Foreign exchange investigation office

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Based on a guide from April 4, 1936, Hermann Göring founded a central Reich foreign exchange investigation office on August 1, 1936 , which was affiliated with the Secret State Police Office , was headed by Reinhard Heydrich and existed until 1941. All customs investigation offices and all foreign exchange investigation offices of the state tax offices were subordinate to this office “in factual terms”.

After the annexation of Austria, Göring set up a Viennese foreign exchange investigation office and was authorized to issue instructions to the new customs investigation offices that were subordinate to the Reich Ministry of Finance . In the Sudetenland , foreign exchange protection commands with members of the Reich German customs investigation service were active, which were in fact controlled by the Berlin foreign exchange investigation office.

tasks

The rules of procedure of the foreign exchange investigation office name as tasks in addition to the monitoring of foreign exchange management and the processing of larger cases, among other things, the cooperation with the customs investigation offices , the tax investigation service at the state tax offices and tax offices as well as the main customs offices at the Reichsbahn directorates . Cooperation with customs and the foreign exchange offices of the state tax offices was regulated by a decree of December 17, 1936. In it, the police authorities were instructed to notify the local tax office, the customs investigation office, the state tax office in Berlin, the Reichsbankanstalt and the tax administration of the municipal board if they knew of any intention to emigrate .

The tasks mentioned in the rules of procedure also included the preparation of "proposed amendments to the relevant laws, ordinances and decrees". With the participation of the security service , measures were increasingly directed against Jews who were accused of "typically Jewish [es], offenses harmful to the people".

target direction

According to Ralf Banken, a large part of the changes in foreign exchange law from 1936 onwards was passed "through the Gestapo no longer just to prevent capital flight , but was aimed at the exploitation of the entire Jewish population [...]". For example, import quotas and foreign currency allocations for Jewish companies were cut and the foreign exchange offices were instructed to control emigrants' belongings. After the November pogroms in 1938 , the Jewish property tax was levied as a sanction . Regulations soon followed, such as the ordinance to exclude Jews from German economic life or the ordinance on the use of Jewish assets . Since then, foreign exchange law and its institutions have only been an “additional instrument for the exploitation of Jewish citizens”, but no longer the most important.

Expansion

During the Second World War, German currency law was extended to annexed and some occupied areas: western Poland , Alsace-Lorraine , Luxembourg , Eupen-Malmedy , Lower Styria , Carniola and the Bialystok district . In 1941 the Netherlands was incorporated into the German economic area. In other occupied areas, too, German authorities introduced a foreign exchange law or supplemented existing provisions in their favor.

There was an obligation to offer, according to which foreign securities, foreign exchange and precious metals had to be reported to state central banks for purchase. Foreign exchange protection commandos opened lockers, confiscated values ​​that were not registered for compulsory sale, as well as so-called enemy property and confiscated property on the occasion of the deportation of Jews.

Dissolution of the office

On Heydrich's advice, Goering dissolved the central foreign exchange investigation office on May 26, 1941. According to Ralf Banken, Heydrich gave up his position of power voluntarily, since foreign exchange law was only of interest to him in connection with Jewish policy. Due to the imminent emigration ban and the decision to deport all Jews from the Reich territory , his position as chief foreign exchange investigator no longer seemed necessary to him.

In 2005, the historian Susanne Meinl pointed out that the activities of the foreign exchange investigation office had not been well researched and saw a need for further research.

literature

  • Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Foreign Exchange Law as a Control and Discrimination Instrument 1933–1945 . In: Johannes Bär, Ralf Banken: Economic control through law under National Socialism . Frankfurt / M. 2006, ISBN 3-465-03447-3 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Currency Law as a Control and Discrimination Instrument 1933-1945 . In: Johannes Bär, Ralf Banken: Economic control through law under National Socialism . Frankfurt / M. 2006, ISBN 3-465-03447-3 , pp. 179 and 199 f.
  2. ↑ Ralf Blanken: This can only be intervened with a free search - The work of the German foreign exchange protection command 1938 to 1944. In: Hartmut Berghoff, Jürgen Kocka, Dieter Ziegler (ed.): Economy in the age of extremes. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60156-9 , p. 379.
  3. ↑ Excerpt from the rules of procedure at Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Foreign Exchange Law ... , p. 200 in note 280.
  4. ↑ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Foreign Exchange Law ... , p. 201.
  5. ↑ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Foreign Exchange Law ..., p. 209.
  6. ↑ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Foreign Exchange Law ..., p. 210.
  7. ↑ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Currency Law ..., p. 213.
  8. ^ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Currency Law ..., pp. 225–227.
  9. ↑ Insa Meinen: The deportation of the Jews from Belgium and the German foreign exchange protection command. In: Johannes Hürter ; Jürgen Zarusky (Ed.): Occupation, Collaboration, Holocaust - New Studies on the Persecution and Murder of European Jews. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58728-9 , p. 64 / Ralf Blanken: This can only be countered with a free search ..., p. 380.
  10. ↑ Ralf Banken: The National Socialist Currency Law ..., p. 227.
  11. ↑ Susanne Meinl: Stigmatized - Discriminated - Robbed . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): Legal injustice . Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-593-37873-6 , p. 92 in note 11.