The National Insurance Agency during national socialism

For two decades many institutions are processing their history during National Socialism. Besides many top-level federal departments, many other federal agency like the Foreign Intelligence Service, the domestric intelligence service or, in the judical department, the solicitors general office and the Federal Court of Justice, have independent positions in order to process their history during National Socialism.

The National Office for Social Security (BAS) has also undertaken to do this important work. With the goal of a scientific study in the form of a monograph, to process the work of their predecessor agency, the National Insurance Agency (Reichsversicherungsamt) in the institutional design of the National Socialist dictatorship. In this interdisciplinary research project, under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Friedrich Kießling and Prof. Dr. Laura Münkler, the working of the National Insurance Agency, its role as a supervisory and participatory agency, as well as the ultimate arbiter in legal disputes during the time of national socialism is to be researched. To do this, the institutional history, policy, personell politics and the senior staff, as well as the judicial opinions of the agency will be the focus.

Institutional history

With regard to the institutional history, the agency structure and its changes 1933 and subsequent years will be researched, with particular focus on the changes following the Law of July 1934, especially the broadened responsibilities. A further turning point is the start of the war, which brought a reduction in work load through streamlining internal processes, but also an expansion in responsibilities in the annexed and occupied territories, as well as the usage of foreign and forced labor. 

Further, the entanglement of the National Insurance Agency in the institutional design of the national socialist dictatorship is subject of the study, with special regard to the lower, state-level insurance agency and the institutional possibilities of the agency, with regard to the National Labor Department, which was able to instruct the National Insurance Agency. Finally, the question must be answered, to what extent the - not yet researched - administrative culture in the National Insurance Agency after 1933 approached national socialist ideals of a dynamic/ideologized agency or if, as past research indicates, the fundamental adherence to the past social security system contributed to a continuity in the administrative work. This aspect can be researched with regard to the internal processes, as well as to the external behaviour of the agency.

Policy

The policy analysis focuses on the question of what role the Reich Insurance Office played in the politicization, “biologization,” and, not least, economization of the social insurance system under National Socialism, and what contribution it thus made to Nazi persecution policies. In particular, the analysis examines the scope for action available to the Agency and its employees, how they used this scope, if at all, and to what extent the Agency's actions can be described as reactive or (pro)active. Overall, the aim is to clarify the role of the Agency in restructuring the social insurance system in line with Nazi policy and ideology.

Senior staff and personell politics

Erstmalig soll eine systematische Untersuchung des leitenden Personals mit Fokus auf den höheren Dienst erfolgen. Dies umfasst neben den Karriereverläufen und formalen Mitgliedschaften in NS-Organisationen auch, soweit dies möglich ist, ideologische Nähe zum Nationalsozialismus sowie die aktive Umsetzung von dessen Zielen. Dazu werden insbesondere die Auswirkungen und Ausführungen des Gesetzes vom 7. April 1933 zur „Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums“ auf behördlicher und persönlicher Ebene überprüft, um Prozesse der Selbstgleichschaltung, ideologische (Teil-)Identitäten oder tatsächliche Karrierezwänge ebenso wie widerständiges Verhalten zu identifizieren.

For the first time, a systematic investigation of senior staff with a focus on the higher civil service is to be carried out. In addition to career paths and formal membership in Nazi organizations, this also includes, as far as possible, ideological proximity to National Socialism and the active implementation of its goals. To this end, the effects and implementation of the Law of April 7, 1933, on the “Restoration of the Professional Civil Service” will be examined at the administrative and personal levels in order to identify processes of self-alignment, ideological (partial) identities, or actual career constraints, as well as resistant behavior.

Judicial Opinions

The judicial opinions of the National Insurance Agency has not yet been systematically examined by (legal) historical research. Using methods similar to those employed in comparable studies on courts, the judicial decisions of the National Insurance Office are examined to determine the extent to which they can be regarded as influenced by National Socialist ideology and, to the extent possible despite the destruction of some files, this finding is substantiated quantitatively and qualitatively in order to identify those areas that proved particularly susceptible to ideologization. At the same time, the decisions are examined for their law-creating character and assessed to determine the extent to which they were used to benefit the insured or – as is known from other branches of the judiciary – to further tighten social law in line with Nazi ideology. Within this framework, the National Insurance Office's case law is also analyzed with regard to various central concepts of social insurance law.

The research project is scheduled for three years. Besides Prof. Münkler and Prof. Kießling as project leaders, their research assistants Max Schuckart and Johannes Pötz are tasked with the completion of the project. A scientific council (Beirat) will support the research 

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