Gau act

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A Gau-Akt was created during the Nazi period in the German Reich by the Gau Personnel Office of the respective Gau leadership (namely by the "Main Office for Political Assessment") when it came to a political assessment . This was often caused by applying for membership in a professional body such as B. Reichsschrifttumskammer , sometimes through denunciation. Above all, the respective local NSDAP group was used as “assessor” , sometimes also the Gestapo , and more rarely the SS security service .

Insightful

The mere fact of whether or not there was a crime against a particular person cannot be used to say anything about the person's attitude towards the NSDAP . Some of them are opponents of National Socialism ; conversely, Gau files were not drawn up for all NSDAP members.

The Gau files primarily provide information about the object in question ; in the second place, one learns a lot about the norms and opinions of the NSDAP functionary making the judgment, i.e. about the respective subject . The source value of these files goes beyond what they concern us - e.g. Often already known from other sources - communicate facts about the respective assessed person.

Gau files in Vienna

The files of most of the Gaue of the Greater German Reich were destroyed at the end of the war. Thus the approximately half a million Gau files in Vienna is a special source. The Gau files created in Vienna are kept in the Archive of the Republic , an archive department of the Austrian State Archives.

The study of the Gau files shows z. B. that it was undesirable on the part of the NSDAP to accept church-committed people as members. The rejection was not justified formally with a “separation of church and state”, but with the fact that a “confessionally bound” person - a pastor was generally assessed as such - was not to be expected to unreservedly support the National Socialist worldview. This is all the more noticeable since - especially in Austria - membership was otherwise fairly generously awarded.

literature

  • Rudolf Jerabek: "In a democracy highly questionable files": The Gauakten , in: Uwe Baur, Karin Gradwohl-Schlacher, Sabine Fuchs (ed.): Makes literature war. Austrian Literature in National Socialism. Vienna et al. 1998, pp. 449-462.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A Gau-Akt was even drawn up about the Bishop of Vienna. See Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : The Gau-Akt about Cardinal Theodor Innitzer. Insights into conflicts and moods during World War II. In: Austria in History and Literature 55 (2011) pp. 148–156.
  2. ↑ On the structure of the NSDAP in Vienna, cf. Gerhard Botz: National Socialism in Vienna. Seizure of power and securing rule 1938/39. Buchloe 3rd edition 1988, especially chapter III / 1.
  3. ↑ Individual membership documents for National Socialist organizations can be found in Gau files, which are also personal, in the Vienna City and State Archives .
  4. ^ Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Viennese Evangelical Professors of Theology in the Mirror of the Gau-Akten. Documentation on Beth, Egli, Entz, Hajek, Hoffmann, Koch, Kühnert, Opitz, Schneider and Wilke . In: Yearbook for the History of Protestantism in Austria 116 (2000/01) 191-225.