Reichskommissariat Ostland

Reichskommissariat Ostland
1941–1945
Flag of Reichskommissariat Ostland
Flag
Emblem of Reichskommissariat Ostland
Emblem
Anthem: Horst-Wessel-Lied 
("The Horst Wessel Song")
Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1942
Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1942
StatusReichskommissariat of Germany
CapitalRiga
Common languagesGerman (official)
Religion
GovernmentCivil administration
Reichskommissar 
• 1941–1944
Hinrich Lohse
• 1944–1945
Erich Koch
Historical eraWorld War II
22 June 1941
• Established
17 July 1941
• Implement civil administration
25 July 1941 at 12:00
5 December 1941
1 April 1944
• Soviet reoccupied Riga
13 October 1944
• Formally dissolved
21 January 1945
• Surrender of Courland Pocket
10 May 1945
Area
• Total
1,042,000 km2 (402,000 sq mi)
Currency Reichskreditkassenscheine
(de facto)
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Byelorussian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
Latvian SSR
Estonian SSR
Byelorussian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
Latvian SSR
Estonian SSR
Today part ofBelarus
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Russia

56°N 26°E / 56°N 26°E / 56; 26

The Reichskommissariat Ostland (RKO; lit. 'Reich Commissariat of Eastland')[a] was established by Nazi Germany in 1941 during World War II. It became the civilian occupation regime in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the western part of Byelorussian SSR. German planning documents initially referred to an equivalent Reichskommissariat Baltenland.[1] The political organization for this territory – after an initial period of military administration before its establishment – involved a German civilian administration, nominally under the authority of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories led by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, but actually controlled by the Nazi official Hinrich Lohse, its appointed Reichskommissar.

The main political objectives of the Nazis for the Reichskommissariat, as created by Adolf Hitler and laid out by the Reich Ministry was Lebensraum, which included the genocide of the local Jewish population, as well as the settlement of Germanic peoples along with the expulsion and murder of some of the native population and the Germanization of the rest. These policies applied not only to the Reichskommissariat Ostland but also to other German-occupied Soviet territories. Through the use of the Order Police battalions and Einsatzgruppen A and B, with active participation of local auxiliary forces, over a million Jews were killed in the Reichskommissariat Ostland.[2] The Germanization policies, built on the foundations of the Generalplan Ost, would later be carried through by a series of special edicts and guiding principles for the general settlement plans for Ostland.[3]

In the course of 1943 and 1944, the Soviet Red Army gradually recaptured most of the Ostland territory in their advance westwards, but Wehrmacht forces held out in the Courland Pocket until May 1945. With the end of World War II in Europe and the defeat of Germany in 1945, the Reichskommissariat ceased to exist.


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  1. ^ Alex J. Kay (2006). Guidelines for Special Fields (13 March 1941). Berghahn Books. p. 129. ISBN 1845451864. Retrieved 2013-06-25. In the week following [...] 2 May [1941], Alfred Rosenberg produced three papers relating to his preparations for the future administration in the occupied East. The first, dated 7 May, was entitled 'Instruction for a Reich Commissar in the Ukraine'. [...] The second, produced a day later, was its equivalent for the area of 'Baltenland', as the Baltic States and Belarus were at this stage being collectively referred to. In his drafting of the paper, Rosenberg crossed through 'Balten' and replaced it with 'Ost'. [...] The designation 'Ostland' would stick. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Pohl, Reinhard (November 1998). "Reichskommissariat Ostland: Schleswig-Holsteins Kolonie" [Reichskommissariat Ostland: Schleswig-Holstein's Colony] (PDF). Gegenwind. Gegenwind-Sonderheft: Schleswig-Holstein und die Verbrechen der Wehrmacht (in German). Gegenwind, Enough is Enough, and anderes lernen/Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein. pp. 10–12. Retrieved 2014-03-27. Vom Einmarsch im Juni 1941 bis Ende Januar 1942, der Niederlage vor Moskau, töteten die deutschen Truppen im 'Ostland' etwa 330.000 Juden, 8359 "Kommunisten", 1044 "Partisanen" und 1644 "Geisteskranke". [...] Die erste Tötungswelle hatten ungefähr 670.000 Juden überlebt, dazu kamen im Winter 1941/42 noch 50.000 deportierte Juden aus dem Reichsgebiet, die in die Ghettos von Minsk und Riga kamen. [...] Anfang 1943 begann die zweite große Tötungswelle, der mindestens 570.000 Jüdinnen und Juden zum Opfer fielen. [...] Die letzten 100.000 Juden kamen in Konzentrationslager in Kauen, Riga-Kaiserwald, Klooga und Vaivara, sie wurden 1944 beim Heranrücken der Roten Armee liquidiert. [Translation: From the invasion in June 1941 until the end of January 1942 (the defeat at Moscow) German troops in 'Ostland' killed approximately 330,000 Jews, 8359 'Communists', 1044 'partisans' and 1644 'mentally ill' people. [...] About 670,000 Jews survived the first wave of killings, in the winter of 1941/1942 another 50,000 Jews deported from the Reich area joined these and ended up in the ghettos of Minsk and Riga. [...] At the beginning of 1943 the second great wave of killings began, in which at least 570,000 female and male Jews became victims. [...] The final 100,000 Jews entered the concentration camps in Kauen, Riga-Kaiserwald, Klooga and Vaivara; they were liquidated in 1944 with the advance of the Red Army.]
  3. ^ Czesław Madajczyk (Hrsg.): Vom Generalplan Ost zum Generalsiedlungsplan. Saur, München 1994, S. XI.