Control Council Order No. 4

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The Control Council Order No. 4 , issued by the Allied Control Council , on the confiscation of literature and works of a National Socialist and militarist character , dated May 13, 1946, ordered the removal of Nazi literature from library holdings and its delivery to the Allied authorities. However, the obligation to hand over all such literature in full could not be enforced. Scientific libraries, on the other hand, have argued that the now banned literature for scientific research and for official purposes must be preserved. Therefore, on August 10, 1946, a paragraph was added to Order No. 4. This allowed the commanders of the zones of occupation (in Berlin the Allied Commandant's Office ) to exempt a limited number of specimens from destruction and allowed them to be inspected for research and study purposes under the supervision of the control authorities.

text

Control Council Order No. 4

Confiscation of literature and works of a National Socialist and militarist character

dated May 13, 1946

amended on August 10, 1946 (OJ p. 172)

suspended for the Federal Republic of Germany

Article 2 of Law No. 16 (Elimination of Militarism) of the Allied High Commission of December 16, 1949 (OJ p. 72)

for the GDR suspended by

Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the dissolution of the High Commission of the Soviet Union in Germany of September 20, 1955

In view of the danger posed by National Socialist doctrine and in order to stamp out National Socialist, fascist, militarist and anti-democratic ideas as quickly as possible, regardless of the form in which they were expressed in Germany, the Control Council issued the following order:

  1. Within two months of the publication of this order, all owners of lending libraries, bookstores, book stores and publishing houses must deliver the following to the military commanders or other representatives of the Allied authorities:
    a) All books, pamphlets, magazines, newspaper collections, albums, manuscripts, documents, maps, plans, hymn and music books, films and slides - including those for children of all ages - which are National Socialist propaganda. Contain racial teaching and incitement to violence or anti-United Nations propaganda;
    b) All material that contributes to military training and education or to the maintenance and development of a war potential, including school books and teaching material of all kinds of military educational institutions, as well as all regulations, instructions, instructions, regulations, maps, sketches, plans, etc. for everyone Troop units and branches of service.
  2. 2. All former state and municipal libraries, all university rectors and heads of higher and middle educational institutions and all research institutes, the presidents of academies, scientific or technical societies and associations as well as the heads of grammar schools and higher or lower elementary schools from the to remove the National Socialist and military literature listed in Section 1 under libraries under them, to carefully compile them in specially assigned locations together with the associated cards from the book index and to hand them over to the representatives of the military command or other Allied authorities.
  3. The owners as well as the mayors and local authorities are responsible for the complete and timely delivery of such books and materials.
  4. The execution of this order is supervised by the military commanders or other representatives of the military authorities of the occupying powers.
  5. All publications and materials mentioned in this order are to be made available to Zone Commanders for destruction.

By order of the Control Council of August 10, 1946, the following paragraph was added to Order No. 4:

  2. The zone commanders (in Berlin the Allied Kommandatura) can exempt a limited number of copies of the documents forbidden according to § 1 from destruction for research and study purposes. These documents are to be kept in special rooms, where they can, however, be viewed under the strict supervision of the Allied Control Authority, by German scientists and other Germans who have received the relevant permission from the Allies. The zone commanders have to inform each other through the organs of the Control Council with regard to the number and titles, the storage location and the purpose of these documents.

Issued in Berlin, May 13, 1946.

(The original texts of this order, in the three official languages, are signed by BH Robertson, Lieutenant General, L. Koeltz, Army Corps General, MI Dratwin, Lieutenant General, and Lucius D. Clay , Lieutenant General)

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Control Council Order No. 4
  2. ^ Olaf Hamann: Fascist literature in German libraries. About segregation and reorientation in building up the holdings of academic libraries in the period 1945–1949 using the example of the Berlin Public Scientific Library (ÖWiBi). In: Ursula Heukenkamp (Ed.): Guilt and atonement? War experience and interpretation of war in the German media of the post-war period (1945–1961) (= Amsterdam contributions to modern German studies. Vol. 50, 2). International conference from 1. – 4. September 1999 in Berlin. Volume 2. Rodopi, Amsterdam a. a. 2001, ISBN 90-420-1445-8 , pp. 525-540, here pp. 528-529.