This dissertation project pursues a praxeological approach in its investigation of the personnel policy maintained in dealing with the Nazi past by the Bavarian state governments from 1945 to 1970. First, it is to be seen how and in which regard the Bavarian government reckoned with the Nazi past and what sort of politics of history it pursued. The experiences that leading ministerial figures had before, during, and after the “Third Reich” are also to be analyzed. Additionally, the study will shed light on the criteria followed by Bavarian officialdom when it came to (re-)hiring and promotion, as well as the functioning of “Law 131” and the State Personnel Office, founded in Bavaria in 1946.

The specific starting point for the Bavarian government’s personnel policy and practice is the Bavarian Chancellery, which established itself within the ministerial administration after 1945 as a decisive institution affecting all areas of governance. The Chancellery was to apply horizontal cross-institutional and thematic methods to establish a personnel policy with and among the other ministries and agencies. Although the project does feature classical elements of administrative and institutional history, the biographies of a limited number of leading figures is also to be taken into account. This biographical research is based on the supposition in the theory of organization, that administrations are not exclusively rational organizations but also social structures with lives of their own as the result of human action and decision-making.