Tagesrapporte der Gestapo Wien Online

From 1934 on, the Regional Gestapo Headquarters throughout the entire German Reich (including the annexed Austria after the “Anschluss”) had to report all political incidents of the previous 24 hours to Berlin. The purpose of these reports was to outline the mood, the political situation and security measures. The Daily Reports of the Gestapo Headquarters Vienna 1938–1945 contain reports on the mood, the political situation, and security. For no other Gestapo regional headquarters is such a concentration of source material available. No less than 441 daily reports with approximately 5,795 pages have been analyzed for this edition.

The contents of this database can be searched separately or in combination with other sources contained in the German History Portal, especially the “Stimmungs- und Lageberichte” (“Secret Reports on Criticism of the Regime, Resistance and Persecution in Germany and the Occupied Areas”).

• Unique source with information on almost 16,000 people (741 daily reports, 5,795 pages)
• The Gestapo headquarters in Vienna is the only one whose archive is almost completely preserved
• Previously unpublished, rarely used records on the politically motivated persecution of “public enemies”
• An ideal supplement to the situation and status reports from other parts of the “Reich”

• Offers non-restrictive DRM allowing for an unlimited number of simultaneous users on campus or at an institution

Edited by Brigitte Bailer and Wolfgang Form

In cooperation with the Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (DÖW), Vienna, and the Forschungs- und Dokumentationszentrum Kriegsverbrecherprozesse, Philipps University of Marburg

Original publication
Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jh.: Tagesrapporte der Gestapoleitstelle Wien 1938–1945, De Gruyter (2009)

Here you will find instructions for searching in the Tagesrapporte der Gestapo Wien Online 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. Type: Select a type from the drop-down menu: Stimmungs-/Lagebericht, Verzeichnis, Vorwort/Nachwort. Finds all entries of this type.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Entry language: Select a language from the drop-down menu. Finds all entries which are written in this language.

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 Tagesrapporte der Gestapo Wien Online for all entries that mention the word "Arbeit" and the place “Wiener Neustadt”. However, you want to exclude entries that mention the person “Schön, Josef” 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 "Arbeit".
4. In the second search field, select the search criterion Place and enter “Wiener Neustadt”.
5. Create a third search field via "Add NOT". This is marked with a "NOT".
6. Select the search criterion Person in this search field and enter the name “Schön, Josef”.
7. After clicking on "Search" you will see 10 out of 110 hits in the results list.

Browse

Under "Browse" you can follow the structure of the contents. The daily reports themselves can be found here under "Quellen", essays and indexes to the publication under "Erläuternde Materialien". The results list of a browse search can be further searched via the search form as described above.

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.