The Klosterkammer under National Socialism

Between 2015 and 2018, a research group of the IDD dealt for the first time systematically and at a critical distance with the history of the Klosterkammer Hannover during National Socialism. The Nazi period has been only partially illuminated or even completely omitted in previous observations on the history of the institution.

This can be explained, among other things, by the continuity that the chamber experienced in the form of its president in the years between 1931 and 1955: Albrecht Stalmann led the institution through two political system changes. After the end of the war, Stalmann painted the picture of an institution that had defied the adversities of National Socialism and shown a nonconformist attitude toward the regime. In doing so, he created the definitive narrative for the next decades about the history of the agency he led.

The project was successfully completed in November 2018 with the submission of a 700-page publication. As a central result, it can be stated after three years of research that the Klosterkammer was precisely not a haven of conformity: everyday life in the Klosterkammer was rather comprehensively "Nazified"; moreover, the Klosterkammer supported the goals and measures of Nazi policy in many ways with the revenues available from its administrative capacity and was also a smoothly functioning authority during the Nazi period.