There were three main police forces in

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 ...

under the ''Reichsführer-SS'',

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

from 1936: * (Orpo; order police) consisting of the regular uniformed police * (SiPo; security police) consisting of two sub-departments of the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

(Secret State Police) and (Kripo; criminal police) * (SD; security service) In September 1939, the SiPo and SD were folded into the (RSHA; Reich Security Main Office) where they were made separate departments.

Leadership and control

The leadership of the German police was formally vested in the Minister of the Interior,

Wilhelm Frick Wilhelm Frick (12 March 1877 – 16 October 1946) was a prominent German politician of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), who served as Reich Minister of the Interior in Adolf Hitler's cabinet from 1933 to 1943 and as the last governor of the Protectorate ...

from January 1933, who along with

Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...

exercised executive power over Germany's police organs; this was an important part of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

's effort to increase his administrative grip over the nation. On 17 June 1936, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of the German police, which resulted in a "unified concentration of the entire police apparatus...and the administrative concentration of the police forces of the entire Reich." This action effectively merged the police into the SS and removed it from Frick's control. As Germany's most senior policeman, Himmler had two goals; first the official goal of centralization and : reforming the German police forces after

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 ...

ideals; secondly, the unofficial goal of making the German police an adjunct of the SS, thereby increasing his power base and improving his standing among Hitler's vassals. By August 1936, the

was standardized across the Reich, wherein all political police—of which there were seventeen different terms for the political police—were merged. Command and control of the (Orpo) was exerted through , founded in 1936, under the successive leadership of

Kurt Daluege Kurt Max Franz Daluege (15 September 1897 – 24 October 1946) was chief of the national uniformed ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police) of Nazi Germany. Following Reinhard Heydrich's assassination in 1942, he served as Deputy Protector for th ...

(1936–1943), who was later replaced by

Alfred Wünnenberg __NOTOC__ Alfred Wünnenberg (20 July 1891 – 30 December 1963) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS and the police of Nazi Germany. He commanded of the SS Polizei Division between December 1941 and June 1943. He was a recipient of th ...

(1943–1945). Command and control of the Gestapo and the

Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

were since 1936 exerted through , and from 1939 through the (RSHA). These organization along with the (SD), became departments of the RSHA—initially under Heydrich (1936–1942) and then Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1943–1945) until World War II's end.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Police Forces Of Nazi Germany Police of Nazi Germany Law in Nazi Germany Nazi SS