Under National Socialism, archaeology and building research were not regarded as so-called "fighting sciences", as they did not contribute to the armament of the Reich, and therefore had a difficult status. Science was supposed to be in the service of the National Socialist state. To this end, mainly party members were appointed to important positions and the German Archaeological Institute was subordinated to the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and National Education, which was founded in 1934. In the second half of the thirties, archaeology gained political importance. Particularly during the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and immediately before the Second World War, the Reich used archaeology, along with other sciences, to present itself as a scientific nation in order to give foreign policy a peaceful slant.  In 1938, in the course of the above-mentioned increase in the importance of archaeology, the German Archaeological Institute turned its attention once again to René von Schöfer's largely fallow Pompeii research.
For the background, a small circle of other people will be illuminated. On the one hand, it is worth remembering the management of the Pompeii company already mentioned in the chapter on building research in Pompeii. For with Erich Pernice and Max Wegner von Schöfer discussed himself on 28 January 1938 in Berlin.  This can be seen as the starting signal for the new campaign in which the DAI tried to collect the research results. The new President Martin Schede, who was elected in 1937 and who, as a member of the NSDAP, was well-connected, was responsible for considerably consolidating and expanding the DAI.  Even more important was Armin von Gerkan, who in autumn 1937 became acting and from January 1938 formal first secretary of the Rome Department of the German Archaeological Institute responsible for Pompeii. He had to make sure that his department delivered results after it had lost importance in the "Third Reich".
Von Gerkan had also spoken out in favour of giving priority to joint projects rather than individual research. The Pompeii enterprise in the broader sense is to be seen as such, which was worked on by several individuals in partial projects and was to appear in a bundled series of publications of the institute. In addition, Italy was an important ally of the German Reich and thus had to be satisfied in terms of cultural policy. For propaganda reasons in the forthcoming Second World War, archaeology was therefore temporarily regarded as important for the war.
When there was no intensive further work on the project in the months following the above-mentioned meeting, Martin Schede considered between 1938 and 1939, both for von Schöfer and for Heinrich Sulze, who was investigating the Stabian Baths in Pompeii and who had been working in the Institute for Urban Development and Settlement of the Technical University of Dresden since 1921, that the processors should hand over their documents to younger building researchers of the department in Rome. Besides Sulze and René von Schöfer, his Aachen predecessor Fritz Krischen and Albert Ippel were latecomers in the processing of outstanding Pompeii research. Only Erich Pernice, who worked on three volumes on Pompeii, continuously delivered results that satisfied the DAI. 
In this context, von Schöfer's attempt before the Second World War may have been to hand over his documents first to Fritz Krischen. Krischen edited – probably as von Schöfer had done since the time before the First World War – a volume on the city wall of Pompeii, which he only handed over to Armin von Gerkan in 1941. Since Krischen had retired from the Technical University of Gdansk because of differences with the university management, he was able to invest more time in the preparation of his Pompeii contribution. According to Schöfer's own statements, the handing over of Schöfer's documents failed because his drawings, text pieces and notes as well as material and mortar samples could only have been evaluated with his constant assistance.
In 1938/39, the DAI next brought into play the young building researcher Arnold Tschira (1910-1969), who was unencumbered by Pompeii and whom the institute did not want to expect to work for von Schöfer.  Instead, Tschira should have used only von Schöfer's drawings and should also have re-examined the Casa del Fauno itself, which von Schöfer was reluctant to do. Schöfer, in turn, was convinced that the building history of the Casa del Fauno could be clarified on the basis of the results of his investigation, and he did not want to be deprived of this. In agreement with Tschira, von Schöfer saw the closure of the RWTH Aachen University for about one year after the beginning of the war in 1939 as an opportunity for concentrated work, as he had plenty of free time during this period. 
Armin von Gerkan feared as early as 1939 that von Schöfer might publish his research on the Casa del Fauno on his own and thus act against the interests of the DAI, which had promoted the work and claimed to publish it. He also believed that von Schöfer's work would be flawed and would have to be refuted immediately after publication. He even accused him of "scientific imposture" within the institute, because von Schöfer had not appeared in the field of ancient architecture in addition to the unfinished research of the Casa del Fauno and therefore would not have the necessary knowledge for a qualified work. (…)