Ernst Zipfel

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Ernst Zipfel (born March 23, 1891 in Dresden , † April 17, 1966 in Bad Pyrmont ) was General Director of the Prussian Archives and from 1936 to 1945 director of the Reich Archives in Potsdam .

Undated portrait of Ernst Zipfel, created between 1932 and 1940

Life

Ernst Zipfel grew up as the son of a technical college director in Dresden. From 1911 to 1920 he served as an officer in the Saxon Army , most recently as captain and advisor in the war ministry . After retiring from active service, he studied economics in Berlin and Würzburg . Alongside his studies, he worked as an assistant archivist in the Reichsarchiv in Potsdam, which was founded in 1919 . With his doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. in Würzburg he was promoted to archivist in 1923. After his appointment as senior archivist (1935) and director of the Reichsarchiv and acting general director of the Prussian state archives (1936), he was finally assigned to this office two years later. From 1938 he was also head of the Institute for Archival Science (IfA) in Berlin-Dahlem.

By decree of the Reich Ministry of the Interior of May 22, 1940, Zipfel was appointed Commissioner for Archive Protection (KfdA). In this role he ordered the relocation of stocks (in order of importance) in May 1942 because the Allied air raids had become stronger. From February to September 1944, Zipfel was also acting head of the Secret State Archives (GStA); from 1940 to 1945 he was also a full member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia .

Zipfel joined the NSDAP in 1932 . From 1938 he was a member of the advisory board of the research department on Jewish issues at the Reich Institute for the History of New Germany .

In October 1942 he was appointed by Staff Leader Gerhard Utikal to head the “Special Staff Archive” of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Rear Army Area . This included "securing, evaluating and relocating" archival material to the Reich, from 1940 from the conquered areas in western Europe, from 1941 in the east; his representatives were Georg Winter (south) and Wolfgang A. Mommsen (north). On July 23, 1943, by decree of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, he was appointed "Commissioner for Archive Protection in the Occupied Eastern Territories". He was responsible for looting numerous archives in the occupied territories. As an employee of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories , he took care of the removal of the Black Sea Germans' church registers from Berlin in October 1943 .

After the end of the war, Zipfel lived in Bad Pyrmont. In an obituary, the archivist Wilhelm Rohr wrote about him: "He who was convinced that he had wanted something good and accomplished something unusual, now had to learn that in the eyes of others he and his work were burdened with an odium."

Fonts (selection)

  • Flaming fronts. Impressions and experiences from the world war. Seidel, Sulzbach 1930.
  • The Bergische Feldartillerie-Regiment No. 59 in peace and in world wars. After reports and revisions to the war diary. Laubsch & Everth, Berlin 1931.
  • History of the Grand Ducal Mecklenburg Grenadier Regiment No. 89 . Printed and published by the Bärensprungschen Hofbuchdruckerei, Schwerin 1932.
  • with Otto Albrecht : History of the Infantry Regiment Bremen (1st Hanseatic) No. 75 . According to official war diaries and reports from fellow combatants. Hauschild , Bremen 1934.
  • with Hans Huchzermeier: The 8th Lorraine Infantry Regiment No. 159 in peace and in World War I. As well as an honorary list of all fallen soldiers of the IR 159 and the Freikorps Schulz. Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935.

literature

  • Karl Demeter : The Reich Archives. Facts and people. Bernard & Graefe Publishing House for Defense, Frankfurt a. M., 1969.
  • Wolfgang Leesch : The German archivists 1500–1945. Volume 2: Biographical Lexicon. Saur, Munich a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-598-10605-X , p. 695.
  • Wilhelm Rohr: Ernst Zipfel †. In: The archivist. Vol. 20, Issue 2, 1967, ISSN  0003-9500 , Sp. 206ff.
  • Johanna Weiser: History of the Prussian archive administration and its leaders. From the beginnings under State Chancellor von Hardenberg to its dissolution in 1945 (= publications from the archives of Prussian cultural property. Supplement 7). Böhlau, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-412-07400-4 .
  • Ulrike Hartung: Deported and missing: a documentation of German, Soviet and American files on Nazi art theft in the Soviet Union (1941-1948). Temmen, Bremen 2000. ISBN 3-86108-336-1

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Burkhard Dietz, Helmut Gabel, Ulrich Tiedau (eds.): Griff nach dem Westen , Volume II, p. 637 ( online ).
  2. ^ Josef Henke: The fate of German contemporary historical sources in the war and post-war period. Seizure - repatriation - whereabouts. In: VfZ 1982 / Heft 4, p. 560.
  3. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-16048-0 , p. 697
  4. ↑ Ulrike Hartung: Abducted and lost , p. 88
  5. ↑ Ulrike Kohl: The Presidents of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism at books.google ; and Nazarii Gutsul, Diss. phil. Giessen 2013, passim (tip 14 mentions), see web links
  6. ↑ Burkhard Dietz, Helmut Gabel, Ulrich Tiedau (eds.): Griff nach dem Westen. The “western research” of the ethnic-national sciences on the north-west European area (1919-1960) (= studies on the history and culture of north-west Europe. Vol. 6). Volume 2. Waxmann, Münster 2003, ISBN 3-8309-1144-0 , p. 605.
  7. ↑ Ulrike Hartung: Abducted and lost , p. 137
  8. ↑ Der Archivar , 20, Heft 2, 1967, quoted in Klee: Personenlexikon. 2005, p. 697. See also Menk: Landesgeschichte, Archivwesen und Politik , p. 18, here in note 28 the assessment of the archivist Helmut Rogge on Rohr's obituary.
personal data
SURNAME Zipfel, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German archivist, director of the Reich Archives
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1966
Place of death Bad Pyrmont