The origins of the
Ostministerium can be traced to 3 March 1941, when
Adolf Hitler announced for the first time to the
High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) that he planned to set up an "Eastern Ministry". The announcement was made in a conversation with
Wilhelm Keitel when they were discussing plans for what would become
Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the
Soviet Union. Hitler considered the political tasks in the
occupied eastern territories would be too difficult to be left to the
Wehrmacht. On 26 March 1941,
Reinhard Heydrich wrote a note about a conversation with
Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, suggesting that responsibility for such a ministry should be given to
Alfred Rosenberg, the
Nazi Party's chief
racial theorist and a
Baltic German. Shortly afterwards, the
Reich Chancellery informed the
Reichsministers that all measures in the
Eastern European territories had to be coordinated with Rosenberg. On 2 April 1941, Rosenberg had an extended conversation with Hitler about the "military and human
psyche of the Russians", which resulted in an informal invitation to head and prepare the theoretical eastern ministry. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and proceeded rapidly into the country. By December, the Germans would manage to conquer of Soviet territory. On 17 July 1941, the
Ostministerium was established by Hitler with Rosenberg as its
Reichsminister, though its creation was not officially announced to the public until November.
Alfred Meyer served as his deputy and later represented him at the
Wannsee Conference. Rosenberg presented a plan to Hitler for the organization of the conquered territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative districts to replace the previously Soviet-controlled territories with new
Reichskommissariats. These would be: •
Ostland (
Baltic countries and
Belarus), •
Ukraine (
Ukraine and nearest territories), •
Kaukasien (The
Caucasus), •
Moskowien (
Moscow and surrounding areas of
European Russia)
Ostland was established immediately after the ministry's founding and placed under the command of
Reichskommissar Hinrich Lohse.
Ukraine was established on 20 August 1941 and placed under the command of
Reichskommissar Erich Koch.
Moskowien and
Kaukasien were planned but never established as the
Wehrmacht failed to reach
A–A line, only conquering parts of those regions and unable to maintain control that was stable enough for civil authority. Rosenberg's plans were intended to win over the non-
Jewish populations of the conquered territories, for the sake of minimising anti-German resistance if nothing else, and wished to portray the Germans as liberators from Soviet domination. A program of
land reform was promulgated in February 1942, that included promises of
decollectivization through the abolition of
kolkhozes, and the re-distribution of land to
peasants for
individual farming. Rosenberg's plans and authority were routinely undermined, from both above and below, with little of it being actualised as intended. Decollectivization conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food production, and Göring demanded that the collective farms be retained, save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land as "stupid". When the
Wehrmacht progressed east, the
SS and its collaborationist
Auxiliary Police filled the resulting
power vacuum by acting as it wished, often committing crimes against non-Jewish population. Hitler ordered Koch to take a hard and brutal approach in Ukraine, which helped to push potential
Ukrainian allies back to the
Allied camp, substantially undermining Rosenberg's authority. Furthermore, the
Ostministerium was denied authority over army and other security formations within the occupied territories. By late 1944, the
Ostministerium became obsolete as the eastern territories were reconquered by the
Red Army, though it continued to formally exist until it was abolished by the
Flensburg Government on 5 May 1945. ==Uniform and rank insignia==