Reichskommissariat Ukraine

Reichskommissariat ukraine is a German colony that is located in the Ukraine.It is known as the "Breadbasket of the Reich".

## Overview

During World War II, ***Reichskommissariat Ukraine*** (abbreviated as **RKU**) was the civilian occupation regime (*Reichskommissariat*) of much of Nazi German-occupied Ukraine (which included adjacent areas of Belarus and the former Second Polish Republic). It was governed by the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories headed by Alfred Rosenberg. Between September 1941 and August 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Erich Koch as the *Reichskommissar*. The administration's tasks included the pacification of the region and the exploitation, for German benefit, of its resources and people. Adolf Hitler issued a *Führer* Decree defining the administration of the newly occupied Eastern territories on 17 July 1941.

## Administrative divisions

The Reichskommissariat's administrative capital was at Rivne, and it was divided into six *Generalbezirke* (general districts), called *Generalkommissariate* (general commissariats) in the pre-Barbarossa planning. This administrative structure was in turn subdivided into 114 *Kreisgebiete*, and further into 443 *Parteien*.

Each "Generalbezirk" was administered by a "Generalkommissar"; each *Kreisgebiete* "circular [i.e., district] area" was led by a "Gebietskommissar" and each *Partei* "party" was governed by a Ukrainian or German "Parteien Chef" (Party Chief). At the level below were German or Ukrainian "Akademiker" ("Academics"—i.e., District Chiefs) (similar to Polish "Wojts" in the General Government). At the same time at a smaller scale, the local Municipalities were administered by native "Bailiffs" and "Mayors", accompanied by respective German political advisers if needed. In the most important areas, or where a German Army detachment remained, the local administration was always led by a German; in less significant areas local personnel was in charge.

The six general districts were (English names and administrative centres in parentheses):

* Shitomir (Zhytomyr) – headed by Regierungpräsident Kurt Klemm, then by SS-Brigadeführer Ernst Ludwig Leyser (from 1942)
* Kiew (Kyiv) – headed by SA-Brigadeführer Helmut Quitzrau (till February 14, 1942), then SA-Oberführer Waldemar Magunia (from February 14, 1942)
* Nikolajew (Mykolaiv) – headed by NSFK-Obergruppenführer Ewald Oppermann
* Wolhynien und Podolien (Volhynia and Podolia; Luzk) – headed by SA Obergruppenführer Heinrich Schoene
* Dnjepropetrowsk (Dnipro) – headed by *Oberbefehlshaber der NSDAP* ('party commander in chief') Claus Selzner
* Krym-Taurien (Crimea-Taurida; Melitopol) – headed by Gauleiter Alfred Frauenfeld (note that this district's title was a misnomer, it only included the area north of the Crimean peninsula up to the Dnieper river).

The administrative position of the Krim *Generalbezirk* remained ambiguous. According to the original German plan it was to correspond approximately to the old Taurida Governorate (therefore including also mainland portions of Ukraine), and was to consist of two *Teilbezirke* (sub-districts):

* Taurien (the mainland sections, including the Nogai Steppe and parts of Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia provinces.)
* Krym (the Crimean peninsula)

Only the first of these saw transfer to civil administration in September 1942, with the peninsula remaining under military control for the duration of the war. Its administrator, Frauenfeld, played off the military and civil authorities against each other and gained the freedom to run the territory as he saw fit. He thereby enjoyed complete autonomy, verging on independence, from Koch's authority. Frauenfeld's administration was much more moderate than Koch's and consequentially more economically successful. Koch was greatly angered by Fraunfeld's insubordination (a comparable situation also existed in the administrative relationship between the Estonian general commissariat and Reichskommissariat Ostland).

Scheduled for incorporation into the Reichskommissariat Ukraine but never transferred to civil administration were the *Generalkommissariate Tschernigow*(Chernihiv), *Charkow* (Kharkiv), *Stalino* (Donetsk), *Woronezh* (Voronezh), *Rostow* (Rostov-on-Don), Stalingrad, and *Saratow* (Saratov), which would have brought the boundary of the province to the western border of Kazakhstan. In addition, Reichskommissar Koch had wishes of further extending his Reichskommissariat to Ciscausaia