State authority for the protection of the constitution

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In each of the German federal states there is a state authority for the protection of the constitution with the task of contributing to the protection of the constitution with intelligence services . In seven countries this is set up in the form of a State Office for the Protection of the Constitution , in the other nine the tasks of the protection of the constitution are performed by a department of the State Ministry of the Interior.

Historical development and separation requirement

In 1950, with the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Federal Republic of Germany, a domestic intelligence service was created for the first time, which since then has been organizationally, competently and functionally separated from the police. In the period that followed, the federal states set up state offices for the protection of the constitution, independent of the federal government.

The requirement to separate the police and intelligence services is expressly derived from the constitutional protection laws of the federal and state governments and, in Brandenburg and Saxony, also from the state constitutions there; Whether a separation requirement can be inferred from the federal principle of Article 20 of the Basic Law is controversial.

The separation requirement states that the intelligence services and the police should each have their own organizationally separate authorities (organizational component), that both institutions should have different tasks (functional component) and that they should also act with different powers (competent component). The separation requirement does not mean that the transfer of information between the police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is prohibited. Rather, where the respective task performance makes it necessary, cooperation between the authorities is required. The joint anti-terrorism center in Berlin and the newly created counter-terrorism database are examples of such cooperation.

Organizational structure

In the Federal Republic there are 16 state authorities and two federal authorities for the protection of the constitution. In addition to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service performs the tasks of the Protection of the Constitution for the division of the Federal Ministry of Defense .

The state and federal authorities are separate from one another and there is basically no authority between them.

The organization of the state authorities is regulated differently. While some federal states organize their constitutional protection authorities as state offices, which are subordinate to the responsible internal department (e.g. Bavaria, Saxony), in other states the constitutional protection is an organizational part of the respective internal department (e.g. Brandenburg, Berlin) ).

tasks

The BfV and the state authorities for the protection of the constitution (LfV) have the legal mandate (§ 3 BVerfSchG or state constitutional protection laws) to collect and evaluate information, in particular factual and personal information, messages and documents about:

  • Efforts that are directed against the free democratic basic order, the existence or the security of the Federation and a Land or aim to unlawfully interfere with the administration of the constitutional organs of the Federation or a Land or their members,
  • security-endangering or secret service activities within the scope of this Act for a foreign power,
  • Efforts which endanger foreign interests of the Federal Republic of Germany through the use of force or preparatory actions aimed at it,
  • Efforts that are directed against the idea of ​​international understanding ( Art. 9 Para. 2 GG), in particular against the peaceful coexistence of peoples ( Art. 26 Para. 1 GG).

In addition, some LfV are observing the activities and activities of organized crime. The BfV and the LfV are also involved

  • during the security check of persons who are entrusted with confidential facts, objects or findings in the public interest, which are to be given access to them or can obtain them,
  • during the security screening of persons who are or are to be employed in security-sensitive areas of vital or defense facilities,
  • in the case of technical security measures to protect facts, objects or findings that are subject to confidentiality in the public interest from being discovered by unauthorized persons, when checking people in other cases specified by law.

Powers / Information Collection

In addition to the collection of relevant open data in the context of the fulfillment of tasks, the state authorities are entitled to various so-called intelligence services for collecting personal data, depending on the legal basis applicable to them. An intelligence service is basically a means and method of covert information gathering. Classically, these include:

  • Use of so-called V-men : The protection of the constitution uses so-called human sources to collect information, which come from the extremist scene observed and pass on the information obtained there to the intelligence services. You are not employed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
  • Observations
  • Covert investigations and interviews
  • Use of legends and camouflage papers
  • Monitoring of telecommunications and postal traffic according to the law on Art. 10 GG.

This list is not exhaustive and varies in the individual states and the federal government depending on their legal basis.

Individual countries

The following federal states have their own state offices for the protection of the constitution:

In the following countries, the protection of the constitution is a department of the Ministry of the Interior:

literature

  • Wolfgang Buschfort: Secret Guardians of the Constitution , Schöningh-Verlag Paderborn 2004, ISBN 3-506-71728-6
  • Hans-Gert Lange: 50 years of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in public. In: BfV (Ed.): 50 years in the service of internal security. Cologne 2000.
  • Kay Nehm: The intelligence service separation requirement and the new security architecture , in: NJW Jg. 46 (2004); Pp. 3289-3295.
  • Winfriede Schreiber: Observation and Enlightenment: The work of the Brandenburg State Authority for the Protection of the Constitution , in: Julius H. Schoeps et al. (Ed.), Right-wing extremism in Brandenburg. Handbook for Analysis, Prevention and Intervention, Berlin 2007

supporting documents

  1. ^ State of Brandenburg: Addresses of the constitution protection authorities

Web links