The Bayerisches Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BayLfV, "Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution") is the
domestic intelligence agency of the
Free State of Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total land area of Germany, and with over 13.08 million ...
. Its main function is the observation and surveillance of anti-constitutional activities in Bavaria. The Office is subordinate to the
Bavarian Ministry of the Interior
The Bavarian Ministry of the Interior, Sport and Integration () is the interior ministry of Bavaria. It is headquartered in Munich, and was established on November 21, 1806 as the ''Departement des Innern''. The first Minister of the Interior wa ...
. It cooperates with the federal agency, the
Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution ( or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz (LfV) at the state level, the fed ...
, and the 15 other state agencies. It has around 450 employees, and its headquarters is in
Munich
Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
. Its work is governed by a state law, the
Bayerisches Verfassungsschutzgesetz.
The office monitors political extremists from the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* ''Left'' (Helmet album), 2023
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relativ ...
and the
right
Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...
, Islamist extremists and
scientology
Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...
. It is also tasked with the prevention of military and
industrial espionage
Industrial espionage, also known as economic espionage, corporate spying, or corporate espionage, is a form of espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of purely national security.
While political espionage is conducted or orchestrat ...
and of monitoring organized crime.
According to a 2021 report from the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
, BayLfV was monitoring organisations such as
the NDP,
Der Flügel
Der Flügel ( English: ''The Wing'', ) was a far-right ultra-nationalist faction of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. It was founded by Björn Höcke in the state of Thuringia on 14 March 2015. It was reportedly the most radical facti ...
,
Young Alternative and
The Third Way.
History

The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution was established by law on November 22, 1950 with retroactive effect from November 1, 1950. On 20 February 1950, the Office of the US High Commissioner for Germany, Office of the State Commissioner for Bavaria, had authorized the Bavarian state government in writing to establish a "small office for the purpose of securing intelligence on subversive activities." According to the Federal Protection of the Constitution Act, which came into force on September 29, 1950, all
states
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
had to designate an agency to deal with matters relating to the protection of the constitution.
According to a study commissioned by the Bavarian Green Party state parliamentary group, the state office took on numerous people with intelligence service experience from the ranks of the
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, 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 F ...
when it was founded. Examples include SS-
Hauptsturmführer
__NOTOC__
(, ; short: ''Hstuf'') was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that was used in several Nazi organizations such as the SS, NSKK and the NSFK. The rank of ''Hauptsturmführer'' was a mid-level commander and had equivalent seniority to a ...
Leonhard Halmanseger, who had worked in the
Reich Security Main Office
The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...
to combat political opponents of the Nazis, and SS-
Sturmbannführer
__NOTOC__
''Sturmbannführer'' (; ) was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank equivalent to Major (rank), major that was used in several Nazi organizations, such as the Sturmabteilung, SA, Schutzstaffel, SS, and the National Socialist Flyers Corps, NSFK ...
Joseph Schreieder, who had been responsible for combating the
Dutch resistance
The Dutch resistance () to the History of the Netherlands (1939–1945), German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized as non-violent. The primary organizers were the Communist Party of the Netherlands, C ...
at the Gestapo before 1945 and who came to the State Office via the
BND's predecessor, the
Gehlen Organization
The Gehlen Organization or Gehlen Org (often referred to as The Org) was an intelligence agency established in June 1946 by U.S. occupation authorities in the United States zone of post-war occupied Germany, and consisted of former members of the ...
. In 1951, the US occupying power rejected four of six proposed new
officials
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless of whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority (either their own or that of the ...
for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, citing their past. Among those rejected was Halmanseger, for whom the then Bavarian Interior Minister
Wilhelm Hoegner
Wilhelm Johann Harald Hoegner (23 September 1887 – 5 March 1980) was the second Bavarian minister-president after World War II (1945–1946 and 1954–1957), and the father of the Bavarian constitution. He has been the only Social Democrat ...
(SPD) found a pragmatic solution: he officially became an officer of the
Bavarian Border Police
The Bavarian Border Police ( or ''GrePo'') is a police division within the Bavarian State Police (''Polizei Bayern''). It is the third arm of the police force alongside the state police and the riot police (''Bereitschaftspolizei''). It existed f ...
, but in fact worked for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Other members of the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution also initially became official employees of the border police. As a result of the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, the reservations of the US services against the experienced
anti-communists
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
diminished, so that people like Halmanseger now officially became constitution protection officers. By 1965, the "small office" authorized by the Allies had grown from an original staff of 26 to 173 employees.
At the end of the 1980s, the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Upper Bavaria Police Headquarters moved into an office building built for the two authorities in Knorrstraße in Munich's
Am Hart
Am Hart (Central Bavarian: ''Am Hoart'') is the northernmost of the three sub-districts of the Munich city district 11 Milbertshofen-Am Hart.
Location
The district of Am Hart extends north of the Munich North Ring, between Ingolstädter Str ...
district.
From 1991 onwards, the Bavarian State Office played a key role in setting up the
State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony.
Since October 2004, the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been working together with the
State Office of Criminal Investigation as part of the BIRGiT (, accelerated identification and repatriation of people at risk from Islamist terrorism/extremism) working group.
References
External links
Bayerisches Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bayerisches Landesamt fur Verfassungsschutz
1950 establishments in West Germany
Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Government of Bavaria
Milbertshofen-Am Hart
Government agencies established in 1950