Police Welfare Officer

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Police welfare workers (alternatively: Police assistants, Polizeimatronen or police orderlies) were in Germany 1903 to 1934 in the service of police to offend or behavioral problems to take care of children become adolescent girls and women. They paved the way for the female criminal police , which was founded in Germany in 1926/27.

history

Since the second half of the 19th century, women's rights activists have been advocating the use of women in the police. The focus was on fighting prostitution . The double standards of the "trade" also came under fire: brothels had been banned since 1871, prostitution only permitted under police supervision. The moral police registered, controlled and regulated the sex workers and forced them to undergo medical examinations. However, she largely let pimps go. Free people were left unmolested, their sexual instinct - said doctors - must be satisfied. Women who did not adhere to social conventions or were found alone on the street at night ran the risk of being arrested as alleged prostitutes. Supporters of a female police force hoped that the use of police officers and extensive socio-political changes could prevent prostitution and motivate women to quit the business. For middle-class women who did not want to or could not marry, police work offered new career prospects.

One of the proponents was the co-founder of the General German Women's Association Henriette Goldschmidt in 1875 . Like many of her fellow campaigners, she assumed specifically feminine characteristics that would predestine women for this work: empathy, helper instinct, motherliness. This gender concept saw men and women as equal, just endowed with different skills. Goldschmidt and others thus set a different model against the socially dominant patriarchal view of deficient femininity, such as a lack of objectivity and rationality . At the same time, they introduced gender-specific ideas into the police service, which for many decades determined the areas of activity of women.

A women's association in Stuttgart hired Henriette Arendt as the first female police assistant in Germany in 1903 , followed a year later by the Prussian provincial capital Hanover . In 1910 over 17 German cities employed police workers. Most of them came from the welfare sector . Instead of uniforms, they wore nurses' or civilian clothes. They were responsible for caring for “morally endangered” girls and women. The First World War in particular increased poverty and the number of prostitutes. Preventive measures such as housing and work allocation should lead those affected back to a “decent” life. Police officers acted as mediators in this area, but could also arrange for home admissions. They looked after female inmates in prisons and after their release. They also took part in medical checks on prostitutes. Police officers were allowed to interrogate children and female adolescents and were active in helping juvenile justice . It has been handed down from the Potsdam police welfare officer, Marie Neumann, that she was also allowed to make social prognoses for offenders. In this way, social work was combined with police work - a novelty, and at the same time socially and within the police controversial.

On July 15, 1918, the Prussian Minister of the Interior decreed that the number of posts for “trained welfare workers” or police assistants should be increased in order to combat the prostitution, which was intensified by the war, more with welfare than with police means. As a result, a number of cities set up nursing or vulnerable care offices. In 1924 police workers were active in around 60 German cities. The Association of Police Welfare Women was also founded to represent interests. Not all positions were financed by the state. Therefore, associations and parishes also supported the work.

From the mid-1920s, new laws intervened in the areas of activity of police welfare and led to the division of responsibilities: The Reich Youth Welfare Act , which was passed in 1922 and came into force on April 1, 1924 , provided for the establishment of youth welfare offices throughout the Reich . The Youth Courts Act followed in 1923 and the Duty of Care Ordinance in 1924, on the basis of which communal welfare offices were to be established. However, implementation took several years.

In 1926/27 the female police force was founded in Prussia , Hamburg , Saxony and Baden . Some police workers have now moved there, such as Friederike Wieking , who acted as head of the female criminal police in Prussia, and Josephine Erkens , who was responsible for building up in Hamburg. In 1929 there were 98 female detectives and 16 police officers working in Prussia. In 1934 the last Prussian police welfare offices were dissolved.

literature

  • Bettina Blum: “Women's Welfare Police” - “Emma Peels” - “Winkermiezen”. Women in the German police 1903–1970 . In: SIAK-Journal - Journal for Police Science and Police Practice 2012 (2) . S. 74-87 ( bmi.gv.at [PDF]).
  • Ursula Nienhaus: "Not suitable for a management position ..." Josephine Erkens and the beginnings of the female police force in Germany 1923–1933 . Münster 1999, ISBN 978-3-89691-463-7 .
  • Susanna Swoboda-Riecken: Professional socialization and understanding of gender roles in the present. Shown using the example of women in the police force. Dissertation at the University of Kiel 2001. 2001 ( uni-kiel.de [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Nienhaus : "Not suitable for a management position ..." Josephine Erkens and the beginnings of the female police force in Germany 1923-1933 . Münster 1999, pp. 13-17.
  2. ↑ Bettina Blum: "Women's Welfare Police" - "Emma Peels" - "Winkermiezen". Women in the German Police 1903-1970 . In: SIAK-Journal - Journal for Police Science and Police Practice 2012 (2), pp. 74–87, here pp. 74/75.
  3. ↑ Susanna Swoboda-Riecken: Professional socialization and understanding of the roles of the sexes in the present. 2001, p. 59.
  4. ↑ On the tasks of police workers in Prussia cf. Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage, I. HA Rep. 77 B, No. 1823 (unpag., State subsidies for the remuneration of female assistants working in welfare matters in the police administrations of the large cities in Prussia, August 1, 1912 to August 4, 1928). For Marie Neumann cf. Jeanette Toussaint: Women on patrol. The female criminal police in Prussia. In: Dies .: A broom for brave women. Twenty-seven faces and one price. Potsdam 2016, pp. 96-107.
  5. ↑ Angelika Ebbinghaus : Helene Wessel and the custody . In: Dies .: Victims and perpetrators. Women's biographies of National Socialism . Frankfurt am Main 1996, pp. 191-218, here p. 195.
  6. ↑ Police union, female police timetable (http://bit.ly/1NCOxSQ, 2.3.2020).
  7. ^ Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage, I. HA Rep. 77 B, No. 1823 (unpag., State subsidies for the remuneration of female assistants in the police administration of the big cities in Prussia, August 1, 1912 to August 4, 1928).
  8. ↑ Ursula Nienhaus: "Not suitable for a management position ..." . Münster 1999, p. 22.
  9. ↑ On the female criminal police cf. u. a. Ursula Nienhaus: "Not suitable for a management position ..." . Munster 1999.
  10. ^ Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage, I. HA Rep. 77 B, No. 1823 (unpag., State subsidies for the remuneration of female assistants in the police administration of the big cities in Prussia, August 1, 1912 to August 4, 1928); Female Police (1929, Universum-Film AG Berlin).
  11. ↑ Ursula Nienhaus: "Not suitable for a management position ..." . Münster 1999, p. 75.