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Erich Weise (4 September 1895 – April 1972) was a German historian and archivist. During World War II, as a member of the Nazi party, he administered Polish archives captured by the Third Reich. In this position he purged people he considered "non-Aryans," used Jewish slave labor, and committed the war crime of plundering Polish historical documents.

Early life

Weise was born in Krefeld in the Rhineland and raised in Prussian Königsberg (Kaliningrad). He studied at the Albertina in Königsberg. Weise's studies were interrupted by World War I, during which he spent three years in Russian internment in Mitau. It is possible that his internment damaged his hearing and led to his eventual deafness. After the war Weise resumed his studies in Königsberg.

Interwar years

In 1921 Weise qualified as a grammar-school teacher. He never worked in this profession, though, due to illness. In the same year he defended his Ph.D. dissertation in history which he made under the direction of Albert Brackmann, the leading proponent of German expansionism in the East, acquisition of Lebensraum and Ostforschung among archivists in Germany. He began his career as an archivist in Berlin from 1922–1927, in Düsseldorf from 1927–1930 and then in Königsberg from 1930–1935. Weise joined the Nazi Party in 1933. He was promoted to Staatsarchivrat in 1935 and, back in Berlin, worked as a division head in the Prussian Privy State Archives.

Before the war he published articles with Nazi historian Erich Maschke, who supported Nazi racist and nationalist views. He took part in conference on 3rd and 4t September 1933 in Konigsberg where duties of archivists and the role of Ostforschung - an aggressively anti-Polish nationalist ideology whose publications were of questionable value were discussed. Weise, speaking on behalf of German archivists, declared loyalty to the Third Reich and its ideas:

The initial aversion of the German archivist against engaging in political matters has waned. As the keeper of the legal codes of the state and the nation, ha has become the herald of the national cause...Because Germandom (Volkstum) and the spirit of the state and the decisive will for ethnic (Völkisch) survival have to be kept alive, the German archivists are fully behind the new Germany of January 30, 1933. In the spirit of the Third Reich, they work with the Volk for the Volk.

Second World War

During the Nazi occupation of Poland Weise was responsible for administering captured Polish archives. In this function he purged archive staff of workers deemed "non-Aryan" and politically undesirable, reducing it by 50%, an accomplishment of which he was proud. At the same time he used Jewish forced labor to carry out the transportation requirements of the archives.

In the Spring of 1940 Weise informed the remaining Polish archivists that all records from territories annexed from Poland by Nazi Germany would be confiscated. In 1942 he became head of a new archival institution founded by the Nazis in occupied Greater Poland and called Reichsarchiv Posen.

In 2008 Polish authorities canceled an investigation regarding Weise's and Kurt Forstreuter's involvement in the theft of 74 antique documents from the thirteenth through the fifteenth centuries from an archive in Warsaw in December 1940, which constituted a war crime. As both Forstreuter and Weise by that time were deceased, Polish authorities were unable to prosecute them.

Post-war career

According to historian Astrid Eckert, Weise managed to get through the post-war denazification process by lying, suppressing information about his past, and successfully portraying himself as an opponent of the Nazis. He was listed as a looter by Allied authorities in the Monuments Fine Arts and Archives Section of the Military Government (MFA&A), responsible for the early process of denazification.

In West Germany Weise helped to build up the state archives in Stade (Staatsarchiv Stade). In 1948 he went to work for the state archives at Hanover. From 1959 until 1960, when he retired, he was director of the Staatsarchiv Stade. He was the editor of the book Ost- und Westpreußen (East and West Prussia) published in 1966 as one volume of the encyclopedia Handbuch der historischen Stätten (Handbook of Historical Places).

Historian Michael Burleigh notes that Weise's Cold War publications belonged to a historiographical genre, Ostforschung, which aimed to legitimise traditional German chauvinism by depicting Germans as bringers of order and development in Eastern Europe in concert with other European nations. Weise's main interests as were focused around the history of Prussia and the history of the Teutonic Order. His historical views on Teutonic Knights are considered outdated by modern historians.

His work has been criticized in Poland for neglecting political and social aspects of the territories he described while focusing on their German character.

Publications (selection)

As author or compiler

• Sammelbesprechung über neuere polnische Literatur, in: AltprF 10, 1933, S. 148
• Die nationalen Aufgaben des Grenzlandarchivars, in: KB 81 (1933)
• Findbuch zum Bestand 27 Reichskammergericht (1500–1648). Edited with Heinz-Joachim Schulze. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, ISBN 3-525-85960-0.
• Die Amtsgewalt von Papst und Kaiser und die Ostmission besonders in der 1. Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts. J. G. Herder-Institut, Marburg (Lahn) 1971.
• Die Staatsverträge des deutschen Ordens in Preußen im 15. Jahrhundert. Edited Historischen Kommission für ost- und westpreußische Landesforschung. Three volumes:
  • Vol. 3: 1467–1497. Gräfe und Unzer, Munich 1966.
  • Vol. 2: 1438–1467. Elwert, Marburg (Lahn) 1955.
  • Vol. 1: 1398–1437. Gräfe und Unzer, Königsberg 1939.
• Geschichte des Niedersächsischen Staatsarchivs in Stade nebst Übersicht seiner Bestände. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1964.
• Die Schwabensiedlungen im Posener Kammerdepartement 1799–1804. Holzner, Würzburg 1961.
• Das Widerstandsrecht im Ordenslande Preussen und das mittelalterliche Europa. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1955.

As editor

• Ernst Bahr, Wolfgang La Baume, Kurt Forstreuter et al.: Ost- und Westpreußen (Udo Arnold, ed.), the series Handbuch der historischen Stätten (= Kröners Taschenausgabe, Band 317). Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1981 (unaltered reprint of the 1st edition of 1966 edited by Erich Weise), ISBN 3-520-31701-X.

See also

• Nazi Plunder
• World War II looting of Poland

Further reading

• Template:De icon Fritz Gause: Weise, Ercih. In: Altpreußische Biographie, Vol. III, Elwert, Marburg/Lahn 1975, ISBN 3 7708 0504 6, p. 1072.

References

1. Jahrbuch für die Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands M. Niemeyer, 2010 und Erich Weise (1895-1972), von 1929 bis 1934 Staatsarchivar in Königsberg, dann, noch unter seinem Doktorvater Albert Brackmann,
2. Writing national histories: Western Europe since 1800 - Page 181 Stefan. Berger, Mark Donovan, Kevin. Passmore - 1999
3. The Struggle for the Files. The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War. Astrid M. Eckert, Emory University, Atlanta, p. 108,
4. Erich Maschke; Erich Weise; Kurt Forstreuter, Sammelbesprechung über neuere polnische Literatur, in: AltprF 10, 1933, S. 148
5. The Shaping of German Identity: Authority and Crisis, 1245–1414, page 29
6. Karin Friedrich (2006), The Other Prussia: Royal Prussia, Poland and Liberty, 1569-1772. Cambridge University Press, page 5, page 13
7. Musial, T.: „Staatsarchive im Dritten Reich“, 1996, page 31, 67-68
8. ^ Astrid M. Eckert. The Struggle for the Files. The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War. Atlanta: Emory University.
9. Astrid Eckert (2009). "Review of Ein fast vergessener »Osteinsatz«. Deutsche Archivare im Generalgouvernement und im Reichskommissariat Ukraine by Stefan Lehr". Francia-Recensio. Retrieved May 4, 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
10. Staatsarchive im Dritten Reich, p. 130, Torsten Musial - 1996.
11. Sztuka Zagrabiona
12. Instytut Pamieci Narodowej Oddziałowa Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Szczecinie informuje, że w dniu 12 maja 2008 r. zostało umorzone śledztwo w sprawie S 169/05/Zn, dotyczące zbrodni wojennej popełnionej w okresie od 4 grudnia 1940 r. do 18 stycznia 1941 r. w Warszawie przez Ericha Weise, działającego wspólnie i porozumieniu z Kurtem Forsteuterem oraz innymi nieustalonymi funkcjonariuszami Trzeciej Rzeszy Niemieckiej, polegającej na zaborze - z naruszeniem norm prawa międzynarodowego - z obszaru okupowanego, mających szczególne znaczenie dla kultury, dóbr w postaci 74 dokumentów archiwalnych, dotyczących stosunków dyplomatycznych w okresie od XIII wieku do połowy XV wieku pomiędzy Polską a Zakonem Krzyżackim tj. o przestępstwo z art. 125 paragraf 2 kk. Śledztwo zostało umorzone z uwagi na śmierć Ericha Weise i Kurta Forstreutera, a części nieustalonych sprawców z uwagi na niewykrycie sprawców.
13. When in early 1945 Allied authorities in the Monuments Fine Arts and Archives Section of Military Government (MFA&A), that was responsible for overseeing the process of early denazification, tried to establish the political leanings of German archival and museum experts by grouping them in rough categories such as "party member", "100% Nazi", "reported unreliable politically", "doubtful" and "reported as looter", Erich Weise's name had been listed up under the category "reported as looter". The Struggle for the Files. The Western Allies and the Return of German Archives after the Second World War. Astrid M. Eckert, Emory University, Atlanta, p. 108, footnote no. 40 "See also the case of Erich Weise(...)For his denazification he suppressed several facts about his career, lied about others, finally challenged the verdict and after revision emerged as a Nazi opponent." (restricted preview).
14. Information on Erich Weise from Zentrale Datenbank Nachlässe (ZDN) of Deutsches Bundesarchiv (4 April 2013).
15. Michael Burleigh Cambridge University Press, Germany turns eastwards: a study of Ostforschung in the Third Reich, Volume 8, Part 1991 page 315 "The objectives of the new German Ostforschung were outlined by Keyser in 1952. Necessity and sense of duty had compelled them all to begin anew. The German people were duty bound to study some seven hundred years of their history in the East the decisions of Yalta and Potsdam reflected an unknowning of German history.Narrow chauvinism was to be replaced by a sense of a European community to which the peoples of the East belonged. In practice this meant that the Germans had brought Christianity, cultural improvement, political order and economical development to the East in collaboration with other European nations. This internationalizing of traditional German chauvinism barely concealed the legacy from the past.A Western community of interest, juxtaposed against an undefined 'East', was apparent in much of the historical work produced by Ostforscher(...) In a monograph on the right of resistance in later medieval Prussia (1955), Erich Weise...
16. Information on Erich Weise on the Website of the publisher Alfred Kröner Verlag (4. April 2013).
17. Rezension: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 17.10.2000, S. L48. Biskup, Marian; Labuda, Gerard: Die Geschichte des Deutschen Ordens in Preußen
18. Okiem historyka: Warzawa - Berlin - Bonn, 1918–1981, Marian Wojciechowski - Page 212 - 1989: "Erich Weise, zajmujac sie Poznaniem w okresie wczesnego feudalizmu, traktuje po macoszemu i z niezrozumieniem zagadnienia spoleczne i gospodarcze historii miasta. Mówiac o cechach, zwraca uwage tylko na ich niemiecki charakter"

• Nazis
• German historians