Police general

Police general , also police general , is a top rank of generals or the general term for police generals in some countries that do not practice a strict separation between police and military. Translations of the designation into foreign languages ​​are sometimes inconsistent because the preferences of the authorities determine the designation in the respective official language. According to today's NATO rank codes , this rank would be comparable to OF-8 ( Lieutenant General ). The practice of assigning rankings may differ in the respective countries.

The term general of the police , which is often used synonymously today , originally meant a rank designation for a three-star general, comparable to the general of the infantry in the army.

Germany

The position of a police general as the highest police chief in Germany is closely linked to German history. In the 20th century, the management of the police was assigned to the respective interior ministries of the federal states. Centralistic structures were introduced during the time of National Socialist Germany. After 1945, the state governments, in coordination with the Allies, merged the regional criminal investigation offices into "State criminal police offices". The Basic Law confirmed that police sovereignty does not lie with the federal government, but with the states. The federal government was only granted the authority to maintain a central criminal police office ( Art. 73 , Art. 87 GG ). On this constitutional basis, the law on the establishment of a Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamtes) (BKAG) came into force on March 15, 1951 . Further police authorities at the federal level were later established.

Police during the Weimar Republic

→ Main article : "Police in the Weimar Republic 1918–1933" in the article Police (Germany)

During the time of the Weimar Republic , the highest police command lay with the respective state governments of the former German states . There was no centralistic structure for the whole of the countries. A well-known police officer from that time was

• Magnus Heimannsberg was in command of the Berlin Police from 1927 to 1932. He was deposed in 1932 and later arrested several times. After the war he was rehabilitated. In 1945 he was a retired police general until 1948. D. Appointed chief of the German police in Greater Hesse, then police chief in Wiesbaden until his retirement.

Police of National Socialist Germany

→ Main article : "Police of National Socialist Germany" in the article Ordnungspolizei

After the seizure by the Nazi security organs were restructured successively. The German police were centralized from 1933 and then divided into two branches in 1936: the Ordnungspolizei and the Security Police .

Reichsführer SS collar tab

Police general with the highest rank of police (see Army General ) were in the German Reich:

• Kurt Daluege from November 1934 to May 1945 head of the German Ordnungspolizei and temporarily Himmler's deputy
• Heinrich Himmler from June 17, 1936 to 1945 as Reichsführer SS and chief of the German police (see decree on the appointment of a chief of the German police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior )
• Paul Giesler from April 29, 1945 until his death on May 2, 1945; installed by the Political Testament of Adolf Hitler
• Wilhelm Stuckart was appointed by Karl Dönitz as managing director of the Reich Interior and Culture (Education) Minister from May 3 to 23, 1945 .

Collar tab general of the police

Shoulder piece general of the police

General of the police was in the German Reich until 1945 a rank within the German police , comparable to the SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS .

→ Main article : “Ranks of the Ordnungspolizei” in the Ordnungspolizei article

The rank of general in the police is not to be confused with the higher-ranking police general .

Persons with the rank of general of the police were until 1945:

• Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (1899–1972)
• Theodor Berkelmann (1894–1943)
• Friedrich Karl von Eberstein (1894–1979)
• Karl Hermann Frank (1898–1946)
• Curt von Gottberg (1896–1945)
• Karl Michael Gutenberger (1905–1961)
• August Heissmeyer (1897–1979)
• Reinhard Heydrich (1904–1942)
• Richard Hildebrandt (1897–1952)
• Hermann Höfle (1898–1947)
• Otto Hofmann (1896–1982)
• Friedrich Jeckeln (1895–1946)
• Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1903-1946)
• Wilhelm Koppe (1896–1975)
• Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger (1894–1945)
• Benno Martin (1893–1975)
• Emil Mazuw (1900–1987)
• Carl Oberg (1897-1965)
• Günther Pancke (1899–1973)
• Wilhelm Redieß (1900–1945)
• Gustav Adolf Scheel (1907–1979)
• Udo von Woyrsch (1895–1983)

See also : List of SS and Police Leaders

Post-war period in Germany

→ Main article : "Occupied Germany 1945–1949" in the article Police (Germany)

The post-war period in Germany had no central command of the German police. Initially, state power lay with the Allied Control Council . In the area of Soviet military administration in Germany was Georgy Zhukov supreme chief of police. In the period that followed, various regulations such as the occupation statute gradually established the higher management of the police in the regions. At the local level, police structures were retained and in some cases worked together with the military police under the leadership of the military structures during the occupation. One of the few well-known police officers who worked as chief of the police at this time is Magnus Heimannsberg.

GDR police

The entirety of the police in the GDR consisted of the areas of the German People's Police , People's Police Readiness , Transport Police and the German Border Police .

→ Main article : "Ranks" in the article German People's Police

The following persons each had the top management of the German People's Police . The actual ranks give way e.g. T. considerably from:

• Erich Reschke from July 30, 1946 to July 1948
• Kurt Fischer from October 12, 1949, died on June 22, 1950 with the rank of General Inspector
• Karl Maron , September 1, 1950 to 1963, most recently in the rank of Colonel General
• Friedrich Dickel followed Karl Maron from November 15, 1963 to November 17, 1989 in the position, albeit from 1984 with the rank of army general
• Karl-Heinz Wagner from November 10, 1989 to December 29, 1989, since 1987 in the rank of Colonel General
• Egon Grüning from January 1, 1990 to April 18, 1990 with the rank of Lieutenant General

Federal Republic of Germany

→ Main article : Official titles of the German police

Since the separation of the police and the military, military ranks no longer exist in the police forces of the Federal Republic of Germany - state police and federal police. Police officers therefore use official titles for the German police . The state government of the respective state police authority is in charge .

Exceptions were the railway police and the Federal Border Police , which were combined to form the Federal Police in 2005 . The Federal Border Guard used military ranks until 1976, after which they were transferred to official titles . The respective heads of the BGS can be found in the list of inspectors of the BGS . Federal police authorities and other internal security authorities are subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior .

Persons who were at least colloquially referred to as police general in the Federal Republic are

• Magnus Heimannsberg was in command of the Berlin Police from 1927 to 1932, and from 1945 to 1948 as retired police general. D. Appointed chief of the German police in Greater Hesse, then chief of police in Wiesbaden
• Udo Burkholder , last inspector of the Federal Border Police (BGS) on March 21, 2001 and first and last inspector of the Federal Police since July 1, 2005
• Friedrich Eichele , well-known rank of Brigadier General , retired in 2017 as "President of the Federal Riot Police"

France

→ Main article : "Ranks" in the article Police nationale

The post is called "Inspecteur général". The rank of service may differ. Known owners are:

• Richard Lizurey (currently as of February 2018) Post : "Directeur général", rank: "Général de Corps d'armée"

Austria

→ Main article : ranks of the Austrian security executive

The highest police chief in Austria is the general director for public security in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and thus the highest-ranking official in the Austrian security administration . The respective owners can be found in the list of General Directors of the Second Republic .

Serbia

Known owner:

• Vlastimir Djordjevic (Vlastimir Đorđević) was both police and military general with the rank of lieutenant colonel . He was sentenced to long imprisonment for war crimes in the Kosovo war .

literature

• Ruth Bettina Birn : The Higher SS and Police Leaders - Himmler's representatives in the Reich and in the occupied territories . Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-7700-0710-7 .
• Henri Schmidt: A Nevigeser in Berlin (Heimannsberg biography), magazine of the Bergisches Geschichtsverein , published in the issue "Historical Contributions No. 23"
• Torsten Diedrich, Hans Gotthard Ehlert, Rüdiger Wenzke: In the service of the party: Handbook of the armed organs of the GDR , Ch. Links Verlag, 1998, ISBN 9783861531609

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Magnus Heimannsberg in the Federal Archives: files of the Reich Chancellery Retrieved on February 4, 2018.
2. ↑ Ruth Bettina Birn (see literature list)
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Diedrich, Ehlert, Wenzke: In the service of the party
4. ↑ Ulrich Braun, WAZ : Heimannsberg biography, The trail leads from Neviges to Argentina.Retrieved on February 4, 2018.
5. ↑ Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the CFSP.Retrieved February 3, 2018.
6. ↑ HNA: Supreme Riot Police Retires: Accessed via GSG9 and G20 on February 3, 2018.
7. ↑ Direction générale de la gendarmerie nationale (DGGN) , accessed on February 3, 2018.
8. ↑ United Nations: Vlastimir Đorđević Convicted for Crimes in Kosovo.Retrieved February 5, 2018.