Police headquarters in West Hesse

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Building of the police headquarters in West Hesse

The Westhessen Police Headquarters (PP Westhessen) is one of seven so-called area presidiums in Hessen . It has its administrative headquarters in the state capital Wiesbaden and has existed since 2001.

overview

In 2001, the entire Hessian police force was restructured, so that the former Wiesbaden police headquarters were converted into what is now the West Hesse police headquarters. From the police headquarters for Rheingau-Taunus , Limburg-Weilburg and Bad Homburg , the police headquarters Frankfurt Directorate West ( Main-Taunus-Kreis ), the police car stops in Idstein and in Wiesbaden heritage home and the police headquarters in Wiesbaden, a new authority was created.

In total, over one million citizens live in the area in 82 communities on around 2,500 square kilometers. There are 1766 police and detective officers and 307 administrative officers and collective bargaining employees. In March 2015, Stefan Müller became the new police chief of the West Hesse police headquarters. Roswitha Briel has been police vice president since March 2013. The property of PP Westhessen has been located in the former and converted US hospital at Konrad-Adenauer-Ring 51 in Wiesbaden since 2004. As with all area presidia, the authority is divided into the three departments Deployment, Administration and Central Services.

construction

Directorates of the West Hesse Police Headquarters

The PP Westhessen is responsible for five police departments, the Wiesbaden police department, the Rheingau-Taunus police department, the Limburg-Weilburg police department, the Hoch-Taunus police department and the Main-Taunus police department. The PP Westhessen also includes the criminal investigation department and the traffic safety department and special services department.

history

From 1848 there was a police commissioner and in 1858 the first police directorate was founded, an authority which was directly subordinate to the state government. This created an authority for which the term “police headquarters” is used today.

The police in Wiesbaden remained state until the end of the Second World War . Then she was subordinate to the mayor of the city, only to be nationalized on January 1, 1974.

The construction of the police headquarters in Wiesbaden

Facade of the old police headquarters

The old police station at Friedrichstrasse 32 no longer met the requirements at the turn of the 20th century because the population had grown 40 times over the last hundred years. A new building was urgently needed. Therefore, in the summer of 1901, a first building draft was presented and the preparatory work began immediately afterwards. The plans were changed several times during the foundation work.

For example, stables had to be planned for the newly introduced mounted police. In order to accommodate everything on the building site, which is only 1,730 m² in size, the site had to be optimally used. However, this was only possible if the building regulations were ignored. Therefore, the building project should not be allowed at first. But then Kaiser Wilhelm II intervened in the matter. After the architecture-loving monarch had made some small changes himself, he personally issued the permit on March 9, 1902.

The construction work progressed so quickly that the roof could be covered in the following winter. The ceremonial handover finally took place on July 15, 1904. The cost of the magnificent building in the German Renaissance style, including interior fittings, was given as 550,000 marks.

Wiesbaden's police after the collapse

The collapse of the “1000 year old” empire in 1945 left a chaos of previously unknown dimensions. Compared to other German cities, Wiesbaden got away with relatively little damage. But that little was enough to make those who had survived the nights of bombing or who were gradually returning from war and captivity lose their courage in view of the mountains of rubble and the rows of ruins. The end of the Second World War also meant a profound turning point for the police: a new beginning.

In the first few months after the war ended, looting and raids soon ensued. The latter accumulated in the area of ​​Schiersteiner Strasse at the former Gersdorff barracks. Because of these and other worrying incidents, the occupation authorities felt compelled to immediately initiate the reconstruction of the police. It was therefore determined that the "new" police should be set up as the city police following the model of the American system: the end of the state police and the birth of the local police were thus accomplished. The task of building up the entire police force was given to the former lieutenant colonel of the Noehl fire police and for the protection police to the master of the protection police, Clemann, who started on March 30, 1945. Police officers reported to resume work and some "civilians" reported to join the police. As early as the evening hours of March 31, 1945, a guard of fifteen men could be set up in the police headquarters, which was continuously reinforced. Her workplace, the police headquarters on Friedrichstrasse, which was half destroyed in 1945, blossomed. Emergency glazed windows gradually gave way to regular panes again, the traces of destruction disappeared more and more, even if it was still years to think about building a new building on the site of the wing destroyed by bombs. But some of the Americans had also taken up quarters at police headquarters. Their military police resided opposite in the "casino".

The police were on duty in civilian clothes with a white armband every 24 hours. After a week, so many volunteers had reported that work at the police stations could be resumed.

On June 22, 1945, the command of the protective police was formed and placed under the direction of Police Commander Kulisch, who was appointed to office by the then Police President Heimannsberg. But eleven weeks later, Kulisch was deposed by the American military government. He was succeeded by Police Commissioner Lohse. One of the ungrateful tasks that fell to the police in these turbulent first weeks and months was not least the fight against the black market, which those who wanted to survive had to make use of. Sources of this black market, which flourished in Wiesbaden as it did everywhere in these times of need, were on the one hand the agricultural products that were not subject to the delivery obligation (or withdrawn from it), the "gray" stocks of the trade and the almost inexhaustible depots of the US Army . The GIs seized the opportunity and exchanged their surpluses for face value. It was a difficult task for the police to intervene in these times of emergency and starvation, in times when many were only trying to get some food, clothing or fuel for themselves or their starving and freezing families. These contradictions not infrequently brought the police officers into conflict of conscience. At night, however, there were frequent raids on hidden black market camps. In the early days, the armament and technical equipment of the "new" police were extremely poor: On May 29, 1945, the police had 25 rubber truncheons and 87 hunting rifles, which were also in poor condition. In addition, the rifles were unsuitable for police service and were therefore only used for security guards. In February 1946, the American military government equipped the Wiesbaden police with 350 new revolvers and 17,500 rounds of ammunition.

old police station from 1960 in the Museum of the PP West Hesse

The Americans also helped the police with the vehicle inventory: the existing "vehicle fleet" consisting of 11 cars, 3 trucks, 1 file car, 1 ambulance, 4 patrol cars, 1 prisoner car, special air raid trailers, 1 motorcycle with sidecar as well as 5 heavy and 15 light ones Motorcycles - all of them out of date and some of them already scrapped - were supplemented in July 1945 with 25 motorcycles and 3 cars. However, some of these had no engines and the cars were not ready to drive. In addition to the inadequately equipped and poorly staffed German police, the burly men of the American military police ensured that, despite the general chaos, law and order were somewhat respected. In order to institutionalize this support for the German police so that the increasing excesses by American soldiers could be better countered, the military government set up a liaison command on November 25, 1946.

Quite incidentally, many a policeman learned their first English and one or the other American who stayed in touch at the police headquarters learned their first German. In the first time after the collapse, the Wiesbaden criminal police had no distinct internal organization. But that changed quickly. The first specialist commissariats were formed as early as 1947.

The necessity of grouping according to subject areas was made necessary by the strength of the personnel and the size of the task. The number of staff of 38 law enforcement officers in 1945 grew due to the increase in the tasks of the criminal police to 101 officers and 19 employees in 1947. Under the direction of a criminal council, three criminal inspectors with a total of 11 commissariats were formed. During the municipal administration, the criminal police was subordinate to a police administrator, the police chief, and was at the same time part of the "general police authority" (mayor). In the years that followed, the trend in crime in Wiesbaden - measured by the frequency of occurrence - was above the state and national average, for example in 1964.

old police car from 1963

On January 1, 1974 the end of the municipal police in Wiesbaden had come; it was nationalized. The police headquarters received a larger area of ​​responsibility within the structure of the police of the state of Hesse. While the police headquarters were only responsible for the area of ​​the state capital before the nationalization, the districts of the Rheingau and the Untertaunus were now added. For the civil servants, the nationalization was not only associated with a change of employer, it also resulted in the protection and criminal police being placed under one leadership. Under the direction of the police chief, a protective police, a criminal and a presidential department were formed. The former state police commissioners (Rüdesheim and Bad Schwalbach) and the state criminal commissioners have been integrated into the respective departments. The police stations were renamed police stations. In the state capital, the branch office of the Wiesbaden municipal criminal police was renamed the Wiesbaden-Biebrich criminal station. The six police stations and the police posts in Bierstadt and Dotzheim were retained by the police. The former branch offices in Mainz-Kostheim, Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg, -Erbenheim and -Schierstein were closed in favor of strengthening the police station; meanwhile, the two police stations have also been closed.

From the Wiesbaden police headquarters to the West Hesse police headquarters

From 1990 the police headquarters in Wiesbaden was continuously reorganized: With the decree of the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and for EU Affairs, the police headquarters - based on the results of a working group "Improvement of the security situation" from 1988 - was commissioned with a pilot project.

The following essential content should be implemented:

  • Merging of the protection and criminal police in a joint department with subdivision into regional areas of responsibility;
  • Combination of cross-sectional tasks in an administrative department and a logistic department (Central Services Department) with simultaneous relief of the executive area;
  • Establishment of a joint command and control service;
  • Close-to-crime and decentralized processing in the prosecution of mass crime; the processing of the main crime was concentrated on a separate central directorate and takes place in crime-oriented criminal police commissariats;
  • Holistic case processing;
  • Introduction of staggered working hours for decentralized investigation units.
Organization chart of the PP West Hesse

This organizational structure can also be found after the last change in police organization with effect from January 1, 2001. In the course of this organizational reform of the police, which is probably one of the most drastic in the history of the police after the Second World War, the Wiesbaden police headquarters were transferred to the West Hesse police headquarters, one of seven newly created regional headquarters. According to the ordinance on the organization and responsibility of the Hessian police (PolOrgVO) of December 18, 2000, the state police headquarters in the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and for Sport is the highest police authority. With this ordinance, the district-free city of Wiesbaden, the Hochtaunus district, the Limburg-Weilburg district, the Main-Taunus district and the Rheingau-Taunus district are assigned to the police headquarters in West Hesse. The service area of ​​the West Hesse police headquarters was divided into regional service areas, for each of which a police department is responsible. Each independent city and each district regularly form a regional service district.

The Idstein and Wiesbaden-Erbenheim police stations were assigned to the West Hesse police headquarters to carry out police duties on the federal motorways in the service area of ​​the West Hesse police headquarters. The current police motorway station in Wiesbaden was created by merging these former stations in 2004. The new office building in Wiesbaden-Medenbach was moved into in November 2004. The police motorway station is assigned to the traffic inspection, the presidential guard with security guard and voluntary police service, the operational readiness and the rider and dog handler relay of the traffic safety / special services department.

The fight against crime is primarily the responsibility of the criminal investigation department.

Crime statistics for West Hesse

The crime statistics for 2014 were presented on April 1, 2015 by Police President Stefan Müller. The number of crimes rose to 61,225. The clearance rate is 57.3%, which is a worsening compared to the two previous years.

Police chief

Web links

Commons : Police Headquarters Westhessen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  • Text from the magazine "From the Wiesbaden Police Headquarters to the West Hesse Police Headquarters - 1904 to 2004 (publisher: West Hesse Police Headquarters, Press Office / Public Relations Department, date of publication: 2004, editor: Petra Volk, publisher: Weka Info Verlag GmbH)
  1. Police crime statistics for the police headquarters West Hesse and the state capital Wiesbaden presented. Police headquarters in West Hesse, May 12, 2014, accessed on May 30, 2014 .
  2. Wolfhard Hoffmann at KMF ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.polizei-frankfurt.de

Coordinates: 50 ° 3 ′ 55 ″  N , 8 ° 13 ′ 54 ″  E