Political Police

This article deals with the abstract concept of political police , for the Swiss domestic intelligence service for analysis and prevention , which is known under this name, see Political Police (Switzerland) .

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The political police are the special organs of the police to investigate and prosecute , sometimes also to prevent , of political crimes .

In authoritarian and dictatorial systems of rule in particular , the political police have an important function to secure rule; there, they do not or not primarily serve to enforce the law, but often outside of the law and the rule of law control of the repression of opponents of the regime up to systematic and open terror .

In Germany there was a strong tradition of the (German) political police even before the founding of the empire - in Prussia, for example, the Prussian secret police , the secret state police (Gestapo) of the Nazi era .

In the GDR , the Ministry for State Security (MfS or Stasi) and departments of the People's Police (Work Area I: Political Police) led by the Stasi were a powerful political police apparatus.

In Switzerland, state security was known as the political police until around 1990 .

See also

• Police state

Web links

• Klaus Schubert / Martina Klein: Political Police . In: Das Politiklexikon, BpB -online version of the 5th edition, 2011.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: Police and State Security , July 30, 2009 (accessed October 17, 2012).