6. Abteilung des Generalstabes der Luftwaffe (Generalquartiermeister) - part I

Over the last years I have been working on the Luftwaffe loss records generated by first and foremost Generalquartiermeister Abteilung 6, localized in Berlin and the Reichsluftfahrtsministerium
during the Second World War.

During my work I have heard and read many misconceptions and misinterpretations on both the function and work of this unit, and I hope to use this space to share some of my knowledge and hopefully enlighten the readers on the organization of the unit,  the work they did or were supposed to do,  the records the unit kept and how to use them in research.

The first few installment of this series will concentrate on the organization of the unit and the division of the main tasks between the different subordinates of the GenQu6Abt which it is often called for short when referenced.

The full name as used in official documents I have been using were 6. Abteilung des Generalstabes der Luftwaffe (Generalquartiermeister).

The unit head was the Abteilungschef, and the unit was house in the Reichsluftfahrtsministerium building in central Berlin.

The Reichsluftfahrtsministerium building in 1938

 The building is still very visible in the Wilhelmstrasse in Berlin, going under the name of Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus. It housed the Haus der Ministerien for the German Democratic Republic (DDR) after the second world war, and is now the office location of the German Finance Department.

Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus in 2006

The Abteilungschef lead a unit divided into 5 Gruppen, numerated Gruppe I through Gruppe V, in addition to two liaison officers to the General Staff .

The Gruppen had the following names and descriptions - indicating their field of responsibility - I will get into details on this further on in the series:

Gruppe I - Organisation und Auswertung - Rohstoffe, Flugbetriebsstoffe und Verlustwesen
Gruppe II - Personelle Lage
Gruppe III - Rüstung der Fliegertruppe, Forderung, Planung, Beschaffung und Verteilung von fliegerischen Gerät aller Art
Gruppe IV - Flakgerät, Waffen und Munition aller Art
Gruppe V - Organisation des Kfz.-Wesens, Forderung, Planung, Beschaffung und Verteilung von Kfz.

Translated to English this would (please help me out if you believe I could better the translation!) be:

Group I - Organization and evaluation - Resources, aviation fuel and loss registration and interpretation
Group II - Personnel
Group III - Equipment - Requirements, planning, acquisition and distribution of  aviation equipment of allsorts
Group IV - Anti-aircraft weapons and munitions of all sorts
Group V - Motor vehicles, Requirements, planning, acquisition and distribution of motor vehicles

This was the main layout of the unit - more details to follow in upcoming installments of this series.