Cultures of Administration. The Imperial Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR Between Continuity and Political System Dependency 1919-1975

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This project compares the ministries of the interior of the Weimar Republic, Nazi Germany, the Federal Republic and the GDR and investigates the continuities und ruptures in their administrative cultures between the end of World War I and the mid-1970s. Unlike previous research, this project pays special attention to everyday administrative routines and their symbolic meanings und interpretations in two areas. On the one hand, the project aims to show the transformations of personnel structure between the regime changes by analyzing the personnel statistically. It will present precise data of personnel structure and interpret the administrative intention either to take over employees from the previous political systems or to replace them with new and younger colleagues. On the other hand, the project examines the internal and external communication of the ministries. Which forms of oral and written communication did their employees use, how did they reflect hierarchies, basic structures and symbolic understandings through communication, and how and under which circumstances did they contact external people and institutions? In conclusion, the personnel structure and the communication help us gain new insights into the development of the state and the administration as well as the entanglements of four different political systems in 20th century Germany.