Reich Office
The meaning of Reichsamt depends on whether the term refers to the so-called Holy Roman Empire or to the German Empire founded in 1871 .
Holy Roman Empire
The imperial offices in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation were the top Reichshof offices , namely with the electoral dignity associated Erzämter and their associated hereditary offices . The office of the burgrave of Nuremberg is also considered an imperial office . In larger territories of the empire, the lordly court offices are sometimes also called Reichsämter.
The German Imperium
The imperial offices in the German Empire, also called imperial authorities , were those offices or authorities that were in charge of the affairs of the empire. They were headed by the Reich Chancellor , who was the only minister in the Empire, while the Reich authorities, with the exception of the Reich Railway Office, were headed by State Secretaries who were bound by instructions . They are therefore not comparable with today's ministries , instead of a real Reich government one spoke of a Reich leadership. It was not until 1914 that those responsible for the individual Reich offices met regularly for joint meetings chaired by the Reich Chancellor.
After the founding of the Reich in 1871, there were initially only two Reich offices, the Reich Chancellery and the Foreign Office . This classification was based on the North German Confederation , which also only knew two federal authorities , the Federal Chancellery and the Foreign Office . A year later, a third office was created with the Imperial Admiralty , which took over responsibility for the navy from the naval ministries of the lakeshore states .
In the course of the advancing development of the German Empire , the Reich Chancellery as the central authority was given more and more tasks that it could hardly manage on its own. This forced Reich Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to outsource individual departments and create independent Reich offices:
- Reichseisenbahnamt (1873)
- Postmaster General (1876–1880) or Reich Post Office (from 1880)
- Reich Chancellery for Alsace-Lorraine (1876–1879) and the Ministry for Alsace-Lorraine (from 1879)
- Reich Justice Office (1877)
- Reich Treasury (1879)
On December 24, 1879, the Reich Chancellery, which had now been freed from a large part of its duties, was renamed the Reich Office of the Interior . With that, the highest imperial administration was almost completely expanded.
Under Kaiser Wilhelm II there were new changes in the imperial offices. That went from the Imperial Admiralty in 1889 Admiralty appears in 1907 the Colonial Department in the Foreign Office in its own was Reichskolonialamt transferred. During the First World War , the Reich Office of the Interior lost further tasks to the War Food Office , which was set up in 1916, renamed the Reich Authority in 1917 and the Reich Food Office in 1918 , as well as to the Reich Economic Office (from 1917). In 1918, the latter gave up its social policy responsibilities to the newly established Reich Labor Office .
There was never a central Reich Military Office in the Empire. The responsibility lay with the individual war ministries of the states of Bavaria , Saxony , Württemberg and especially Prussia , which in this regard all other states already 1871 connected had.
In the Weimar Republic , the Reich ministries emerged from the Reich authorities , and the State Secretaries were replaced by ministers with broader powers.
