Exterior view of the Prussian Secret State Archives ‘
’ at Archivstraße 12–14 (undated, probably mid-
-1930s) [GStA PK, IX. HA Bilder, SPAE, VII No.
1486, fol. 1].

Originating from a ‘research’ or ‘publication fund’ at the State Archives for the Province of Grenzmark Posen-West Prussia, the publication office had been based at the Prussian Secret State Archives in Berlin-Dahlem since 1932.^[1] It was initially under the direct authority of the Director-General of the Prussian State Archives, Albert Brackmann (1871–1952). Following his replacement and retirement^[2] , responsibility for the office was transferred in 1936 to his close colleague Johannes Papritz (1898–1992). Its aim was to “to monitor domestic and foreign literature on regional and ethnographic studies and to inform the relevant government departments and academic institutions through reports and translations, as well as to make available documents on folklore and regional studies in the form of statistics, maps and directories, primarily for official use”^[3] – material that could be utilised during the Second World War to support the policy of extermination in the East. In the course of the reappraisal of the role of ‘Ostforschung’ under the Nazi dictatorship, a number of academics associated with the publication centre were thus also identified as “architects of extermination”^[4] . Overall, the Publications Office can be seen more as a “building block in the revisionist-oriented academic world of the national-conservative Brackmann, who, however, became increasingly radicalised in his ‘defensive struggle’ against supposed […] Polish and other claims in the late 1930s and, even more so, during the war.”^[5]

The Publications Office’s primary task was initially to monitor and evaluate Polish academic research on the German eastern territories.^[6] In addition, it promoted its own research projects and undertook the translation of daily press reports and academic studies from Poland and, later, from other Eastern and Central European countries. The staff also produced maps and population records, recorded Slavic place names within the German Reich, and drew up proposals for their renaming. These activities were intended solely for the official use of German ministries and subordinate administrative authorities; with the outbreak of the Second World War, they were also intended for military use. As the secretariat of the North-East German (later North and East German) Research Association (NOFG)^[7] , the Publications Office also prepared the association’s conferences, organised research trips and assisted in the preparation of exhibitions. In addition, it carried out publishing activities that had a significant public impact. The starting point for this was an anthology published to mark the International Congress of Historians in Warsaw (Warszawa) in the summer of 1933,^[8] which was intended to present the positions of German-nationalist historiography. Furthermore, the series *Deutschland und der Osten* (from 1936) and the journal *Jomsburg* (from 1937), amongst others, were established and published until 1943. A commemorative volume marking Brackmann’s 70th birthday^[9] brought together, “at the height of the German war of annihilation”^[10] compiled, in two volumes, programmatic texts on ‘Eastern research’.

Albert Brackmann (c. 1930) [GStA PK,
IX. HA Images, SPAE, VII No. 1823, fol. 1].

Alongside Brackmann and Papritz, Wolfgang Kohte (1907–1984) played a key managerial role in the Publications Office as Papritz’s deputy. The number of staff rose steadily over the years. What had initially been Brackmann’s ‘one-man operation’ developed into a department which, by January 1935, already had 20 staff, by February 1943 over 50, and by the end of the war, nominally more than 60.^[11] Each research assistant and scholarship holder was assigned a country or region to ‘observe’, whilst at the same time working on academic publications and contributing to the various card indexes. In addition, there was a library, a periodicals and manuscripts section, a maps section and a collection of images.^[12]

The Publications Office was initially directly subordinate to the Prussian Secret State Archives. Its establishment can be traced back to the ‘Eastern Programme of the Prussian Archival Administration’, initiated by von Brackmann in mid-1931.^[13] This established a ‘institutional centre’ within the Secret State Archives^[14] for Eastern Studies, which, however, found itself increasingly in competition with other institutions.^[15] Nevertheless, the Publications Office “played a central role in all German-Polish disputes concerning the critical examination of the past and the handling of issues relating to Polish territorial claims.”^[16] Brackmann repeatedly emphasised the decidedly political objective of its work, stating that it was intended “essentially only to address the problems of the German struggle for national identity; it is primarily intended for the dispute with Poland; it owes its origins to this purpose and is also designated for this purpose by the political authorities.”^[17] This objective was also evident within the Reich, for example in the Publications Office’s efforts to influence research into the Sorbian people in Upper and Lower Lusatia. In doing so, it supported the Nazi regime’s policy of forcing the Sorbs to assimilate.^[18]

Villa at 11 Gelfertstraße, headquarters of the Publication
from 1938/39 [J. Hoffmann, A. Megel, R. Par
zer, H. Seidel (eds.): Dahlemer Erinnerungsorte, Berlin
2007 (Geschichtswissenschaft 11), p. 228].

Financing was provided by the Prussian and Reich Ministries of the Interior. The Foreign Office, which was also involved in ‘Volkstumsarbeit’ (ethnic culture work), exerted influence as well. In 1934, the Publications Office – and Papritz in particular – were entrusted with the management of the newly founded NOFG, which carried out its work with a staff largely drawn from the Publications Office. In 1938–39, the office was separated from the Prussian archives administration and placed under the direct organisational authority of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, Department VI (German Culture). The Publications Office was also physically separated from the State Archives and moved from Archivstraße 12–14 to Gelfertstraße 11.

During the war, work on cartographic material in particular continued to increase. There was also a sharp rise in the number of statistical publications on ethnic and administrative issues in Eastern Europe. Staff at the Publications Office were involved in the border demarcation commissions for the ‘Reichsgaue’ of the Sudetenland, Danzig-West Prussia and the Wartheland. In addition, they dealt with the transfer of archival material to the Reich; Papritz headed the “German Archival Commission for Estonia and Latvia”.^[19] At the same time, the institution benefited greatly from the cultural plundering carried out by the ‘Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg’ in Eastern as well as Western Europe. For example, in 1940, the Bibliothèque Polonaise in Paris was made provisionally available to it. Originally intended for Rosenberg’s ‘Hohe Schule’ – a project that was never fully realised – the Publications Office was initially tasked with cataloguing the collection, comprising some 130,000 volumes, and conducting scholarly analysis of it for its own work; however, this could not be fully accomplished under the conditions of the war.

In 1943, the Publications Office was attached to Department III of the Reich Security Main Office. It was now required to report directly to the Security Service of the Reichsführer-SS and was engaged, amongst other things, in analysing political material concerning Polish and Czech organisations in exile. The offices in Berlin-Dahlem were rendered unusable from November 1943 onwards due to bomb damage, so the Publications Office’s holdings were relocated to Bautzen by January 1944. This brief interlude lasted until spring 1945, when Coburg was finally to become the institution’s last official headquarters.^[20] The remaining book collections were confiscated by the US Army and transferred to the Library of Congress in Washington in 1948. Part of this collection found its way into the library of the Herder Institute in Marburg in the early 1960s. The surviving records were initially deposited by Papritz at the Marburg State Archives and transferred to the Federal Archives in 1979.

Sources

• Federal Archives, Berlin-Lichterfelde (BArch) R 153: Berlin-Dahlem Publications Office, 1931–1945.
• Secret State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin-Dahlem (GSta PK), VI. Main Department, Rep. 92: Albert Brackmann’s estate.
• Hessian State Archives, Marburg (StAM) 340: Johannes Papritz estate.
• Marburg School of Archival Studies (ArS MR) 1: Johannes Papritz estate.

Bibliography^[21]

• Martin Burkert: Eastern European Studies in the Third Reich. Part 1: Between Prohibition and Tolerance. The Difficult Balancing Act of Eastern European Studies between 1933 and 1939. Wiesbaden 2000 (Research in Eastern European History 55), p. 139–180, 323–354, 519–583, 686–724.
• Michael Burleigh: *Germany Turns Eastwards. A Study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich*. Cambridge et al. 1988, passim.
• Gabriele Camphausen: Academic Historical Research on Russia in the Third Reich, 1933–1945. Frankfurt am Main et al., 1990 (Europäische Hochschulschriften, Series 3: History and its Auxiliary Sciences 418), p. 182–212.
• Michael Fahlbusch: Science in the Service of National Socialist Policy? The ‘Volksdeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaften’ from 1931–1945. Baden-Baden 1999, p. 212–223, 556–575.
• Frank Förster: The ‘Wenden Question’ in German Research on the East, 1933–1945. The Berlin-Dahlem Publications Centre and the Lusatian Sorbs. Bautzen 2007 (Publications of the Sorbian Institute 43), pp. 107–117, 198–213.
• Ingo Haar: Historians under National Socialism. German Historical Scholarship and the ‘Struggle of Nations’ in the East. Göttingen 2000 (Critical Studies in Historical Scholarship 143), passim.
• Bernard Piotrowski: German Propaganda and Scholarship in the Third Reich on Poland and Eastern Europe: The Case of the Berlin Publications Office. In: *Studia Historica Slavo-Germanica* 13 (1984), p. 129–162.
• Helmut Wilhelm Schaller: The ‘Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem’ and German research on Eastern Europe from 1933 to 1945. In: Historische Mitteilungen 20 (2008), pp. 193–216.
• Thomas Schöbel: Albert Brackmann and the ‘Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem’. In: Jessica Hoffmann, Anja Megel, Robert Parzer, Helena Seidel (eds.): Dahlem’s Places of Remembrance. Berlin 2007 (Geschichtswissenschaft 11), p. 229–243.

[1] Jörg Hackmann provides a brief introduction to the publication: ‘German Research on the East and Historical Studies’. In: Jan M. Piskorski, Jörg Hackmann, Rudolf Jaworski (eds.): ‘German Research on the East and Polish Research on the West: The Tension between Academia and Politics. A Comparative Study of Disciplines’. With an afterword by Michael Burleigh. Osnabrück, Poznań 2002 (German Research on the East and Polish Research on the West 1), pp. 25–45, here pp. 34–36. On official letterhead, it was known as the ‘Prussian Secret State Archives, Publications Office’ or ‘Publications Office at the Prussian Secret State Archives’, and later simply as the ‘Publications Office’. In research, the designation used here in the title has become established. The common abbreviation was ‘Pu.-Ste.’ or ‘PuSte’. See in detail Martin Munke: “… to support and promote the interests of the German people”. The Publications Office in Berlin-Dahlem 1931/33 to 1943/47. In: Sven Kriese (ed.): Archival Work Under and for National Socialism. The Prussian State Archives before and after the change of power in 1933. Berlin 2015, pp. 259–294 (Publications from the Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Supplement 13).

[2] See also Michael Burleigh: Albert Brackmann (1871–1952): Scholar of Eastern Studies. The Years of Retirement. In: Journal of Contemporary History 23 (1988), no. 4, pp. 573–588. Brackmann nevertheless continued to play an important role, and Papritz reported regularly to the ‘Director-General’.

[3] Federal Archives (hereinafter: BArch) R 153/6, ‘Scope of responsibilities and mutual relations of the Ethnic German Research Associations and Publication Offices as well as the Berlin Office’, transcript dated 27 March 1942.

[4] The terminology was coined by Götz Aly and Susanne Heim: *Vordenker der Vernichtung. Auschwitz und die German plans for a new European order*. Hamburg 1990. For a study of specific contributions going beyond this, see Fahlbusch: *Wissenschaft* and Haar: *Historiker*. The opposing view, which regards the scholars involved as victims of the Nazi regime, is articulated by Burkert: *Eastern Studies*. For a critical assessment of the contributions by Fahlbusch, Haar and Burkert, see the instructive work by Eduard Mühle: *Eastern Studies and National Socialism*. Critical remarks on the current research debate. In: Journal of East Central European Studies 50 (2001), pp. 256–275.

[5] Sven Kriese: The Struggle for the ‘Correct’ Post-War Research. Albert Brackmann’s Central Office for Post-War History in Conflict with Erich Otto Volkmann’s Military-Historical Post-War Research. In: Hans-Christof Kraus (ed.): The Topic of ‘Prussia’ in Academia and Academic Policy before and after 1945. Berlin 2013 (Research in Brandenburg and Prussian History. New Series. Supplements 12), pp. 133–170, here p. 161. Although the assessment relates to a different institution headed by Brackmann, in my view it is also suitable for characterising the work of the Publications Centre, which made ‘contributions’ rather than ‘pioneering work’.

[6] For the following sections, see generally Irmtraut Eder-Stein, Kristin Hartisch: Introduction. In: Ibid.: Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem 1931–1945. Collection R 153. Koblenz 2003 (Findbücher zu Beständen des Bundesarchivs 92); Schaller: ‘Die “Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem”’, pp. 193–216. Further references to archival evidence can also be found there, some of which are listed here in a few places.

[7] For a detailed discussion of this, albeit often argued in rather apodictic terms, see Fahlbusch: ‘Science in the Service of National Socialist Policy?’, passim.

[8] Albert Brackmann (ed.): Germany and Poland. Essays on their Historical Relations. Munich, Berlin 1933.

[9] Hermann Aubin, Otto Brunner, Wolfgang Kohte, Johannes Papritz (eds.): German Research on the East. Results and Tasks since the First World War. 2 vols. Leipzig 1942/43 (Germany and the East. Sources and Research on the History of their Relations 20 and 21).

[10] Hans-Christian Petersen: Research on the East. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2012. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/53916.html.

[11] See various lists of staff numbers in: BArch R153/8, R153/1214 and R153/1232.

[12] See the ‘departmental structure’ dated 1 June 1937, BArch R 153/6 – although the term ‘department’ usually refers to a single person – as well as the various annual reports, such as the annual report of the Publications Office for the year 1937, BArch 153/1537, and the annual report of the Publications Office for 1938, BArch R153/1549.

[13] For an introduction, see Torsten Musial: Staatsarchive im Dritten Reich. Zur Geschichte des staatlichen Archivwesens in Deutschland 1933–1945. Potsdam 1996 (Potsdamer Studien 2), pp. 22–24; Weiser: Geschichte der preußischen Archivverwaltung (as in note 2), pp. 112–116.

[14] Musial: State Archives (as in note 16), p. 53.

[15] See Martin Munke: ‘Publikationsstelle Ost’. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/62681.html.

[16] Schaller: The ‘Publikationsstelle Berlin-Dahlem’, p. 195.

[17] Letter from Brackmann to the lawyer and economist Hans Raupach (1903–1997) regarding a manuscript for the series ‘Deutschland und der Osten’ and, more generally, the work of the Publikationsstelle, 5 June 1937, BArch R153/226, diary entry no. 1686/37.

[18] Frank Förster provides further details on this: The ‘Wenden Question’ in German Eastern Studies 1933–1945. The Berlin-Dahlem Publications Centre and the Lusatian Sorbs. Bautzen 2007 (Publications of the Sorbian Institute 43), esp. pp. 117–162, 214–241.

[19] For a detailed account, see Stefan Lehr: An Almost Forgotten ‘Eastern Mission’. German Archivists in the General Government and the Reich Commissariat for Ukraine. Düsseldorf 2007 (Publications of the Federal Archives 68).

[20] See directly Helmut Wilhelm Schaller: ‘An Eastern European Library in Upper Franconia. The final location of the “Berlin-Dahlem Publications Centre”’. In: *Archiv für Geschichte von Oberfranken* 91 (2011), pp. 277–286.

[21] As scholarly opinions on the ‘Publikationsstelle’ sometimes differ considerably in their assessment, it is advisable to consult several works even for an initial overview.

Martin Munke: Berlin-Dahlem Publications Centre. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2013. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/53902.html (as at 21 June 2021).