It may prove helpful to those consulting the “Collection NSDAP Hauptarchiv” to have an outline of the history and contents of the main archive of the German National Socialist Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) and to know the stages whereby it reached its present form on microfilm.

In the wake of its triumphal consolidation of power, the National Socialist party decided to establish an archive to preserve for posterity its own records and those of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront.  On January 15, 1934, at the suggestion of Reichsschulungsleiter, Otto Ghodes, headquarters for an archive and library under the name “NSDAP Hauptarchiv” were established in Berlin.

The Hauptarchiv was not without its forerunners. It seems that in August 1926 Adolf Hitler asked Frau Mathilde von Scheubner-Richter (the widow of Max von Scheubner-Richter, killed in the putsch of November 9, 1923) to start a press archive for the party in Munich. Frau von Scheubner-Richter worked there, together with Heinrich Himmler, for one and a half years. The press archives, according to her recollections, had three functions: to collect material on all hostile personalities, to check and clip the Communist press, and to check and clip the emerging National Socialist press. Around 1928, the whole organization was taken over by the Reichspropagandaleitung of the NSDAP, which also collected file copies of posters, leaflets, pamphlets, and other propaganda and election material of the party for the use of various National Socialist organizations.

The NSDAP decided at the same time to bolster its political documentation by purchasing a collection on contemporary history started in 1914 by Friedrich Maria Rehse and organized in Munich as the Rehse Archiv. This collection was rich in material concerning the NSDAP. Hence, the intention was to set up the pictorial holdings and the realia of the Rehse Archiv as a separate museum on National Socialism; the printed material was to be amalgamated with the NSDAP’s own archive. These plans never materialized. The Rehse Archiv remained a separate entity, and after the war the bulk of the archive found its way to the Library of Congress; some duplicate items came to the Hoover Institution.

The NSDAP Hauptarchiv’s first director was Dr. Erich Uetrecht, from the Reichsschulungsamt. The archive moved in October 1934 from the Maerkisches Ufer in Berlin to its permanent location in Munich, 15 Barerstrasse, adjoining Gabelsbergerstrasse, and the already existing archives of the Reichspropagandaleitung were incorporated with it. In mid – 1935 the entire oranisation was made directly responsible to Stellvertreter des Fuehrers Rudolf Hess. 

 

The purpose of the archive was no longer exclusively that of acting as a central clearing house of information for the various party organisations. In addition to collecting books, newspapers, periodicals and government publications, operating a sort of reference service for party and government figures, and presenting occasional exhibits, the party archive was to be the main depository for documents related to the party’s history from its earliest days. 

As a relative latecomer in the archival field, the Hauptarchiv had great difficulties in finding original material. The members of the party had made a revolution, but had not bothered to document it. With the help of newspaper advertising, leaflets, and questionnaires, the archivists appealed to old party members to donate their memorabilia of strife-torn days and to write down their personal recollections. 

The archive had still other battles to fight in its quest for source material. The old established state archives were unwilling to turn over their collections of party material. Only the Munich police and the Bavarian political police gave the Hauptarchiv their pre – 1933 documentation on the NSDAP. In 1938, Dr. Erich Uetrecht wrote an elaborate memorandum discussing the reorganization of all German archives and assigning the Hauptarchiv a central place in the scheme. The eventual result of this memorandum was a circular signed by Rudolf Hess and sent in July 1939 to the various state agencies, directing them to collaborate fully with the Hauptarchiv; in response, these agencies drew up lists which enabled the Hauptarchiv to ascertain the location of files pertinent to NSDAP history, although the documents themselves were not transferred. 

In 1939, the Hauptarchiv was designated as depository for the Stellvertreter des Fuehrers and the Kanzlei des Fuehrers, as well as the Reichsleitung der NSDAP. It was also given jurisdiction over the various Gau archives and the archives of the NSDAP “Gliederungen” (e.g., S.A., S.S., N.S.K.K., H.J., N.S. Dozentenbund (and the “angeschlossenen Verbaende” (D.A.F. and N.S.V., among others).

By 1943, it had become apparent that Munich was no longer safe from aerial attack and that the more precious holdings of the Hauptarchiv would have to be moved. Three Bavarian sites were selected for storage: Passau-Feste-Oberhaus, Neumarkt-St. Veit go up to March 1945. At the end of war, the American army seized what archives it could find in Passau and Neumarkt-St. Veit. (The fate of the Lenggries material is unknown.) The confiscated documents were then reassembled at the Berlin Document Center in early 1946.