How does the Gestapo stand for. The main types of local Gestapo organizations and their placement

Gestapo (short for German Geheime Staatspolizei, "secret state police") - the secret state police of the Third Reich in 1933-1945. Organizationally, it was part of the German Ministry of the Interior.

Goals and activities

She led the persecution of dissidents, dissatisfied and opponents of the Nazi regime, was part of the German Ministry of the Interior. Possessing broad powers, it was the most important tool for pursuing a punitive policy, both in Germany itself and in the occupied territories. The Gestapo was engaged in investigating the activities of all forces hostile to the regime, while the activities of the Gestapo were removed from the supervision of administrative courts, in which the actions of state bodies were usually appealed. At the same time, the Gestapo had the right to preventive arrest (German Schutzhaft) - imprisonment or concentration camp without a court decision.

The international military tribunal in Nuremberg recognized as a criminal organization.

organizational development

The Gestapo was created on April 26, 1933 by Hermann Göring, the Prussian Minister of the Interior. Initially, it was about a relatively modest body - department 1A (political crimes) of the reorganized Prussian police, whose main task was to monitor and fight political opponents. Rudolf Diels was appointed head of the department. Soon the department received the name of the Secret State Police. Rudolf Diels once said about the origin of the abbreviation "Gestapo" that it was an independent invention of the postal department, which abbreviated the supposedly long name and used the abbreviation in postmarks.

The building of the Gestapo in Berlin on the street Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. 1933

Rudolf Diels, first head of the Gestapo from 1933 to
1934

In addition to the abbreviation Gestapo, the abbreviation Gestapa is also found (possibly from the Geheime Staatspolizeiamt - the state secret police department in Berlin). Gestapo units, except for Berlin, are being created throughout Prussia. At the same time, Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer SS and head of the police department of Bavaria, is working to unite the political police units of different lands. Gradually, the entire political police of Germany, with the exception of the Prussian (Gestapo), becomes subordinate to Himmler.

At the beginning of 1934, during the intensification of the intra-party struggle, as well as due to the fact that Goering was increasingly concentrating on the development of the Luftwaffe, an agreement was reached that the Gestapo was transferred to the competence of Himmler. April 1, 1934 Rudolf Diels is relieved of his post. Although formally the Gestapo is still subordinate to Goering, in fact it is led by Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the security service (SD). From this moment on, the Gestapo develops into a comprehensive organization for surveillance and combating opponents of the regime, closely intertwined with the structures of the SS. The political police units of all German states are subordinate to the Gestapo in Berlin.

Hermann Göring appoints Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler as head of the Gestapo.
Berlin, April 1934

On June 17, 1936, Heinrich Himmler became the head of the entire German police; from that moment on, all police formations are no longer controlled by the ministries of the interior of the states, but are centrally subordinate to the Reichsführer SS Himmler. The units of the criminal (criminal) police and the political police (Gestapo) were reorganized into a single security police (German: Sicherheitspolizei (Sipo)), Reinhard Heydrich was appointed head of the main department of the security police, who received the post of head of the security police and SD. Department II (political police) is directly involved in the fight against opponents of the National Socialist regime, the leadership of which is entrusted to Heinrich Müller. In addition, the Gestapo has now become an instrument of repression against Jews, homosexuals and the so-called "asocial" and "lazy".

On September 27, 1939, the next step was taken to merge the repressive bodies of the state and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). The criminal police, political police, other police services and SD services are combined into the Reich Security Headquarters (RSHA) (RSHA), the Gestapo entered it as the IV department under the name "Fighting the Enemy - Gestapo", head Heinrich Müller.

In March 1941, a significant reorganization of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) was carried out, which also affected the Gestapo. The IV Department, which has now become known as "Research and Fight against the Enemy - Department of the Secret State Police", included units that were previously part of the SD.

This situation lasted almost until the end of the war, when the Gestapo was liquidated along with other institutions of the Third Reich. The fate of Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller, who disappeared in early May 1945, is not known for certain. He allegedly committed suicide on May 2 by swallowing an ampoule of potassium cyanide.

Structure

The organizational structure of the Gestapo changed several times. After its foundation, it was divided into 10 departments, one "general" and one for arrests. The remaining 8 departments had the task of monitoring certain political movements. After the Gestapo was reassigned to Himmler and divided into 3 main departments (administration, political police, protection police (German: Abwehrpolizei)), the political police proper continued to adhere to the organizational division according to the functional principle.

Busts of the Fuhrer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler and the Prussian Minister-President Hermann Goering in the main hall of the Gestapo building in Berlin, 1934

Meeting on the results of the investigation of the assassination attempt by Georg Elser (German) on Hitler in the Bürgerbräukeller premises in Munich on November 8, 1939. From left to right: SS Obersturmbannführer Franz Josef Huber (German), SS Oberfuhrer Arthur Nebe, SS Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler, SS Gruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich and SS-Oberführer Heinrich Müller.

Detention cell in one of the Gestapo prisons

When in 1936 there was a merger with the criminal police into the security police, a single Directorate for leadership and personnel was created from the relevant units, which regulated the interests of both police institutions. During the reorganizations of 1939-1941, some departments of the Gestapo were included in other departments, while departments from other services were included in the IV Department of the RSHA. After the reorganization of March 1941, the almost final structure of the Gestapo was formed, which was slightly changed in 1944.

Simultaneously with the change in the organizational structure of the Gestapo, the number of employees also changed. If in 1933 50 people served in the secret state police department, then in 1935, after the political police units of the lands were subordinated to the management in Berlin, the number of Gestapo employees was 4,200 people in the central office and in the field. By the end of the war, the number of Gestapo employees exceeded 40,000 people.

In accordance with the organizational plan for March 1941, the IV Department of the RSHA "Research and Combating the Enemy, Department of the Secret State Police", was headed by SS Brigadeführer and Police Major General Heinrich Müller. The "new" Gestapo consisted of an office and five departments:

Management office. The head of the office is SS Sturmbannfuehrer Piper. In addition to clerical work, the department was in charge of information and recruitment for management. The office was also in charge of the internal prison of the Gestapo.

IV A (fighting the enemy): SS-Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Friedrich Panzinger
IV A 1 (communists, Marxists, secret organizations, war crimes, illegal and enemy propaganda): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Josef Vogt, SS-Hauptsturmführer Dr. Günther Knobloch (German) (since August 1941)
IV A 2 (anti-sabotage, counterintelligence, political fraud): SS-Hauptsturmführer Criminal Police Commissioner Horst Kopkow (German), SS-Obersturmführer Bruno Sattler (German) (since 1939), SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Kurt Geisler (German)) (from summer 1940)
IV A 3 (reactionaries, oppositionists, monarchists, liberals, emigrants, traitors to the motherland): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Willi Litzenberg
IV A 4 (Security Service, Assassination Prevention, Surveillance, Special Assignments, Criminal Search and Prosecution Units): SS-Sturmbannführer and Criminal Director Franz Schulz
IV B: (Sects): SS-Sturmbannführer Albert Hartl (German), SS-Oberführer Achamer-Piefrader (since February 1944)
IV B 1 (Political Ecclesiastical/Catholic): SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Erich Roth (German)
IV B 2 (Political Churchmen/Protestants): SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Erich Roth
IV B 3 (other churches, freemasons): Otto-Wilhelm Vandesleben (since December 1942)
IV B 4 (Jewish question - evacuation of Jews, protection of property (since 1943), deprivation of citizenship (since 1943)): SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann
IV C: (Card file): SS Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Fritz Rank (German)
IV C 1 (Information processing, main card index, inquiry service, monitoring of foreigners, central visa department): police officer Paul Matzke
IV C 2 (Preventive Detention): SS-Sturmbannführer, Regirungsrat and Kriminalrat Dr. Emil Berndorff
IV C 3 (Observation of Press and Publishing Houses): SS-Sturmbannführer, Regirungsrat Dr. Ernst Jahr
IV C 4 (Observation of NSDAP members): SS-Sturmbannführer and Kriminalrat Kurt Stage
IV D (Occupied Territories): SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr. Erwin Weinmann (German)
IV D 1 (Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia): Dr. Gustav Jonach (German), SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Bruno Lettow (German) (since September 1942), SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Kurt Lischka (German) (since November 1943)
IV D 2 (issues of the General Government): Regirungsrat Karl Tiemann, SS Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Dr. Joachim Deumling (German) (from July 1941), SS Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Harro Thomsen (from July 1943)
IV D 3 (Foreigners from hostile states): SS-Hauptsturmführer and Kriminalrath Erich Schroeder, SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Geisler (since summer 1941)
IV D 4 (Occupied territories: France, Luxembourg, Alsace and Lorraine, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark): SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Bernhard Baatz (German)
IV E (Counterintelligence): SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Walter Schellenberg; SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Huppenkoten (German) (since July 1941)
IV E 1 (General issues of counterintelligence, cases of treason and espionage, counterintelligence in industrial enterprises): from 1939 SS-Hauptsturmführer Willy Lehmann (Soviet agent "Breitenbach"), exposed and executed in 1942; SS-Hauptsturmführer and Criminal Police Commissioner Kurt Lindow; SS-Sturmbannführer and Chief Regirungsrat Walter Renken
IV E 2 (countering economic espionage): Regirungsamtmann Sebastian
IV E 3 (Counterintelligence Service "West"): SS-Hauptsturmführer and Kriminalrat Dr. Herbert Fischer
IV E 4 (Counterintelligence Service "North"): Criminal Director Dr. Ernst Schambacher (German)
IV E 5 (Counterintelligence Service East): SS-Sturmbannführer and Criminal Director Walter Kubicki
IV E 6 (Counterintelligence Service "South"): SS-Hauptsturmführer and Kriminalrat Dr. Schmitz
IV N (Information Gathering): n/a.
IV P (Foreign Police Matters) Kriminalrat Alvin Wipper (since August 1941)

In 1944, the customs and border guards, the border inspection were allocated to an independent department IV G. In addition, there is an internal reorganization of departments IV A and IV B.

Service ranks (ranks)

The Gestapo used a rank system similar to the criminal police. Since the Gestapo was basically a state body, and not a party one, and was not part of the structure of the SS, there were employees in the Gestapo who were not members of the NSDAP or the SS, and, accordingly, had only police ranks. At the same time, a number of units of the Gestapo were units of the SD, and, accordingly, the employees of such units bore the ranks of the SS and did not have special political titles. In addition, instead of a special police rank, police officers could have a rank common to the German civil service.
Criminal assistant-candidate internship (Unterscharführer SS)
Criminal Assistant Candidate (SS Scharführer)
Criminal assistant (SS Oberscharführer)
Criminal Investigator Assistant (SS Hauptscharführer)
Criminal Secretary (Untersturmführer SS)
Kriminalbezirkssecretary (Untersturmführer SS)
Criminal Inspector (Untersturmführer SS)
Kriminalkommissar service experience up to 15 years (SS Obersturmführer)
Kriminalrat length of service up to 15 years (SS Obersturmführer)
Kriminalkommissar service experience over 15 years (SS Hauptsturmführer)
Kriminalrat service experience over 15 years (SS-Sturmbannführer)
Criminal Director (SS Sturmbannführer)
Regirungs- und kriminalrat (SS-Sturmbannführer)
Oberregirungs- und kriminalrath (SS Obersturmbannführer)
Regirungs- und criminal director (SS Standartenführer)
ReichscriminalDirector (SS Standartenführer)
The corresponding SS ranks are given in brackets as a comparison. Complex ranks (regirungsund kriminalrat) in everyday life and in documents were often named after the first and last part (regirungsrat), which corresponded to general official titles, and only if necessary to emphasize belonging to the police service, the full name was used.

Security Police:
Gestapo (secret state police)
and kripo (criminal police)

Gestapo - secret state police
(Gestapo-Geheime Staatspolizei) Third Reich

Initially, the political police was organized as the 6th department of the Bavaria Police Department. On March 15, 1933, the Bavarian political police completely separated from the Bavarian police, and soon Himmler's closest ally, Reinhard Heydrich, was appointed commissioner of the political police of Bavaria.

On March 26, 1933, a secret state police was created as part of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior by decree of Hermann Goering, who led this ministry. Gestapo. At first it was about a relatively modest organ - department 1A(Political crimes) - the reorganized police of Prussia, whose main task was to monitor and fight political opponents. The head of the department was appointed 33-year-old Rudolf Diels. Soon the department received the name "Secret Department of the State Police" (geheime Staatspolizeiabteilung). Some official created an abbreviation that read as "Gestapa" (Gestapa). Perhaps the abbreviation "Gestapa" came from Geheime Staatspolizeiamt - the secret state police department in Berlin. This abbreviation did not last long - the letter "a" was replaced with "o" - it became "Gestapo". Diels himself once said about the origin of the abbreviation "Gestapo" that this was an invention of the postal department, which allegedly arbitrarily abbreviated a long name and used the abbreviation in postmarks.

Rudolf Diels, a friend and later relative of Goering, was a drunkard and a debauchee in his youth, a member of the most reactionary student organizations. Diels joined the Prussian Ministry of the Interior under the Social Democrat Severing. Then he came forward with perjury against his first boss, accusing the latter of having links with the Communists, served as Chancellors Papen and Schleicher, and finally went to the service of the Nazis, but did not join the NSDAP. Diels expanded the department to 250 officials and then founded " security service» ( SD), which operated independently of the Ministry of the Interior. This new service officially separated from the police presidium and received its own building in Berlin, which previously housed an art school. This building was located on the Prinz-Albrechtstrasse. A small part of the Gestapo - a special department for the fight against Bolshevism - moved from the police presidium to the house of Karl Liebknecht captured by stormtroopers on Alexanderplatz.

Gestapo units, in addition to Berlin, began to be created throughout Prussia. At the same time Heinrich Himmler, as Reichsführer SS and Police President of Bavaria, began to unite the political police units of different lands. During 1933, the entire political police of Germany, with the exception of the Prussian Gestapo, gradually came under the control of Himmler. On March 8, 1934, the all-imperial political police was formed.

At the beginning of 1934, during the intensification of intra-party struggle, and also due to the fact that Goering was increasingly concentrating on the development of the Luftwaffe, on April 20, 1934, an agreement was reached that the Gestapo was transferred to the competence of Himmler. April 22, 1934 at the head of the Gestapo was put Reinhard Heydrich. From this moment on, the Gestapo develops into a large organization for surveillance and combat against opponents of the regime, closely intertwined with the structures of the SS. The political police units of all German states are subordinate to the Gestapo in Berlin.

Gestapo and Kripo move into the ranks of the SS

Since the spring of 1935, employees of the secret state police ( Gestapo) and criminal police ( kripo) were officially included in the ranks of the SS and received the corresponding SS ranks. And over all these various formations was placed SD – security Service led by SS Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.

February 10, 1936 Goering signed the so-called. "Law on the Gestapo", according to which the Gestapo is entrusted with investigating the activities of all forces hostile to the state in the territory of the Reich. Although the Gestapo was subordinate to Himmler and Heydrich, it was not formally an integral part of the SS, but part of the Ministry of the Interior.

Possessing broad powers, the secret state police was the most important tool for pursuing a punitive policy, both on the territory of Germany itself and in the occupied territories. The Gestapo was investigating the activities of all forces hostile to Germany, while the activities of the Gestapo were removed from supervision administrative courts in which the actions of state bodies were appealed. The Gestapo had the right to preventive arrest - imprisonment or concentration camp without a court order.

By Hitler's decree of June 17, 1936 Heinrich Himmler became the head of the entire German police, all police formations from that moment were no longer controlled by the ministries of the interior of the lands, but were centrally subordinate to the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler. By position, as chief (chief) of the German police, Himmler reported to the Minister of the Interior and served as Secretary of State, that is, Deputy Minister. But the Minister of the Interior was practically denied access to the affairs of the Gestapo.

June 26, 1936 A decree was issued on a new structure of police power. Two large main departments arose. One - headquarters of the security police, or " zipo» (Sicherheitspolizei - Sipo), other - main police department, or " orpo» (Orpo). SS Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was appointed head (chief) of the Main Directorate of the Security Police and received the title of "Head of the Security Police and SD". The fight against opponents of the regime of National Socialism was carried out by the 2nd Directorate (Political Police), headed by Heinrich Müller. Additionally, the Gestapo has now become a repressive apparatus against Jews, homosexuals, and the so-called "asocial". Thus, as part of the security police, that is, subordinate to Reinhard Heydrich, there were secret state police ( Gestapo) and criminal police (" kripo”), and subordinate to the order police - ordinary police units, gendarmerie, land police and community police.

Police Colonel Kurt Dalyuge, an old Nazi who distinguished himself in suppressing the "Stennes rebellion", was appointed head of the main department of the order police.

Each of the main departments was divided into departments and departments.

Management structure of the secret state police (Gestapo)

Secret State Police Department had the following departments:

1st department - communism and Marxism,
2nd department - church, sects, emigrants, masons, Jews,
3rd department - reactionaries, oppositionists,
4th department - concentration camps, pre-trial detention,
5th department - agrarian and socio-political problems,
6th department - radio interception,
7th department - the NSDAP and the mass organizations adjacent to it,
8th department - foreign political police,
9th department - collection and processing of reports,
10th department - printing,
11th department - homosexuality,
12th department - counterintelligence.

The fundamental difference between the structure of the Gestapo and the structure of police power in other countries was that it was of an ideological and racial nature. The political police of the Reich were not interested in individuals (criminals, lawbreakers), but in entire categories and groups of the population, who, for one reason or another, were considered objectionable to the Nazi regime.

The organizational structure of the Gestapo changed several times. After its foundation, it was divided into 10 departments, of which one was “general” and one was for arrests. The remaining 8 departments had the task of monitoring certain political movements. After the Gestapo was reassigned to Himmler, it was divided into 3 main departments (administration, political police, protection police - Abwehrpolizei). The political police continued to adhere to the organizational division along functional lines.

When in 1936 there was a merger with the criminal police into the security police, a single Management and Personnel Directorate was created from the relevant units, which regulated the interests of both police institutions.

In 1937, by order of May 15, G. Himmler was appointed Permanent Deputy Minister of the Interior, who "within his competence, independently solves the tasks assigned to him by the Fuhrer." However, Himmler, as chief of the German police, reported to the Führer of the party "personally and directly." Legally, Himmler's independence as head of the German police was formalized only in 1943, when Himmler himself became Minister of the Interior.

Gestapo as part of the Imperial Security Main Office

September 27, 1939 the next step is to merge the repressive organs of the state and the Nazi party. The criminal police, the political police (Gestapo), other police services and the SD were merged into General Directorate of Imperial Security , or abbr. - RSHA(RSHA), the Gestapo entered it as the IV department, with the name "Fighting the enemy - the Gestapo." The permanent head of this department was Heinrich Müller.

March 1941 In the 1980s, a significant reorganization of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) was carried out, which also affected the Gestapo.

During the reorganizations of 1939 - 1941, part of the departments of the Gestapo were included in other departments, at the same time, divisions from other services were included in the IV department of the RSHA.

After the reorganization in March 1941, the almost final structure of the Gestapo was formed, which was slightly changed in 1944.

In accordance with the organizational plan for March 1941 IV Department of the RSHA « Research and fight against the enemy - secret state police department"headed by an SS Brigadeführer, then an SS Gruppenfuehrer and a Police Lieutenant General Heinrich Müller and consisted of the office and five departments:

Management office. The head of the office is SS Sturmbannfuehrer Piper.

In addition to clerical work, the department was in charge of information and recruitment for management. The office was also in charge of the internal prison of the Gestapo.

IV A (Combating the enemy, sabotage, security service)- SS Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Friedrich Panzinger (1940-1944, later - SS Oberführer).

IV A 1 (Communists, Marxists, secret organizations, war crimes, illegal and enemy propaganda) - SS Sturmbannführer and criminal director Josef Vogt, SS Hauptsturmführer Dr. Günther Knobloch (since August 1941).

IV A 2 (Combating sabotage, counterintelligence, political fraud) - SS Hauptsturmführer Criminal Police Commissioner Horst Kopkov, SS Obersturmführer Bruno Sattler (from 1939), SS Sturmbannführer Kurt Geisler (from summer 1940).

IV A 3 (Reactionaries, oppositionists, monarchists, liberals, emigrants, traitors to the motherland) - SS Sturmbannführer and criminal director Willi Litzenberg.

IV A 4 (Security Service, Assassination Prevention, Surveillance, Special Tasks, Detachments for the Search and Prosecution of Criminals) - SS Sturmbannführer and Criminal Director Franz Schulz.

IV B (Sects)- SS Sturmbannführer Albert Hartl, SS Oberfuhrer Hubert Achamer-Piefrader (since February 1944).

IV B 1 (Political Church leaders/Catholics) – SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Erich Roth.

IV B 2 (Political ecclesiastics/Protestants) – SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Erich Roth.

IV B 3 (other churches, freemasons) - Otto-Wilhelm Vandesleben (since December 1942).

IV B 4 (Jewish question - evacuation of Jews, protection of property, deprivation of citizenship) - SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann.

In IV 1 (Jewish question);

B IV 2 (issues of the evacuation of Jews);

V IV 3 (protection of property; created in 1943);

B IV 4 (issues of deprivation of citizenship; created in 1943).

IV C (Card file)- SS Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Fritz Rank; Kriminalrat Dr. Emil Berndorf (since January 1943).

IV C 1 (Information processing, main card index, inquiry service, monitoring of foreigners, central visa department) - police officer Paul Matzke.

IV C 2 (Preventive detention; work with informants) - SS-Sturmbannführer, Regirungsrat and Criminal Rat Dr. Emil Berndorf.

IV C 3 (Observation of the Press and Publishing Houses) - SS Sturmbannführer, Regirungsrat Dr. Ernst Jahr.

IV C 4 (Observation of the members of the NSDAP) - SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal rat Kurt Stage.

IV D (Occupied territories)- SS Obersturmbannführer Dr. Erwin Weinmann; SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Fritz Rang (1944-45).

IV D 1 (issues of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia) - Dr. Gustav Jonak, SS-Sturmbannführer Dr. Bruno Lettov (since September 1942), SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Kurt Lischka (since November 1943).

IV D 2 (issues of the General Government) - Regirungsrat Karl Tiemann, SS Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Dr. Joachim Deumling (from July 1941), SS Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Harro Thomsen (from July 1943).

IV D 3 (Foreigners from hostile states) - SS Hauptsturmführer and criminal Erich Schroeder, SS Sturmbannführer Kurt Geisler (from the summer of 1941).

IV D 4 (Occupied territories: France, Luxembourg, Alsace and Lorraine, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Denmark) - SS Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Bernhard Baatz.

IV E (Counterintelligence)- SS Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Walter Schellenberg; SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Huppenkoten (July 1941 - 01.05.1944).

IV E 1 (General issues of counterintelligence, cases of treason and espionage, counterintelligence at industrial enterprises) - SS Hauptsturmführer and Criminal Police Commissioner Kurt Lindov.

IV E 2 (countering economic espionage) - Regirungsamtmann Sebastian.

IV E 3 (Counterintelligence Service "West") - SS Hauptsturmführer and Criminal Rat Dr. Herbert Fischer.

IV E 4 (Counterintelligence Service "North") - criminal director Dr. Ernst Schambacher.

IV E 5 (Counterintelligence Service "East") - SS Sturmbannführer and criminal director Walter Kubicki.

IV E 6 (Counterintelligence Service "South") - SS Hauptsturmführer and criminal doctor Dr. Schmitz.

IV N(Collection of information) - ?

IV P(Issues of foreign police) - criminal rat Alvin Wipper (since August 1941).

In 1943, after the transfer of the border police and the passport department to the Gestapo, and the department was formed as part of the IV department IV F composed of:

F I (border police),

F II (Passport Bureau).

In 1944 to an independent department IV G the customs service was established.

In addition, there is an internal reorganization of the IVA and IVB departments.

Simultaneously with the change in the organizational structure of the Gestapo, the number of employees also changed. In 1933, 50 people served in the secret state police department, in 1935, after the subordination of the political police units of the states to the management in Berlin number of Gestapo officers in the central office and in the field was 4,200 people. By the end of the war, the number of Gestapo employees exceeded 40 thousand people.

Service ranks (ranks) of the Gestapo.

The Gestapo used a system of ranks similar to the criminal police. Since the Gestapo was basically a state body, and not a party one, and was not part of the structure of the SS, the Gestapo had employees who were not members of the NSDAP or the SS, and, accordingly, had only police ranks. At the same time, a number of Gestapo units were SD units, and accordingly, employees of such units bore the ranks of the SS and did not have special police ranks. In addition, police officers could have, instead of a special police rank, a rank common to the German civil service.

Criminalassistenanwärter in practice (SS-Unterscharführer)

Criminalassistenanwärter (SS Scharführer)

Criminal Assistant (SS Oberscharführer)

Criminal Lab Assistant (SS Hauptscharführer)

Kriminalsekreter (Untersturmführer SS)

Kriminalbezirksekreter (Untersturmführer SS)

Criminal Inspector (Untersturmführer SS)

Kriminalkommissar experience of service up to 15 years (Obersturmführer SS)

Kriminalrat length of service up to 15 years (Obersturmführer SS)

Kriminalkommissar service experience over 15 years (SS Hauptsturmführer)

Kriminalrat service experience over 15 years (Sturmbannführer SS)

Criminal Director (SS Sturmbannführer)

Regirungs- und Kriminalrath (SS-Sturmbannführer)

Oberregirungs- und Kriminalrath (SS Obersturmbannführer)

Regirungs- und Kriminaldirector (SS Standartenführer)

Reichscriminaldirector (SS Standartenführer)

In brackets for comparison are the corresponding ranks of the SS. Complex titles (Regirungsund Kriminalrat) in everyday life and in documents were often named after the first and last part (Regirungsrat).

The main types of local Gestapo organizations and their placement:

1. The main branches of the Gestapo(Stapo-Leitstelle). Placed in the following cities: Berlin, Breslau, Brunn, Vienna, Hamburg, Hannover, Danzig, Dresden, Dusseldorf, Karlsruhe, Kapovits, Königsberg, Magdeburg, Munster (Westphalia), Munich, Nuremberg-Furth, Posen, Prague, Reichenberg, Stettin, Stuttgart.

2. Branches of the Gestapo(Stapo-Stellen). Placed in the following cities: Braunschweig, Bremen, Bromberg, Weimar, Wilhelmshaven (disbanded in Oct. 1943), Graudenz (disbanded in Oct. 1943), Graz Halle, Darmstadt, Dortmund, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Karlsbad, Kassel, Cologne, Köslin ( disbanded Oct. 1943), Kiel, Klagenfurt, Koblenz, Leipzig, Linz, Litzmannstadt (Lodz), Oppeln, Potsdam, Regensburg, Saarbrücken, Tilsit, Trier (disbanded Oct. 1943), Troppau, Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt -on-Oder, Chemnitz, Hohensaly (disbanded in Oct. 1943), Ziechemau-Schöpersburg, Schneidemühl (disbanded in Oct. 1943).

3. Commissariats of the Gestapo and Border Police (Stapo-Grenzpolizei-Kommissariate). They were located in the following cities: Aachen, Böhm, Beipa, Benheim, Borken-Westphalen, Bregenz, Bremen-Hafen, Brenner, Waldshut, Welun, Vienna, Gablonz, Gotenhafen, Gronau (Westphalia), Hamburg, Singen, Südauen, Cuxhaven, Kaldenkirchen ( Rhine), Kehl, Kiel, Cleve, Kolberg, Konstanz, Krainburg, Krummau, Kugno (Posen), Landau (Palatinate), Leibniz, Lörrach, Lik, Linz, Loben, Lübeck, Lublinitz, Ludenburg, Luxembourg, Malmedy, Memel, Meppen , Metz, Modlin-Bugmünde, Mülheim (Baden), Nordenham, Eupen, Oldenburg, Ortelyburg, Ostrolenka, Pillau, Rostock, Saatz, Swinemünde, Teschen, Tilsit, Villach, Flensburg, Friedrichshafen, Fürstenfeld, Heinsberg (Rhine), Herzogenrath, Zipli , Zlin, Scharfenweise, Schwibus, Shtepin, Stolp (Pomerania), Stralsund, Eidtkai, Eisenstadt, Emden, Emmerich.

The international military tribunal in Nuremberg recognized the Gestapo as a criminal organization.

The Gestapo is the secret police of the Third Reich. One of the most brutal organizations in Nazi Germany.

On account of the Gestapo, there are many war crimes both on German territory and in the occupied lands. In just twelve years of its work, the word has become a household name and a synonym for a brutal repressive body.

Origin

The Gestapo is the secret political police. Since ancient times, a secret security service has existed in all powerful powers with an authoritarian system. Imperial Germany had an imperial secret police that hunted down the enemies of the Reich, both internal and external. After the defeat in the First World War, it ceased to exist.

The Nazis conceived the creation of a secret repressive apparatus long before they came to power. After the failure of the Beer Putsch, Hitler went to prison. In less than a year, his henchmen managed to partially recreate the SA assault squads. After that, a special organization was created to monitor the participants in the National Socialist movement. Many future members of the SS entered it. As the rise of the Nazis in the political system of Germany, the activities of the secret society expanded. The first shadowing of the leaders of the communist and anti-fascist movement began.

Creation

The Gestapo of East Prussia was the first prototype of the future secret police. In the thirty-third year, Hermann Goering created the first small department. The staff were recruited from SA stormtroopers. The department was part of the new police force and was named political. Initially, the secret police monitored only Hitler's political opponents. Their powers were not much different from those of the police. They could only follow, spread rumors and so on. Mass arrests and killings have not yet reached.

Himmler really liked the idea of ​​​​creating the Gestapo. This led to the expansion of the organization. Departments are created throughout Germany with a center in Berlin. Police reform begins. During the Weimar Republic, Germany was effectively a confederal state with broad autonomy for all regions. Law enforcement agencies were directly subordinate to local authorities. Now a centralized police administration was being created. And Heinrich Himmler actually concentrated power over all political departments in his hands.

New order

Already in the autumn of thirty-third, the Gestapo becomes an important pillar of the Nazi regime. By Goering's decree, the organization is removed from the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Work is underway to introduce agents to all other organizations of the new regime. The word "Gestapo" itself is an abbreviation for the German name "Secret State Police". Some historians believe that the name was originally colloquial, and only then received official status.

In 1934, another reorganization of the Gestapo takes place. Goering became increasingly interested in the development of the Luftwaffe. Therefore, the secret police became the sphere of Himmler's interests, and Heydrich was appointed the direct manager. Political departments are closely intertwined with the created SS assault detachments. The departments of Prussia and the rest of Germany report directly to Berlin.

Change of leadership

Two years later, Himmler becomes the sole head of all services of the Ministry of the Interior. The Reichsfuehrer further strengthens the independence of the secret police. If earlier these were small departments that operated secretly, then by 1936 there were already hundreds of employees in each city. In the summer of that year, the Gestapo and the police merged.

From now on, they are one and the same. The functions of the repressive apparatus are assigned to the second department, which is headed by Muller. The Gestapo begins an active struggle against the opponents of the regime. The main target is the communists, socialists, trade union activists. Also, the police begin to participate in the repression of the Jews. And at the end of the thirty-sixth, parasites and socially inactive elements are added to this list.

New reorganization

The Gestapo in 1939 united under its command all the other security services of the Reich. The police were now completely subordinate to Himmler. Miller, on the other hand, was in charge of the fourth directorate of state security. It was engaged in the search for internal enemies and punitive actions against them.

Gestapo fighters are directly involved in the Holocaust and other crimes of the Nazi regime. After the outbreak of World War II, the former branches of the SD come under the jurisdiction of the department.

The Gestapo is also sent to the occupied territories. Now it also serves as a counterintelligence agency. In Poland and divided Czechoslovakia, the first branches of the Gestapo open. This increases the pressure on the local population. The political police is looking for resistance members, Jews and other elements objectionable to the regime.

Methods and principles of work

The Gestapo was a political police force subordinate to Himmler. After the reorganization, the fourth department left the jurisdiction of the courts. Administrative law no longer applied to him. This decision was a great help for the Gestapo to use the most cruel methods without fear. If a citizen of the police was arrested, he or his relatives could apply to the administrative court with an appeal against this decision. Also, to arrest the police had to press charges.

All these norms did not apply to the Gestapo. The employees of the service had a presumption of rightness and could detain any person without explaining the reason.

By 1939, the Gestapo had become one of the pillars on which Nazi power rested. Along with the SS units, the police organized terror against the population throughout the territory controlled by the Reich. The fourth department could, without a court decision, send a person to a concentration camp, many of which were guarded by them. Also, the Gestapo did not constrain themselves in the methods of interrogation. Torture, humiliation and so on were massively used. In the occupied territories, the Gestapo Sonder teams took part in genocide and acts of terror against the civilian population. Inhuman conditions were used for keeping prisoners of war.

Various departments

The Gestapo uniform looked more like Wehrmacht clothing than police: black pants, high leather boots, a black tunic, a cap and a raincoat. There were several departments, each with its own classification. Department A was engaged in the fight against an external enemy. Under his gun were communists, socialists and other groups or individuals who professed leftist views.

It also included a sub-department of combating enemy propaganda, with opposition-minded monarchists, liberals and other unreliable elements.

Section B specialized in various sects and religious organizations. Church leaders opposed to the Nazi regime were persecuted. First of all, Catholics, Protestants, and radical communities were under surveillance. Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses were persecuted. Department B was also responsible for the deportation of Jews.

Occupied lands

Department D worked in the occupied territories. The first branch was stationed in the former Czechoslovakia. The second was engaged in tracking people from enemy states. The fourth subdivision dealt with repressions in the occupied territories of Western and Central Europe. But the most cruel was the fifth, who worked in the East - in Poland and the Soviet Union.

Other departments were engaged in espionage and information gathering. The Gestapo had a wide network of informers. Literally every citizen of the Reich was under close surveillance. The police scrupulously collected information about marital status, preferences, ancestors, even rumors and denunciations of neighbors were recorded.

International Tribunal

After the fall of the Reich, the Gestapo also stopped its work. Photos of the main figures of the secret police then flew around all the newspapers of the world. The Nuremberg Trials ruled that all members of the Fourth Section were war criminals.

The highest ranks received long terms of imprisonment, many were executed. Mueller was never caught. According to one version, he died in early May, having taken an ampoule of potassium, according to another, he fled to Latin America.

At the beginning of 2017, there was a scandal with the new Gestapo. Kaliningrad in the German period was the location of the central department of East Prussia. The Google Maps service returned the old name to the building, which now houses the FSB of Russia. After the reaction of Internet users, the error was fixed.

The Gestapo led the persecution of dissidents, dissatisfied and opponents of the power of Adolf Hitler, was part of the German Ministry of the Interior. Possessing broad powers, it was the most important tool for pursuing a punitive policy both in Germany itself and in the occupied territories. The Gestapo was engaged in investigating the activities of all forces hostile to the regime, while the activities of the Gestapo were removed from the supervision of administrative courts, in which the actions of state bodies were usually appealed. At the same time, the Gestapo had the right to preventive arrest (German Schutzhaft) - imprisonment or concentration camp without a court decision.

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organizational development

Structure

The organizational structure of the Gestapo changed several times. After its foundation, it was divided into 10 departments: "general"; to carry out arrests; the remaining 9 had the task of monitoring certain political movements. After the Gestapo was reassigned to Himmler and divided into 3 main departments (administration, political police, protection police (German: Abwehrpolizei)), the political police proper continued to adhere to the organizational division according to the functional principle.

When in 1936 there was a merger with the criminal police into the security police, a single Directorate for leadership and personnel was created from the relevant units, which regulated the interests of both police institutions.

During the reorganizations of 1939-1941, some departments of the Gestapo were included in other departments; at the same time, units from other services were included in the IV Department of the RSHA. After the reorganization of March 1941, the almost final structure of the Gestapo was formed, slightly changed in 1944.

Simultaneously with the change in the organizational structure of the Gestapo, the number of employees also changed. If in 1933 50 people served in the secret state police department, then in 1935, after the political police units of the lands were subordinated to the management in Berlin, the number of Gestapo employees was 4,200 people in the central office and in the field. By the end of the war, the number of Gestapo employees exceeded 40,000 people.

In accordance with the organizational plan for March 1941, the IV Department of the RSHA "Research and Combating the Enemy, Department of the Secret State Police" was headed by SS Brigadeführer and Police Major General Heinrich Müller. The "new" Gestapo consisted of an office and five departments:

• Office of Management. The head of the office is SS-Sturmbannführer Pieper. In addition to clerical work, the department was in charge of information and recruitment for management. The office was also in charge of the internal prison of the Gestapo.
• IV A(fight against the enemy): SS Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Friedrich Pantsinger
  • IV A 1(Communists, Marxists, secret organizations, war crimes, illegal and enemy propaganda): SS Sturmbannführer and criminal director Josef Vogt, SS Hauptsturmführer Dr. Gunther Knobloch(since August 1941)
  • IV A 2(combating sabotage, counterintelligence, political falsifications): SS Hauptsturmführer Criminal Police Commissioner Horst Kopkow, SS Obersturmführer Bruno Sattler?!(since 1939), SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt Geisler(since summer 1940)
  • IV A 3(reactionaries, oppositionists, monarchists, liberals, emigrants, traitors to the motherland): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Willi Litzenberg
  • IV A 4(Security service, assassination prevention, outdoor surveillance, special assignments, search and prosecution squads): SS-Sturmbannführer and criminal director Franz Schulz
• IV B: (sects): SS-Sturmbannführer Albert Hartl, Oberführer SS Achamer-Piefrader (since February 1944)
  • IV B 1(Political Ecclesiastical/Catholic): SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Erich Roth
  • IV B 2(Political Ecclesiastical/Protestant): SS-Sturmbannführer and Regirungsrat Erich Roth
  • IV B 3(other churches, freemasons): Otto-Wilhelm Vandesleben (since December 1942)
  • IV B 4(Jewish question - evacuation of Jews, protection of property (since 1943), deprivation of citizenship (since 1943)): SS-Sturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann
• IV C: (file cabinet): SS-Obersturmbannführer and Oberregirungsrat Fritz Rank
  • IV C 1(information processing, main file cabinet, inquiry service, monitoring of foreigners, central visa department): Polizeirat Paul Matzke
  • IV C 2(preventive detention): SS-Sturmbannführer, Regirungsrat and Kriminalrat Dr. Emil Berndorff
  • IV C 3(observation of the press and publishing houses): SS-Sturmbannführer, Regirungsrat Dr. Ernst Jahr
  • IV C 4(observation of members of the NSDAP): SS-Sturmbannführer and Kriminalrat Kurt Stage
• IVD(occupied territories): SS-Obersturmbannführer Dr.

CC (German "Die SS", from "Das Schutzstaffel" - "security squad", or, according to another version, "cover squadron" - according to this version, it is believed that the author of the name was Hermann Goering, who took this term from the military aviation of the times World War I, this was the name of the fighter unit that covered the main unit; in Russian, the abbreviation requires the use of the plural) is an affiliated paramilitary organization of the NSDAP (until 1934 subordinate to another affiliated party organization - SA), which considered itself an "organization of political soldiers parties." Its function was originally to protect the leaders of the party (it was organized on the basis of the "Staff Guard" Adolf Hitler "", intended to protect the Fuhrer); Subsequently, a wide variety of functions were transferred to this organization (from ensuring the functioning of the system of institutions for extrajudicial detention and re-education - concentration camps to teaching young people in special party schools, the so-called national political academies). Since the appointment of Heinrich Himmler as its leader, she saw her mission in recreating the "new Aryan humanity", even before the Nazis came to power, she acquired in the eyes of both her own members and outsiders the image of the "elitist" part of the Nazi party. Some of the members (at the end of the war, the most significant) served in structures modeled on army formations, units and subunits (up to army headquarters), from 1939 operationally subordinate to the German armed forces and de facto included in their composition as the fourth component Wehrmacht (in 1940 they received the name "Waffen SS", SS troops).

Gestapo (German "Gestapo" from "Die Geheime Staatspolizei", - "Secret State Police"), a government agency established in March 1933, originally as a political department within the Prussian police by order of the Minister-President of this German land, Hermann Göring; was subsequently merged with the political police departments of other German states into a single political police service. After that, she entered the Main Directorate of the Security Police (together with the all-imperial department of the criminal police) as part of the SS. Then, when the Main Directorate of Imperial Security was created in 1940 (also part of the SS), it was included in it as one of the directorates.

In order to see the difference between these two organizations, one must understand that these organizations were different in nature: if the SS was a party organization, then the Gestapo was a state one. In view of the peculiarities of the functioning of the police in the Third Reich (in the Weimar Republic there was no unified German police, the police departments were under the jurisdiction of the lands; starting from 1933, G. Himmler, the head of the SS, set about uniting all police services under his leadership; after he he achieved this, he became Deputy Minister of the Interior of the Reich with the title "Chief of the German Police"), a situation developed when government departments were headed by the Fuhrers of the SS; formally retaining the status of state police structures independent of the party and party organizations (in addition to the security police, there was an order police that united all other police forces of the Reich) were merged into the management structures of the party organization (SS); police officials most often (but not always) received in addition to their official ranks (criminal inspectors, commissars, advisers; government or ministerial advisers, etc.) received SS ranks. In 1940, the party security agencies (SD) and state police services (Gestapo and Kripo - criminal police) were merged into a single department (RSHA). The purpose of such an association was Himmler's dream to unite all the police departments of the Reich as part of the SS under his leadership (i.e. to make all police departments part of his SS, without dual subordination to the Ministry of the Interior), but this idea was opposed by the rivals of the Reichsführer SS in the Reich's power elite (they tried to prevent an excessive increase in his influence), therefore, such an association remained purely mechanical - despite the fact that both the state and criminal police were headed by the Fuhrers of the SS, they remained state institutions not included in the party apparatus.