Hans Langels

Hans Langels (born June 26, 1879 in Krefeld-Fischeln, † July 15, 1947 in Düsseldorf ) was a German judicial and police officer, lawyer and police chief of Düsseldorf.

Career

After completing high school in Krefeld and Vechta, Langels studied law in Freiburg / Breisgau, Munich and Bonn. In Freiburg he became a member of the Catholic student association KDStV Ripuaria Freiburg im Breisgau im CV . After completing his studies, Langels began his career in the public prosecutor's service. This activity was interrupted by military service from 1914 to 1916. From October 1917 he was employed by the public prosecutor's office in Dortmund and from 1920 as a district court director at the district court of Berlin I. Langels joined the Catholic Center Party . With a decree of November 7, 1925, the government councilor Dr. Helmut Oehler was entrusted by the Prussian state government "with the temporary processing of the transitional business for the establishment of a state police administration in the city of Düsseldorf". Since the withdrawal of French and Belgian occupation soldiers ( occupation of the Ruhr ) in 1925, the city ​​had been earmarked for the creation of a state police headquarters. Until then, the police were not subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, but to the municipality and the mayor or his deputy. On March 9, 1926, Hans Langels was tasked with nationalizing the Düsseldorf police. With him, the Ministry of the Interior knew a convinced and reliable Democrat and a proven administrative and judicial specialist at the head of the new agency. The nationalization was formalized on July 1, 1926.

Term of office in Düsseldorf

In order to improve the police's public relations work, Langels commissioned the production of the advertising film “Dienst am Volk” in 1928, which was largely shot in Düsseldorf and documents the training and everyday activities of the police. The film premiered in 1930. In addition, a small crime and police museum was set up in the police headquarters at Mühlenstrasse 29 and a “Day of the German Police” was held several times. Langels' office hit the headlines across Germany in 1929 and 1930 because the mass murderer Peter Kürten was up to mischief in the city and only after long and intensive investigations by the Düsseldorf criminal investigation department, supported by investigators from the Berlin Presidium, such as Ernst Gennat , and the Interior Ministry May 1930 could be made. The open acts of violence and unrest between supporters of the NSDAP and the KPD at the end of the Weimar Republic also fell during Langel's tenure . In 1929 Langels was present together with the Prussian Interior Minister Albert Grzesinski (SPD) at the laying of the foundation stone of the new police headquarters on Kavallerieplatz (today Jürgensplatz). The construction could only be completed four years later; the police began the move in the winter of 1933/34.

Discharge

On April 29, 1933, Langels was given leave of absence with immediate effect by the National Socialist rulers, with a resolution of the Prussian State Ministry of May 5, 1933, into temporary retirement, and finally on October 3, 1933 according to § 6 of the law to restore the civil service to February 1 Retired in 1934. His successor on May 1, 1933, was SS-Gruppenführer and NSDAP Reichstag deputy Fritz Weitzel . Between 1940 and 1945 Langels still worked temporarily for the Düsseldorf district government. Hans Langels died on July 15, 1947 in Düsseldorf and was buried in his place of birth.

See also

• State Police Headquarters Düsseldorf

literature

• Joachim Lilla : The state police administration in Düsseldorf 1926-1945 , in: Düsseldorfer Jahrbuch 73 (2002), pp. 217-294.
• Dams, Carsten / Dönecke, Klaus / Köhler, Thomas (eds.): “Service to the people”? Dusseldorf police officers between democracy and dictatorship (Forum Polizeigeschichte 1), Frankfurt am Main 2007.
• Dönecke, Klaus (Red.): Transparency and shadow. Düsseldorf police officers between democracy and dictatorship . Catalog for the permanent exhibition in the police headquarters in Düsseldorf. Edited by the History Association at Jürgensplatz eV, Düsseldorf 2007.
• Horst Romeyk : The leading state and municipal administrative officials of the Rhine Province 1816–1945 (=  publications of the Society for Rhenish History . Volume 69 ). Droste, Düsseldorf 1994, ISBN 3-7700-7585-4 .
• Carsten Dams, Frank Kessler: Community police. DIENST AM VOLK (D 1930) , in: Filmblatt, 11th year, No. 30, Spring / Summer 2006, pp. 5–17
• Karl Berg (re-edited by Michael Farin): The Sadist - The Peter Kürten Case , Munich 2004