Extremely rare Firts Edition book of "Organizationbuch NSDAP"

[Br. James]

Hi Jeff,

You have provided us with wonderful and detailed information, the kind of inter-Party stuff that I so enjoy reading! A sure sign of the coming demise of Ley's power appeared in May of 1941, when Martin Bormann moved to Berlin to inaugurate the new Party Chancellery Office as its Chief. (Prior to Hess' departure to Scotland, Hess headed the NSDAP apparatus out of the Brown House in Munich as Deputy Führer, with Bormann as his Chief of Staff.) This move put Bormann even closer to Hitler than Ley was. Up till then, the NSDAP's national machinery was located in Munich, while the Government sat in Berlin. When Bormann came to the New Reichschancellery as Chief of the Party Chancellery, this put him on equal ground with the Chief of the Reichschancellery (Dr. Lammers) and the Chief of the President's Chancellery (Dr. Meissner) and it also established the NSDAP's national offices as equal in importance to the two German State Offices. While Ley was a Reichsleiter, as Bormann was, and Organisationsleiter of the NSDAP, the focus of the Party's operational structure was switched in 1941 from Ley's office in Munich to Bormann's office in Berlin.

Br. James

[peterm]

Tom, I forgot one. I checked tonight. There were a total of seven editions. I forgot that there were editions 2-4 for 1937. So 1938 would be the 5th, 1940 the 6th and 1943 the 7th.

Hi!

Joe is right, the 7th was the last edition and it's also the most expensive one, because it contents all the later laws and regulations.

Kind regards, Peter

[ErichS]

Hi Jeff,

You have provided us with wonderful and detailed information, the kind of inter-Party stuff that I so enjoy reading! A sure sign of the coming demise of Ley's power appeared in May of 1941, when Martin Bormann moved to Berlin to inaugurate the new Party Chancellery Office as its Chief. (Prior to Hess' departure to Scotland, Hess headed the NSDAP apparatus out of the Brown House in Munich as Deputy Führer, with Bormann as his Chief of Staff.) This move put Bormann even closer to Hitler than Ley was. Up till then, the NSDAP's national machinery was located in Munich, while the Government sat in Berlin. When Bormann came to the New Reichschancellery as Chief of the Party Chancellery, this put him on equal ground with the Chief of the Reichschancellery (Dr. Lammers) and the Chief of the President's Chancellery (Dr. Meissner) and it also established the NSDAP's national offices as equal in importance to the two German State Offices. While Ley was a Reichsleiter, as Bormann was, and Organisationsleiter of the NSDAP, the focus of the Party's operational structure was switched in 1941 from Ley's office in Munich to Bormann's office in Berlin.



Br. James

The Party and State merged into one.

[Jeff Clark]

The Party and State merged into one.

That was the ultimate goal, but it never completely happened. The party just duplicated the state positions and tried to make them irrelevant. What they ended up with in many instances, was both competing against the other.
Hitler's goal of Gleichschaltung was never accomplished 100%.
The state apparatus retained almost complete autonomy until 1938, when Hitler appointed several Party members to key offices. Even after that, the state bureaucracy remained relatively independent. Not everybody serving in high office was a Nazi or even had to be a party member.
Hitler liked this chaos of overlapping competencies as it kept people divided to the point where they never united to even remotely threaten his position. And he could appear as the mediator in conflicts, and reward a successful policy of one institution by his decree or simply listening more to it than to the other. In many cases he simply made no decision which left the party and state to resolve it (or not).

[Richard]

Jeff, thanks for the additional history lesson and showing two very rare publications (I'm available for adoption or as heir in your will for your paper items ). These two are very rarely seen and I've never even seen one offered for sale in the last 5 years.
Richard V

[Br. James]

Hi Eric,

Re: Originally Posted by ErichS View Post
The Party and State merged into one.

I must agree with Jeff on this matter. Jeff captures the spirit of Hitler's desire for total implementation of Gleichschaltung...but it was never completed, mostly because the war got in the way. The addition of new territories and the meddling of the one and only legitimate political party -- the NSDAP -- as it tried to oust the German Government and usurp its power was eclipsed by the overall war effort and could never be fully implemented until war's end. And that presumed that the Germans would win the war... As illustrated in this series of "Organisationsbuch" editions, the pre-war years of the Third Reich were certainly heading toward Gleichschaltung, but that movement never had the time to realize its goal.

Br. James