Following the “seizure of power” by the National Socialists, discrimination against taxable Jewish persons constituted an important goal of fiscal policy.
Taking as an example the Inland Revenue Office in Bonn (as such no longer in existence), this work examines the ways in which a single, “typical” inland revenue department was organized during the NS era, in addition which new tasks it was required to discharge in the wake of National Socialist policies, and how these provisions were put into practice. With the onset of Jewish emigration the regulations concerning the “Reichsfluchtsteuer” (“Imperial Tax Abscondence”), which had already been in existence since 1931, changed from being a means of countering flight of capital to one of actual expropriation. The first and largest special tax constituted the “Judenvermögensabgabe” (“Jewish capital tax”) in November 1938, by which the entire Jewish population in the German Reich was required to raise a levy of one billion Reichsmark. In order to attain this goal, certain persons – by virtue of the legal definition of “Jew” - had to pay a contribution amounting to 25% of their assets to their relevant tax office. The “Eleventh Provision of the Imperial Citizenship Law” of November 1941 decreed that Jews who were normally resident abroad could not be German citizens. With the loss of citizenship their assets were forfeited to the German Reich. The administration and valorization of assets thus collected were at the disposal of the Imperial Fiscal Authority, and hence the tax offices. This overview of administrative practices in a “Third Reich” inland revenue office is rounded off by an illustration of further areas of work, for example the registration of “hostile”, Polish or American assets. Also worthy of note is the financial processing of Jewish communities after the Imperial Finance Administration had taken over the assets of the “Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland” (“Imperial Association of Jews in Germany”). The areas of work in the Bonn Revenue Office at that time have been arranged in chronological order, and its administrative activity has been reconstructed on the basis of records still in existence. This study focuses on the discharge of assignments during the years 1938 to 1944. At the same time further appreciation of this work is gained through a link to the relevant passages in the history of the town of Bonn and the persecution of its resident Jewish population. This exposition is embedded in a brief outline of the history of the Office from its foundation in 1920 up to its division into two separate offices in 1953.Möchten Sie Ihre wissenschaftliche Arbeit publizieren? Erfahren Sie mehr über unsere günstigen Konditionen und unseren Service für Autorinnen und Autoren.