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The Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Community (german: Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat, ; ''
Heimat ''Heimat'' () is a German word translating to 'home' or 'homeland'. The word has connotations specific to German culture, German society and specifically German Romanticism, German nationalism, German statehood and regionalism so that it ha ...
'' also translates to "homeland"), abbreviated , is a cabinet-level ministry of the
Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...
. Its main office is in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, with a secondary seat in
Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...
. The current minister of the Interior and Community is Nancy Faeser. It is comparable to the British Home Office or a combination of the
US Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior or home ministries of other countries. Its stated missions involve anti-terr ...
and the
US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...
, because both manage several law enforcement agencies. The BMI is tasked with the internal security of Germany. To fulfill this responsibility it maintains, among other agencies, the two biggest federal law enforcement agencies in Germany, the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office. It is also responsible for the federal domestic intelligence agency, the
Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungss ...
.


History

The ''Reichsamt des Innern'' (Imperial Office of the Interior) was the
Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry (sometimes called a ministry of internal affairs or ministry of home affairs) is a government department that is responsible for internal affairs. Lists of current ministries of internal affairs Named "ministry" * Ministr ...
of the
German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
. On the proposal of the
Reichskanzler The chancellor of Germany, officially the federal chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,; often shortened to ''Bundeskanzler''/''Bundeskanzlerin'', / is the head of the federal government of Germany and the commander in chief of the Ge ...
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of ...
it was created on 24 December 1879 by an Imperial decree from the
Reich Chancellery The Reich Chancellery (german: Reichskanzlei) was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany (then called ''Reichskanzler'') in the period of the German Reich from 1878 to 1945. The Chancellery's seat, selected and prepared ...
. Like the other Imperial Offices it was directly under the control of the Reichskanzler. The seat of the office was in Berlin and it was managed by a Secretary of State, who from 1881 until 1916 also simultaneously held the office of Vizekanzler. The
gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...
for the publication of official notices was run by the Office from 1880. Entitled the ''Zentralblatt für das Deutsche Reich'' (ZBl), it had been published by the Reich Chancellery from 1873 until 1879. With the Law on the Provisional Imperial Government of 11 February 1919, the Imperial Office became the ''Reichsministerium des Innern (RMI)'' (Ministry of the Interior) which remained the German Ministry of the Interior during the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
and
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. From 1923 until 1945, the ministry published the government gazette, which was entitled the ''Reichsministerialblatt'' (RMBl). On 1 November 1934 it was united with the Prussian Ministry of the Interior as the ''Reichs- und Preußischen Ministerium des Innern'' (Imperial and Prussian Ministry of the Interior). In 1949, the Imperial Ministry of the Interior (effectively defunct since the end of the war in Europe in 1945) was succeeded by the present Federal Ministry, though it served as the Interior Ministry for
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...
only until
German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990. From 1949 to 1970, 54% of the ministry's department leaders were former
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
members, their share peaking at 66% in 1961. Under the
Fourth Merkel cabinet The Fourth Merkel cabinet (German: ''Kabinett Merkel IV'') was the 23rd Government of the Federal Republic of Germany during the 19th legislative session of the Bundestag. It was sworn in on 14 March 2018 following the 2017 federal election and d ...
, which took office in February 2018, the Ministry of the Interior was merged with the building department, which had been included in the
ministry of transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government ...
from 1998 to 2013, and the environment ministry from 2013 to 2018. The ministry, headed by the former
Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total l ...
n minister-president Horst Seehofer, was then renamed to "Interior, Building and Community". The third element, ''Heimat'' in German, does not have an exact English translation, the closest equivalent is "homeland", but the government intends the term to be understood as "community". The renaming was controversial as the term ''Heimat'' may be interpreted as old-fashioned, folksy or even nationalistic. During his inauguration the new office-holder referred to his ministry, by a slip of the tongue, as ''Heimatmuseum''—"museum of local history"—earning him much ridicule.


Responsibilities

The Ministry of the Interior is responsible for internal security and the protection of the constitutional order, for civil protection against disasters and terrorism, for displaced persons, administrative questions, and sports. It is host to the Standing Committee of Interior Ministers and also drafts all passport, identity card, firearms, and explosives legislation. The ministry also houses the Joint Anti-Terrorism Center formed in 2004 which is an information-sharing and analytical forum for all German police and
intelligence agencies An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...
involved in the fight against terrorism.


Organization


State Secretaries

The minister is supported by two parliamentary state secretaries and five state secretaries who manage the ministry's various departments.


Departments

state secretaries #1 and #2 *"P" Department (''Abteilung'' P) is the ministry's police department and has two branches: law enforcement and counter-terrorism. It analyses crime control issues and develops concepts and drafts laws to improve law enforcement and crime prevention efforts. It also manages the Federal Criminal Police Office, coordinates police support group deployments and represents federal interests in the sport and security arena. Due to Germany's federal structure, it can only promote internal security and public safety by cooperating with the state police forces and with agencies within the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
(EU) and beyond. *"IS" Department (''Abteilung'' IS) is the internal security department that protects the German state against political extremism. It exercises supervisory control over the Federal Office for Constitution Protection, studies extremist groups and can ban them as a final resort. In addition, the department is responsible for the security of classified information and prevention of sabotage and espionage. It also manages civil defense and emergency management efforts at the national level and exercises supervisory control over the Civil Protection Center and Federal Agency for Technical Relief. *"B" Department (''Abteilung'' B) supervises and manages German Federal Police operations. *"M" Department (''Abteilung'' M) is responsible for
immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...
, integration,
refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.
and European harmonisation. *"Z" Department (''Abteilung'' Z) is the central office. *"D" Department (''Abteilung'' D) is responsible for the
civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
. *"O" Department (''Abteilung'' O) is responsible for administrative modernisation and organisation. *"V" Department (''Abteilung'' V) is responsible for constitutional, state, administrative and European law. state secretary #3 *"G" Department (''Abteilung'' G) is responsible for policy, Europe and international developments *"H" Department (''Abteilung'' H) is responsible for society affairs *"SP" Department (''Abteilung'' SP) is responsible for
sport Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...
. state secretary #4 *department digital society *department digital state *department cyber security state secretary #5 *2 departments on construction, housing and public buildings


Special agencies


See also

*
List of German interior ministers The Federal Minister of the Interior (german: Bundesminister des Innern) is the head of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The current Federal Minister of the Interior is Nancy Faeser, since 8 December ...
* Berlin Police *
GSG 9 , formerly (), is the police tactical unit of the German Federal Police ''( Bundespolizei)''. The state police (''Landespolizei'') maintain their own tactical units known as the '' Spezialeinsatzkommando'' (SEK). The identities of GSG 9 member ...
* Wolf children#Wolf children today in Lithuania


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Federal Ministry of Interior (Germany) Interior
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
Germany, Interior Emergency management in Germany National security institutions