considered, given before German defeat was confirmed by the limitations of time and personnel. the Berlin Document Center, which What is more, it became clear that only made it clear that it had received the the closest scrutiny of the entire collec­ . material in such a state of disarray that tion could alert the analyzer to the rele­ a new organization had to be imposed vance of seemingly trivial pieces of on it by the Center's personnel a few documentation and the importance of years after the end of the war. In the obscure figures. In truth·, since folders light of this information, it was obvious and topical groupings could not be re­ that the Berlin Document Center's label­ lied upon to reflect the intentions of the ing might prove inadequate from the original collector, a thorough exploita­ point of view of research. tion of the collection would have The decision was made to compile a amounted to cataloging informally tens guide to the collection that would allevi­ of thousands of individual items, the ate the most serious shortcomings of equivalent of a small library. Only in the microfilms for scholarly purposes. this manner could individual items, The Guide2 has sought to accomplish which had been cast adrift from their this objective in several ways. The tech­ mooring and could no longer be fitted nical difficulties presented by the micro­ back in their proper place on the micro­ films were remedied by pinpointing the film, be brought to the attention of the location of the ·folders scattered on the researcher. To take but one more light­ different reels. The absence of frame hearted example, it is unlikely that any­ numbers was compensated by a rough one interested in Hitler or the Hitler count of frames per folder, a most essen­ Putsch would consult the "Miscellane­ tial step since folders varied widely in ous" folder headed "Georg Reindl," and length (from one to over a thousand yet he would find there a fascinating pages) and folder titles gave no clue document, the bill of fare for Hitler's how much material to expect. Beyond substantial breakfast (two eggs, one tea, supplying this purely technical informa­ two slices of bread, and a liver sausage, tion, the Guide gave an opportunity to with a glass of mulled wine) on the indicate major cross-references to per­ very morning of the Hitler Putsch, as sons or events and to simplify the loca- well as bills for his followers' revelry on

2 NSDA P Hauptarchiv: Guide to the Hoov er Insti­ the previous night. These originals had tution Microfilm Collection, compiled by Grete Heinz been preserved by Georg Reindl, the and Agnes F. Peterson ([Hoover Institution Biblio­ graphical Series, XVII] Stanford, Calif.: 1964) . 187p. brother of the owner of the famous 470 1 College & Research Libraries • November, 1965

Buergerbraeukeller, and brought to the Hauptarchiv can be quickly outlined. Hauptarchiv in 1937; on the strength of From its founding in February 1920 un­ this donation, Reindl won a recommen­ til Hitler's seizure of power, the National dation as manager of a government can­ Socialist Party had no formal archival teen. repository. For some years in the 1920's To a greater or lesser extent, these the party maintained a clipping archive are problems facing all persons and from the National Socialist press and organizations presently opening up to from that of political opponents. In 1928 research the vast body of captured Ger­ the party purchased the nationalist-ori­ man documents and other documenta­ ented Rehse Archive on contemporary tion thrown into the public domain history. In the last years of the Weimar through the accidents of history. Various Republic, at the height of the parlia­ intermediary solutions, from accurate mentary struggle for power, party head­ cataloging to no identification at all, are quarters organized a centralized archive being tried out. Only a coordinated ef­ for supplying up-to-date information on fort between librarians and individual National Socialist views and those of scholars subjecting small portions of competing parties and for filing sample these collections to informed and per­ copies of political leaflets. Less than a ceptive scrutiny can, however, in the year after Hitler's consolidation in pow­ course of time, produce the kind of iden­ er, in January 1934, an archive with a tification which will make the docu­ less functional and longer-range objec­ ments genuinely useful and accessible. tive was founded at the initiative of one Even then, the structural rigidity of of the official propaganda agencies, the microfilms will prevent correction of Reichsschulungsamt, from whose staff organizational flaws (misplacement or the archive's first director, Dr. Erich improper grouping of items) in archival U etrecht, was selected. First located in material in the light of later knowledge, Berlin, it was moved in October 1934 and the researcher cannot be spared the to permanent quarters in Munich. In labor of reassembling bits of documen­ 1935 it was made directly responsible to tation scattered over various microfihns. Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy, and giv­ Since there was no possibility of ac­ en a vague authority over the Rehse Ar­ curately identifying the contents of the chive (which, however, retained au­ entire collection, an attempt was made, tonomy to the end of the Third finally, by the compilers of the Guide to Reich). In 1939 it was formally given reconstruct how far the microfilms cor­ jurisdiction over all material pertinent responded to a pre-existing set of docu­ to the history of the NSDAP and be­ ments and to retrace the steps whereby came the main administration of all Collection NSDAP Hauptarchiv evolved party archives as well a_s the Fuehrer's to its final shape at the Berlin Docu­ personal archive. ment Center. The major pieces of the Although the archive proper consti­ puzzle could be fitted together with the tuted the core of the NSDAP Haupt­ help of the fragmentary administrative archiv, it operated as a research library, file of the NSDAP Hauptarchiv,3 which collecting all books relating to National was microfilmed as the concluding fold­ Socialism, German and foreign news­ er of the collection ( and whose very papers and periodicals, and government existence as a result did not become documents. It provided reference ser­ known at the Hoover Institution until vices to party leaders and staged special two years after the project's approval). pictorial exhibits on Bolshevism, the The eleven-year history of the NSDAP Jews, and phases of the history of the 3 Folder 1923 I and II of Collection NSDAP National Socialist movement. Since the Hauptarchiv. key personnel of the Hauptarchiv quali- A Case Study in Microfilming Documents 1 471 fled more by faithful party service than fused and conflicting. The one person by technical competence (it numbered who might have possessed accurate in­ no trained archivist or librarian among formation on the contents of the evacua­ its staff), problems of sorting and cata­ tion depots, namely the archival custodi­ loging continued to plague the organiza­ an Rolf Heine, had volunteered for mili­ tion and were never satisfactorily re­ tary duty and was killed in action in solved. the last days of the war. According to In the fall of 1943 the Hauptarchiv's Dr. Bruegmann, little was willfully de­ second and last director, Arnold Brueg­ stroyed, but some valuable individual mann, supervised the partial evacuation items were removed. One of these, the of the archive from bomb-scarred Mu­ Bormann notes on Hitler's table talks, nich. (The wisdom of the decision was was certainly sold privately to a pub­ confirmed in January 1945 when the di­ lisher and emerged in book form. Others rector had to report to his superior, Hit­ may have remained in private hands, for ler's deputy Martin Bormann, that the instance the file on the generals' revolt of Munich building had burned to the July 1944, which was received at Neu­ ground, that he had no function left, and markt-St. Veit shortly after the event that he therefore asked to be transferred and carefully itemized by Rolf Heine. to military duty.) Evacuation depots were Of the documents specifically listed in chosen in three small Bavarian Towns. A the Hauptarchiv's administrative files steel vault in Passau served to protect a and in the main accession book kept few treasured pieces. A courthouse and at Neumarkt-St. Veit from August 1944 a farm in Neumarkt-St. Veit were cho­ to March 1945, some are definitely not sen for the bulk of the archive proper, in the microfilms.4 The Hoover Institu­ while voluminous periodical and news­ tion is still exploring the possibility that paper files went to Lenggries. Records substantial sets of documents from the in the main accession book kept by the Hauptarchiv might unwittingly have archival custodian in Neumarkt-St. Veit been incorporated in other collections stop in March 1945; new items had been of captured German documents or local added to the collections up to that mo­ German and Austrian libraries.5 At the ment. present time, one can state only that the For the final chapter in the story of microfilms at the Hoover Institution are the Hauptarchiv, there are two sources the collection's ultimate repository, now of information: a report drawn up in that the originals have been turned over 1951 by Dr. Bruegmann and an investi­ 4 The files of the Wehrpolitisches Amt, the Reichs­ rechtsamt, and the N.S. Reichstagsfraktion are cer­ gation carried out in 1953 by Dr. Anton tainly missing. So are the sizable collections of leaf­ Hoch, archivist of the Institut fuer Zeit­ lets, posters, postcards ,and records stored at Neu­ markt-St. Veit, which complemented the other his­ geschichte in Munich, at the request of torical documents. A close examination of the Haupt­ the Berlin Document Center. Both of archiv's lists on Marxist and leftist parties reveals that a good part of this material has gone astray. these lead to the conclusion that nothing Other large files not directly related to the Haupt­ remained of the Hauptarchiv's organized archiv's main collecting efforts, such as the files of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund and collections except what was found in the those of the Reichs-Fluechtlings-Hilfswerk and of Passau and Neumarkt-St. Veit depots the underground Austrian NSDAP Archive, suffered a similar fate. by the Fourteenth Armored Division of 5 Some Hauptarchiv documents have indeed turned the U.S. Army in April and brought up in the Library of Congress's Rehse Archive col­ 1945 lection, a natural confusion, since both the Rehse to Berlin at the end of the year. The Archive and the Hauptarchiv were officially party archives. The most important is the main accession original personnel had rapidly dispersed, book (or "Bestandbuch") mentioned above. It is apparently preferring to cut loose from quite possible that some material found its way into other National Socialist collections at the Berlin such incriminating associations; and re­ Document Center, notably the so-called Schumacher ports from available staff members on material, the collections of the Reichsorganisations­ leiter and the Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP, the final fate of the archive were con- and the Streicher files. 472 1 College & Research Libraries • November, 1965 ' to the Bundes Archiv of the Federal ever, be reconstructed to some extent on Republic in Coblenz and the Bavarian the basis of the administrative files and State Archive in Munich, where they of the filmed material itself. may well in the course of time be fitted Dr. U etrecht, the first director of the into an entirely different pattern.6 Hauptarchiv, expressed its orientation In view of the short life span of quite emphatically: "The spotlight of the NSDAP Hauptarchiv and the period of collecting activity is on National Social­ chaos and confusion to which the ma­ ism: antecedents, founding, early days, terial was subjected between its removal days of struggle ( election campaigns, from Munich and its reorganization at court proceedings, organizations, out­ the Berlin Document Center, it is small lawings, seizure of power), history of wonder that there emerged no exact cor­ the symbols, etc.; records of the Gau, respondence between the files and doc­ district, and local party organizations; uments of the Hauptarchiv and the Ber­ opposition movements and parties," and lin Document Center's 1923 folders. Nev­ the ultimate goal of making the Haupt­ ertheless, an intensive study of all avail­ archiv "the central repository of the able sources of information leads to the written and documentary material of the conclusion that the individual docu­ NSDAP and its subdivisions, the source ments and files considered prize pos­ and yardstick of Germany's future his­ sessions by the Hauptarchiv itself were toriography." 7 preserved, although generally not under As to the organizational scheme of the headings and groupings originally the archive proper, the various surveys foreseen. From another angle, Collection and lists compiled for administrative NSDAP Hauptarchiv contains much di­ purposes in 1942 and 1943, before and rect evidence of having been gathered after evacuation, make it fairly clear by the staff of the Hauptarchiv; when that a consistent over-all pattern had such evidence is lacking, there is usually not as yet been chosen. The party his­ strong reason to believe that the material tory in its narrowest sense was chrono­ fitted into the -over-all collection pattern. logically divided into early days, the The reorganization of the material at Hitler Putsch, the leaderless period, and the Berlin Document Center into twen­ the years of construction. There was the ty-nine subject groupings (Folders topical arrangement of material on Hit­ 1-1421, Folders 1422-1425 non-existent) ler, the "Gau" organizations and other and eight government agencies, plus the party subdivisions, the nationalist move­ Hauptarchiv's own files (Folders 1426- ments, leftist political parties, and im­ portant personalities. Lastly, grouping 1923) was inevitably carried over into by provenance was applied to archives the microfilms. Unfortunately this new taken over as separate entities; to large arrangement obscures the original con­ sets of papers donated by individuals tours of the Hauptarchiv and makes it ( among the most important are those rather difficult to ascertain the areas ·· of of Anton Drexler, Dietrich Eckart. Al­ concentration and the scope of the his: fred Brunner, Abbot Schachleiter,. and torical archive proper. These can, how- Houston Stewart Chamberlain); and to 6 The Bundes Archiv presently stores the folders the files of certain defunct party organi­ in its possession (Folders 1-1421, 1921-1923) as Col­ lection NS 26 with the exception of the material zations, such as the Nationalsozialistische on the Deutsche Demokratische Partei, which bas Studentenbund, the N ationalsozialis­ been integrated with other of this party's material at the Bundes Archiv. The Bayerisches Hauptstaats­ tische Reichstagsfraktion, the Wehr­ arcbiv in Munich bas thus far left intact Folders politisches Amt, and the Reichsrecht- 1426-1920, which it received in 1961, and has stored them as a unit under "Sonderabgaben." · 7 Folder 1923 I. A Case Study in Microfilming D~cuments 1 473

samt. 8 Above all, the large body of files containing the first fifty-five thousand from the various police and judicial names) as it was after 1945 to have been agencies was stored as a unit. 9 an early anti-Nazi. There are the records It must be stressed that the Haupt­ of the founding of party organizations archiv made no concerted effort to pre­ in Munich and elsewhere;11 the private serve the records of the party as a ruling papers of early party leaders;12 Hitler's elite in a totalitarian state. Character­ personal memorabilia;13 and the docu­ istically, the archival custodian con­ ments connected with the November cludes his 1942 survey of documents for 1923 upnsmg, the so-called Hitler the new director with the remark: Putsch, 14 which supplied the party with "There is very little material on the its martyrs-the dead, wounded, and im­ 'Reichsleiter', (The Third Reich's lead­ prisoned. The story is also told in terms ing figures, aside from Hitler himself) . of National Socialism's intellectual fore­ It is probably no accident that Munich, bears, the burgeoning racist and na­ which held such close ties to the party's tionalist sects of prewar days, through past, was chosen as the permanent head­ 11 These cover the complete minutes of the two quarters in preference to the current organizations which were the immediate predecessors center of power in Berlin. Thus it is not of the NSDAP, namely the Freier Politischer Arbeits­ zirkel, founded in the closing days of World War I, surprising that the archive's most ir­ and the Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, both chaired by replaceable documents, the very ones Anton Drexler, as well as the files of the closely related Deutschsozialistische Partei under the lead­ which found their way to the Berlin ership of Alfred Brunner. Reports on Hitler's first emergence in the party, elaboration of the party Document Center, were those that re­ program, and the first membership lists fill in the constructed the image of the party as details of the NSDAP's beginnings. 12 Besides the papers of Dietrich Eckart, Anton a persecuted sect. Drexler, and Alfred Brunner, there are contributions The story of this sect's prophets, its from lesser party luminaries like Lauboeck (Hitler's first private secretary) and the early party secre­ savior, its first apostles and martyrs, its taries and treasurers Wiegand, Schuessler, Lotter, and small band of faithful, as well as the Riedl. From other parts of Germany, significant pa­ pers were turned over by Ludolf Haase, Adolf Gim­ origins of its sacred doctrine, is vividly bel, and Hermann Fobke. Not a single document told and thoroughly documented. There stems from Rimmler or Rosenberg, and the personal items turned over by Goering and Goebbels are of are the personal recollections of the "old slight interest. guard";10 it was then as much a matter 13 The documentation on Hitler again emphasizes the early days-family Schicklgruber's genealogy and of pride to have been one of the found­ private papers, records of Hitler's childhood and school days, his military records, his water colors ing members (witness the furor aroused (all his originals were tracked down and collected by the disappearance of the card file by the Hauptarchiv and are reproduced on micro­ film). Hitler's political career is reflected in his s These last three files, as mentioned above, are well-known letter on the Jewish question (1919), not microfilmed in Collection NSDAP Hauptarchiv, notes and memoranda on various themes for his although they were evacuated to Neumarkt-St. Veit. early speeches, the complete text of a number of 9 These government files were so successfully iso­ his speeches, beginning with December 1919, docu­ lated from the rest of the collections that they nearly ments on his Landsberg prison days, and his 1932 missed being filmed as part of Collection NSDAP appointment as a Braunschweig official which as­ Hauptarchiv, since they constituted the block of fold­ sured his German citizenship. Of course the gov­ ers misplaced by the Berlin Document Center. In­ ernment files throw a great deal of light on Hitler's asmuch as the Hauptarchiv gave no guidance at all political career, but the Hauptarchiv's source ma­ how to divide them chronologically or topically, they terial adds somewhat to this picture. were simply grouped by provenance at the Berlin 14 In addition to the court records and lists of Document Center. The separation of these docu­ wounded and injured, there are the extensive per­ ments from the rest of the material has now been sonal recollections solicited or accidentally acquired formalized except on the microfilm : the Bavarian by the Hauptarchiv (as in the case of Mr. Reindl State Archive has been given custody of the files or the widow of Max von Scheubner-Richter, one of from the various Bavarian government agencies. the Putsch victims). The staff of the Hauptarchiv 1o Specifically, these "memories of fighting days" undertook some research of its own on the subject ; were solicited by the Hauptarchiv for the Munich there is also the inside account of Professor Georg revolution, April 1919, for participation in the Hitler Fuchs, then a high-ranking Bavarian official who Putsch, and for a personal history of political ac­ collaborated with Frick and Poehner. The papers of tivities from members of the different Gau (includ­ NSDAP lawyers Schramm and Roder are of special ing the Austrian) organizations. There are hun­ interest. Here again, the government files give a dreds of these reports from obscure party members. vast amount of additional information. 474 1 College & Research Libraries • November~ 1965 the personal papers of their spokesmen, are the tactics used to gain power20 in which were then still extant.15 the face of harassments from bourgeois There also emerges however, the more and leftist political opponents21 glossed earthy image of a political minority, over. with its vigorous and ramified grass­ As a link between these two levels roots organizations, 16 its many-headed there runs the anti-Semitic leitmotif.22 press, 17 its collisions with an antago­ It serves as a cornerstone of the National nistic and repressive government "sys­ Socialist articles of faith inherited from tem."18 No veil is drawn over internal nationalist predecessors and as a tactical rifts and struggles during the time of weapon in the Bavarian political arena. Hitler's imprisonment and the existence The same applies to a lesser extent to of opposition groups in later years, 19 nor the themes of anti-Communism and the

1 5 The Hauptarchiv's collection on the so-called rejection of World War I defeat, which "Voelkische Bewegung" which covers all these are reiterated on both the doctrinal and groups is systematically listed in the administra­ 2 tive files, but was dispersed at the Berlin Document the practical politicallevel. 3 Center. The most important files for the late nine­ teenth and early twentieth century are those of the by Stennes and Strasser are given some attention. Guido von List Gesellschaft, the Reichshammerbund The 1934 Roehm revolt, on which the Hauptarchiv and Germanenbund, and the Deutschvoelkischer received important documentation, is the only ma­ Schriftsteller Verband; for the Austrian nationalist terial on internal party opposition during the Third movement, the Ritter von Schonerer papers are of Reich. value. For the period of postwar turmoil in Bavaria, 20 The correspondence of the central party head­ there are the Deutsch-voelkischer Schutz- und Trutz­ quarters with parliamentary candidates is very ex­ bund and the Thule Gesellschaft, which was so inti­ tensive, as is election material of all sorts issued by mately tied to the NSDAP's own origins. Of equal the Reichspropagandaleitung. The leaflet and poster interest are the files of the paramilitary Bavarian collection is supplemented, more or less by chance, groups, such as Bund Oberland Freikorps Rossbach, by the complete files of the Munich Police's press Organisation Escherich, and other citizen's militias. section, which had to censor all political items dis­ It is probable that the complete files of the central tributed in Munich. Clashes with Communists and German veterans' organization, the Kyffhaeuser Bund, the Socialists' paramilitary Reichsbanner are amply were acquired by the Hauptarchiv because of its documented in the police and court records. part-military, part-political role. 21 Detailed lists of material from these parties are 16 The original documents on early membership to be found in Folder 1923 II. As mentioned earlier, (such as the handwritten list of ten thousand mem­ some of the most interesting documents from the bers enrolled in Germany in the last months before list on the Communist and Socialist parties are not the Hitler Putsch) and on the organizational struc­ included in the microfilmed collection. The Munich ture and finances of the party's Gau, district, and Police also provides a great deal of information on local groups were carefully preserved by the Haupt­ Communist tactics and on the organization of the archiv. Aside from Munich and its suburbs, there Bavarian Socialist Party (and the associated Reichs­ is valuable material on the Berlin, Hannover, and banner). The complete archive of the Deutsche Kiel organizations, as well as sets of complete party Demokratische Partei (known as Deutsche Staats­ files (those of the little Bavarian town of Otto­ partei after October 1930) from its founding in brunn span 1925-1938 and those of Gau Ostmark December 1918 to its dissolution May 1933, which 1924-1931). The major historical files of the Nazi the Hauptarchiv had taken over, does appear in its subdivisions ("Gliederungen" and "angeschlossene entirety on the microfilm. Verbaende") are those of the Hitler Youth, the SA, 22 No systematic collection on the Jewish ques­ and the Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisa­ tion was undertaken by the Hauptarchiv, although tion. The SS is not covered in any detail. The gov­ it staged an exhibit on the subject in 1939. Material ernment files supply considerable additional informa­ ranges from anti-Semitic leaflets, tracts, and philo­ tion on all these organizations, including the SS, sophical treatises to lawsuits involving Jews and much of it primary source· material confiscated from party members. It even includes historical docu­ the organizations' headquarters in Bavarian locali­ ments going back to the eighteenth century on the ties. position of Jews in Poland, Bohemia, and Austria. 17 In 1937 the Hauptarchiv made a survey of the Closely related to the Jews as ideological targets National Socialist press and received basic historical were the Freemasons, on whom the Hauptarchiv also information on over 200 Nazi newspapers. collected incriminating documentation. 23 18 The Hauptarchiv appealed to party members Much of the historical nineteenth-century docu­ and government agencies to turn over police and mentation on Communism was collected from this court records on these clashes and collected docu­ doctrinal point of view. One unexpected item is a mentation on party demonstrations, defiances of vari­ set of Czarist police records on 67 Communist agents ous government regulations, and so on. abroad (among them figures like Lenin, Trotsky and 19 For the leaderless period, the documents on the Jogiches). The material on the Munich Raeterepublik Deutsche Freiheitsbewegung, the Grossdeutsche V olks­ must also be viewed as anti-Communist ammuni­ gemeinschaft, the N.S. Freiheitsbewegung, and the tion. Concern regarding the responsibility for World Voelkische Block are the most revealing. The court War I defeat is reflected in the Cossman-Gruber records of the trial of Roehm, Ludendorff, and other trial documentation, which marshals all the "stab­ nationalist leaders (the 1924 Frontbann trial) com­ in-the-back" arguments. Interest in the Ruhr occu­ plement these documents. For the last years of the pation stems from this same rejection of the Ver­ Weimar Republic the internal opposition groups lec.J sailles treaty. A Case Study in Microfilming Documents I 475

The Hauptarchiv relied on its official ty's paramilitary organizations, particu­ jurisdiction over historical documenta­ larly the SA and the Hitler Youth, which tion on the NSDAP to lay claim to im­ yields documentation through raids on portant government records on National the headquarters of these organizations Socialism and related nationalist move­ and subsequent confiscation of their £les. ments, as well as on the major leftist The records of the Nuremberg police parties. As the self-image delineated are not nearly as complete in coverage above is primarily based on develop­ and concentrate on the political career ments in Bavaria, so the main govern­ of Julius Streicher and his conflicts with ment documents were derived from the law as a result of the "Stuermer's" Bavarian sources: the Munich police inflammatory and libelous texts.25 (after 1933 known as the Bavarian po­ The bound £Ies of the Bavarian Min­ litical police), the Bavarian Ministry of istry of the Interior have a broader the Interior, and the Munich courts. In range, since they deal with the entire volume, the £Ies of the Munich police problem of political control of extremist alone are about equivalent to those on parties by the Bavarian government, the the history of the NSDAP from 1919 to government of other German states, and 1933 from nongovernmental sources. the central German government. Here These government £Ies not only consti­ the focus is on the National Socialist tute the main contemporary ( pre-1933) movement as a whole and Hitler as its documentation24 on the party's history, leader rather than on individual party but act as a fascinating counterpoint to members and local organizations. The the party's self-idealization. most revealing documentation of the In attempting to assess and control Munich tribunal is the complete record the danger of subversion from political for the trial of nationalist leaders ac­ extremists, the Bavarian police agencies cused of continuing Hitler's revolution­ spied on public and closed meetings, ary aims during his imprisonment. Of drew up reports on the general political value for reference purposes is the Mu­ situation and internal party disputes, nich tribunal's registry of political orga­ and kept clipping £Ies on relevant politi­ nizations (down to the quaint Kampf­ cal issues. In connection with the in­ bundvereinigung Muenchner Eierhaend­ numerable acts of rowdyism and vanda­ ler), including the majority of the na­ lism and the frequent clashes between tionalist groups in Bavaria during the National Socialists and members of left­ Weimar Republic. Of more limited in­ ist parties, which characterized the pre­ terest are the court records involving carious democratic regime and blunted National Socialist figures. Smaller police sensibilities towards political acts of vio­ £Ies (Berlin, Wuerttemberg, Braun­ lence in Germany, the police had to schweig) complement the picture from interrogate accused and witnesses, in the government point of view.26 The the process eliciting extensive biographi­ Reich ministries of Justice and of the cal information from these participants. Interior refused to countenance turning This type of information spans the en­ over wholesale their documents to the tire Weimar Republic. For the earlier years, the Hitler Putsch and the ensuing 25 It is conceivable that the Nuremberg Police files are derived from another set of captured German trial provide the focal point. In the later documents, the Streicher Collection at the Berlin period, it is the prosecution of the par- Document Center, now on microfilm at the National Archives, since these files never appear on any of 24 The files were apparently not examined closely, the Hauptarchiv's own lists and bear no evidence nor were they itemized by the Hauptarchiv. It is of having belonged to its collections. therefore likely that the documents have not been 26 These government files were not organized by tampered with and are still in their original, con­ provenance at the Berlin Document Center but fitted temporary shape. into the twenty-nine topics. 476 1 College & Research Libraries • November, 1965

Hauptarchiv, which had to content it­ emphasis, and limitations of Collection self with ascertaining the location of NSDAP Hauptarchiv should serve to police and judicial files relevant to N a­ give some notion of what may be found tiona} Socialist history. in the 134 reels of microfilm now at the The jurisdiction of the Hauptarchiv Hoover Institution. Though originally is no longer paramount once we leave assembled in the interests of future Na­ the clearly delimited period when party tional Socialist historiography, the col­ and state were antagonistic institutions lection in its present form may well and come to the Third Reich, the "years bring fresh insights to the current re­ of construction" (to use the Haupt­ evaluation of German history between archi v' s own term ) . Certain topics are the two wars. Its distinctive contribution of course carried through chronologi­ as a unit lies in the curious juxtaposition cally beyond 1933, but only a few areas of two disparate elements: the contem­ shed light on the party in Hitler Ger­ porary documentary evidence (mainly many: the record of the annual party from government sources ) on the history meetings, held up to 1939,27 correspon­ of National Socialism during the Weimar dence from National Socialists or sympa­ Republic and the vision that the party thizers in other countries, and the rela­ had resurrected, at the height of its tions of the party with the Catholic and triumph, of its own roots, growth, and Protestant churches. For the war years, mission. Incompatible as this self-image there are the reports on the contributions was in many respects with the shocking of various party subdivisions to the war realities of Nazi rule, it goes far in clari­ effort. The best that can be said of the fying the third Reich's characteristic ob­ remainder of the material is that it may sessions and delusions, which sparked its throw some incidental light on condi­ self-destructive dynamism. tions in Germany, but it is too fragmen­ It is hoped that the research to which tary to deserve detailed analysis. Collection NSDAP Hauptarchiv gives This description of the scope, special impetus will vindicate the decision to make it available to the scholarly com­ 'll1 The organizational red tape for the Septem­ ber 1939 party meeting is as fully documented as for munity and will in turn uncover new those held previously, down to the last arrangements for hotel reservations and traffic control. There was documentation which escaped notice in only one fatal organizational flaw: the meeting had this preliminary inspection. to be canceled because of the outbreak of World War II. •• USOE Statistics Questionnaires

QuESTIONNAIRES for the Survey of College and University Libraries, 1964-65, are expected to be mailed to participating libraries early in December 1965. The survey is conducted by the U.S. Office of Education. Participating libraries are requested to return the completed questionnaires as soon as possible, and no later than six weeks after receipt to enable early publication of the survey. Mailing of the questiomiaires was delayed primarily to correlate the collection of data concerning library needs as they relate to Title II, Part A of the Higher Education Act of 1965. In addition to information on resources held, and added, by the libraries during the year, the questionnaire seeks information on the number of periodical titles and also on serial titles held. A section on library activities will inquire whether bibliographies are com­ pleted, acquisition lists are circulated, and whether the library serves as a depository for federal, state, or other documents. Data is also to be collected on the mechanization of acquisitions procedures, serial records, circulation, and other activities. Another first-time section seeks an analysis of resources, and requests information of approximate percentages of the total collection devoted to the humanities and general works, social sciences, physical sciences including mathematics, biomedical sciences, and technology (engineering). • •