Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP

The Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP [Records of the Party Chancellery of the National Socialist Party] offer extensive material on the decision-making in all areas of the Nazi regime, from the command system’s inner structure; to the history of legislative regulations in the “Third Reich,” and to state organized measures discriminating against and persecuting Jews, regime critics, and the church; as well as material on the history of one of the most important entities in the Nazi state. In addition, the records contain a variety of details on political personnel.

The written records of this important entity within the Nazi regime were almost completely destroyed at the end of the war. In over 20 years of work the records were reconstructed; it compromises 25,842 transactions with almost 200,000 pages. It contains written correspondence, reports, circulars, directives and decrees, guidelines, statements, letters, entries and other documents. The digitalized facsimiles have been summarized for the edition and provided with descriptive indexes.

Background
The Führer’s Deputy’s Staff (Stab des Stellvertreters des Führers – StdF), or the Party Chancellery of the NSDAP (Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP) as it was known from May 1941, was considered to be the central organ of leadership and an important center of power in the NSDAP. The department was fundamentally involved in the decision-making processes within the NSDAP and sought to have a say in all aspects of the state: within the party it had far-reaching influence on the allocation of party political leadership posts such as Gauleiter, Kreisleiter and Ortsgruppenleiter. In state affairs it influenced the legislative process, was involved in the appointment of higher-ranking Reichsbeamte, had a decisive effect on the administration of the annexed territories (Austria, Sudetenland and the eastern territories) and carried out civilian war measures. The staff of the StdF and the Party Chancellery of the NSDAP were particularly prominent in the rigorous enforcement of the National Socialist race, Jewish and Polish policies and took a rigid stance against the church.

Reproduction of the documents in the database
Selecting the Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP with the help of the Browse button opens a page with an overview of the individual parts of the database on the left: the source of the “Sachakten,” but also explanatory material and additional sources. The “Sachakten” can also be chosen with the search category “Type” in the dropdown.

Additional material (1): reference books

• Ämter, Abkürzungen, Aktionen des NS-Staates. Handbuch für die Benutzung von Quellen der nationalsozialistischen Zeit; Amtsbezeichnungen, Ränge und Verwaltungsgliederungen, Abkürzungen und nicht militärische Tarnbezeichnungen. Im Auftrag des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte bearbeitet von Heinz Boberach, Rolf Thommes und Hermann Weiss. München: K. G. Saur 1997. (Texte und Materialien zur Zeitgeschichte Bd. 5)
• Inventar archivalischer Quellen des NS-Staates. Die Überlieferung von Behörden und Einrichtungen des Reiches, der Länder und der NSDAP. Im Auftrag des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte bearbeitet von Heinz Boberach. 2 Bde. München [u. a.]: K. G. Saur 1991–1995. (Texte und Materialien zur Zeitgeschichte Bd. 3)

Additional material (2): reference books from the National Socialist era

• Führer durch die Behörden und Organisationen. 4. Auflage. Berlin: Duncker und Humblot 1939.
• Organisationsbuch der NSDAP. 7. Auflage. München: Eher 1943.
• Taschenbuch für Verwaltungsbeamte 1942. Berlin: Carl Heymanns 1942.

• A unique source for the study of the NS system
• The database contains nearly 200,000 pages of 25,842 transactions as digitalized facsimiles
• The database contains (among others historical) supplementary materials
• Non-restrictive DRM – allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous users campus- / institution-wide

Editors of the first edition in Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jh.

Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Bundesarchiv, and Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung

and

Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933–1945 der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek • Stiftung „Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum“ • Gedenkstätte „Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz“ • Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e. V. • Riga-Komitee der deutschen Städte • Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration • Herbert und Elsbeth Weichmann-Stiftung • Heinz Boberach • Wolfgang Form • Wolfgang Neugebauer • Theo Schiller • Sabine Gillmann • Hans Mommsen • Harald Hagemann • Claus-Dieter Krohn • Michael Hepp • Ulrike Wendland

Editorial Board

Wolfgang Benz, Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung • Brita Eckert, Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933–1945 der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek • Josef Henke, Bundesarchiv • Peter Longerich, Research Centre for the Holocaust and Twentieth-Century History, London • Elisabeth Niggemann, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek • Hermann Rumschöttel, Staatliche Archive Bayerns • Udo Wengst, Institut für Zeitgeschichte

First edition

Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jh.: Nationalsozialismus, Holocaust, Widerstand und Exil 1933–1945 Online, De Gruyter/K. G. Saur (2006–2022)

Here you will find instructions for searching the Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP and explanations of the individual search functions.

Search

You have three different options for searching.

Search form

The search form allows you to search using various search criteria. To do so, select the appropriate criterion in the search field and enter your search term(s) in the search field. The following search criteria are available:

1. Full Text: Searches in all entries for the entered terms. Finds all entries that contain all searched terms and therefore returns the most results. For a more specific search, the other search criteria are more suitable.
   
   The following operators can be used in the search field:
• *: Added to a string. Searches for entries including all terms that match the searched string with any addition.
• AND: Searches for entries including all the terms connected by this operator (default search function).
• OR: Searches for entries including at least one of the terms connected by this operator.
• NOT: Searches for entries including the first, but not the second of the terms connected by this operator.

These operators can be combined with each other.

2. Title: Finds all entries whose titles contain all searched terms. This search criterion can be used to search specifically for entries for particular terms. Search with truncation does not work at the moment.
3. Person: Finds all entries that contain the searched person. Suggests up to 15 matching persons in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries in which specific persons are mentioned.
4. Author: Finds all entries with authors of the searched name. Suggests up to 15 matching author names in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries by specific authors.
5. Keyword: Finds all entries to which the searched keyword is assigned. Suggests up to 15 matching keywords in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries that deal with a specific topic.
6. Type: Select a type from the drop-down menu: Abkürzungsverzeichnis, Benutzungshinweis, Bestandsbeschreibung, Bibliotheks-/Archivverzeichnis, Dokument, Index, Karte/Plan, Literaturverzeichnis, Sachakte, Verzeichnis, Vorwort/Nachwort. Finds all entries of this type. In the dropdown menu, “Sachakte” can be selected to limit the search to the files.
7. Publication Year: Select Exact to search for a single year, or Range to search for a range of years. Finds all entries that have been published electronically in this year or range of years.
8. Place: Finds all entries which contain the searched place. Suggests up to 15 matching places in alphabetical order as you type. This search criterion can be used to search for entries in which specific locations are mentioned.
9. Date: Select Exact to search for a single date (required: year; optional: month and day), or Range to search for a range of years (required: years; optional: month[s] and day[s]). Finds all entries that have this date or range of years.
10. Entry language: Select a language from the drop-down menu. Finds all entries which are written in this language. Only German language is available for APK.

Please note: The search is not case sensitive.

You have the option to apply several search criteria at the same time. To do this, click on "Add row" in the search form. This creates a second search field in which you can set another search criterion (or else the same one). You can create as many additional search fields as you like.
If you use more than one search field, the search will find all entries that match all search criteria ("Search for all of these terms"). Instead, you can also select "Search for any of these terms" above the search fields, which will cause the search to find all entries that match at least one of the searched criteria.
By clicking on "Add NOT" you create a search field to which you can assign a search criterion. Terms entered in this search field will be excluded from the search. You can add this search field as often as you like.
By combining the above functions, you are able to perform very specific searches.

Example

You want to search the Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP for all entries that mention the word "Besoldung" and the person “Bormann, Martin”. However, you want to exclude the place “München” from the search. For this you use the search form as follows:

1. Create a second search field via "Add row".
2. Select the search for "all of these terms" (default option).
3. In the first search field, select the search criterion Full Text and enter the search term "Besoldung".
4. In the second search field, select the search criterion Person and enter the search term "Bormann, Martin".
5. Create a third search field via "Add NOT". This is marked with a "NOT".
6. Select the search criterion Place in this search field and enter the search term “München”.
7. After clicking on "Search" you will see 10 out of 106 hits in the results list.

Browse

The browse button allows you to quickly search for the search criterion “Publication type”. The results list of a browse search can be further searched via the search form as described above. Selecting the Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP with the help of the Browse button opens a page with an overview of the individual parts of the database on the left: the source of the “Sachakten” but also explanatory material and additional sources.

A-Z

On the start page of the database you can view indices of all contained persons and places from A to Z. By clicking on a term you get to the results list, which shows all entries that contain the place or person. In case of a lemma the results list shows all entries which have the full lemma in their title.

Results list

The results that match your search are listed on one or more pages. The number of search results as well as the search criteria can be found above the results list.

Each search result consists of the title of the entry, author(s) if existent, access information, entry type, online publication date (print publication date in brackets, if applicable), the cover of the database as well as a button to download the PDF ("Download PDF"), if available, and a text preview showing relevant text passages and highlighting the searched term in yellow (only for Full Text search criterion).

You can access a search result by clicking on the title or cover of the database. If you do not have access to the database, please log in first.

The search results are sorted by relevancy (frequency and weighting of the searched terms). You can also sort by date ("New to old" or "Old to new") or by title ("A to Z" or "Z to A").
Furthermore, instead of the default 10 results per page, you can also display 20, 50 or 100 results per page.

The search results can be further restricted under "Filter Results". Various filter options are available for this:

1. Access: This option filters the search results according to who can access them. By default, "All content" is found. It is possible to filter by "Licensed content", "Open Access", "Publicly available" as well as "All available content".
2. Person
3. Type
4. Publication Year
5. Place
6. Entry language

All filters can be combined with each other. Filtering by certain filter options excludes further certain filter options if there are no entries which match both options.