Police headquarters in Flensburg

The Flensburg Police Department in 2012

The Flensburg Police Department is a police authority of the Schleswig-Holstein state police at Norderhofenden 1 in Flensburg . The building is a cultural monument in downtown Flensburg .

history

Flensburg Court

The police building Norderhofenden 1 was originally built in 1889/90 as the “Flensburger Hof” hotel , which together with the neighboring houses, the former train station hotel at Rathausstrasse 1 and the former Reichspost at Rathausstrasse 2, formed an ensemble of Wilhelminian-style architecture that exuded a metropolitan flair .

From 1920 it served as the seat of the International Commission for the Supervision of Frontier Regulations .

time of the nationalsocialism

Dönitz, Speer and Jodl stand as prisoners in the police yard on May 23, 1945 so that photos can be taken of them.

In 1933, the owner at the time was forced to sell the building to the Nazi state for a price of only 250,000 Reichsmarks . The building was then converted into a police headquarters . Kate let painted in 1935 a mural with two shepherds for the large meeting room of the police headquarters, where a swastika - the sun was shown. In January 1935 the police service could begin. At the same time, the building became the headquarters of the Gestapo . The police were also merged with the SS . The Reichspogromnacht in Flensburg was coordinated from there.

In May 1945, numerous Nazi refugees came to Flensburg via the Rattenlinie Nord , because the last Reich government under Karl Dönitz was established in the Mürwik district in the Mürwik special area . The police headquarters were subordinate to the SS-Standartenführer Hans Hinsch , under whom, as in Mürwik, hundreds of false papers were issued for hiding. When the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler and his followers left the Rattenlinie Nord to Flensburg in order to participate in the new government in Mürwik , which he failed, he stayed at the police headquarters several times. On May 5, Himmler held his last staff conference in the large conference room of the police headquarters, attended by high-ranking SS, police and group leaders. Beyond reality, Himmler formulated the idea of a “reformed” Nazi administration in Schleswig-Holstein that could lead peace negotiations with the Western allies. As early as May 4th, the OKW declared Flensburg an "Open City". In the next two days, Allied advance detachments reached the city. One day after his speech, Himmler was finally dismissed from his offices by Dönitz and he left Flensburg.

At the end of the war, a provisional studio for the Reichsender Flensburg was set up in the neighboring Reichspost building , from which Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk , a member of the last Reich government , announced the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht on May 7th . From May 8th to 13th, the city, with the exception of the special area, was gradually occupied by British troops. After the last government in the Mürwik special area was arrested on May 23, Dönitz, Albert Speer and Alfred Jodl were taken to the police headquarters' outdoor courtyard, where the international press was allowed to take photos. The said back yard of the police is now also called Dönitzhof after the event .

After the Second World War , Käte Lassen is said to have personally removed the swastika from a mural she had previously painted. The picture is on the Flensburg Museumsberg .

Time after World War II

After the British left in May 1961, the state of Schleswig-Holstein became the owner of the building.

In the post-war period, a traffic policeman controlled traffic on the ZOB intersection in front of the police building. At Christmas time it was custom among the people of Flensburg to give him presents, so that a small pyramid of presents formed at his feet.

The building was renovated in the 1980s, ignoring the historic courtyard, which at the time served as a storage facility for bulky waste.

At some point in the post-war period, the police headquarters evidently became a police station . The police department finally became the Flensburg Police Department. In 2013, the two North German police departments in Husum and Flensburg merged, making the Flensburg police department responsible for the city of Flensburg, the Schleswig-Flensburg district and North Friesland . Despite the name change, the Flensburg residents often still call the police headquarters the police headquarters.

Culture of remembrance

In 2013 a memorial was inaugurated in front of the Alte Post, in view of the history of the post and police building, which commemorates the victims of the Nazi tyranny. The outer wall of the outdoor courtyard can be seen behind the police building. In the actual courtyard there is also an information board about the events of May 23, 1945. An altar-like memorial plaque with questionable names from the Nazi era was handed over to the German Historical Museum in Berlin, where it has remained in the warehouse since then.