Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme

Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme
Name	Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme
Native name	Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme
Formed	1938
Predecessor	Preußische Landesaufnahme
Dissolved	1945
Jurisdiction	Nazi Germany
Headquarters	Berlin
Employees	≈2,000
Chief1 name	Paul Stadtmann
Parent agency	Reichsministerium für Verkehr

Reichsamt für Landesaufnahme was the central German cartographic agency active during the late 1930s and World War II, responsible for topographic mapping, geodetic surveys, and map production for civil and military use. It succeeded earlier Prussian and Imperial mapping institutions and operated alongside agencies engaged in aerial reconnaissance, engineering, and territorial administration. The office's work intersected with contemporary institutions involved in planning, occupation, and scientific research.

History

The institution traces roots to the Prussian Land Survey traditions and the Geodätisches Institut of the German Empire, inheriting staff and materials from the Preußische Landesaufnahme and the Topographischer Dienst. During the Weimar period interactions with the Reichswehr and the Reichswehrministerium shaped early roles in national surveying, while exchanges with the Statistisches Reichsamt and the Reichsinnenministerium influenced civil mapping policies. Following the Nazi accession to power and the reorganization under the Reichsministerium für Verkehr, the office expanded, integrating personnel from the Technische Hochschule Berlin, the Universität Göttingen, and the Kaiserliche Marine hydrographic departments. Key events affecting development included the Anschluss, the Munich Agreement, and the outbreak of the Second World War, which redirected priorities toward occupation administration and military logistics.

Organization and Structure

The agency was structured into specialized departments reflecting earlier models such as the Generalstab cartographic branch and the Preußisches Kriegsministerium survey sections. Divisions included geodesy, topography, cartographic engraving, photogrammetry, and map reproduction, cooperating with the Reichswehrministerium mapping units and the OKW staff. Regional offices liaised with provincial administrations like those in Prussia, Bavaria, and Saxony, and collaborated with the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Reichsbahn for transport of materials. Leadership drew from figures trained at the Technische Universität München and influenced by surveyors from the Geodätisches Institut Potsdam. The agency maintained archives linked to collections from the Deutsches Historisches Museum and the Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

Mapping Projects and Publications

Major products included national topographic map series comparable to earlier Messtischblatt editions and new map series for occupied territories such as the General Government (Poland) and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Reichsamt produced specialized atlases for the Ostmark, the Sudetenland, and plans for the New Order administrative divisions promoted by officials like those in the Reichskommissariat Ostland and the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Publications encompassed contour maps, road maps used by the Wehrmacht, hydrographic charts for the Kriegsmarine, and urban plans for reconstruction in cities such as Warsaw, Kraków, and Brest-Litovsk. The office issued technical manuals used by surveyors from institutions including the Königliche Technische Hochschule Aachen and the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, and collaborated on thematic maps with the Reichsjugendführer-linked youth planning bodies.

Technology and Methods

The agency advanced photogrammetric methods, building on techniques from pioneers affiliated with the Technische Hochschule Dresden and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. It integrated aerial photography from units of the Luftwaffe and the Fliegertruppe, using stereoscopic plotters and phototheodolites developed in cooperation with firms like Zeiss and Rollei. Geodetic control relied on networks tied to the European Datum concepts and instruments from makers such as Carl Zeiss Jena and Heinrich Wild. Map printing employed lithography and intaglio presses akin to those in the Reichsdruckerei and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin print workshops. Field operations referenced techniques promulgated by surveyors trained under professors from the Universität Leipzig and the Technische Hochschule Hannover.

Role in Nazi Germany and Wartime Activities

Under Nazi administration the office's outputs were integrated into planning by the Wehrmacht, the OKH, and the OKW for operations including the Invasion of Poland (1939), the Battle of France, and the Operation Barbarossa. Maps and geodetic data supported logistics, fortification construction related to the Westwall, and occupation governance enforced by agencies like the Generalplan Ost planners and the RSHA security apparatus. Cooperation with the Abwehr and the Fremde Heere Ost intelligence sections informed clandestine mapping for partisan suppression and counterinsurgency in areas administered by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen and the Reichskommissariat Niederlande. The agency also became involved in expropriation mapping tied to Reichsautobahn expansions, resource surveys for the Reichswerke Hermann Göring, and cartographic support for forced labor projects coordinated with the Organisation Todt.

Legacy and Postwar Fate

After 1945 Allied occupation authorities, including the United States Army, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, and the British Army of the Rhine, seized archives, equipment, and map stocks, redistributing materials to institutions such as the Ordnance Survey and the Institut géographique national. Many staff were de-Nazified following proceedings linked to the Allied Control Council, while specialized personnel transferred to postwar mapping bodies like the Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie and the Landesvermessungsämter of the Federal Republic and the Deutsche Demokratische Republik equivalents. Surviving map series informed Cold War cartography used by NATO commands and the Warsaw Pact, and academic studies at the Max Planck Gesellschaft and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft examined methodological legacies. Debates persist in works housed at the Bundesarchiv, the Institut für Zeitgeschichte, and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz over ethical dimensions of the agency's wartime role and its integration into modern cartographic heritage.

Category:Cartography of Germany Category:Organizations established in 1938