State Police Station Wesermünde
The Wesermünde State Police Station (Stapo Wesermünde) was an office of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1945, whose area of responsibility as well as the status changed over the years. Since the files of the Stapo Wesermünde such as the State Police Office Bremen (Stapo Bremen) and the situation reports of the Stapo Wesermünde in the administrative district of Stade can no longer be found, details of the Stapo Wesermünde can only be shown from other file sources. The seat of the Stapo Wesermünde was the city of Wesermünde at Hohenzollernring 1.
Facility
With the National Socialist " seizure of power " in 1933 and the 1st Gestapo Act of April 26, 1933, the state criminal police offices (LKPSt) of the administrative districts in Prussia were set up as state police stations. The LKPSt in Wesermünde was responsible for the Stade administrative region in 1933. Walter zur Nieden was head of the LKPSt in the service of a state police director . With this, zur Nieden was the first leader to take over the leadership of the Stapo Wesermünde. His deputy was the government assessor Hess and the criminal police officer Schorn acted as department head. The administrative service of the department was subordinate to the chief police secretary Willi Gindel. In the field work, the crime district secretary Emil Hilmer and the crime assistants Hemme, Ring and Tronnier were deployed.
Management and reorganization
By a circular from Hermann Göring as Prime Minister in Prussia on March 13, 1933, the previous state police authorities were separated from the previous structures of the district authorities and set up as independent agencies of the Gestapo. Probably on April 1, 1934, in the course of this reorganization, the police inspector Gindel took over the management of the Stapo Wesermünde. The Stapo Wesermünde was still listed for the administrative district of Stade with its seat in Wesermünde as consecutive number 34 in alphabetical order in the directory of the state police stations for Section 8 of the Ordinance on Executing the Law on the Secret State Police of February 10, 1936 in Prussia. Gundel was followed from 1935 to 1936 by the government assessor Behrens as head of the department. Alexander Landgraf took over the management from April 1936 until probably the end of August 1937.
suspension
Reinhard Heydrich sent a decree of March 23, 1937 to all state police headquarters and state police stations, in which the area of the Stapo Wesermünde was redefined under point 6:
The Wesermünde state police station is merged with the Bremerhaven branch, which previously belonged to the Bremen state police station, to form the Wesermünde-Bremerhaven state police station assigned to the Hanover state police station. The district of the state police station Wesermünde-Bremerhaven comprises the Prussian administrative district of Stade and the Bremerhaven district of Bremen. The Bremen state police station remains the state police station for the state of Bremen without Bremerhaven.
From September 1, 1937 to spring 1938, Oswald Schäfer was the head of the Stapo Wesermünde. He was followed as head by the government assessor Freytag until 1940. In 1940 the SS-Sturmbannführer and Councilor Werner Braune led the Stapo Wesermünde. The SS-Sturmbannführer and Government Councilor Willi Wolter took over the management until mid-1941. With effect from July 1, 1941 by decree of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, the Stapo Wesermünde was suspended and placed under the Stapo Bremen, which was headed by SS-Sturmbannführer and Government Councilor Herbert Zimmermann . The staff of the Stapo Wesermünde was also reduced. The new service area comprised the city and district of Wesermünde.
activities
The activities of the Stapo Wesermünde concerned all offenses and crimes within the meaning of Nazi criminal law. Politically persecuted were all persons who made statements of high treason, agitation or defeatism towards the Nazi regime . The Gestapo people were primarily dependent on informers . But all violations of the Nazi work regulations such as unauthorized job changes, work stoppages or so-called unwillingness to work were punished. After the beginning of the Second World War , violations of the provisions of the war economy such as barter trade, hamsters or black slaughter were prosecuted. A significant part of the activities also included the preventive observation of members of certain professions or the arrival of new people in the service area, including so-called foreign workers .
When the Gestapo was given more and more rights to decide police tasks alone and independently, there was growing friction in previous administrative practice. The heads of the Stapo Wesermünde complained to the heads of the office that the authorities continued to make decisions about certain processes alone and not to inform the Gestapo. This showed that the Gestapo not only depended on informers, but also on the help of the administrative authorities.
literature
- Hans-Jürgen Döscher : Secret state police and general administration in the administrative district of Stade . In: Heinz-Joachim Schulze, Stader Jahrbuch 1972, Stade 1972
- Michael Stolle: Of idealists, climbers, executors and criminals . In: Michael Kißener , Joachim Scholtyseck (Hrsg.): NS-Biographien aus Baden und Württemberg , Konstanz 1997, p. 32 (the term used there, State Police Headquarters Wesenmünde is incorrect)
- Marlis Gräfe et al .: The Secret State Police in the NS Gau Thuringia 1933 - 1945 , 1st half volume, series: Sources on the history of Thuringia, Erfurt 2004, p. 99
- Klaus Otto Nass : A Prussian District Administrator in Monarchy, Democracy and Dictatorship - Memoirs of Walter zur Nieden , Berlin 2006
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Stolle, Die Geheime Staatspolizei in Baden: Personnel, organization, impact and aftermath of a regional prosecution authority in the Third Reich, Konstanz 2001, p. 147
- ↑ It cannot be clarified beyond doubt with the available sources whether this person is identical with Willi Wolter