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The Reichskommissariat Ukraine was the name for the civil administration of much of German-occupied Ukraine (as well as portions of modern Belarus and pre-war Poland) during the Second World War. From September 1941 to March 1944 the Reichskommissariat, administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch much like a colony, served as the primary organ of German efforts to pacify the region as well as to extract its natural resources and labor potential.

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History

With the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the National Socialist German state began its assault on its sometime ally and long-hated ideological opponent. In addition to his desire to destroy the "Bolshevik" state, Adolf Hitler and his fellow Nazis intended to make use of the vast spaces of the Soviet Union, including the fertile Ukraine, as the source of the material needs of the German people, as well as to prepare a space for future German colonists. (See Lebensraum.) As a constituent republic of the USSR, Ukraine, inhabited by ethnic Ukrainians as well as Russians and minorities of Germans, Jews, Roma, Poles and Crimean Tatars was a key subject of Nazi planning for the post-war expansion of the German state and civilization.

As the Soviet Red Army fell back and collapsed before the German onslaught, Nazi plans for Ukraine were made reality. On July 16th 1941, Hitler appointed the fervent Nazi Erich Koch as Reichkommissar for the soon-to-be-formed Reichkommissariat Ukraine. Originally subject to Alfred Rosenberg's Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, on September 1st 1941 the Reichskommissariat Ukraine was proclaimed as a separate entity subject to German civil rule.

Geography and Administrative Divisions

The Reichskommissariat Ukraine never covered all the territory of present-day Ukraine. With its administrative capital at Rivne, at its greatest extent it came to cover just under 340,000 square kilometers. Stretching from the Volhynian region around Lutsk in the west, to a line from Vinnytsia to Mykolaiv along the Southern Buh River in the south, to the areas surrounding Kiev, Poltava and Zaporizhia in the east, the Reichskommissariat excluded the Crimea as well as the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and the Donbas/Donets Basin, which remained under the jurisdiction of the German military.

The Reichskommissariat was divided into six general districts (Generalbezirke), each headed by a general commissar. These districts were as follows (with headquarters city in parentheses):

Further Information to Be Categorized

Another official was the Staatssekretär 'Secretary of State' Herbert Backe, personally nominated by Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories Alfred Rosenberg. His ministry produced the "Instruktion fur einen Reichskommissar in der Ukraine" for the direction of future administrators of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine.

The official German press, in 1941, reported the Ukrainian urban population as 19 millions, and rural population also as 19 millions. The civil authorities in the Reichskommissariaten reported their combined population as 16,910,008 people. The 1926 Soviet official census recorded the urban population as 5,373,553 and the rural population as 23,669,381 - a total of 29,042,934. In 1939 a new census reported the Ukrainian urban population as 29,457,996 and rural population as 19,764,601; a total of 30,960,221. The Ukrainian Soviets counted 17% of total Soviet population.

"Die Reichskommissare unterstehen der Reichsminister fur die Besetzen ostgebiete und erhalten ausschliesslich von ihm Weisungen..." was the "Führer" decree for the administration of the new eastern territories, the Reichskommissars reported to the Eastern Affairs Ministry.

Former Soviet territory between the Southern Buh and Dniester rivers was also excluded from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine; this was given to Romania and named "Transnistria" or "Transniestra", governed from Odessa by Dr.Alexeanu, the Romanian Governor .

This administrative structure was subdivided into 114 Kreisgebiete, and further into 443 Parteien. The capital of this German administration remained in Rovno, in Western Ukraine. Each "Generalbezirke" was administered by a "Generalkomissar"; each Kreisgebiete "circular district area" was led by a "Gebietskomissar" and each Partei "party" was governed by a Ukrainan or German "Parteien Chef" (Party Chief). At the level below were German or Ukrainian "Akademiker" ('Academics', i.e. District Chiefs) (similar to Polish "Wojts" in the General Government).

At same time at a smaller scale, the local Municipalities was administered by native "Bailiffs" and "Mayors", accompanied by respective German political advisers if needed. In the most important areas, or where a German Army detachment remained, the local administration was always led by a German; in less significant areas local personnel was in charge.

The German Administration gave the role of "Chief of Ukrainian Princial Commission" to Professor Wolodomyr Kubijowytsch, an early local supporter.

The Führer decreed the creation of the Nazi Organization "Arbeitsbereich Osten der NSDAP", for the new eastern occupied territories, on April 1, 1942. He planned the Reichsleiter ("Reich leader") at the Ministry to be Rosenberg. He later decided to take such political power into the political section of the ministry to keep all party issues in his control, and prohibited organizations any political activity in the East without express authorisation.

Rosenberg's idea of extending the eastern frontier of Ukraine up to the Volga was based on strategic motives, not ethnic and to change to Ukrainians the loss of Galicia annexed to the Polish General Government, at Krememchug and Poltava, their territories annexed to the Generalbezirk in Kiev and Zaporizhia at the Generalbezirk of Dnepropetrovsk. The Crimean Peninsula was maintained under Wehrmacht control, but the rest of the territory, with previous military authorisation, was under the civil administration of Generalbezirk in Crimea, which also included the Tauria administration land, Nogai Steppe and parts of Mykolaiv and Zaporizhia provinces.

The regime was planning to encourage settlement of German and Dutch farmers in the region after the war, along with empowering of some Ethnic Germans in the territory. Another alleged objective was the creation of a "Ukrainian Independent State" supportive of the German Cause. This land and the Caucasus were the supposed residence of ancient German Gothic tribes. The sending of Dutch settlers was charged to the "Nederlandsche Oost-Compagnie", a Dutch-German Company dedicated to encourage the colonization of the east by Dutch citizens.

The civil and criminal justice local administration, apart from the local SS and Wehrmacht military justice branches, was staffed by "Parteien Chef", "Bailiffs", "Mayors", with supervision of German "Schoffen" (Advisers) and "Schlichten" (Arbiters) with ample legal powers. The most important cases or situations which affected "natural rights" of any "Aryan" subject, were managed in Rovno or Berlin.

The Wehrmacht introduced reforms in Ukraine allowing limited religious liberty. In January 1942, Bishop Polikarp Sikorsky of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church became the temporary administrator of church lands in the German-occupied Ukraine and he was granted the title of Archbishop of Łuck and Kowel. He also had authority over Bishoprics at Kiev, Zhitomir (Bishop Hryhorij Ohijchuk), Poltava, Kirovograd, Lubny (Bishop Sylvester Hayevsky), Dnepropetrovsk and Biala Tserkov (Bishop Manuyil Tarnavsky) by decree of the Civil German Administration of limited religious liberty in Ukraine. The German Administration also allowed Archbishop Alexander of Pinsk and Polesia to maintain the religious authority he wielded before the war and the same permission was granted to Archbishop Alexander of Volhynia.

The German civil administration met "Volksdeutsche" (ethnic Germans) in Nikolayev, Zaporizhia and Dnepropetrovsk. The archives of the Soviet census in 1926 counted them as 393,924 persons. The Soviets counted ethnic Germans in all Russia at 1,423,534, or 1% of the total population in 1939.

The administration took measures to protect Germans in the area who were entered on their Volksdeutch racial list. They received special rights

  • the return of their land and property prior to the Soviet Revolution
  • permission to return to visit parents in the motherland
  • the creation of special German resident zones in Dnepropetrovsk and other areas
  • encouraged recruitment to the German Army or service in the civil administration in the territory, amongst other special measures.

The Wehrmacht was pressured for political reasons to gradually restore private properties in zones under military control and accept the local volunteer recruits into their units and the Waffen SS, promoted by local nationalists organizations O.U.M. and U.P.A., whilst receiving political support from the Wehrmacht.

The Reichsführer-SS and chief of German Police, Heinrich Himmler had direct authority over any SS formations in Ukraine to order "Security Operations" and the local police service. Another chief inside of "Political section" of East Affairs Ministry was the SS Obergruppenfuhrer Gottlieb Berger, leader of SS-Hauptamt.

In the civil administration of the East Affair ministry worked numerous technical staff slavs under Georg Leibbrandt, former chief of the east section of overseas political office in the Party, now chief of the political section in the East Ministry, and his deputy Otto Brautigam, previously consul with experience in the Soviet Union. Economic affairs remained under the direct management of Herman Goering the Plenipotentiary of Four-Years Plan and Oldenburg State Major, and Fritz Saukel was charged with working with the General Plenipotentiary of Manpower recruitment and the Todt Organization Ost Branch in the land. Other members of the German administration in Ukraine were Generalcommissar Leyser and Gebietcommissar Steudel.

The Ministry of Transport had direct control of "Ostbahns" and "Generalverkersdirektion Osten" (the railway administration in the Eastern territories). These German central government interventions in the affairs of the East Affairs by ministries were known as Sonderverwaltungen (special administrations).

In Ukraine the Germans published a "local" journal in German language, the Deutsche Ukrainezeitung. Another idea proposed by Rosenberg was the "Ukraines debt to convert into an allied state of Germany and Caucasus, with nearby territories in the north, in way to transformed in Federal State, lead by a German Plenipotentiary."

The position of the Eastern Affairs Ministry was weak because its department chiefs: (Economy, Work, Foods & Crops and Forest & Woods) held similar posts in other government departments (The Four-Year Plan, Eastern Economic Office, Foods and Farming Ministry, etc) with other suplementary junior staff. Thus the East Ministry was managed by personal criteria and particular interests over official orders. Additionally, they failed to maintain the "Political Section" at an equal level with more specialized departments (Economy, Works, Farms, etc) because political considerations clashed with exploitation plans in the territory.

The Reichskommissariat Ukraine paid Occupation taxes and funds to the German Reich until February 1944 the following amounts:

In accord with information composed by Schwerin von Krosig the Reich Ministry of Finances.

The Ministry of East Affairs ordered Koch and the Reichskommissar in Ostland in March of 1942 to supply 380,000 farm workers and 247,000 industrial workers for German work needs. Later Koch was mentioned during the new year message of 1943, how he "recruited" 710,000 workers in Ukraine.

Alfred Rosenberg implemented an "Agrarian New Order" in Ukraine, ordering the confiscation of Soviet state properties to established the German state properties. Additionally the replacement of Russian Koljozes and Sovjozes, by their own "Gemeindwirtschaften" (German Communal Farms), the installation of state empress "Landbewirstschaftungsgessellschaft Ukraine M.b.H." for managing the new German state farms and cooperatives, and the foundation of numerous "Kombines" (Great German explotation Monopolies) with government or private capital in the territory, to exploit the resources and Donbass area.

Hitler said "Ukraine and the East lands would produce 7 Million, or more likely 10 or 12 Million of Metric tonnes of Grain to provide Germany's food needs"

Conquered territories further to the east, including Ukraine, were under military governance for the entirety of the war, until 1943–44.

German political figures related with Ukraine administration

German Commanders linked with the Ukrainian cause

  • SS-Gruppenführer Walther Schimana
  • SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Freitag
  • SS-Brigadeführer Sylvester Stadler
  • SS-Brigadeführer Nikolaus Heilmann
  • SS-Hauptsturmführer Otto Behrendt
  • SS-Sturmbannführer Wolf-Dieter Heike
  • SS-Hauptsturmführer Herben Schaaf
  • SS-Hauptsturmführer Herbert Schaut

Ukrainan volunteers in the German forces

  • Abwehr/Brandemburg special saboteur unit "Nightingale Regiment"
  • SS-Schützen-Division Galizien
  • SS-Freiwilligen-Division Galizien
  • 14. Galizische SS-Freiwilligen-Division
  • 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Ukrainische Nr. 1)
  • 1. Ukrainische Division der Ukrainischen National-Armee
  • Freiwilligen-Stamm-Regiment 3 (Russians & Ukrainians)
  • Freiwilligen-Stamm-Regiment 4 (Russians & Ukrainians)
  • Ukrainian National Army (Prawda or Ukrainskiej Dywizji)

Ukraine propaganda news

  • Ukrainskyi Dobrovoletz (Der ukrainische Kämpfer) - Ukrainische Freiwilligenverbände

Ukrainan units in the German work organization

Ukrainan nationalist organizations

  • Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN)
  • Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA)
  • West Ukrainian National Committee
  • Free Ukrainian Kossacks Organization

Ukrainian Anticommunist Commander

Ukrainian political leaders

See also

Other projected German administrative Eastern divisions

Sources

  • Arnold Toynbee, Veronica Toynbee, et. al.,"Hitler s Europe"(spanish tr. "La Europa de Hitler",Ed Vergara, Barcelona, Esp,1958), Section VI "Occupied lands and Satellite Countries in East Europe",Chapter VI "Ukraine, under German Occupation,1941-44", p.316-337
  • Ukraine Footnotes, p.455-461.
  • Berkhoff, Karel C. Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01313-1

History of Ukraine | Military history of Germany during World War II | Military history of the Soviet Union during World War II | Military history of Ukraine during World War II | World War II national military histories | World War II occupied territories | World War II politics

Reichskommissariat Ukraine | Украина (рейхскомиссариат)

 

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