The “Berlin-Dahlem Publication Office” (PuSte) was founded in 1931 on the initiative of the director general of the Prussian State Archives Albert Brackmann (1871–1952), initially as a publication store. By 1934, it was functioning as a publication office, and also became the office of the Northeast German Research Community, later the North and East German Research Foundation, NOFG, which was established in the same year and was also chaired by Brackmann. In 1936, Johannes Papritz (1898–1992) took over from Brackmann as head of the PuSte and Wolfgang Kohte (1907–1984) became his deputy. In the early years, the PuSte concentrated its efforts on observing Polish research relating to the former German eastern territories and supporting the so-called German “Ostforschung” (Research of the East). For this purpose, a library was set up, as well as a department for journals, maps and manuscripts and an image archive. In addition, the PuSte also managed the NOFG’s book collection. Among other resources, personal dossiers on scientists and researchers were produced as well as translations, cartographic material, and statistics based on Soviet censuses. In terms of its organization, the PuSte was a department of the Prussian Secret State Archive until 1938/39. Between 1939 and 1943 it was under the control of the Reich Ministry of the Interior as an independent department and was then subordinated to Department VI G of the Reich Security Head Office. However, the PuSte also profited from the confiscations at home and abroad (for example, those of the State Secret Police, the Künsberg Special Unit, and the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce). As a member of the “German Archives Commission Latvia-Estonia”, Papritz was also involved from 1939 on in the shipment of archival material from the Baltic countries as part of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. With their materials, the PuSte contributed to the emergence of the “Master Plan for the East”, participated in the looting of property carried out by the Nazis, and gave the military access to its collection of thematic maps. Due to the intensified bombing of Berlin, the PuSte and its materials were relocated to Bautzen and surrounding locations in the region of Upper Lusatia in the summer of 1943. In February 1945, the staff fled to Coburg, taking with them some of the stock. These materials were confiscated by the US Army after the end of the war and taken to the USA in 1947/48. They were later given to the Library of Congress in Washington DC. Papritz was involved in having them transferred to the Herder Institute in Marburg, which was founded in 1950. In 1957/58, a number of materials were handed over to the Herder Institute and around 12,000 volumes were relocated there in 1964. Books, maps and pictures were integrated according to media type into the library, the Image Archive and the Map Collection. The Document Collection also houses a small number of materials (spanning one meter of its shelf space) from the original PuSte collection (for example translations of newspaper articles). The Image Archive obtained additional photographic material from the private collection of Wolfgang Kohte. Papritz passed on the files of the PuSte to the Berlin-Lichterfelde Federal Archives in 1977 after they had been returned from Washington and temporarily stored at the Hessian State Archive in Marburg. They are listed there under the call number R 153. Since 2016, the partial collections of the PuSte stock in the Herder Institute library have been the subject of a research project, which aims to investigate the provenance of these materials.
Creation/Production
| Time Event:
|
before 1945
|
| Place/Area:
|
Baltic States Germany Estonia Latvia Lithuania Eastern Europe East-Central Europe Poland Ukraine Belarus
|
Creation/Production
| Time Event:
|
1931-1945
|
| Place/Area:
|
Berlin-Dahlem Bautzen Coburg
|
| Client:
|
Nord- und Ostdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (NOFG)
|
| Client:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Creator:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Translator:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
Aggregation/Collecting
| Time Event:
|
1931-1936
|
| Place/Area:
|
Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Creator of the collection:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Director:
|
Brackmann, Albert
|
| Public administration:
|
Prussian Privy State Archive
|
Aggregation/Collecting
| Time Event:
|
1936–1938/1939
|
| Place/Area:
|
Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Creator of the collection:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Director:
|
Papritz, Johannes
|
| Public administration:
|
Prussian Privy State Archive
|
Aggregation/Collecting
| Time Event:
|
1938/1939-1943
|
| Place/Area:
|
Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Creator of the collection:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Director:
|
Papritz, Johannes
|
| Public administration:
|
Deutsches Reich. Ministry of Interior
|
Aggregation/Collecting
| Time Event:
|
1943-1945
|
| Place/Area:
|
Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Creator of the collection:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Director:
|
Papritz, Johannes
|
| Public administration:
|
Deutsches Reich. Reichssicherheitshauptamt
|
Aggregation/Collecting
| Time Event:
|
1944-1945
|
| Place/Area:
|
Bautzen
|
| Creator of the collection:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Director:
|
Papritz, Johannes
|
| Public administration:
|
Deutsches Reich. Reichssicherheitshauptamt
|
Aggregation/Collecting
| Time Event:
|
1945
|
| Place/Area:
|
Coburg
|
| Creator of the collection:
|
Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem
|
| Director:
|
Papritz, Johannes
|
| Public administration:
|
Deutsches Reich. Reichssicherheitshauptamt
|
Provenance
| Time Event:
|
1945–1947/1948
|
| Place/Area:
|
Oberursel
|
| Collection holder:
|
USA. Army
|
Provenance
| Time Event:
|
1947/1948–1957/1964
|
| Place/Area:
|
Washington, D.C.
|
| Collection holder:
|
Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.)
|
Acquisition/Transfer of Custody to Herder Institute: Gift
| Time Event:
|
1957-1964
|
| Place/Area:
|
Marburg
|
| Lessor of the collection:
|
Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.)
|
| Intermediary:
|
Papritz, Johannes
|
| Collection recipient:
|
Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe - Institute of the Leibniz Association
|
