List of commissions, reports and publications on the history of the highest Reich authorities in the Nazi era

The following list provides an overview of the scientific commissions (or the commissioned individual researchers) set up by the respective federal ministries as their successor institutions to research the history of the various highest Reich authorities (ministries) during the Nazi era, as well as the commissions or individual researchers in question submitted expert reports and book publications.

Foreign Office (AA)

Since 2005, the Independent Commission of Historians - Federal Foreign Office, appointed by the then Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer , has been preparing a study on the history of the Federal Foreign Office and the Foreign Service during the Nazi era and in the Federal Republic of Germany. After the investigation was completed, the results were published in book form in 2010.

• Eckart Conze , Norbert Frei , Peter Hayes , Moshe Zimmermann : The Office and the Past. German diplomats in the Third Reich and in the Federal Republic, Verlag Karl Blessing, Munich 2010.

Reich Ministry of Labor

In 2013, on behalf of then Minister Ursula von der Leyen, the Federal Ministry of Labor appointed an Independent Commission of Historians to review the history of the Reich Labor Ministry as its predecessor institution. This consists of Alexander Nützenadel (HU Berlin, spokesman), Rüdiger Hachtmann (Center for Contemporary Historical Research Potsdam), Elizabeth Harvey (University of Nottingham), Sandrine Kott (Université de Genève), Kiran Klaus Patel (Universiteit Maastricht) and Michael Wildt (HU Berlin). Under the leadership of the commission, a group of employees who are organizationally and spatially based at the Humboldt University of Berlin conduct research on individual key topics. The research project is expected to be completed by the end of 2018, and its results will be made public in the form of publications, lectures and conferences. In June 2017 the first volume of the six-volume series "History of the Reich Ministry of Labor in National Socialism" was published (official website: "Independent Commission of Historians to Process the History of the Reich Ministry of Labor in the Nazi Era").

• Alexander Nützenadel (ed.): The Reich Ministry of Labor in National Socialism. Administration - Politics - Crime (= History of the Reich Ministry of Labor under National Socialism, vol. 1), 2017.

Reich Ministry of Finance

In 2009 the Federal Ministry of Finance set up a seven-member, international, scientific commission to research the history of the Reich Ministry of Finance during the Nazi era. The commission's spokesman is Professor Hans-Peter Ullmann (University of Cologne).

The aim of the commission is to develop an overall study based on six volumes, each of which deals with a specific individual aspect. The individual sub-projects are: 1. Institutional history of the Reich Ministry of Finance (Stefanie Anna Middendorf), 2. Tax policy (Ralf Banken), 3. Fiscal persecution of Jews (Christiane Kuller), 4. Assets of enemies of the Reich (Josephine Ulbricht), 5. Reich Finance Administration in the General Government ( Ramona Bräu ), 6th Reich Ministry of Finance and Monetary Exploitation of Europe (Jürgen Kilian). In June 2013 the first volume (for subproject 3) was released to the public (official website: The Reich Ministry of Finance in the Nazi Era ).

• Christiane Kuller : Bureaucracy and Crime. Anti-Semitic financial policy and administrative practice in National Socialist Germany (= The Reich Ministry of Finance in National Socialism, Vol. 1), 2013.

Reich Ministry of the Interior (RMI)

At the moment, the Federal Ministry of the Interior has no concrete plans for a study on the history of the Reich Ministry of the Interior as its predecessor institution during the Nazi era (see related inquiries in the Bundestag).

In December 2014, however, Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière commissioned the Center for Contemporary History Research (ZZF) and the Institute for Contemporary History (IfZ) to review the history of the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR (MdI) for possible personnel and to examine factual continuities at the time of National Socialism. The study is led by the directors of the institutes Frank Bösch (ZZF) and Andreas Wirsching (IfZ). A preliminary study is to be completed by the end of 2015; the main study is scheduled to start in 2016.

Reich Ministry of Justice

On January 11, 2012, the then Federal Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger appointed the legal scientist Christoph Safferling and the historian Manfred Görtemaker to the Independent Scientific Commission at the Federal Ministry of Justice to deal with the Nazi past . The final report was presented on October 10, 2016.

Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture (RMEL)

• Andreas Dornheim : Race, Space and Autarky. Expert opinion on the role of the Reich Ministry for Food and Agriculture in the Nazi era. Developed for the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, s. l. 2011. (available online). (Revised version of the original version with the title Expert report "Role and content of agricultural policy and agricultural research by predecessor institutions of the Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture" from February 28, 2006)

Reich Ministry for Church Affairs

No publication or plans for a publication can be determined.

Reich Ministry of Post

No publication or plans for a publication can be determined.

Reich Ministry of Transport

Alfred Gottwaldt and Diana Schulle published 2007 under the title “Jews are prohibited from using dining cars”. The anti-Jewish policy of the Reich Ministry of Transport between 1933 and 1945 presented an expert opinion on the history of the Reich Ministry of Transport during the Nazi era on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development.

Reichsvizekanzleramt

The history of the office of the Vice Chancellor of the Hitler government, which existed from 1933 to 1934, is given in Rainer Orth's habilitation thesis "The official seat of the opposition?" examined by 2014.

Other related commissions

The continuity between the secret and intelligence services of the Nazi era and those of the Federal Republic are examined by two independent historians' commissions established in 2011:

The Commission for Research into the History of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , to which Michael Wala and Constantin Goschler belong, presented a first interim report in September 2013; the final report is expected for early 2016.

The commission appointed in spring 2011 to review the history of the Federal Intelligence Service , to which Jost Düffler , Bodo Hechelhammer , Klaus-Dietmar Henke , Rolf-Dieter Müller , Wolfgang Krieger and Ernst Uhrlau belong, is to present its final report in 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ official website: Independent Commission of Historians for the processing of the history of the Reich Ministry of Labor in the time of National Socialism
2. ↑ official website: The Reich Ministry of Finance in the time of National Socialism
3. ↑ Related inquiries in the Bundestag ; (PDF; 1.1 MB)
4. ↑ BMI has its own post-war history processed
5. ↑ Start page ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Independent scientific commission at the Federal Ministry of Justice to come to terms with the Nazi past 
6. ^ The Rosenburg files - The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nazi era . Link to download on the website of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection , accessed on February 11, 2018.
7. ↑ available online
8. ↑ Alfred Gottwald, Diana Schulle: "Jews are prohibited from using dining cars". The anti-Jewish policy of the Reich Ministry of Transport between 1933 and 1945. Research report, prepared on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development. Hentrich & Hentrich, Teetz 2007. ISBN 978-3-938485-64-4 .
9. ↑ Study on the anti-Jewish policy of the Reich Ministry of Transport published between 1933 and 1945 ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Website of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Development , accessed on February 11, 2018.