The history of the BGR – a brief outline
In a joint research project with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), BGR, the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and the National Metrology Institute of Germany (PTB), which are also subordinate to the BMWi, are having their past during the Nazi era and the post-war period investigated. Today's Federal Authorities go back to predecessor institutions which fulfilled important tasks in research and science during the Nazi era and which placed themselves in the service of the regime after 1933.
The research project aims to answer two important questions: Why did academics in different authorities, most of whom did not see themselves as political, so willingly make important stabilising contributions to the armament and warfare of the inhuman Nazi regime? And how did they and the authorities in which they worked deal with the terrible Nazi past and their own guilt after 1945?
The research project, which began on 1 October 2020, is headed by the two renowned historians Prof. Dr. Helmut Maier (Bergische Universität Wuppertal) and Prof. Dr. Carsten Reinhardt (Universität Bielefeld), who have already presented studies on the Nazi history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. The project is scheduled to run for three years. The results are to be presented at international conferences, in several monographs and in a biographical sub-project on perpetrators and persecuted persons.
1873 | The Königlich Preußische Geologische Landesanstalt is established in Berlin and is housed in purpose-built offices in Invalidenstraße 44. |
1934 | The Hannover office opens. |
1945 | In the Hannover branch office of the former Reichsamt, attempts are made to reorganise and disentangle the national geological survey. In the territory of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), the national Geological Commission (Geologische Kommission) - later to become the Zentrale Geologische Institut - is established, with its headquarters in the building that housed the former Reichsamt für Bodenforschung. |
1948 | In the Höchst Agreement and the Königstein Agreement the state geological surveys of the United Economic Zone (bizone) transfer transregional tasks (cooperative tasks) to the Hannover office. |
1950 | The Amt für Bodenforschung - responsible for Lower Saxony - is established in Hannover. |
26.11.1958 | Establishment of the Bundesanstalt für Bodenforschung from the existing Amt für Bodenforschung in Hannover by Decree of the Federal Minister of Economics on 26.11.1958 (PDF, 60 KB) (Federal Gazette No. 230 dated 29.11.1958) [Erlass des Bundesministers für Wirtschaft vom 26.11.1958 (PDF, 60 KB) (Bundesanzeiger Nr. 230 vom 29.11.1958).] |
31.03.1959 | Dissolution of the Amt für Bodenforschung in Hannover (Lower Saxony Ministerial Gazette No. 5 dated 31.01.1959 P. 80) [Nds.MBl. Nr.5 vom 31.01.1959 S.80]. |
17.01.1975 | The Bundesanstalt für Bodenforschung is renamed to the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe - BGR (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) by decree of the Federal Minister of Economics on 17.01.1975 (Federal Gazette No. 18 dated 28.01.1975) [Erlass des Bundesministers für Wirtschaft vom 17.01.1975 (Bundesanzeiger Nr.18 vom 28.01.1975)]. |
01.08.1990 | The Anstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (AGR) is formed in the GDR from the existing Zentrales Geologisches Institut (ZGI). |
03.10.1990 | The AGR is dissolved and wound up by the end of 1990. |
| 19.10.1990 | The BGR's Berlin office opens in Invalidenstraße 44, Berlin. |
| 2012 | Opening of the German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA) in the BGR Berlin office. |
| 26.11.2019 | New version of the construction decree for the BGR by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy |
| 2019 | Establishment of the German Competent Authority EU Due Diligence Obligations in Mineral Supply Chains (DEKSOR) at the BGR in Hannover |