THE GERMAN FOREIGN OFFICE ARCHIVES

(See also the response by Guillaume de Syon below. - ed.)

Tom Maulucci
May 16, 1994
Yale University

email address: maulucci@minerva.cis.yale.edu

              *THE GERMAN FOREIGN OFFICE ARCHIVES*

            Copyright 1994 by Thomas W. Maulucci, Jr.

     In 1992 and 1993 I spent approximately nine months working
in the *Politisches Archiv des Auswaertigen Amts* on a
dissertation concerning the establishment and early history of
the West German Foreign Office, 1945-1955. The following is
intended as a brief overview of the general accessibility of the
collections and working conditions, as well as of certain
practical issues that a first-time visitor will be interested in
knowing about.

              I. GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT COLLECTIONS

A. "*Das Alte Amt*", 1867 to 1945.

     There are two important publications covering the period
1867 to 1945 that I should cite immediately before going any
further:

1. The American Historical Association, Committee for the Study
     of War Documents (ed.), *A Catalogue of Films and Microfilms
     of the German Foreign Ministry Archives 1867-1920*
     (reprinted New York, 1970).

2. George O. Kent (compiler and ed.), *A Catalogue of Files and
     Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives 1920-
     1945* (Vols. 1-4; Stanford, California: Hoover Institution
     Publications).

     Vol. 1: 1920-1936 (1962)
     Vol. 2: 1920-1936 (1964)
     Vol. 3: 1936-1945 (1966)
     Vol. 4: 1936-1945 (1972)

     Researchers at the Foreign Office Archives order files for
the pre-1945 period based on the AHA/Kent guidebooks, which are
held behind the desk in the reading room. The Allied Powers
seized all of the Foreign Office's records at the end of World
War Two and only returned them in 1956. The guidebooks list the
names of all of the captured files and note whether they were
filmed entirely, filmed partially or not filmed at all. The
various filming projects only could include a portion of the
documents. Some of the unfilmed files are very useful despite
seemingly uninteresting titles, and the editors sometimes made
debatable choices in excluding material from the partially-filmed
files. The Foreign Office's archivists found it easiest not to
reorganize the collections but assigned them simplified call
numbers. The guidebooks contain virtually all of the pre-1945
collection except for some *Nachlaesse*.

     Moreover, a variety of printed documentary collections cover
the pre-1945 period as well. The *Akten zur deutschen
auswaertigen Politik 1918-1945* (ADAP), Serie A-E (various
editors and places of publication, 1950- ) deserve special
mention. They not only contain many documents that were not
filmed by the Allies but also have an extensive scholarly
apparatus. Many of the footnotes contain excerpts from documents
not included in the collection itself.

     The various collections of filmed and printed documents from
the *Auswaertiges Amt* have created a fortunate situation for
researchers. It may not be necessary to go to Bonn at all (or at
least not for an extended period of time) if your research
project is from the pre-1945 period. It may be that the files
you are interested in were filmed and are available at the
university library or through inter-library loan. Before
planning a trip to the Foreign Office Archives to work on this
period it is vital to do the necessary groundwork first, which
will save you both time and money. Check first to see what is
available at home and also whether the filmed materials are
readable, which is not always a given with older, hand-written
documents.

B. "*Das Neue Amt*", 1949-

     Unfortunately, researchers working in the post-1949 period
(or, as the archivists call it, "das Neue Amt") do not have the
excellent published finding aids and documentary collections that
their colleagues in the pre-1945 period benefit from. The
appendices of the *Akten zur Auswaertigen Politik der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland* (AAPBD), general editor Hans-Peter
Schwarz (Bonn, 1989ff.), will be of use for the years they cover.
Its editors made the conscious decision to start the series in
1963 (with the exception of the first two volumes containing the
transcripts of Adenauer's conversations with the Allied High
Commissioners 1949-1952) in order to publish each new volume as
the "thirty-year rule" expires. For example, the 3-volume
installment for 1963 appeared last summer, and the 1964 volume(s)
hopefully will hit bookshelves later this year. The reason for
this editorial decision, which at first glance may appear
puzzling, is actually quite sound, although researchers
interested in the period 1949-1962 will be unhappy for some time
to come. The Allies's capture and filming of the pre-1945
materials was a boon for scholars since it frustrated any
subsequent attempt by German authorities to restrict access to
important collections (with the notable exception of personal
files, which I will discuss below). In the post-1949 period,
materials originally classified "streng geheim" or higher are
generally inaccessible to researchers regardless of the
expiration of the standard thirty-year period. These
restrictions especially affect the important *Ministerbuero* and
*Buero Staatssekretaer* collections, each of which is only
partially accessible.

     The editors of the *Akten zur Auswaertigen Politik der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland* have unrestricted access to the
classified files (*VS-Bestaende*) from the Foreign Office
Archives and the Federal Chancellory (or in some cases *Stiftung
Bundeskanzler-Adenauer-Haus*). As soon as important classified
material becomes thirty years old the editors intend to release
it to the public. However, certain categories of material could
not be declassified: documents of foreign origin, documents
relating to international or multilateral organizations
(including NATO), and all intelligence information (see
"*Vorbemerkungen zur Edition*", AAPBD 1963 Bd. 1, ed. by Rainer
A. Blasius, Munich, 1994, pp. X-XI). Moreover, I do not know if
the declassified files will be open to researchers or if they
only are available to the extent they appear in the AAPBD. *VS-
Bestaende* at the Foreign Office Archives from the period 1949-
1962, it seems, remain classified and inaccessible.

     This is obviously an unsatisfactory situation, but there are
several factors that make it possible to work around such
restrictions. In part due to the late date of its official re-
creation (March 1951) compared to most of the Federal Republic's
other ministries (September 1949), the Auswaertiges Amt was
unable to reestablish the pre-eminent interministerial position
that it enjoyed before 1945. Moreover, the increased importance
of international organizations, European unification and economic
and cultural diplomacy after 1945 (to name just a few areas) gave
other ministries more weight in (West) German diplomacy. This
was especially true for the Economics Ministry, which engaged in
a heated battle with the Foreign Office over their respective
competencies for European integration and trade policy that was
not settled until the late 1950s. Since the Foreign Office no
longer had undisputed leadership in planning and coordinating
foreign policy after 1949, the archives of other ministries must
be consulted in order to get a complete picture of West German
foreign policy in a number of important areas, especially
European policy and security policy. Luckily, the
*Bundesarchiv*, Koblenz, is the repository for materials from all
the "civilian" ministries and has liberal access policies based
on the "thirty-year rule". The *Bundesarchiv-Militaerarchiv*,
Freiburg, contains most records relating to the European Defence
Community and NATO, including those relating to diplomatic
aspects.

     In addition, the personal papers of important German
diplomats and foreign ministers of the post-war period often are
located at other archives and are of almost irreplaceable value.
The most important of these are at the *Bundesarchiv*, Koblenz.
The Heinrich von Brentano Papers contain Foreign Minister
Brentano's correspondence with Adenauer and other important
political leaders.   Arnulf Baring's book *Sehr verehrter Herr
Bundeskanzler! Heinrich von Brentano im Breifwechsel mit Konrad
Adenauer 1949-1964* (Hamburg, 1964) excerpts many of the most
important letters and serves as a useful guide to the collection,
which requires the permission of Brentano's nephew, Michael von
Brentano, to use (usually a mere formality; write the
Bundesarchiv for his address). Even more important are the
Herbert Blankenhorn Papers, which are accessible through in-house
approval at the Bundesarchiv (again a formality) and contain his
political diary. The diary is especially extensive for the
period 1949 to 1955, when he was one of Adenauer's closest co-
workers in Bonn. Portions of it appear in an unfortunately
highly censored form in his memoirs, *Verstaendnis und
Verstaendigung. Blaetter eines politischen Tagebuchs 1949 bis
1979* (Frankfurt a.M., 1980). In addition, Blankenhorn had the
fortuitous habit for researchers of keeping copies of important
documents he needed for evening and week-end consultations with
Adenauer; instead of being returned to the Foreign Office, they
landed in his cellar and subsequently in the *Bundesarchiv*.
This is often the only place they are available to researchers.
The Walter Hallstein Papers are also in Koblenz. Unfortunately,
the materials from his time as Foreign Office State Secretary
consist largely of handwritten notes in red ink that are often
illegible (even for experienced German researchers). They are
also largely from or about meetings he participated in and often
consist of single words or phrases about the points discussed;
their brevity alone makes the notes seem of limited value as
historical sources.

     Other archives also contain Nachlaesse important for the
post-1945 period. The Stiftung Bundeskanzler-Adenauer-Haus in
Rhoendorf contains Adenauer's papers. These are not as extensive
on foreign policy issues as one would hope and apparently many
remain classified. The Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte in Munich
has the Heinz Krekeler Papers (Ambassador in Washington, 1950-
1958) and as of this year the Alexander Boeker Papers (Ambassador
at the UN 1968-1971 and the Vatican 1971-1977; Boeker also
staffed a number of high posts in the central Foreign Office
after 1956. Write the Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte for details
on the accessibility of both collections).

     I hope that the reader will forgive my digression about the
holdings of archives other than the Foreign Office Archives. The
point, however, is an important one: many of the most important
sources for Germany foreign policy after 1949 are *not* located
at the Foreign Office. In light of the Auswaertiges Amt's highly
conservative declassification policy, it is probably very
fortunate for researchers that this is so.

     This is not to underemphasize the importance of the holdings
in Bonn for the post-1949 period, which are quite extensive.
They are organized according to the Foreign Office Division,
Office, Secretariat and sometimes Desk (Referat) that the
documents originated from. The finding aids for most of these
administrative units are located behind the research room's front
desk. Those not behind the front desk are generally of less
interest to researchers but are provided on request (the Legal
Division comes to mind as an example). Almost all of the high-
use collections have recently-prepared finding aids with good
introductions. In some cases, however, the finding aid is the
original list of documents provided by the unit in the Foreign
Office when it turned the documents over to the Archives (once
again, the Legal Division comes to mind). Organization plans for
the "Neues Amt" at various stages of it existence also are
available in a folder behind the front desk and, given the way
the post-1949 materials are ordered, are useful reference tools
for tracking down documents.

C. *Nachlaesse* and *Personalakten*.

     The Foreign Office Archives contain around 200 collections
of former diplomats's papers that are of varying value. A binder
listing all of the collections with their accessibility
conditions is located with the other finding aids. Many of the
more important ones for the pre-1945 period also are listed in
the AHA/Kent guides, but you should consult the binder for the
definitive list. "*Handakten*" is a special term referring to
official papers left behind by a high-level official (usually a
division leader or higher). In practice, however, *Handakten*
often contain private correspondence and clippings just like
regular *Nachlaesse*, and the latter may contain official
documentation as well.

     The German Federal Archives Law passed in 1989 set new
national standards for accessibility to *Personalakten*. They
are now available to researchers either 30 complete calendar
years after the year of death of the person in question (i.e.,
1994 for persons dying in 1963, not thirty years after the exact
date of death--at least this is the way I understand it) or, if
the date of death is not known, 100 years after the date of
birth. The researcher must write the year of death (or at least
take a guess) on the order form. In addition, if the diplomat
served both before 1945 and after 1949, the researcher has to
specify "altes Amt", "neues Amt" or both. *Personalakten*
obviously are useful for gathering biographical information
including, for example, whether or not the diplomat was a NSDAP-
member and what their relations with the "Party" were like. On
the other hand, they can also consist largely of records of the
diplomat's sick leaves and requests to go on vacation. In my
opinion, Personalakten rarely contain lots of valuable material,
although they are by all means worth a look since they well might
contain a "nugget" or two.

               II. ACCESS AND WORKING CONDITIONS

     The address for the Foreign Office Archives is:

Auswaertiges Amt         Tel.: 0228/172159 (*Sekretariat*)
Politisches Archiv             0228/172179 (*Lesesaal*)
Postfach 1148
Adenauerallee 99-103
53113 Bonn

     Non-Germans need to provide a letter of introduction from
their embassy in Germany, generally from the cultural attache's
office. For U.S. citizens, the address is:

U.S. Information Service      Tel.: 0228/3391
Embassy of the United States of America
Deichmanns Aue 29
53179 Bonn

In addition, graduate students must bring a letter from their
advisors.

     It is anyone's guess how soon the Foreign Office will move
to Berlin and when the above information will become inaccurate.
The Archives will be one of the last administrative units moved,
however, and it is likely to be a quite a few years before things
are this far.

     The Archives (*Referat 117*) are located inside the Foreign
Ministry itself and are easily reachable from the main train
station by either foot or subway (get off at either *Auswaertiges
Amt* or *Juridicum*). You then turn into the small alleyway on
the Adenauer-Allee next to the branch office of the Dresdner Bank
and walk to the guardhouse. Upon surrendering your passport (for
German citizens, the national I.D. card serves as well), you
receive a clip-on visitor's tag which needs to be shown to the
guards if you leave the Foreign Office grounds anytime during the
day and plan on returning (i.e. for lunch). Moreover, the guards
will give you a small paper slip that you leave at the front desk
in the reading room; upon leaving for the day, ask an Archives'
staff member to sign your slip, which you need (along with the
visitor's tag) to get your identification back.

     The Archives' staff understandably does not appreciate it
if, once you have entered the Foreign Office grounds, you try to
move unaccompanied by a Foreign Office employee anywhere beyond
the confines of the reading room (you are free to come or go
unaccompanied anytime you wish, assuming you leave the grounds
directly). You probably will find it surprisingly easy to move
around. Remember that succumbing to this temptation, however
innocently, may have negative consequences for you. At the very
least it will create bad blood between you and the Archives'
staff, since they are responsible for ensuring that you stay
where you belong.

     The reading room itself is small. It accommodates
approximately 24 researchers in two rows of seats facing windows
that look out onto the Rhine. It is therefore best to reserve a
place (which can be done by phone) at least two weeks before
coming to Bonn, since it is not unheard of that researchers are
turned away for lack of space. The reading room is open from
8:15 to 4:30 Monday to Thursday and 8:15 to 3:00 on Friday--the
Archives keep to the basic weekly work schedule held by most of
the Foreign Office's employee's. Be aware that in addition to
the many official holidays that close the reading room, the
Archives take a long Christmas break that usually extends from
the week before Christmas to at least the third week of January.

     The reading room contains a small library, which consists of
reference works, printed documentary collections like the ADAP
and *Kabinettsprotokolle* and publications that used materials
from the Foreign Ministry Archive. One of the conditions for
working here, as is common at German archives, is that the
researcher must submit a copy of their work upon completion to
the Archives. These publications are useful to have at hand when
working with the collections themselves. In general, the reading
room's collection contains most of the reference works and many
of the secondary studies a researcher would like to have nearby
when researching. There is also the Foreign Office's
*Bibliothek*. It may be possible in some cases to use this
library to see certain official Foreign Office and German
government publications not kept in the reading room; ask the
Archives' staff. For example, I was able to visit the
*Bibliothek* in order to see the Auswaertiges Amt's internal
newsletter for the early 1950s.

     Upon arrival a highly unpleasant surprise greeted me: I was
not allowed to use my laptop in the *Politisches Archiv*. This
slowed my work in Germany considerably and forced me to carry
around lots of notes on index cards. The official reason is that
computers make too much noise. In addition, I was told that
there were not enough outlets, which seemed like another weak
argument after a quick look around. This argument also ignores
the existence of batteries. I fear there will be no change in
laptop policy in the near future.

     On their first day, researchers receive their documents
promptly after ordering so that they can get started right away.
Thereafter, the staff submits researchers's requests to the
document storage rooms twice a day, at around 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.
On Friday, records are brought only at 10 a.m. In general,
documents ordered in the morning will be brought that afternoon,
and those ordered in the afternoon the next morning. Only rarely
did I experience any great delay. There is no official limit on
the number of volumes you can work with at one time, although the
staff will speak up if they feel you have too many. At times I
had between 20 and 30 volumes of documents on my shelf without
hearing any complaints from the staff.

     The Foreign Office Archives use an outside firm,
*Mikropress*, to prepare copies and microfilm. The former cost
60Pf. a sheet and the latter 30Pf. a frame while I was there.
These prices clearly made mircofilm the better choice, although I
normally prefer hard copies. I had no complaints about quality.
In general, it took about a month to six weeks to get back an
order. Around Christmas-time, unfortunately, the entire firm
(this is no joke) takes an extended vacation. This meant that I
had to wait over two months for materials requested in late
December. My impression was that communication between
Mikropress and the reading room staff was quite good, which
worked to the researcher's advantage. The staff will tell
researchers that they can only make 2,000 copies per calendar
year, which is largely a bluff to prevent them from copying
entire volumes of documents. The Foreign Office Archives seem to
fear that researchers will create their own private archives,
which would limit their future visits; I imagine that the filming
of the pre-1945 documents has something to do with this policy.
In any event, as long as a researcher does not try to copy entire
volumes (with the possible exception of very small volumes),
there are no limits on the total number of pages that may be
copied.

     Two archivists are potentially important contacts for
researchers. Frau Dr. Maria Keipert is in charge of the pre-1945
collections, while Herr Dr. Ludwig Biewer is responsible for the
post-1949 collection, *Nachlaesse* and the Foreign Office's
history. Both usually are willing to help if the Archives'
staff is unable to answer your questions (Dr. Biewer helped me
very much; I have heard good things about Dr. Keipert from other
researchers although I personally have had no dealings with her).
Usually they can find time to talk to you if you give them a day
or two's notice. Herr Vortragender Legationsrat 1. Klasse Heinz
Waldner leads *Referat 117--Politisches Archiv und Historisches
Referat*.

     The Archives' staff is remarkably well-qualified compared to
the staff researchers deal with at most other archives in Germany
and elsewhere, which normally consists merely of reading-room
attendants. The Foreign Office Archives' staff is responsible
among other things for arranging documentary collections and
preparing finding aids. As a result, these people actually know
something about the files they hand to you. On the whole they
are quite knowledgeable about where to find things in the
collections or can refer you to a colleague who is. The staff-
members speak good English and perhaps a few other foreign
languages as well and, more importantly, are patient with those
of us who don't speak good German. In addition, most of them are
good at deciphering difficult handwritten documents and marginal
comments and quite willing to help in this regard if asked, as I
discovered much to my relief soon after I arrived. In general
both the archivists and the staff are very helpful and friendly.

     Three other points deserve brief mention:

     1) The *Hauptbibliothek* of Bonn University is located on
the same side of the Adenauer-Allee as the Foreign Office, one
long block further down towards the Bonner *Altstadt*. Its main
reading room has a large collection of reference works and
current periodicals;

     2) There is no good place at the Foreign Office Archives to
eat lunch, take a break or meet fellow researchers (the latter is
easy if you want to make an effort, however). All Foreign Office
eating facilities are off-limits. You can bring a bag lunch to
eat in the cramped coat-room in front of the reading room. There
also are a number of cafes and restaurants nearby as well as a
*Mensa* in the Nassestr. about 10 minutes away (any university
I.D. suffices to get the discount price for meals).

     3) The housing situation in Bonn is disastrous, especially
if you have a limited research budget. The commute from Cologne,
Koblenz and points in-between is not too bad if you want or have
to live outside the city. I have one suggestion in Bonn itself:
the *Studentenwerk der Universitaet Bonn* apparently reserves a
number of dormitory rooms for visiting scholars making short-term
visits to Bonn. Write the Studentenwerk Bonn AoeR, Nassestr. 11,
53113 Bonn well in advance of your trip to see if any of these
rooms are available and under what conditions. Good luck!

(I would like to thank Joel David Cameron, U. of Minnesota
Graduate School, History Department, who supplied useful
information on his own experiences for the sections on the
"*Altes Amt*" and "*Nachlaesse*")

--------------------------

Subject:        Re: Archives of Auswaertiges Amt, Bonn

Submitted by:   Guillaume De Syon <desyon@albert.bu.edu>

If I may make a couple of additional comments regarding Thomas Maulucci's
very useful account of research in the AA archives. I spent four months
looking at "Das alte Amt" material. Although most of the files I was
interested in (political reports on interwar aeronautics) appeared in in
the Kent finding aids, my nicely outlined list was of limited use when I
showed up in Bonn, as new numbers were assigned to the Kent lists. ie.,
what would have still used either a film or a department number (IIf,
etc...) now had a Bundesarchiv kind of number (say, R 32995). The
concordance chart exists there in the form of photocopied Kent volumes, in
which the original numbers are replaced with the new ones. Original Kent
volumes are also on hand.

One thing that is not well documented (or filmed) are the old German
embassies' holdings ("fonds", the material either used as a record of what
was sent to Berlin or, more interestingly, background material deemed not
useful to the Zentrale, but preserved for use by the diplomats). Several
such files still exist, but were not accessioned in any formal way (the
finding aids are very general and are based often on what should be there,
but not necessarily what actually is), as they were returned to Germany
long after World War II (I am thinking in particular of the German embassy
in Bern). Thus, one has to ask for their retrieval, which may take some
time, in order to check for any interesting material.

One advantage to consulting the original files of "das alte Amt" in Bonn
rather than the filmed copies in DC or elsewhere is the fact that several
kinds of pencil annotations can be spotted, a very useful thing when one
needs to find out who handled which dossier. As an aside, this is probably
the biggest problem researchers of Berlin Document Center material will
face when they must look at Black and white film once the Center seals
certain files.

Guillaume de Syon
Einstein Papers Project
desyon@albert.bu.edu

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