1939 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART 1, PAGE 2042
Decree of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor concerning the Organization and Administration of the Eastern Territories, October 8, 1939
, Section 1
(1) In the process of reorganization of the Eastern Territories the Reich Districts [Gaue] of Western Prussia and Posen shall be incorporated as parts of the German Reich.
(2) The Reich District shall be administered by a Reich Governor [Statthalter].
(3) The Reieh Governor in Western Prussia shall have his official residence in Danzig ; the Reich Governor in Posen shall have his official residence in Posen!
Section 2
(1) The Reich District of Western Prussia shall be subdivided
into the government districts of Danzig, Marienwerder, and Bromberg. .
(2) The Reich District Posen shall be subdivided into the government districts of Hohensalza, Posen, and Kalisch.
Section 3
(1) For the organization of the administration in the Reich districts, the statute concerning the organization of the administration in the Reich District of the Sudetenland (short title "Sudeten Statute") of April 14, 1939 (RGB1. I, p. 780), shall apply unless modified by this decree.
(2) All branches of the administration shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Reich Governor. The Reich Minister of the Interior shall decide, in agreement with the Reich minister concerned, upon the transfer of special branches of the administration to the existing Reich administrative agencies. Special agen-
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cies for counties shall be subject to the jurisdiction of county commissioners until further notice.
Section 4
By including adjacent territorial parts in the province of Silesia the government district of Kattervitz, and in the province of East-Prussia the government district of Ziehenan shall be formed.
Section 5
(1) The boundaries of the Administrative Districts (Sections 1, 2, and 4) shall be determined by the Reich Minister of the Interior, in agreement with the Prussian President of the Cabinet, as far as the Administrative boundaries between the recovered territories and the adjacent provinces are concerned.
(2) The Reich Minister of the Interior shall regulate the formation of urban and rural counties insofar as it is required by the reorganization.
Section 6
(1) Residents of German blood or of racially related blood shall become German nationals in accordance with further provisions to be issued.
(2) Residents of German origin in these territories shall become German citizens in accordance with the Reich Nationality Code.
Section 7
The law heretofore in force shall continue in effect unless incompatible with the fact of incorporation in the German Reich.
Section 8
The Reich Minister of the Interior may, by means of genera) orders, and in agreement with the Reich minister concerned, introduce Reich law and Prussian law.
Section 9
For the territory of the former Free City of Danzig, the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the Law concerning the reunion of the Free City of Danzig with the German Reich of September 1, 1939 (RGB1., I, p. 1547) remain unchanged.
Section 10
The Reich Minister of Finance shall arrange, in agreement with the Reich Minister of the Interior, the questions arising from the reorganization in the sphere of the adjustment of finances.
Section 11
(1) The Reich Minister of the Interior and the Reich Minister of Finance or the agencies determined by them shall order the
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financial adjustments required by the reorganization as well as the measures herewith connected.
(2) Dispositions in accordance with (1) shall establish rights and obligations of those concerned and shall effect the transition, the restrictions and the annulment of real rights.
Section 12
(1) The Reich Minister of the Interior shall be the official chiefly responsible for the reorganization of the Eastern Territories.
(2) He shall issue the general rules and regulations required for the enforcement and execution of this decree.
Section 13
(1) This decree shall take effect as of November 1, 1939.
(2) The Reich Minister of the Interior may, for specified areas, declare the provisions of this decree to be in effect at an earlier date.
Berlin, October 8, 1939.
ADOLF HITLER, Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor GOERING, General Field Marshal, President of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich
FRICK, Reich Minister of the Interior
R. HESS, Representative of the Fuehrer DR. LAMMERS, Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery
Decree incorporating West Prussia and Posen into the Reich, with reich governors and administrative arrangements set by the Ministry of the Interior
Authors
Adolf Hitler (Fuehrer, Reich Chancellor, Supeme Commander of Wehrmacht)
Adolf Hitler
Austrian nationalized German politician, leader of the National Socialist party and dictator of Germany (1889-1945)
- Born: 1889-01-01 1889-04-20 (Braunau am Inn) (country: Austria-Hungary; located in the administrative territorial entity: Archduchy of Austria above the Enns; statement is subject of: Adolf-Hitler-Geburtshaus)
- Died: 1945-04-30 (Berlin Führerbunker) (country: Nazi Germany; located in the administrative territorial entity: Berlin; statement is subject of: death of Adolf Hitler)
- Country of citizenship: Cisleithania (period: 1889-04-20 through 1918-11-11); First Republic of Austria (period: 1919-01-01 through 1925-04-30); Nazi Germany (end cause: death of Adolf Hitler; period: 1933-01-30 through 1945-04-30); Republic of German-Austria (period: 1918-01-01 through 1919-01-01)
- Occupation: painter (statement is subject of: paintings by Adolf Hitler); political writer; politician (reason for preferred rank: generally used form); soldier
- Member of political party: German Workers' Party (period: 1919-09-12 through 1921-07-11); Nazi Party (series ordinal: 556)
- Member of: Nazi Party
- Participant in: Aktion T4; Beer Hall Putsch; The Holocaust; ethnic cleansing
- Significant person: Albert Speer; Benito Mussolini; Eva Braun; Joseph Stalin
Hermann Goering (Reich Marshal; Commander in Chief, Luftwaffe; Commissioner for Four-Year Plan)
Hermann Göring
German Nazi politician, military leader and convicted war criminal (1893–1946)
- Born: 1893-01-12 (Rosenheim)
- Died: 1945-01-01 1946-10-15 (Nuremberg Court Prison Nuremberg) (reason for deprecated rank: error in referenced source or sources; reason for preferred rank: most precise value)
- Country of citizenship: German Empire; Nazi Germany
- Occupation: aircraft pilot; art collector; politician; war criminal
- Member of political party: Nazi Party (period: 1922-11-01 through 1923-11-23, 1928-04-01 through 1945-04-29)
- Member of: Sturmabteilung
- Participant in: Beer Hall Putsch; Nazi plunder; genocide; war crime
- Significant person: Alma Hedin (role: friend)
Wilhelm Frick (Minister of the Interior; chief of Nazi delegation, Reichstag; admin. Plenipotentiary)
Wilhelm Frick
German Nazi official (1877-1946)
- Born: 1877-03-12 (Alsenz)
- Died: 1946-10-16 (Nuremberg)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: diplomat; lawyer; politician
- Member of political party: German Völkisch Freedom Party; National Socialist Freedom Movement; Nazi Party
- Member of: AGV München; Thule Society
- Participant in: Aryanization; Beer Hall Putsch; International Military Tribunal (role: defendant)
- Position held: Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (period: 1943-08-24 through 1945-05-04; replaces: Konstantin von Neurath); Reichsminister des Innern (period: 1933-01-30 through 1943-08-20; replaced by: Heinrich Himmler; replaces: Franz Bracht); member of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany; member of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic
Rudolf Hess (Deputy to the Fuehrer; minister without portfolio)
Rudolf Hess
German Nazi leader (1894-1987)
- Born: 1894-04-26 (Alexandria)
- Died: 1987-08-17 (Spandau Prison) (located in the administrative territorial entity: West Berlin)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: aircraft pilot; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Thule Society
- Participant in: Beer Hall Putsch
- Military rank: lieutenant
Hans H. Lammers (Dr., Chief of Reich Chancellery)
Hans H. Lammers
German jurist, Nazi politician, and Head of the Reich Chancellery (1879-1962)
- Born: 1879-05-27 (Lubliniec)
- Died: 1962-01-04 (Düsseldorf)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: judge; jurist; lawyer; politician
- Member of political party: German National People's Party (until: 1932-01-01); Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel
- Participant in: Ministries Trial (role: defendant); Nuremberg Medical Trial (role: affiant, witness)
- Significant person: Adolf Hitler (role: superior); Karl Brandt (role: colleague)
Date: 08 October 1939
Literal Title: 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt . . . Decree of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor concerning the Organization and Administration of the Eastern Territories, October 8, 1939
Defendants: Wilhelm Frick, Hermann Wilhelm Goering, Rudolf Hess
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-3560
HLSL Item No.: 450489
Trial Issues
Conspiracy (and Common plan, in IMT) (IMT, NMT 1, 3, 4) IMT count 1: common plan or conspiracy (IMT) Nazi regime (rise, consolidation, economic control, and militarization) (I…
Document Summary
PS-3560: Decree dated 8 October 1939 (RGBl, 1939, I, p.2042) concerning the organization and administration of the eastern territories, signed by Hitler, Goering, Frick, Hess, and LAMMERS.
Fuehrer decree, 8 October 1939, signed by LAMMERS: