Chief of Civil Administration (German:'Chef der Zivilverwaltung, CdZ') was an office introduced inNazi Germany, operational duringWorld War II. Its task was to administer civil issues according tooccupation law, with the primary purpose being the support of the military command in the operational areas of theGerman Army. CdZ would pass his authority to a corresponding civil government after the territory in question became in the rear of the operating armed forces.
According to German law, all executive powers in the deployment areas passed to theWehrmacht armed forces. Overstrained and incapable to construct a civil administration, theGerman Army High Command willingly put these tasks to the CdZ. In the capacity asReichsstatthalter governor, the office was under the authority of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, but operationally CdZ was under the commander-in-chief of the German Army and ultimately ofAdolf Hitler as supreme commander. Hitler generally interfered in the domestic policies of the occupied territories, giving unrestricted powers toSicherheitsdienst andSS squadrons under the command ofHeinrich Himmler.
Several administrative divisions under the authority of a Chief of Civil Administration were officially designated asCdZ-Gebiete (CdZ Areas, Chief of Civil Administration Territories):[1][2]
After theBattle of France, from 1940, CdZ officials were appointed in thosewestern occupied territories that were not (yet) officially annexed by the Third Reich:
Further CdZ assumed office upon the 1941Balkan Campaign:
After the beginning ofOperation Barbarossa in June 1941, aCdZ-Gebiet Bialystok underErich Koch,Gauleiter ofEast Prussia, was established onPolish territory previouslyoccupied by theSoviet Union, converted intoDistrict Bialystok on 1 August 1941.