General District

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A general district (also known as the general commissioner ) represented the middle instance of the German civil administration in the Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine during the Second World War .

history

The general districts can be compared with the Prussian provinces , but had a larger area and a larger population. The general districts were headed by general commissioners who were roughly equal in rank to the upper presidents or Gauleiters in the Reich. The area commissioners were administratively subordinate to them . At the time of the greatest expansion of the German sphere of influence there were ten general districts. In the Reichskommissariat Ostland the general districts Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania and Belarus and in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine the general districts Dnepropetrovsk , Kiev , Nikolayev , Zhitomir , Crimea (sub-district Tauria ) and Volhynia - Podolia .

The general commissioners had certain legislative powers in their area , but managed "the administration according to the general instructions of the Reich Minister for the occupied eastern territories and the orders of the Reich Commissioner ". In reality they too had considerable leeway in handling their affairs. Each general district was composed of several areas that were administered by area commissioners. These formed the next lower German administrative authority, under which only the district farmers had power of disposal. Larger cities within an area were subject to their own commissioners who were independent of the area commissioners.

General commissioners

Reichskommissariat Ostland

Reichskommissariat Ukraine

  • Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld , General Commissioner for the General District of Crimea (Sub-District Tauria)
  • Kurt Klemm , General Commissioner for the Zhitomir General District
  • Helmut Quitzrau , General Commissioner for the General District of Kiev (September 1941 – February 1942)
  • Waldemar Magunia , General Commissioner for the Kiev General District (since February 14, 1942)
  • Ewald Oppermann , General Commissioner for the General District of Nikolayev
  • Heinrich Schoene , General Commissioner for the General District of Volhynia-Podolia
  • Nikolaus Selzner , General Commissioner for the General District of Dnepropetrovsk

Footnotes

  1. ↑ This may also be the reason why (according to reports from contemporary witnesses who are still alive) in the German-administered areas of the Ukraine, the upper instance of general areas was spoken of.