Political police in the People's State of Württemberg

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The task of the political police in the People's State of Württemberg consisted of the observation and surveillance of associations, parties and individuals whom they viewed as potentially hostile to the state. She was also responsible for counter-espionage . It made this intelligence information available to the relevant state and Reich authorities in situation reports. In the course of the Gleichschaltung, it was finally absorbed by the Secret State Police (Gestapo) of the National Socialist German Reich .

Early origins

The origins of a political police can be traced back to the time of the Kingdom of Württemberg . As early as 1808, King Friedrich I of Württemberg subordinated the "College of Censors" first to the cabinet ministry and then to a special police ministry, to which the state police were also subordinate.

After the Karlovy Vary resolutions were announced in 1819, a censorship commission was responsible for monitoring the press, which carried out this task until 1848. After this, Württemberg lifted the censorship for the time being, but in 1854 the compulsory license was reintroduced in the German Confederation .

In 1851 the city director Emil Majer was appointed special representative of the Ministry of the Interior by King Wilhelm I in the course of the reaction era. As such, Majer was supposed to monitor the revolutionary forces and parties and to represent the interests of the Kingdom of Württemberg in the so-called " Seven Association ". In his role, Majer published weekly reports on the political situation.

In the German Empire from 1871, the activities of the Württemberg Political Police were increasingly determined by Prussian developments. From 1878 on, the Political Police Office of the Berlin Police Headquarters was expanded into an office that was given the authority to act for all of Prussia. Later this institution not only had liaison officers throughout the Reich, but also contacts in foreign capitals. As the central office of the Reich, it also maintained connections to Stuttgart, where the Political Police from the Majer era still operated in the premises of the Stuttgart city administration. This was renamed from 1891 to "City Police Office" and in 1913 to "City Police Directorate".

On June 17, 1907, the Royal Württemberg Ministry of the Interior issued a secret decree to set up the State Police Central Office at the Stuttgart City Police Office to combat espionage and to pursue and uncover treason attempts. This facility now maintained the exchange of messages with the other states in the empire.

The political police during the First World War (1914–1918)

During the First World War, the tasks of the political police were increasingly overshadowed by military concerns. Therefore, these have now been transferred to a military central police station. This was housed in Königstrasse 31B in Stuttgart and operated under the name “Pollavastelle”. It was dissolved on November 30, 1918. Their state security tasks fell back to the Royal State Police Central Office, which in turn found its organizational continuation in the Württemberg State Police Office (LPA).

Political Police in the Weimar Republic

Development from 1919

After the end of the war, the State Police Office (LPA) was based in the old Landjäger accommodation at 7 Bebenhäuserstraße. The people's state also saw the need to equip the young republic with a political police force. The LPA was therefore officially ordered on December 20, 1920 to set up a Division N. This took over the permanent connection to the extra-Württemberg intelligence services and to the Reich Commissioner for Public Order (RKO), which had meanwhile been founded in Berlin .

Personnel and organization

In 1922 the Political Police in the LPA was organized as one of at least five departments. The department was also located decentrally in the city of Stuttgart: Its six subdivisions were divided between the New Palace (management and group IIIb), the Municipal Police Directorate (external services IIa and IIIa without management) and the Old Palace (all remaining employees) . The officers of the political police were able to fall back on five subordinate branches in the course of their activities. Likewise on 95 appointed "auxiliary officers" who were distributed throughout the country. Some of these auxiliary officers were assigned to the postal inspection stations in Stuttgart, Ulm and Heilbronn.

From the police reform of 1923 onwards, the newly created police headquarters in Stuttgart assumed a special position. It emerged from the union of the Municipal Police Department with the LPA. It was the local police for Stuttgart and at the same time the state police authority for the interests of the criminal and political police. For this purpose, the criminal departments of the LPA and the city police department were merged into a state criminal police office . The Stuttgart Police Headquarters consisted of five departments. Department 4 eventually formed the Political Department.

At the end of 1928, the Political Police, like Police President Rudolf Klaiber , were relocated to the former post office building at Dorotheenstrasse 2/4. The building was the former " Hotel Silber " (the Political Police stayed there until the end of the war in 1945).

The staffing of the Political Police did not remain constant. Despite the increasing tightening of domestic political conditions, this even tended to decrease. While 85 positions (civil servants and employees) were still assigned to Department N in 1923, the workforce had fallen to 59 positions (39 police officers and 20 employees) by 1929, which corresponds to a 31% reduction in jobs. Towards the end of the Weimar Republic , around 60 officials and employees evaluated newspapers, leaflets and reports from informers and informers, attended rallies by the various parties and investigated using forensic methods.

Political police reports

The reports contain findings and assessments of political parties, associations and general (daily) political developments. They were intended for higher government agencies and for the political police of other countries. However, they also served to inform the Württemberg state president and to provide internal guidance to the chief of police. The members of Department IIb (previously: Department IV) in the Stuttgart Police Headquarters were responsible for the reports . Until March 1931, the reports were mostly published at 14-day intervals, after which the reporting activity decreased in scope.

A systematic evaluation of the reports from the period from 1929 to 1933 showed that 57 percent of the reporting activity exclusively concerned left-wing groups, while 18 percent dealt with groups from the right-wing camp. About half of all situation reports (approx. 50%) and half of all written pages (approx. 50%) deal with the KPD and its aid organizations. The NSDAP and its aid organizations account for almost 10% of all reports and around 11% of all written pages. The trend up to 1932 was that although the scope of the report decreased overall (due to repeated pauses in reporting), the number of reports on the NSDAP tended to increase. It should also be noted that the reports are predominantly formulated in a very factual manner and for the most part do not reveal any political tendencies. Occasionally, left groups are spoken of as "contemptuous" rather than right-wing groups.

Controversy on the role of the political police

The political impartiality of the Political Police in Württemberg was repeatedly questioned. Whether the Political Police systematically spared the NSDAP towards the end of the Weimar Republic and thus supported it cannot be said with certainty. While it is sometimes accused of having only persecuted the political left, other studies come to the conclusion that the political police also reported in great detail in their situation reports about the NSDAP and paid the greatest attention to it. However, the KPD undoubtedly formed the focus of police surveillance activities. However, this supposed disadvantage is not unfounded. On the basis of the information documented with the political police, your danger was rated higher. The KPD differed considerably from the NSDAP in what was then Württemberg in terms of its organization, the extent of its conspiratorial and aggressive activities and the extent of its willingness to use violence. The latter was generally much less popular in Württemberg than in the rest of the Weimar Republic .

Transition to the Gestapo

With reference to the Reichstag fire of February 28, 1933, a "wave of arrests" took place on the same evening under the pretext of " averting danger ". Around 500 members of the left-wing political opposition were affected. These arrests were largely supported by the local and personal knowledge of the political police.

A few days later, on the instructions of the Ministry of the Interior, on April 7, 1933, the Political Police was raised again to an independent Department IV at the Stuttgart Police Headquarters. As early as April 28, 1933, this department was incorporated into the Ministry of the Interior as the “Württemberg Political Police”. At the same time, the administration of the new protective custody camp was transferred to her. On May 12, 1933, their reorganization was regulated by decree. The management of the department was entrusted to Hermann Mattheiß , who in his function was directly subordinate to the Interior Minister.

At this time, the "New Württemberg Political Police" submitted its first weekly report as of July 15, 1933. With the addition “ Do not put in business! "She describes the course of the German Revolution in Württemberg, which she describes as" upheaval in all areas of human existence ". In addition, the Political Police itself describes its future task as being " guardians of the National Socialist program " and "... researching the enemies of the Third Reich [...] but also ruthlessly fighting them [...] if need be". The report makes it clear how quickly the political police mutated into an instrument of repression for the new rulers under Mattheiß. From now on, the opponents of the National Socialists were in their focus. Even before the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler took over the leadership of the Political Police of Württemberg on December 9th, it proved to be an essential "pillar of power" for the National Socialists and had already given itself the stamp of a later Gestapo. This "support" was mainly recruited from the old political police of the Stuttgart police headquarters: 74 of the 76 employees last there switched to the service of the new rulers.

literature

  • Ingrid Bauz, Sigrid Brüggemann, Roland Maier (eds.): The Secret State Police in Württemberg and Hohenzollern. Butterfly publishing house, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-89657-138-0 .
  • André Grimm: The Political Police of Württemberg and their dealings with the NSDAP. The situation reports of the Stuttgart State Criminal Police Office from 1930 to 1932. A qualitative content analysis. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-34603-572-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manfred Teufel: The (Royal) Württemberg State Police Office 1914-1923. Lines of development of the police fight against crime in Württemberg. Police Union, 2004, accessed October 19, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Police Headquarters Stuttgart (Ed.): Division IV of the business. As of May 1, 1929 . Ref .: E151 / 03 Bü no. 257 . / 334. Main State Archives Stuttgart (microfilm copy.).
  3. ↑ House of History Baden-Württemberg: Police in the "Silver" - Before 1933. Retrieved on October 18, 2019 .
  4. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm: The Württemberg police in the Third Reich. Stuttgart 1989, p. 48 .
  5. ^ André Grimm: The Political Police of Württemberg and their dealings with the NSDAP. The situation reports of the Stuttgart State Criminal Police Office from 1930 to 1932. A qualitative content analysis. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2015, p. 54 .
  6. ↑ House of History Baden-Württemberg: Police in the "Silver" - Before 1933. Retrieved on October 18, 2019 .
  7. ^ Bauz, Ingrid, Sigrid Brüggemann and Roland Maier: The Secret State Police in Württemberg and Hohenzollern . 2nd Edition. Butterfly publishing house, Stuttgart 2012, p. 17 .
  8. ^ André Grimm: The Political Police of Württemberg and their dealings with the NSDAP. The situation reports of the Stuttgart State Criminal Police Office from 1930 to 1932. A qualitative content analysis. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2015, p. 84 .
  9. ↑ Dr. Thomas Schnabel: The seizure of power in southwest Germany: The end of the Weimar Republic in Baden-Württemberg 1928-1933 . Verlag W. Kohlhammer GmbH, Berlin, Cologne, Mainz 1982, p. 49 ff .
  10. ^ Ingrid Bauz, Sigrid Brüggemann and Roland Maier: The Secret State Police in Württemberg and Hohenzollern . 2nd Edition. Butterfly Verlag, Stuttgart 2012, p. 51 .