Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia

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The Constitutional Protection North Rhine-Westphalia is a State Authority for the Protection of the Constitution with headquarters in Dusseldorf .

Duties and powers

The Constitutional protection is the preservation of the free democratic basic order (FDGO) and the existence and security of the federal and the states . He sets his priorities in the use of intelligence resources in the area of ​​violence-oriented endeavors and activities. In addition, he informs the public about the dangers posed by efforts and activities for the fdGO and thereby strengthens social awareness. (§ 1 VSG NRW)

The tasks essentially correspond to those of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and the other state authorities for the protection of the constitution. He is with the collection and evaluation of information, news and documents on endeavors that

  1. are directed against the fdGO, the existence or the security of the federal government or a state or aim to unlawfully interfere with the performance of the constitutional organs of the federal government or a state or their members,
  2. security-endangering or secret service activities for a foreign power ( counter-espionage ),
  3. Efforts that endanger foreign interests of the Federal Republic of Germany through the use of force or preparatory actions aimed at it, as well as
  4. Efforts and activities that are directed against the idea of ​​international understanding or the peaceful coexistence of peoples

within the scope of the Basic Law , as far as there are actual indications for the suspicion of such efforts and activities. (§ 3 Abs. 1 VSG NRW)

It is also the task of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of North Rhine-Westphalia to observe the Scientology organization .

The Constitutional Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia may process the information, including personal data, required to fulfill its tasks. Unless the protection of the core area of ​​private life conflicts with this, he may use intelligence services to obtain information. These are finally listed in Section 5 (2) of the North Rhine-Westphalia Constitutional Protection Act - unlike the Federal Constitutional Protection Act.

organization

Senior Ministerialrat Uwe Reichel-Offermann, Head of Group 62 of the Protection of the Constitution in North Rhine-Westphalia

The Protection of the Constitution NRW is Department 6 of the Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia . In eight other federal states, the protection of the constitution is also a department of the respective interior ministries. In seven countries, including Bavaria and Saxony , it is an independent authority in the internal department.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the Ministry of the Interior is divided into three groups:

Each group consists of four to five presentations .

In 2017, the Protection of the Constitution NRW was strengthened by 115 positions. The material and investment funds amounted to 10.21 million euros in 2017. At the beginning of 2019, the service had a total of 515 employees.

ladder

The management of the Department for the Protection of the Constitution has so far been held by:

Period Surname comment
December 01, 1949 to December 31, 1960 Fritz Tejessy End of office due to retirement
1960 to 1961 Werner Neumann (provisional)
1961 to 1977 Helmut Schütz End of office due to retirement
05/12/1977 to 09/01/1987 Wilfrid Graf von Hardenberg End of office due to retirement
04/10/1987 to 31/08/1999 Fritz-Achim Baumann End of office due to retirement
October 1, 1999 to 2009 Hartwig Möller
2009 to June 2012 Mathilde Koller was President of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony from December 1992 to April 1996 , moved to the Saxon State Chancellery on April 15, 1996 , and was State Secretary of the State of Berlin from 2000 to 2002.
from July 2012 Burkhard Freier From 2001 to 2006 he was a freelance representative of the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in North Rhine-Westphalia

control

The protection of the constitution in North Rhine-Westphalia is subject to parliamentary, official and public control. The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia has set up a parliamentary control body.

history

The authority emerged from the Düsseldorf information center , the "Sonderdezernat I-J", which was established by the SPD- led government before the Federal Republic was founded. In the event of an SPD victory in the first federal election in 1949, the aim was to make the information center the nucleus of a domestic intelligence service to be set up, which was prevented by the victory of the CDU / CSU . On December 1, 1949 joined Fritz Tejessy consisting of the first in May 1949 American had returned exile in Germany, the line at.

The NPD -Funktionär Wolfgang Frenz from 1961 to 1995, an undercover agent working for the Protection of the Constitution NRW. Among other things, his case caused the failure of the first NPD ban proceedings . In the Junge Freiheit judgment of 2005, the authority was forbidden by a court to observe the right-wing conservative magazine Junge Freiheit .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Organization plan of the Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia. (PDF) In: https://www.im.nrw/ . Retrieved January 29, 2019 .
  2. Verfassungsschutz Report 2017. (PDF) In: https://www.im.nrw/ . Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on January 29, 2019 .
  3. ^ Strobl: The protection of the constitution needs more support. Heilbronner Voice, April 10, 2019, accessed on April 10, 2019 .
  4. a b Wolfgang Buschfort : Secret Guardians of the Constitution. From the Düsseldorf information center to the first protection of the constitution in the Federal Republic (1947–1961). Schöningh, Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, Zurich 2004, p. 301 f.
  5. ^ Wilfrid Graf von Hardenberg. To person. In: Landtag intern. Vol. 8, issue 14 of May 16, 1977, p. 20 (PDF) ; About: Charles Wilp . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1987, pp. 190 ( Online - Jan. 19, 1987 ).
  6. Secret Services: Weirdly deadlocked . In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 1994, pp. 61-63 ( Online - Apr. 18, 1994 ).
  7. Minister Jäger thanks the head of the NRW constitutional protection for work - Mathilde Koller asks for personal reasons to be transferred to retirement . ( Memento from February 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Press releases from the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia from June 21, 2012, accessed on November 9, 2016.
  8. ↑ The protection of the constitution in North Rhine-Westphalia gets Burkhard Freier as an experienced head / Minister of the Interior Jäger: Under his leadership, the protection of the constitution will implement the necessary reforms. (No longer available online.) Ministry of the Interior and Municipalities of North Rhine-Westphalia, July 3, 2012, archived from the original on February 21, 2015 ; Retrieved November 9, 2016 .
  9. Wolfgang Buschfort : Fritz Tejessy (1895–1964). Protection of the constitution out of conviction. In: Armin Wagner, Dieter Krüger (ed.): Conspiracy as a profession: German intelligence chiefs in the Cold War. Ch. Links, Berlin 2003, pp. 111-131, here pp. 114-117 .