Reichskommissariat Don-Wolga, literally "Reich

Reich

Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...

 Commissariat

Commissariat

A commissariat is the department of an army charged with the provision of supplies, both food and forage, for the troops. The supply of military stores such as ammunition is not included in the duties of a commissariat. In almost every army the duties of transport and supply are performed by the...

 Don

Don River (Russia)

The Don River is one of the major rivers of Russia. It rises in the town of Novomoskovsk 60 kilometres southeast from Tula, southeast of Moscow, and flows for a distance of about 1,950 kilometres to the Sea of Azov....

-Volga", was a theoretical civilian occupation regime of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 discussed during the early stages of German planning for its occupation of territories in the Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

, one of several other Reichskommissariat

Reichskommissariat

Reichskommissariat is the German designation for a type of administrative office headed by a government official known as a Reichskommissar...

s. It is also referred to in German memoranda as simply the Dongebiet ("Don territory").

It was to stretch approximately from the Sea of Azov

Sea of Azov

The Sea of Azov , known in Classical Antiquity as Lake Maeotis, is a sea on the south of Eastern Europe. It is linked by the narrow Strait of Kerch to the Black Sea to the south and is bounded on the north by Ukraine mainland, on the east by Russia, and on the west by the Ukraine's Crimean...

 up to the Volga German Republic, an area without any natural boundaries, economic unity, or a homogeous population. Its slated capital was Rostov-on-Don

Rostov-on-Don

-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...

. Dietrich Klagges

Dietrich Klagges

Dietrich Klagges was a Nazi politician and from 1933 to 1945 the appointed premier of the now abolished state of Braunschweig....

, the Minister-President of Braunschweig, was proposed by Nazi leader Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...

 as its Reichskommissar

Reichskommissar

Reichskommissar , in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and the Nazi Third Reich....

.

Although five occupation regimes had originally been envisaged it was eventually dropped because it did not carry a specific political objective, and because the German authorities had decided by the second half of May 1941 to limit the number of administrative units that were to be established in the east to four. At Rosenberg's suggestion its territory was divided between the Reichskommissariat Ukraine

Reichskommissariat Ukraine

Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...

 and Reichskommissariat Kaukasus

Reichskommissariat Kaukasus

Reichskommissariat Kaukasus , literally "Reich Commissariat of the Caucasus ", was the theoretical political division and planned civilian occupation regime of Nazi Germany in the conquered territories of the Caucasus during World War II...

, which was accepted by Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

. Other sources state its territory as covering 55.000 km2, and including only territory later added to Reichskommissariat Ukraine, comprising its eventually planned Generalbezirke Rostov, Voronezh

Voronezh

Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...

, and Saratov

Saratov

-Modern Saratov:The Saratov region is highly industrialized, due in part to the rich in natural and industrial resources of the area. The region is also one of the more important and largest cultural and scientific centres in Russia...

.

See also

• Reichskommissariat Moskowien
• Reichskommissariat Kaukasus
  Reichskommissariat Kaukasus
  Reichskommissariat Kaukasus , literally "Reich Commissariat of the Caucasus ", was the theoretical political division and planned civilian occupation regime of Nazi Germany in the conquered territories of the Caucasus during World War II...
  
  
• Reichskommissariat Turkestan
  Reichskommissariat Turkestan
  Reichskommissariat Turkestan , literally "Reich Commissariat of Turkestan " was the civilian occupation regime which the leadership of Nazi Germany proposed to create in the Central Asian Republics of the Soviet Union in its military conflict with that country during World War II.-Background:Prior...