Reports on the German Reichsarchive in 1925

[MLW]

Surprisingly, the US National Archives (NARA) has a large collection of WWI German Army documents. Most are from the 1917-1918 period. Some are translated into English. Here is why NARA has such an extensive collection; from it's website:

"In August 1920, Col. Oliver Spaulding, head of the Army War College's Historical Section, began work toward the acquisition from German sources of documents relating to Germany's involvement in World War I. This was followed up by Lt Col. Edward Davis, the U.S. military observer in Berlin in late 1920. Col. Davis traded copies of the American plans for the St. Mihiel offensive to German archivists in exchange for copies of documents relating to German operations.

This led to the establishment of a liaison under which American personnel; working in Potsdam, Germany; undertook the selection, copying, and to some extent the translation of German military logs, annexes, war diaries, and related material. Most of the original documents in the German archives were destroyed in April 1945 during a British air raid which caused a fire in the Heeresarchiv, Potsdam."

I recently found two documents of possible interest to serious researchers of the German Army. You can download them as .pdfs at the following links:

US Army 1925 Report on the German Reichsarchiv and its history, purpose, and organization:

http://downloads.stu...archiv_1925.pdf

US Army 1925 Report on production of the The Reichsarchiv's Der Weltkrieg 1914-1918 and Die Schlachten des Weltkriegs series:

http://downloads.stu...ieg_1914-18.pdf