Heinrich Reiner (1892-1946), engeneer in his profession, joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) as early as 1923. After the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, he was appointed to senior posts in the government of Hessen. From August 1934 to June 1937 Reiner officiated as deputy of the Gauleiter of the Nazi Gau (district) Hesse-Nassau. In April 1935 he became deputy of the leader of the Hessian state government and the State Commissioner (Führers der hessischen Landesregierung und des Reichsstatthalters). In January 1936, he was appointed Hessian State Councilor (Staatsrat) and in January 1938 to the Hessian State Secretary (Staatssekretär). Due to illness, he stopped fulfilling the daily business of his post from 1944. In early April 1945 he was arrested by members of the US Army and then interned. In mid-January 1946 he died in the Georgensgmünd camp. The remainder of the estate of Heinrich Reiner was seized after the end of the war, probably together with files from the personal office of the Reichsstatthalter (State Commissioner), respectively after 1935 the deputy head of the state government, in Dieburger Str. 5 in Darmstadt, the house used by Reiner as official residence since 1941. At that time, the house had been assigned to the newly appointed Regierungspraesident (district president) Prof. Dr. Ludwig Bergstraesser. These remaining files from the personal registry of Reiner had been handed over by the Regierungspraesident Darmstadt to the Staatsarchiv Darmstadt in 1987 and registered in the same year as inventory G 5 (Reichsstatthalter) of that archive. Some of Reiner's personal files evidently entered the estate Bergstraesser repertory, from which they were separated in 1999. All files now form this current repertory O 59 (Nachlass) Reiner. The estate comprises 0.5 meters of files which mainly reflect the private and business life of Reiner. In addition to correspondence with his daughter Annemarie and his first wife Anna Maria née Schaefer, it has correspondence with lawyers, banks and business people, which illustrates for one thing the settlement of a variety of debts, for another thing the provision of senior officials with food, spirits, utensils and furniture, but also with domestic help etc. during the Second World War. The materials copied for Yad Vashem refer to Jews and hybrids (Mischlinge), to antisemitism and to ant-Jewish policies, from files of his correspondence in private and business matters, and from an extensive file (No. 11) which documents the rise of Heinrich Reiner in the NSDAP. Another file is a collection of newspaper articles on Judaism and Christianity, especially the Evangelical Church and the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche). A list of the files is to be found in the "Multimedia" page.