Local police authority Bremerhaven

Local police authority Bremerhaven
State level	City of Bremerhaven
position	police
Supervisory authority	Senator for Home Affairs and Sports
Headquarters	Bremerhaven
Authority management	Director of the local police department Harry Götze
Web presence	www.polizei.bremerhaven.de

The Bremerhaven local police authority is the oldest municipal police force in Germany and the only city police force with its own protection and criminal police.

Predecessor parishes

Since the city of Bremerhaven , which was called Wesermünde from 1939 to 1947 , emerged from the Lehe , the medieval villages of Geestendorf, Wulsdorf and Weddewarden and the port settlements of Bremerhaven (Bremen) and Geestemünde (Hanoverian, later Prussian), the Bremerhaven local police authority has different roots .

From the Middle Ages to the middle of the 19th century there was no separation between the judicial and executive powers. The administrator of a village or an area, he was now called Vogt, Amtmann, Drost or Richter, was at the same time police chief and judge in one person as well as military commander.

Lehe

Lehe, located north of the Geeste River and the largest settlement in the area of today's city of Bremerhaven in the Middle Ages, is only mentioned in a property register of the Counts of Oldenburg late around 1273/78 . Shortly below there are regulations that would nowadays be partially assigned to police law:

If a man flees from his condemnation and the judge persecutes him, he shall have peace if he can take refuge on a ladder; but the judge owns everything that he finds next to it. But if the judge seizes him beforehand, everything that he has with him belongs to the judge.
If the bailiff collects the count's interest and enters a house for it, but leaves it again because the elderly man confirms that the grain is bad and is no good, the landlord has to pay the judge a fine of six shillings.

From 1414 to 1632 a Vogt is attested in Lehe. From 1633 to 1826 a judge, who was also called an official assessor, had police and judicial powers. Official assessors and officials followed until 1852 in the Kingdom of Hanover, to which Lehe belonged at the time, the separation of powers was introduced.

In the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the modern era, the eight Rönner could be described as the first police force, with each quarter of the Lehe area choosing two Rönner. In addition, a bailiff was available to the judge, and probably also to the bailiff before that, who carried out police duties. Several royal gendarmes were subordinate to him.

After the population in Lehe had increased rapidly due to the economic success of the neighboring port city of Bremerhaven, before the First World War there was 1 police commissioner, 2 police officers, 7 police officers and 20 uniformed policemen to protect the Leh population. At night 1 night sergeant, 1 senior sergeant and 14 night police sergeants ensure security.

A lot

The villages Geestendorf and Wulsdorf south of the Geeste River together with Schiffdorf and Brameln formed the Vieland. From 1847 the Hanoverian harbor settlement Geestemünde was built between Geestendorf and the Geeste, into which Geestendorf was incorporated in 1889. At that time there was 1 police commissioner, 12 policemen and several police officers. In 1913 Geestemünde received city rights, and in 1920 Wulsdorf was incorporated. The city now had about 25 police officers.

(Old) Bremerhaven

In 1827, the mayor of Bremen, Johann Smidt , acquired the area of what is now the center of Bremerhaven for his city from the Kingdom of Hanover, which Hanover had recently bought from the Leh farmers at considerably lower prices. He put his nephew Dr. Johann Castendyk as bailiff, who combined the tasks of a head of civil administration, judge and chief of police in one person. Since June 1827 he was subordinate to three police dragons, who had quarters in a converted peat shed, which also housed the prison as well as a horse and cowshed. Just a few years later they were supported by 12 port guards and placed under the command of a blue-uniformed police commissioner in 1840. In 1874 the police force had grown to 2 police commissioners, 1 dragoons, 11 police dragons, 4 port guards for daytime duty and 32 port night guards. After a hundred years of activity, the Bremerhaven police force in 1927 consisted of 1 police major, 3 police sergeants, 8 police masters, 5 police chief sergeants, 81 police chief sergeants, 1 criminal inspector, 7 criminal secretaries and 13 criminal assistants.

Wesermünde

In 1924 the cities of Geestemünde and Lehe were combined to form the city of Wesermünde. In 1939, with the exception of the Kaiserhafen, the Bremen city of Bremerhaven was merged with the Prussian city of Wesermünde. Furthermore, the village of Weddewarden came to the new city on the Lower Weser.

On February 6, 1940, the leadership of the police in the area of the city of Wesermünde was combined. On April 1, 1940, the peace target strength of the police was determined in the belief at the time in the impending final victory: 1 police director, 239 officials and 13 employees in the protective police, 30 officials and 29 employees in the administrative police as well as 45 officers and 3 employees in the criminal department.

In 1947 the city was renamed Bremerhaven.

Local police authority Bremerhaven

founding

After the end of the Second World War , the military government issued guidelines for the German police in Germany , with which all authority of the SS leadership over the police and the secret state police and these institutions were abolished. The police should be decentralized and subordinate to the heads of the civil administrations, in the cities to the mayors and mayors.

On May 11, 1945, the American military government appointed the Bremen police officer Helmut Yström, who had retired in 1937, as Chief of Police in Wesermünde. In German he called himself Police President, as he also held this position in Bremen. He was ordered to arrest all members of the security police and the security service, as well as all officers of the barracked police and technical emergency services. All police and auxiliary police were to be disarmed. In contrast to the guidelines for the German police , the police chief was ordered to receive orders exclusively from the security officer of the local American military government and to report to him.

Only two weeks later, on May 24, 1945, did the military government appoint Dr. Hellmuth Koch as provisional mayor and on June 9, 1945 made him head of the police force in Wesermünde, as provided for in the general "Police guidelines". On June 21, 1945, he laid down the official name for the management of the local police authority: "The mayor as local police authority - the police director". The mayor and his police director remained subordinate to the security officer of the military government. This control was already considerably relaxed at the beginning of 1948 and ceased to exist entirely in 1952 when there was no longer a "US Resident Officer" for Bremerhaven.

To this day, according to Section 67, Paragraph 2, No. 2 of the Bremen Police Act, the Lord Mayor, as the representative of the Magistrate, is the local police authority for the city of Bremerhaven, which he has the director of the local police authority manage.

tasks

The Bremerhaven local police authority, as the executive body of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, has the task of ensuring public safety within the framework of police law . The concept of public order has been deleted from the Bremen Police Act. As a law enforcement authority , it takes action against unlawful and criminal acts, identifies offenders and analyzes patterns of crime. Another task is to avert danger in the area of internal security , that is to say, the prevention or suppression of illegal acts of any kind. In the context of traffic monitoring, it regulates traffic flows and plays a key role in emergency assistance ( emergency calls ). In addition, the police work closely with the judiciary and other authorities, such as the federal police and customs , to prevent crime in order to identify and prevent possible criminal offenses in advance.

Legal bases

In the area of hazard prevention, the police's powers to intervene are based on the Police Act of the State of Bremen.Pursuant to Section 74 (1) BremPolG, the local police authority is responsible for the police enforcement service in the city of Bremerhaven and, in accordance with Section 74 (3) BremPolG, also for the criminal investigation tasks.

The task of criminal prosecution results from Section 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) .

structure

The local police authority in Bremerhaven is headed by the director of the local police authority Harry Götze. Subordinate to him are the police command staff (Office 90) under the direction of Police Director Volker Ortgies, the Protection Police (Office 93) led by Chief Police Director Jörn Müller and the Criminal Police (Office 94) led by Criminal Police Director Jörg Seedorf . The police force is divided into the North Department with the Lehe and Leherheide districts as well as the South Department with the Geestemünde district and the Central Police Station. The local police authority has its own crime museum. Certain central criminal police tasks are carried out by central offices of the Bremen Police . A total of 515 employees work in the local police authority (as of 11/2015).

While the administrative police previously belonged to the local police authority as Department 9 as Office 91, in 2006 it was spun off as an independent office, namely the Citizens' Office and Ordinance Office and organizationally assigned to Department 3 (legal, security and regulatory administration), although the old name Office 91 was retained.

In Bremerhaven, the Bremen Police Department E 2 (water police) performs the tasks of the water police.

Head of the local police authority

May 11, 1945 - November 5, 1945: Chief of Police Helmut Yström
11/06/1945 - 09/30/1952: Police Director Rudolf Viehweger
End of 1952 - September 30th, 1959: Director of the OPB Kirchner
01/01/1960 - 03/30/1989: Director of the OPB Eckhard Naumann
April 1, 1989 - April 30, 2006: Director of the OPB Michael Viehweger
May 1, 2006 - June 30, 2007: Police Director Peter Dierschke (acting)
07/01/2007 - today: Director of the OPB Harry Götze

education

The course for the career of the higher service takes place at the University of Public Administration Bremen . For the career of the middle police enforcement service is no longer trained in Bremen. The last round of candidates completed his training with the riot police in the spring of 2002.

equipment

uniform

Since October 1, 2006, the police in the state (including the local police authority in Bremerhaven) as well as the police in Schleswig-Holstein , Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have been wearing the new blue police uniform of the Hamburg police . The changeover took place gradually, and officials were also allowed to wear the old uniform until the end of 2010.

vehicles

Patrol car design for the 75th anniversary of the Bremerhaven local police authority.

The local police authority mainly uses Mercedes-Benz , Opel and Volkswagen vehicles as official vehicles . Occasionally, vehicles from other manufacturers such as BMW and Fiat are also used.

Police cars are currently Mercedes-Benz B-Class , Mercedes-Benz E-Class , Opel Corsa , VW Passat , VW Touran and VW T5 . Occasionally, vehicles of the BMW 5 Series and Mercedes-Benz Vito models are also used.

The colors of the patrol cars and other emergency vehicles are blue-silver or blue-white. The first blue and silver patrol cars were introduced in late 2005 / early 2006.

literature

Magistrate of the City of Bremerhaven (ed.): Bremerhaven. 5 years of development work. A contemporary document from 1948 to 1952. Chapter: Local police authority , Bremerhaven 1952, pp. 58–66.
Kurt Eckert: Bremerhaven police . Bremen 1981.
Dieter Riemer / Uwe Lissau : From Leher Vogt to District Court President. Court boards in Bremerhaven-Lehe from the Middle Ages until today. Contributions from justice, research and monument preservation, Volume 3, Bremerhaven 2011, ISBN 978-3-86918-133-2 .
Nadine Laue: Formation of the Bremerhaven local police authority (1945 to 1947) . Series of publications by the German Society for Police History, Vol. 15, Frankfurt / M. 2013, ISBN 978-3-86676-295-4 .
Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . Edition Temmen , Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X .

Web links

Official website of the Bremerhaven local police authority

Individual evidence

↑ E 2 - Water police

[1] E 2 - Water police