See Area of responsibility.

Authority responsible for restitution claims in the Länder of the US occupation zone (Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Württemberg-Baden).

Authority in West Berlin that served (from 1949 to 1968) as the central office for filing claims for the restitution of assets that had been forcibly and unlawfully seized from individuals or businesses.

Local court authority in the Land of Württemberg-Baden that rendered decisions on claims in restitution proceedings.

Type of ecclesiastical archive operated by an archbishopric.

A reduced image of a building, part of a building, machine, etc., created by parallel projection onto a plane. A ground plan is a top view, an elevation, on the other hand, is a side view.

The process of creating a set of data representing an archival record and its content according to a given set of rules during which the reference code of the item is assigned, too.

See record type.

Archival records connotes the entirety of archival items.

See descriptive unit.

Public or private organisation responsible for selecting, preserving, and making available records determined to have permanent or continuing value. Sometimes also referred to as repository or record office.

See university archives.

Archives operated by government-approved political foundations.

The geographical area of responsibility of a repository.

The organization of archival records according to a given set of rules, see also description.

Documents of different provenance, which were removed from their original fonds due to special storage requirements (oversize, special climatic requirements) and combined in a new collection.

Organisation established in 1947 that was originally active in both West and East Germany. It was dissolved in the GDR in 1953 and classified as a communist organisation in the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Authority in South Baden (the former Land of Baden) seated in Freiburg that was responsible (from 1946 to 1949) for carrying out compensation measures under Land legislation.

Authority in the district of South Baden (the former state of Baden) with headquarters in Freiburg, responsible from 1946 to 1951 for the administration and restitution of assets confiscated on the basis of the denazification laws.

Administrative records which were bound and are thus available as books.

A media archive operated by a broadcasting institution.

Type of archive which encompasses all archives operated by individual corporations, chambers of commerce and industry as well as foundations set up by them.

A systematic compilation of all the fonds held at an archive with concise descriptions, usually structured according to their origin (provenance) or content (pertinence).

Type of state archive responsible for the long-term care of records of the highest governement offices (the ministries) of a German state, sometimes also of its regional government offices.

Manuscript volume containing transcriptions of deeds.

Type of municipial archive operated by a town, an independent city or a county corporate.

The organization of the documents in a fonds into categories according to a scheme in order to identify and group related records.

A period of time regulated by legal rule, e.g. to protect sensitive information or personal privacy, during which archival records can only be accessed in exceptional cases.

An aggregation of records by thematic aspects (pertinence) rather than by their origin (provenance).

Payments to recognised victims of National Socialist persecution and surviving dependants, usually in the form of pensions and one-time payments to compensate for persecution-related death, injury to body or health, deprivation of freedom, or damage to property, assets, business or professional career.

Regional court authority that was responsible for publishing restitution claims and rendering decisions on them in the Länder of the former British occupation zone. The objective of these proceedings was to reach an amicable settlement between the involved parties. If no amicable settlement was reached, the case was referred to the Wiedergutmachungskammer (court for restitution-related matters).

Regional court authority that was responsible for publishing restitution claims and rendering decisions on them in the Länder of the former British occupation zone. The objective of these proceedings was to reach an amicable settlement between the involved parties. If no amicable settlement was reached, the case was referred to the court for compensation- and restitution-related matters

Authorities that were responsible for rendering decisions on restitution claims in the Land of Berlin.

Court of first instance for lawsuits regarding compensation proceedings, which were to be decided by a magistrates' court based on state law regulations in the states of the former French occupation zone (South Baden, Baden, Wurttemberg- Hohenzollern and Rhineland-Palatinate).

Authority in the Land of Berlin responsible for rendering decisions on claims for compensation under the Federal Compensation Act and the Additional Federal Compensation Act.

A narrative description summarizing the content of an archival unit giving more info than just its title.

Corporate archives are archival departments within a company or corporation that manage and preserve the records of that business.

Regional court divisions where plaintiffs could file suit against negative decisions by compensation authorities. Such courts were the court of first instance in compensation-related judicial procedures.

Regional court divisions in the Länder of the former American and British occupation zones that served as courts of first instance for decisions in restitution proceedings where the involved parties were unable to reach an amicable settlement.

Also: Chamber of a regional district court, which, in Rhineland-Palatinate and as court of first instance, was responsible for decisions on applications for restitution. By filing for action, restitution proceedings were brought to court without prior authority proceedings. In the other states of the French occupation zone, the chamber was called a restitution chamber.

Regional court divisions in the Länder of the former French occupation zone that served as courts of first instance for decisions in restitution proceedings. Restitution proceedings were conducted when a lawsuit was filed. They did not require prior actions with other public authorities.

Upper regional court divisions that conducted appellate reviews of compensation court rulings in disputed compensation cases.

Upper regional court divisions that were responsible (until 1990) for conducting appellate proceedings in restitution cases in West Germany.

The dates of the oldest and most recent items in an archival unit or a fonds.

Deeds are legal documents concerning the ownership or tenure of property drawn up and certified in accordance with certain forms. The property in question may be tangible, such as land or buildings, or it may be intangible, such as a right or privilege, a rent charge and so on.

An archival resource placed in a repository by a natural or legal person without transfer of title.

The process of making archival records and their content accessible via finding aids by means of arrangement and archival cataloguing.

A document or aggregation of documents, treated as an entity within a fonds. Often also referred to as archival unit .

Type of ecclesiastical archive operated by a diocese.

Type of municipal archive operated by a administrative district.

Authority in the Land of Rhineland-Palatinate responsible for (a) rendering decisions on claims for compensation under Land legislation (from 1946 onwards) and under the Federal Compensation Act and the Additional Federal Compensation Act (from 1953 onwards) as well as (b) the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

A group of documents purposefully collected from different files or sources to provide information about a specific topic.

Type of archive encompassing all archives operated by a family, most often from the aristocracy or royalty.

See architectural or engineering drawing.

Type of ecclesiastical archive operated by an episcopate.

The property owned by a natural person, especially at death.

Return of identifiable valuables and cultural objects, which were seized by the German Reich in the occupied territories.

See dynastic archives.

Type of archive, which encompasses all archives operated by the German Federal State or the federal states.

A group of documents related by use or topic, typically created and accumulated by organisations or businesses in the course of their activities.

Descriptive tools containing information that establishes control over records and facilitates their retrieval.

A set of records compiled by provenance or pertinence to form a logical, higher hierarchical entity.

A description of the material within a fonds, providing essential information for researching them. Often also called a finding aid.

See central state archive.

See architectural or engineering drawing.

Inverted-tree structure of all the fonds held at a specific repository.

Used to give information about special documents within in an archival unit like leaflets, pictures or posters.

Restitution of assets seized within the territory of the German Reich, carried out in accordance with restitution provisions adopted by the occupying powers and/or the Federal Restitution Act.

A type of finding aid: whereas analytical inventories include a detailed description of important collections, often at the file or item level, thematic inventories group records from different fonds according to specific subjects.

The smallest archival unit in archival holdings.

Union of 23 Jewish organisations, founded in New York City in 1951 preceding the German-Israeli negotiations (Luxembourg Agreement 1952) on the pursuit of indemnification claims for Jewish individuals and their heirs living outside of Israeli.

Organisations established for the purpose of recovering heirless Jewish property. They include: Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO), Allgemeine Treuhandorganisation (ATO), Jewish Trust Corporation (JTC).

Authorities in the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia responsible for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Authority in Bavaria that was responsible (from 1946 to 1949) for rendering decisions on claims for compensation under Land legislation.

Authorities in the Länder of Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Schleswig-Holstein responsible for rendering decisions on claims for compensation. In Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein, decisions were based on the Federal Compensation Act and the Additional Federation Compensation Act (from 1953 onwards). In Saarland, decisions were initially based on Land legislation (from 1946 onwards) and then later on the Federal Compensation Act (from 1959 onwards).

Authority in the Land of Bremen responsible for rendering decisions on claims for compensation, first under Land legislation (from 1950 onwards) and later under the Federal Compensation Act and the Additional Federal Compensation Act (from 1953 onwards).

Authority in the Land of Bavaria responsible for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Authority in the Land of Hesse responsible for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Authority based in Tübingen, responsible from 1946 to 1951 for carrying out compensation measures under Land legislations in South Württemberg (the former Land of Württemberg-Hohenzollern), supported by supplementary district care offices (from 1949: regional Offices for Compensation).

Authorities in the Länder of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia responsible (from 1990 onwards) for the return of property in the former GDR which was nationalised and for which little or no compensation was provided due to injustices resulting from the post-war division of Germany.

Authority in the Land of Lower Saxony responsible for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Authority in the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia responsible (from 1958 onwards) for rendering decisions on pension payments under the Federal Compensation Act.

Authority in the Land of Lower Saxony responsible for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Official register in which titles to or charges upon land are registered.

Level of the unit being described within the hierarchy of an archive.

Non-standardized unit of length for archival records in German-speaking countries. One linear meter usually equals a stack of files measuring one meter in hight or occupying one meter of shelf length.

See linear meter.

An archive collecting and preserving poets' and writers' estates and related material.

Leveled, reduced and thus simplified and, if necessary, explained graphic representation of features of the Earth. Maps with a scale less than 1:10,000 are referred to as plans.

Type of archive encompassing all archives operated by a radio or television station, publishing house, film production company, theatre, stock photo company or any other publishing institution.

File format and format content of the digital rendition of an archival object such as image, text, etc.

A film or sheet of film used to hold highly reduced photographic images of documents and printed materials.

Type of archive encompassing all archives operated by a city council, municipality or administrative district.

A type of dynastic archive operated by a noble family.

Authority/department subordinate to the Württemberg Ministry of Justice in the district of North Württemberg (Württemberg district in the then state of Württemberg-Baden) with headquarters in Stuttgart, responsible from 1946 to 1951 for the implementation of compensation in accordance with state law regulations.

Authorities in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia on the district or rural district level; responsible for the administration and restitution of property confiscated under the denazification laws.

The act of numbering each side of a single document in a record or file.

Parish registers are records of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and burials made by the Church with the earliest volumes dating back to the Middle Ages.

Archive operated by a state parliament, the German Bundestag or the parliament of another sovereign state.

See record.

People who were harmed due to National Socialist racial ideology, political opposition, religion or set of beliefs.

Type of file containing all documents related to an agency or business employee, covering the entire employment lifecycle.

A principle of arranging records based on content, without regard for their provenance or original order.

Leveled, reduced and thus simplified and, if necessary, explained illustration of an area or a building below a scale of 1:10,000.

Type of archive encompassing all archives operated by a political institution, e.g. the German Parliament, a German state parliament or any other parliament of a sovereign state as well as political parties, foundations or societies.

A large, flexible sheet bearing text and illustrations that is publicly displayed to advertise or promote something.

Estate of a natural person which is gifted to an archive through a will while the person is still alive.

Printed records not available in bookshops.

Authority in the Land of Bremen responsible (from 1945-1946 onwards) for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Provenance refers to the origins of an archival item or collection, e.g. the individual, family, or organisation that created or received the items in a collection. The principle of provenance dictates that records of different origins (provenance) be kept separate to preserve their context.

A record contains all the documents pertaining to a single case, compiled by the public administration agency or office during handling of the case.

Part of the hierarchy of an archive, grouping several fonds that share the same provenance or were created in the same administrative agency.

A classification of records based on content, format or physical characteristics, see e.g. deeds, seals, bound administrative records, land registers, files, maps and plans, Posters, printed records, pictures and manuscripts.

Alphanumeric code used to unambiguously identify an item in a repository.

A register in which the contents of deeds or other written documents are summarized and information such as date, place, tradition and the names of the places and people mentioned therein is given.

An archive most often operated by one or more chambers of commerce and industry or a federal state which documents the economic history of the region.

Type of church archive operated by a member of the Protestant Church in Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland - EKD).

1. Historical form of bound administrative records with uniform entries of high probative value.
2. Official registers, usually kept at local courts, of certain legal relationships, e.g. registers of associations and commercial registers.

Type of archive encompassing all archives financed and superintended by a state-approved institution of faith.

Compensation paid by a defeated state for damage caused by war and military occupation. Such compensation is paid at the intergovernmental level and excludes claims by individuals. Both the Paris Reparations Agreement (1946) and the London Debt Agreement (1953) deferred a review of reparations owed by Germany on account of the Second World War until after a peace treaty was concluded. eaty.

The return of identifiable property that had been confiscated for reasons of race, religion or ideology, or because of political opposition to National Socialism, to the original owners or their heirs.

Authority that was responsible for publishing restitution claims and rendering decisions on them in the Land of Bavaria. The objective of these proceedings was to reach an amicable settlement between the involved parties. If no amicable settlement was reached, the case was referred to the Wiedergutmachungskammer (court for restitution-related matters).

Authority in the Land of Saarland responsible for the administration and restitution of property seized on the basis of denazification laws.

Type of archive encompassing all archives operated by scientific institutions, e.g. universites, scientific societies and science foundations.

A piece of wax or other material often bearing a portrait or coat of arms used to authenticate written legal acts. Sometimes also used as a means to seal documents or identify the sender.

A group of similar records in numeric or chronological order, e.g. bound administrative records, each record distinguished by a formal feature (such as a letter or a year). Also referred to as file group or record series.

A state archive or archival administration operated by one of the German federal states.

Authority in the North Baden district (Baden district in the former state of Württemberg-Baden), responsible from 1947 to 1951 for implementing indemnification under state law. Branch office of the Department for Compensation of the Württemberg Ministry of Justice in Stuttgart.

Authorities in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg with headquarters in Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Freiburg and Tübingen, from 1952 on responsible for deciding on applications for compensation under the Federal Supplementary Compensation Act or the Federal Compensation Act. In 1969 merged into the State Office for Compensation Baden-Württemberg with headquarters in Stuttgart.

A type of file, in which the records and documents pertaining to a certain subject are accumulated for easy access. Therefore, their content and format vary considerably.

International court that from 1955 to 1990 served as the highest authority for rulings in restitution disputes. It replaced the supreme restitution courts that were established in the three West German occupation zones in 1949.

International court that from 1953 to 1990 served as the highest authority for rulings in restitution disputes in West Berlin.

• Territorial principle (object): Restitution or compensation under the Federal Restitution Act generally only upon provision of proof that the seized object is located within the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany or greater Berlin (west and east). Furthermore, no satisfaction of claims is granted if a beneficiary’s place of residence or habitual abode is located in a country that does not maintain diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany.
• Territorial principle (person): Compensation in accordance with the Federal Compensation Act only upon (a) proof of residence or habitual abode within the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany as of 31 December 1952 or (b) in cases of emigration, deportation or expulsion, proof of residence or habitual abode within the territory of the German Reich (within the borders of 31 December 1937) together with proof of residence or habitual abode, on the date when the decision is issued, in a country that maintains diplomatic relations with the Federal Republic of Germany.

A type of finding aid that groups records from different fonds according to specific subjects.

A word or phrase describing the subject matter of a descriptive unit.

Several types of archives can be distinguished regarding the kinds of institutions they are managed by and the content and origin of the materials collected.

See Types of archives.

An archive operated by a university or university of applied sciences. See also science archives.

Status granted by government authorities in the German Democratic Republic. This was a prerequisite for receiving special services and benefits, for example in the areas of health care, pensions and housing.

Status granted by victims of fascism committees (especially in the Soviet occupation zone and Berlin) that entitled individuals to receive social welfare and support services.

Self-help and social welfare organisations (mainly in the Soviet occupation zone and Berlin) that were absorbed in the late 1940s by the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (Vereinigung der Verfolgten des Naziregimes) and municipal social services.

Bound archival unit, e.g. bound administrative records.

Overarching term for Germany’s efforts to make material amends for crimes committed by the National Socialist regime, in the form of legal/administrative proceedings to provide compensation and restitution.