The Utility of Ethnic Minorities (II)

"Recognized by the NSDAP"

During the Weimar Republic, the predecessor of the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), the Deutsche Ausland-Institut DAI (German Foreign Institute) - founded in 1917 - was seen as "significant for the Reich" and already before 1933, had developed a clear affinity to ethnic elements of the Nazi ideology. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[1]) From 1933 - but even more so since 1939 - the institute's activities developed significantly. By introducing the "Führer principle" and adopting the Nazi-ideology as its official working basis in March 1933, the institute came into lockstep with the government. The following year, the institute presented its highest award, the Deutsche Ring, to Adolf Hitler. In December 1934, the audit office of the Reich declared, "The Deutsche Ausland-institut is the Reich's largest central Germandom abroad workplace and recognized, therefore, by Germans abroad, the Reich's administration and the NSDAP."[2] The DAI's revenues increased from 250,000 Reichsmark in 1933 to more than 1.1 Million Reichsmark in 1939; its staff grew from 52, in late 1933, to 157 by August 1939, because of the institute's extensive service to the Reich.

Propaganda and Espionage

Initially the DAI had been instrumental in the Nazi's foreign propaganda. Through its extensive worldwide network of "Germans abroad" contacts that it had established in the period of the Weimar Republic, the DAI propagated Nazi ideology to the German speaking minorities in Europe, the Americas, in Africa and Asia, encouraging these minorities and their organizations to promote the Nazi state in their respective countries. At the same time, the institute was networking with associations and institutions, with which it had come into contact through its activities, including the NSDAP foreign organization, the Deutsche Akademie and the SS' Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi), involved in cultural policy. DAI's foreign activities extended far beyond pure propaganda. It continued its comprehensive indexing of all ethnic Germans abroad, with one of the objectives being to procure "sensitive information pertaining to military and armaments questions," from their contacts in other countries - in other words, espionage, according to the historian Martin Seckendorf. Thus, "the head of the institute instructed the Research Center for Germandom in Russia" under the leadership of Karl Stumpp, "to continuously transmit material to the Wehrmacht," Seckendorf reports. "Other examples also indicate assiduous military espionage activities."[3]

Relevant For the War

Beginning on September 1, 1939, the DAI was engaged only in "war-relevant" tasks, according to Seckendorf. These included the siphoning of information, particularly from the institute's contacts around the world, which numbered around 3,000, by the time the war began. A major focus of DAI's activities soon became the participation in the "Germanization" of the occupied regions of Eastern Europe. On November 25, 1939, SS Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, commissioned the institute to "comprehensively" document the planned "resettlement" - comprised first of the expulsion of the resident population and subsequently resettlement of "Volksdeutschen" to the area. The DAI staff carried out "expeditions" into the areas in question, and as Seckendorf wrote, provided the SS with "documentation on the number, nationality, racial, political, religious and profession composition of the inhabitants of the resettlement areas," thereby enabling the alleged "professionalization" of the procedure.[4] They were thus intrinsically implicated in the murders carried out during Germany's war of annihilation.

Sonderkommando Dr. Stumpp

The activities of Karl Stumpp, mentioned above, who directed the DAI's "Research Center for Germanness in Russia," is an example of how this was actually carried out. Beginning in August 1941, according to historian Samuel D. Sinner, Stumpp was working with a "special unit of up to 80 members" ("Sonderkommando Dr. Stumpp") in the recently occupied Ukraine - with a "paramilitary status authorization."[5] The "Sonderkommando Dr. Stumpp" compiled indexes of the populations of more than 200 settlements, to ascertain the proportion of "Volksdeutscher," while listing the non-"Volksdeutscher" - particularly Jews. Although Stumpp usually dealt with settlements through which the German death squads had already passed, "there were, in fact, a few Jews still alive, who Stumpp indexed," thereby exposing them to the Nazi's henchmen, reported Sinner. "Stumpp's information served, at least locally, to enhance the efficiency of the SS death squads," chronicled the historian. He, moreover, almost certainly "was aware of the special commandos' mass executions of Jews," if not having provided "the legwork."[6]

From Nazi Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany

Stumpp is also an example of how after the war DAI staff members were able to continue their work they had done under the Nazis. As publicist Hans-Rüdiger Minow demonstrates, Stumpp had continued his "Germandom" activities within the framework of the Association for German Cultural Relations Abroad (VDA) refounded in the Federal Republic of Germany.[7] He was also a founding member and long-time chair of the Homeland Association of Germans from Russia, where his writings were very popular among its members. These writings also contain findings derived from his activities since August 1941.[8]

"Ethnic Chauvinist Assimilation"

The DAI itself has also maintained continuity, even though its refounding in 1951 - contrary to the will of influential politicians, such as Theodor Heuss - was under a new name, to avoid an obvious continuity. Since then, it has been named the "Institute für Auslandsbeziehungen" (the German Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa)).[9] Franz Thierfelder became its first General Secretary in the Federal Republic of Germany. Thierfelder, who had been appointed General Secretary of the German Academy in 1930 - predecessor to today's "Goethe Institute" - had already been enthusiastic in 1932 about the "transitional phase toward a new ethnic chauvinist community,"[10] and praised in 1933 the Nazis "ethnic internalization," their "reverence in regards to the regulatory forces of the community" and their "respect for every ethnic tradition."[11] That was before he lost his job in 1937, due to internal rivalries with Karl Haushofer, President of the German Academy. After the war, Thierfelder was rocking the cradle of West Germany's foreign cultural policy. In 1951, he not only was the General Secretary of ifa, but also co-founder of the Goethe Institute. The historian, Eckard Michels explains that, whereas Thierfelder made sure that no conspicuous Nazis participated in the Goethe Institute's founding, he nevertheless insured that there would be a "strong continuity, both in terms of content and in personnel with the predecessor institution" - the German Academy. They "had, by all means, seen themselves in the tradition" of the "work achieved" up to 1945, Michels explains.[12]

Promotion of Germandom

Today, the ifa, which is regulated by a framework agreement with Germany's foreign ministry, meets the demands of the country's cultural foreign policy. It handles primarily artistic and cultural exchanges - facilitating the networking of elites of various countries, as well as diverse forms of inter-cultural dialogues, including dialogues with the Islamic world. It enjoys the best contacts to the German Foreign Ministry, various other federal and regional ministries and the German Bundestag. At its headquarters in Stuttgart, it has currently 103 staff members, with another 20 employees in Berlin. Its annual budget is around 20 million Euros, half of which funding from the federal government, the state of Baden Württemberg and the city of Stuttgart. The ifa continues to pursue, to this day, the field of activities for which it had been created a century ago. It supports German-speaking minorities abroad, establishing operative contacts to representatives of these minorities and makes them accessible to Berlin's influence.

[1] See Vom Wert völkischer Minderheiten (I).
[2], [3], [4] Martin Seckendorf: Deutsches Ausland-Institut. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (Hg.): Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften. Personen - Institutionen - Forschungsprogramme - Stiftungen. München 2008. S. 140-149. Hier: S. 143.
[5], [6] Samuel D. Sinner: Sonderkommando Dr. Stumpp. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (Hg.): Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften. Personen - Institutionen - Forschungsprogramme - Stiftungen. München 2008. S. 647-651. Hier: S. 648f.
[7] Walter von Goldendach, Hans-Rüdiger Minow: "Deutschtum erwache!" Aus dem Innenleben des staatlichen Pangermanismus. Berlin 1994. 281f.
[8] Eric J. Schmaltz, Samuel D. Sinner: Karl Stumpp. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (Hg.): Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften. Personen - Institutionen - Forschungsprogramme - Stiftungen. München 2008. S. 678-682. Hier: S. 682.
[9] Martin Seckendorf: Deutsches Ausland-Institut. In: Ingo Haar, Michael Fahlbusch (Hg.): Handbuch der völkischen Wissenschaften. Personen - Institutionen - Forschungsprogramme - Stiftungen. München 2008. S. 140-149. Hier: S. 149.
[10] Zitiert nach: Eckard Michels: Von der Deutschen Akademie zum Goethe-Institut. Sprach- und auswärtige Kulturpolitik 1923-1960. München 2005. S. 103.
[11] Franz Thierfelder: "Das Neue Reich". Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung 09.12.1933.
[12] Eckard Michels: Von der Deutschen Akademie zum Goethe-Institut. Sprach- und auswärtige Kulturpolitik 1923-1960. München 2005. S. 228.