Imperial Finance Administration

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Seal of the Reich Finance Administration

The Treasury and Tax Department ( RFV ), also Empire Tax Administration called, was in the German Reich 1919-1945 centralized management responsible for the assessment and collection of taxes was responsible. At the top of the three-tier administrative system was the Reich Ministry of Finance , followed by state tax offices (called Oberfinanzpräsidien from 1937) and the tax offices. The highest employer was the Reich Minister of Finance .

history

In the German Empire , the collection of taxes was largely a matter for the federal states; As a matter of principle, each municipality decided independently on whether, how and when . In the villages duties and taxes were generally only once a year in person directly to community leaders delivered in the cities during the eunuchs . After the establishment of the Weimar Republic , on August 6, 1919, the State Committee approved the draft law for the establishment of the Reich Finance Administration. The law on the Reich Finance Administration is drawn up by the Reich President on September 10, 1919 and comes into force on October 1, 1919. This day is considered the "birthday of the Reich Finance Administration" and the beginning of an epochal change in German administrative history. It is the first of 16 laws on the basis of the course of Erzberger's fiscal and financial reform a centralization of financial management and unified tax collection throughout the German Reich is realized.

The highest authority of the new Reich Finance Administration was the Reich Ministry of Finance, which was followed by the state tax offices and tax offices. Although the name suggests this, the state tax offices were neither independent nor federal state institutions. They formed the middle level of the Reich Finance Administration and were directly subordinate to the Reich Ministry of Finance. The state tax offices supervised the tax offices active in their area. A total of around 1,000 tax offices were set up in the empire, which were responsible for setting, collecting and collecting taxes.

In this three-level structure, the Reich Finance Administration remained almost unchanged throughout its existence. The regional division of the tax offices and state tax offices was changed several times both in the Weimar Republic and in the Third Reich and, from ovo, went beyond historically grown state and district borders. Reich Finance Minister Matthias Erzberger had already officially spoken to the delegates of the National Assembly on August 12, 1919 about the new structures as follows:

“I am clear about this and I also want to create clarity: The implementation of the Reich's own tax organization will represent the greatest step towards building the German national unified state. If it went according to my wishes and I had been the sole master, then the state tax offices, as we have now created them, would have to represent the future imperial provinces at the same time. "

- Matthias Erzberger

In 1937 the state tax offices were renamed Oberfinanzpräsidium . Nothing changed in the tasks.

As early as 1931, additional foreign exchange offices had been set up in the state tax offices, which cooperated closely with the police, the residents' registration offices , the banks, the customs and later the foreign exchange investigation office. In terms of material and personnel, however, the foreign exchange offices were subordinate to the Reich Ministry of Economics . In addition, each state tax office was assigned a tax court ; the overriding jurisdiction was carried out by the Reichsfinanzhof in Munich.

As in all administrations of the Reich, from 1933 onwards, oppositional and inconvenient officials were also dismissed in the Reich Finance Administration. That affected Democrats and some Catholics. Jews were removed from civil service. The basis for this was the law for the restoration of the professional civil service . An estimated 30,000 civil servants, including around 5,000 Jewish, lost employment and civil servant status. For more information, see the history of the civil service .

Fundamentally, the officials of the Imperial Finance Administration in the Weimar Republic up to the Third Reich were socialized in the top division, but also broadly, predominantly in the Empire and came from the different authorities of the former royal, grand ducal and princely administrations. Up until the mid-1930s, education and training took place mainly in theoretical courses and self-study. From 1935, 14 Reich Finance Schools and six customs schools were established in the Nazi state . The facilities were by no means unpopular with the graduates, as they were mainly used to convey practical work and current tax legislation.

A total of around 73,000 civil servants were employed in the Reich Finance Administration until 1945. According to general research opinion, the picture of an efficient and rigorous tax administration emerges for both the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich, since democratic and totalitarian states are dependent on tax funds to maintain their system. The tax audit certainly stopped with Hitler and other greats of the Third Reich.

Accordingly, unlike in other branches of administration, there was no collapse of the financial administration after the end of the war. The Allied Control Council now acted as the supreme authority ; however, the German tax authorities continued their work. The legislation of the Control Council in 1946 led to the harshest taxation that has ever existed in Germany. Efficient administration was still required for this.

With the establishment of the Federal Republic and the Basic Law of 1949 , financial sovereignty was divided between the federal government and the states. Separate federal and state finance administrations were created .

Structure of the instances

Development of the Reich Finance Administration from 1920 to 1926

Authorities assigned at times

See also

literature

  • Martin Friedenberger (ed.): The Reich finance administration in National Socialism. Presentation and documents. Temmen, Bremen 2002, ISBN 3-86108-377-9 ( publications of the Memorial and Educational Center House of the Wannsee Conference 1).
  • Horst Bathe, Johann Heinrich Kumpf: The middle authorities of the Reich finance administration and their presidents 1919-1945. A documentation. Financial history collection of the Federal Finance Academy, Brühl 1999.
  • Herbert Leidel: The justification of the Reich finance administration. Stollfuss, Bonn 1964 ( series of publications by the Federal Ministry of Finance 1, ISSN  0433-7204 ), (Münster, diss.).
  • Eike Alexander Senger: The reform of the financial administration in the Federal Republic. Springer-Verlag 2009.
  • Christiane Kuller: Bureaucracy and Crime, Anti-Semitic Financial Policy and Administrative Practice in National Socialist Germany. Walter de Gruyter 2013.
  • Sabine Mecking: persecution and administration. The economic plunder of the Jews and the Westphalian financial authorities. Münster 2001 ( Didactic building blocks 1), ISBN 3-935811-00-4 .
  • Peter-Christian Witt : Reich Finance Minister and Reich Finance Administration 1918-1924 , in: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, issue January 1975 (PDF, 5.54 MB).

Web links

Commons : Reichsfinanzverwaltung  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Wilhelm Hennig: Introduction to business organization theory. Springer-Verlag 2013; P. 124
  2. ↑ cf. Section 1 of the German Reich Law on the Reich Finance Administration
  3. ↑ Gerhard A. Spiller: Municipal defense measures against relocating tasks: Analysis and evaluation of defense measures taking into account the experiences in the Weimar Republic. Diplomica Verlag 2011; P. 46 ff.
  4. ^ Günter Püttner: Handbook of communal science and practice: Volume 6 Communal finances. Springer-Verlag 2013; P. 70 ff.
  5. ↑ Hans-Werner Holup: Introduction to the history of economic thinking. Volume V. LIT Verlag 2011; P. 11
  6. ↑ Joe Weingarten: Income tax and income tax administration in Germany: A historical and administrative overview. Springer-Verlag 2013; P. 162
  7. ^ Hans-Peter Ullmann: State and Debt: Public Finances in Germany since the 18th Century . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2009. p. 43
  8. ^ Christiane Kuller: Bureaucracy and Crime, Anti-Semitic Financial Policy and Administrative Practice in National Socialist Germany. Walter de Gruyter 2013; P. 34 ff.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Benz : Southern Germany in the Weimar Republic: A Contribution to German Domestic Policy 1918-1923 . Duncker & Humblot 1970; P. 185 ff.
  10. ↑ Decree of the Reich Chancellor on the change of authorities and official designations of March 16, 1937 as well as archived copy ( memento of the original of May 6, 2016 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landesarchiv-berlin.de
  11. ↑ Susanne Meinl, Jutta Zwilling: Legalized robbery. Campus Verlag 2004; P. 27 ff.
  12. ↑ Christa Paulini: "Service to the people as a whole is not a class struggle": The professional associations of social workers in the change of social work. Springer-Verlag 2013; P. 377
  13. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Before the annihilation: the state expropriation of the Jews under National Socialism. Campus Verlag 2007; P. 142
  14. ↑ Susanne Meinl, Jutta Zwilling: Legalized robbery. Campus Verlag 2004; P. 27 ff.
  15. ↑ Hans Erich Bödeker, Gerd-J. Bötte: Nazi looted property, Reichstauschstelle and Prussian State Library. Walter de Gruyter 2008; P. 35
  16. ^ Mark Spoerer: From fictitious profit to the armaments boom: the return on equity of German industrial stock corporations, 1925-1941. Franz Steiner Verlag 1996; P. 100
  17. ↑ Friederike Freiburg: “The Führer is therefore tax-free!” Spiegel online, December 16, 2004.
  18. ↑ Joe Weingarten: Studies in Social Science: Financial Management and Law Enforcement: Requirements, Problems and Procedures of the Tax Administration in the Application of Tax Law Standards. Westdeutscher Verlag 1993; P. 35
  19. ^ The BMF through the ages Federal Ministry of Finance, August 18, 2015.