Rank alignment
As rank approximation was in the era of National Socialism , the award of an SS service degree understood to police, at the request of the Schutzstaffel were added (SS). After 1945 it was often falsely claimed that entry into the SS and the subsequent ranks were made under duress and / or without the involvement of the police officers concerned. Equally inaccurate is the statement that the ranks were adjusted as the result of a collective takeover of police officers into the SS.
Striving to merge the police and the SS
On June 17, 1936, the Reichsführer SS , Heinrich Himmler , was appointed to the newly created office of the Chief of the German Police . In the following years, Himmler endeavored to persuade as many members of the regulatory police (protection police, gendarmerie, professional fire brigade, from 1938 fire protection police ) as well as the security police ( criminal police and Gestapo ) to join the SS. According to a circular issued by Himmler on June 23, 1938, the aim was to “merge the members of the German Pol. with the protection squadron of the NSDAP to a uniformly oriented state protection corps of the National Socialist Reich ” .
The desired amalgamation became apparent at the 1938 Reich Party Rally, when the Ordnungspolizei formed a march block between the General SS and the SS disposal force on the “Day of the Brown Army” .
Different criteria for admission to the police and security police
A circular issued Himmler from January 18, 1938 limited the number of uniformed members of the regular police, who could ask for inclusion in the SS, to the circle of (!) "Old fighters" - those officials who before the 30th January 1933 ( Day of the Nazi takeover ) were already a member of the NSDAP or one of its branches ( SA , NSKK , HJ ) or a supporting member of the SS . After the “Anschluss” of Austria in March 1938, police officers who had been involved in the invasion could also apply to join the SS.
Himmler was much more intensive in accepting members of the security police (criminal police, Gestapo) into the SS. In a circular of June 23, 1938, he waived the criterion of the "old fighter"; instead, a period of three years in the security police was sufficient from Time at which Himmler had become political police commander in the respective country. He had succeeded in this step by step in the 17 countries of the German Reich, first in April 1933, in Bavaria ( Bavarian Political Police ), and most recently in November 1934, in Schaumburg-Lippe .
In addition, high officials of the higher administrative authorities, who were concerned with police matters, were also the target of Himmler's "recruitment attempts". These included the police chiefs of medium- sized towns (police directors) as well as large cities and metropolises (police presidents), who, after joining the SS, were to be classified as SS Obersturmbannführer or standard, senior or brigade leaders (depending on the size and number of the community the subordinate police forces).
Lack of response and weakening of the SS admission criteria
In a circular of March 4, 1938, Himmler expressed the expectation that members of the uniformed order police who belonged to the SA, the NSKK or the HJ would now convert to the SS. This request does not seem to have been complied with to the extent desired, because a circular in December again pointed to the approaching end of the application deadline of January 31, 1939.
Assuming that the standards for admission to the SS were too strict, the criteria were increasingly relaxed. From June 16, 1938, law enforcement officers could be admitted to the SS "disregarding size and age" . The so-called “proof of Aryan descent” was only to be provided up to and including the grandparents, and not, as with the SS, up to 1800 (men) or 1750 (leaders). Presumably at the instigation of Himmler, Rudolf Hess decreed in March 1940 , in his capacity as deputy of the Führer (in the NSDAP), that in future all members of the uniformed prison police would no longer be allowed to belong to the SA or the NSKK and therefore would be "consensually" (!) In the SS are to be convicted.
From 1940, the admission criteria for members of the regulatory police were expanded again. From then on, possible candidates included participants in the field deployment of the SS police division , the winners of war awards that were recently acquired, officials promoted to officers of the Ordnungspolizei after July 1, 1940, and members of the police officers established after October 11, 1939 (Heinrich Himmler's secret circular). Training battalions, after six months of probation.
Return to stricter admission requirements
In a letter to Ernst Kaltenbrunner on April 24, 1943, Himmler asked for a security police officer to be accepted only if he “really volunteers” and “ fits into the SS in terms of race and ideology when applying a strict, peaceful standard ” .
Implementation of grade adjustment in practice
A fundamental distinction must be made between the admission of a police officer to the SS and his subsequent promotion to an SS rank that corresponded to his police rank. Only the latter was referred to as grade adjustment during the Nazi era. The entry of police officers into the SS was preceded by an application and admission process with the participation of the applicants. At the same time, an ideological review of the applicant and his reliability as a National Socialist took place. At least at times, there seems to have been pressure exerted on police officers to seek SS membership.
The SS rank awarded mostly corresponded to the corresponding police rank . Since the summer of 1942, however, members of the security police had to be promoted to a corresponding SS rank, but no longer had to be promoted. Officials who had already been members of the SS before joining the police and who held a higher rank there than in the police retained their previous SS rank. This regulation also applied to the transfer of former members of the SA and NSKK.
As members of the SS, officers of the Ordnungspolizei were allowed to wear a badge with the SS-Sigrunen on their uniform, below the left breast pocket. After joining the SS, officials of the Security Police were assigned to the security service of the Reichsführer SS (SD) and now wore the SD diamond on the left lower sleeve of their uniform.
Legends after 1945
After 1945, many police officers claimed that they had been forced to join the SS and that they had received an SS rank without their own intervention. This claim was first made for the Ordnungspolizei by Adolf von Bomhard , SS group leader and lieutenant general of the police, in a testimony at the Nuremberg trial . Otto Hellwig , higher SS and police leader before 1945 , wrote an affidavit during internment in January 1948, according to which rank adjustments were not carried out automatically on request but without questioning. This declaration was used by a large number of police officers, including Paul Dickopf , who was President of the West German Federal Criminal Police Office from 1965 to 1971 .
In September 1950, the former major general of the Ordnungspolizei, Rudolf Mueller, turned to the Federal Minister of the Interior Heinemann to promote the acceptance of former police officers into the newly formed riot police : From Mueller's point of view, the police officers had accepted their "SS title without their involvement [...] , because a refusal would have pulled the removal of that officer, concentration camps and application of collective punishment by itself. " As on March 6, 1963, the Nazi past of the BKA Theo Saevecke object was a question time in the German Bundestag, told German Interior Minister Hermann Höcherl citing a denazification process , "that Saevecke's SS membership is to be seen as an involuntary adjustment of rank."
rating
In essence, Himmler's edicts and statements were extremely contradictory: on the one hand, the highest possible number of police officers should join the SS. On the other hand, this was opposed by the elitist claim of the SS, which saw itself as a selection according to National Socialist ideas. The principle asserted by Himmler that entry into the SS is based on voluntariness was broken in some areas: For example, considerable pressure seems to have been exerted on members of the criminal police, on senior officers of the regulatory police and on senior administrative officials entrusted with police matters to get them to join the SS.
The claims made by police officers after the war that they had been admitted to the SS without their own assistance or knowledge were exposed as false assertions by Hans Buchheim from the Institute for Contemporary History when he evaluated sources from the Nazi era in an expert report in September 1960 . Entry into the SS was indeed made under pressure in individual cases, but in the great majority of cases it was voluntary. In any case, admission to the SS never took place without the assistance of the officer concerned. Even officials under pressure would have had to personally sign the membership application. The contrary representations in the post-war period served to cover up this circumstance and were intended to facilitate or enable officers charged with Nazi to continue their police careers in the young Federal Republic.
Apart from the numerous police officers of the post-war period who were burdened with Nazi Germany, there seem to have been quite a few officials who did not heed Himmler's call to join the SS. The increasing weakening of the admission criteria is evidence of this. Often one can only speculate about the individual motives of those who refuse to join. An inner ideological distance from the Nazi regime would be possible, for example, but also personal comfort and the unwillingness to get involved in the Nazi state beyond what is professionally and privately necessary. Members of the SA and NSKK may fear losing their previous circle of comrades outside of the service - and thus an important private and professional network (“ rope team ”) in the Nazi state .
Overview of the ranks of the SS and the Ordnungspolizei
| protection Squad | Protection police u. Fire Police (1936 / 38–1941) | Protection police u. Fire Police (1941–1945) |
|---|---|---|
| SS leaders and police officers | ||
| Reichsführer SS and chief of the German police | ||
| SS Colonel Group Leader (since 1942) | - | Colonel General of the Police |
| SS-Obergruppenführer | General of the police | General of the police |
| SS group leader | Lieutenant General | Lieutenant General of the Police |
| SS Brigade Leader | Major general | Major General of the Police |
| SS-Oberführer | ( Colonel ) | (Colonel) |
| SS standard leader | Colonel | Colonel |
| SS-Obersturmbannführer | Lieutenant colonel | Lieutenant colonel |
| SS-Sturmbannführer | major | major |
| Hauptsturmführer | Captain | Captain Revierhauptmann |
| SS-Obersturmführer | First lieutenant | Oberleutnant Revier Oberleutnant (since 1939, previously inspector) |
| SS-Untersturmführer | lieutenant | Lieutenant Revierleutnant (since 1939, previously Obermeister) |
| Unterführer | ||
| SS-Sturmscharführer (since 1938) | Chief Inspector (existing around 1936 to 1939) Inspector Obermeister Meister |
master |
| SS-Hauptscharführer or SS-Standartenoberjunker | Hauptwachtmeister or Oberjunker | Hauptwachtmeister or Oberjunker |
| Oberscharfuhrer | Revier Oberwachtmeister (Schupo) District Oberwachtmeister ( Gendarmerie) Zugwachtmeister (barracked readiness) |
Revier Oberwachtmeister (Schupo) District Oberwachtmeister ( Gendarmerie) Zugwachtmeister (barracked readiness) |
| SS-Scharführer or SS-Standartenjunker | - | Oberwachtmeister or Junker |
| SS-Unterscharführer | Oberwachtmeister or Junker | Constable |
| Men | ||
| SS Rottenführer | Sergeant over 4 years of service | Red Sergeant |
| SS storm man | Sergeant under 4 years of service | Sergeant |
| SS man | - | Police candidate (after six months) |
| SS candidate | - | Police candidate |
For comparison, see the overview of the ranks of the military and paramilitary organizations in the Third Reich.
The fire protection police (also: fire extinguishing police) was formed in 1938 from the professional fire brigades (but not from the volunteer fire brigades and company fire brigades).
The ranks up to and including Colonel also carried the designation of the three organizational units (protection police, gendarmerie, fire protection police), for example sergeant of the gendarmerie , first lieutenant of the protection police .
The designation Junker not only represented a rank of the police officer cadets ranked with the sergeant major, but generally denoted every police officer who entered a corresponding training course. There is at least one document with which a "Police Revieroberwachtmeister" (sic, literal takeover) is appointed Junker of the Schutzpolizei . It was obviously a long-serving police officer who began an officer training at one of the two police schools (Berlin-Köpenick, Fürstenfeldbruck).
Individual evidence
- ^ Circular decree of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police of June 23, 1938 (RMBliV. P. 1089), quoted from Buchheim, recording , p. 177f.
- ^ Zdenek Zofka: The emergence of the Nazi repression system - or: The seizure of power by Heinrich Himmler. ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Circular decree of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police of June 16, 1938 (RMBliV. P. 1007), quoted in Buchheim, recording , p. 176. Height means body size.
- ^ Letter from Himmler to Kaltenbrunner of April 24, 1943, quoted from Buchheim, recording , p. 179 (Nuremberg Document 2768-PS)
- ↑ Buchheim, recording , pp. 174, 181.
- ↑ Buchheim, recording , pp. 177, 181. See also Stefan Noethen: Old comrades and new colleagues. Police in North Rhine-Westphalia 1945–1953. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-89861-110-8 , p. 34.
- ↑ Stefan Noethen, Kameraden , p. 34. Ibid. P. 173–419 numerous examples.
- ^ Stefan Noethen, Kameraden , p. 478.
- ↑ Dieter Schenk: Blind in the right eye. The brown roots of the BKA. , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne, 2001, ISBN 3-462-03034-5 , pp. 70f.
- ^ Letter from Mueller to Heinemann, quoted from Stefan Noethen, Kameraden , p. 487.
- ↑ Federal Interior Minister Höcherl in a question time of the Bundestag on March 6, 1963, quoted from Schenk, Auge , p. 264.
- ^ Friedrich Wilhelm, Police in the Nazi State , p. 95.
- ↑ See the information on the inside binding (incorrect with regard to the police ranks) of the GDR judiciary and Nazi crimes collection. Amsterdam Univ. Press, Amsterdam 2002, ISBN 90-5356-540-X .
- ^ Ingo Löhken: The police uniforms in Prussia 1866-1945. Monarchy, Weimar Republic, Third Reich , Podzun-Palast-Verlag, Friedberg 1986, ISBN 3-7909-0267-5 .
literature
- Hans Buchheim: The admission of police officers to the SS and the adjustment of their SS ranks to their official ranks (rank adjustment) in the time of the Third Reich. Expert opinion from September 1960. In: Institute for Contemporary History (Hrsg.): Expert opinion of the Institute for Contemporary History. Volume II, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 172-181.
- Friedrich Wilhelm: The police in the Nazi state. The history of their organization at a glance , Schöningh Collection on the past and present, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-506-77503-0 , pp. 172–181.