Friederike Wieking

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Friederike (also: Friedrike ) Johanne Wieking (born August 3, 1891 in Gildehaus ; † August 21, 1958 in West Berlin ) was the highest-ranking female detective in the Third Reich . She was head of Section VA 3 of the Reich Criminal Police Office in the Reich Security Main Office and the Reich Central Office for Combating Juvenile Delinquency.

Life

Friederike Wieking came from a family of teachers. Her grandfather and her father Jan Wieking (1839–1912) had already worked as teachers in Gildehaus. The mother was Grada Berta Wieking (1852–1941). Wieking had four siblings: Johann, Aleida, Wilhelmine and Wilhelm.

After attending the elementary school in Gildehaus (today Gildehaus elementary and secondary school), Wieking switched to the rector's school (middle school, today Bad Bentheim secondary school ), which she left in 1907 after the 9th grade because the 10th grade was reserved for boys. When the Christian-Social Women's Seminar in Hanover offered a new training course to become a state-recognized welfare worker from 1910 , she registered and was one of the first women to successfully complete the seminar at the age of 20.

In April 1919 she began her work at the welfare office for so-called “morally endangered” girls and women (girls and women who, according to official assessments, were in danger of falling into prostitution) at the Stettin police headquarters . In 1921 she took over the management of the women's aid center at the Berlin police headquarters . From 1926 she called for the establishment of a nationwide female police force and thus also the possibility for women to become full-fledged female criminal investigators. In April 1927, the seven female police officers in Berlin were grouped together to form "Kriminalinspektion K"; In the same year, the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Friederike Wieking, took over as a criminal police advisor to the Reichsdienst, where he entrusted her with the development of the female criminal police (WKP) for Prussia . After the nationwide standardization of the criminal police, the Reich Criminal Police Office (RKPA) decided in 1937 to set up a special office for the female criminal police. The head of this "Section A3" was Wieking. With the formation of the Reich Main Security Office in September 1939, the RKPA was integrated into the new authority as Office V and the WKP was organized in Section VA 3.

After 1933, the orientation of the WKP had changed drastically: In the Weimar Republic, the focus was still on “safeguarding the interests of women against the 'state-sanctioned' double standards, i.e. regulated prostitution” and - in addition to undoubtedly repressive measures - also protection and welfare played an essential role for female victims of sexual exploitation, the activities of female detectives in National Socialist Germany clearly shifted in the direction of repression through to the persecution and internment of affected girls and women. This change was also visible in Wieking's work. On July 1, 1939, the newly created “Reich Central Office for Combating Juvenile Delinquency” was added to its Section A3, which among other things took part in pseudo-scientific research into the alleged inheritance of crime. In addition, Wieking was responsible for the Moringen and Uckermark youth concentration camps created in 1940 and 1942, respectively , making them directly responsible for admissions. Concentration camp directors and officials involved in admissions reported to them; Camp reports were signed off by her. Wieking was later to justify her work in the youth concentration camp system with the argument that the youths would otherwise have been interned in adult concentration camps without hearing the youth authorities. In 1943 she was promoted to government director in the Reich Criminal Office.

On July 3, 1945 Wieking was arrested by the NKVD of the Soviet occupation forces because of her work in the police headquarters and was interned as the only female detective in various special camps (Weesow, Frankfurt / Oder, Jamlitz , Mühlberg ), most recently from September 1948 in special camp No. 2 in Buchenwald . When the special camps were closed, she was released on February 6, 1950. No charges were brought before the Waldheim trials . She was not affected by the Uckermark trial of five camp leaders and guards carried out during her special camp detention in the British occupation zone .

After her release, Wieking moved to live with her partner, the Catholic welfare worker Hildburg Zeitschel, in the Westend villa colony in West Berlin , where she lived until her death. She submitted an application for reuse in the police service, but it was rejected. In "Verlag für Polizeiliches Fachschrifttum Schmidt-Römhild " she published a book in 1958 (as Friedrike Wieking ) in the series "Kleine Polizei-Bücherei" with the title "The development of the female criminal police in Germany from the beginning to the present".

Friederike Wieking died on August 21, 1958 in Berlin and was buried on August 26, 1958 in the Heerstrasse cemetery in the Charlottenburg district in what is now Berlin-Westend .

Memberships and other activities

In addition to her professional activity, Wieking was also involved in the Berlin women's movement from 1922 at the latest, particularly in the “Association for the Protection of Women and Young People”, for which she also gave various lectures. The association had its focus on combating double standards and caring for so-called "vulnerable" girls. From 1919 to 1933 Wieking belonged to the German Association of Social Officers and in 1931 briefly also to the Association of Democratic Police Officers. After the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, she joined the Reichsbund der Deutschen Officials, which was brought into line, and in 1934 she joined the National Socialist Women's Association. She became a member of the NSDAP in 1941.

Spelling of the first name

On official documents, the first name is given as Friederike or in full Friederike Johanne . As an adult, Wieking herself drew with the apparently self-chosen spelling Friedrike , with which she could also be found in address and telephone directories and under which she also published her writings. Both spellings can be found in the research literature.

Fonts

  • The police, your friend and helper (essay, 1938).
  • The development of the female criminal police in Germany from the beginning to the present (bound brochure, Lübeck 1958).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Nienhaus : Himmler's willing accomplices - female police under National Socialism 1937–1945. In: Michael Grüttner , Rüdiger Hachtmann , Heinz-Gerhard Haupt (eds.): History and emancipation. Festschrift for Reinhard Rürup . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main and New York 1999, pp. 517-539, here: p. 518.
  2. ^ Nienhaus, Himmler's willing accomplices, p. 525ff.
  3. ↑ For the girls' concentration camp in Uckermark see u. a. Katja Limbächer, Maike Merten, Bettina Pfefferle (eds.): The girls' concentration camp Uckermark. Contributions to the past and present. 2nd Edition. Unrast, Münster 2005, ISBN 3-89771-204-0 (table of contents: DNB 972849254/04).
  4. ↑ Friedrike Wieking: The development of the female criminal police in Germany . Lübeck 1958, p. 74.
  5. ^ Nienhaus, Himmler's willing accomplices, p. 535.
  6. ↑ During the Uckermark trial there were acquittals for the head and the deputy head of the youth concentration camp, Lotte Toberentz and Johanna Braach . In 1945 the Uckermark concentration camp was converted into a death and selection camp for sick and elderly women from the Ravensbrück concentration camp; three female guards from that camp were sentenced to prison terms ( Elfriede Mohneke , Margarete Rabe ) or death by hanging ( Ruth Neudeck ).
  7. ^ Grafschafter Nachrichten, July 15, 2015.
  8. ↑ Protocol books of the Association for the Protection of Women and Young People, archived in the Landesarchiv Berlin, B Rep 215-13, MF 3473.
  9. ^ Nienhaus, Himmler's willing accomplices, p. 518.
personal data
SURNAME Wieking, Friederike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wieking, Friedrike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German detective in the Third Reich
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Guild house
DATE OF DEATH August 21, 1958
Place of death Berlin