News Police Lower Saxony

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The Lower Saxony News Police was a division of the Lower Saxony Police , which existed from 1952 until its integration into the criminal police in 1974. She was responsible for state security offenses and politically motivated crime in Lower Saxony .

Emergence

The police Lower Saxony, which had been formed by the entry into force of the Police Act 1951, consisted of the divisions police with water police and riot police as a uniformed police and criminal police as a civilian police with the female criminal investigation . The Lower Saxony intelligence police were added as a further division in 1952 by a circular issued by the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior . It was set up by Fritz Tobias , who worked as a consultant in the police department of the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior. In terms of content, its foundation was based on the police letter from the Allied military governors of 1949 on the supervision of subversive activities. Before that, the German police had been strictly forbidden from doing political and police tasks in the British occupation zone by the British military government since 1945 , which was based on experiences from the time of National Socialism .

tasks

The police duties of the intelligence police included criminal prosecution , in particular with regard to the relevant criminal provisions on high treason , endangering the democratic rule of law and treason, as well as other politically motivated crimes .

Another task was security and monitoring related to:

  • legal and illegal border traffic
  • Passport and ID matters
  • Weapons, ammunition and explosives matters
  • Insulting people in political life
  • Escort

Card indexes

According to the establishment decree of the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior of March 12, 1952, the intelligence police had to keep the following files :

  • people
  • Organizations
  • Motor vehicles from left and right-wing radical organizations
  • Members of left and right-wing radical organizations

Structure and staff

At each police section in Lower Saxony, a message center was set up as the lowest organizational level of the intelligence police ; in the zone border area , it was intelligence extensions. A total of 76 intelligence police stations were created in the 6 government districts ( Aurich , Hanover , Hildesheim , Lüneburg , Osnabrück , Stade ) and 2 administrative districts ( Braunschweig , Oldenburg ). In the course of time there was a concentration and reduction of the organizational units. At the same time, but organizationally separate, there were 67 criminal police offices nationwide. In 1954 the intelligence police got a central office, which was affiliated as Department D to the State Criminal Police Office of Lower Saxony .

According to the establishment of the Ministry of the Interior in 1952, only specially qualified law enforcement officers of the uniformed police and the criminal police who had a personal inclination for this activity were considered as employees . They should be of solid character and politically reliable in the sense of a republican , democratic and social conception of the state. Since, according to the decree, the officers should in principle be officers of the criminal police, the uniformed police officers who were initially seconded were quickly transferred to the criminal police. Civilian clothes were worn on duty. The officers of the intelligence police had sovereign powers and were auxiliary officers of the public prosecutor's office . They were keepers of secrets and arms carriers.

activities

In the 1950s, the intelligence police were instrumental in gathering evidence in the proceedings against the Socialist Reich Party (SRP) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which led to their ban by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1952 and 1956, respectively . On August 17, 1956, the day the KPD was banned , the news police in Hanover arrested the KPD functionary Heinz Zscherpe . This happened despite his immunity as a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament . Because of the arrest, the Hanover public prosecutor's office initiated an investigation against several officials for disregarding parliamentary immunity.

The intelligence police participated in police measures against hundreds of unconstitutional organizations banned by the federal government . In the 1960s, one focus of work was the fight against treason. Between 1960 and 1968 around 3,000 investigative proceedings were processed in this area, which were mainly based on the initiation of the clearing-up administration from the GDR . A constant field of activity was reporting on extreme political endeavors, both internally and externally for the Lower Saxony Office for the Protection of the Constitution . In the early 1970s, an average of around 9,000 reports were written annually across the country. In terms of content, they dealt, among other things, with anti-constitutional movements, violent demonstrations and terrorist actions.

Dissolution and integration

In 1971 it became apparent that there had been a sharp increase in crime and a change in the types of crime in Lower Saxony since the early 1960s . The Ministry of the Interior in Lower Saxony was forced to change the organization of the criminal police. In 1972 the ministry convened a commission to draft a reorganization model that went into effect in 1974. The organization of the intelligence police, including its staff, was integrated into the criminal police, which was also reorganized. The 7th commissioner dealt with politically motivated crime in the newly established Criminal Police Inspections across the country . The term intelligence police gradually changed into the term police state security .

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Butte: Die Nachrichtenpolizei des Landes Niedersachsen , lecture on the 18th delegate day of the GdP Lower Saxony from June 8-10, 1971 in Göttingen, Stadthalle, publisher: Verlag Deutsche Polizeiliteratur , Hilden, no year, pp. 39–53

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Circular decree of the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior of March 12, 1952
  2. ↑ Hersch Fischler: News on the Reichstag fire controversy . In: Dieter Deiseroth [ed.]: The Reichstag fire and the trial before the Reichsgericht . Tischler, Berlin 2006, p. 115.
  3. ^ Circular decree of the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior of July 4, 1952
  4. ^ A b Joachim Hans Reisacher: Organization and responsibilities of the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police in: Lower Saxony and his police , Ed .: Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior, July 1979
  5. ↑ KP ban: meeting point at the employment office . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1956, pp. 12-13 ( online - August 29, 1956 ).
  6. ↑ Der Spiegel reported ... In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 1956, pp. 66 ( online - October 17, 1956 , addendum to the KP ban).
  7. ^ The publication Landes-Delegiertentag Lower Saxony in Göttingen. The police union with the lecture text is in the archive of social democracy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in the holdings of the GdP, Lower Saxony region. The stock has not yet been developed; the Festschrift in which it was included can be viewed there.