The Geheime Staatspolizei (), 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 security police agencies of Prussia into one organisation.
On 26 April 1933, Göring merged the two units as the Geheime Staatspolizei, which was abbreviated by a post office clerk for a franking stamp and became known as the "Gestapo".
In late 1933, the Reich Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick wanted to integrate all the police forces of the German states under his control.
For their part, this was the first time the Gestapo operated under its new name since its 26 April 1933 founding in Prussia. ===Religious dissent=== Many parts of Germany (where religious dissent existed upon the Nazi seizure of power) saw a rapid transformation; a change as noted by the Gestapo in conservative towns such as Würzburg, where people acquiesced to the regime either through accommodation, collaboration, or simple compliance.
From the Nazis rise to national power in 1933, the number of court verdicts against homosexuals steadily increased and only declined once the Second World War started.
Between 1933 and 1935, some 4,000 men were arrested; between 1936 and 1939, another 30,000 men were convicted.
Terror against "state enemies" had become a way of life to such a degree that the Gestapo's presence and methods were eventually normalised in the minds of people living in Nazi Germany. ==Organisation== In January 1933, Hermann Göring, Hitler's minister without portfolio, was appointed the head of the Prussian Police and began filling the political and intelligence units of the Prussian Secret Police with Nazi Party members.
On 26 April 1933, he reorganised the force's Amt III as the Gestapa (better-known by the "sobriquet" Gestapo), a secret state police intended to serve the Nazi cause.
Less than two weeks later in early May 1933, the Gestapo moved into their Berlin headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8. As a result of its 1936 merger with the Kripo (National criminal police) to form sub-units of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), the Gestapo was officially classified as a government agency.
Further promotions to Kriminalkommissarin and Kriminalrätin were also possible. ==Membership== In 1933, there was no purge of the German police forces.
One man who served in the Prussian Gestapo in 1933 recalled that most of his co-workers "were by no means Nazis.
For the most part they were young professional civil service officers..." The Nazis valued police competence more than politics, so in general in 1933, almost all of the men who served in the various state police forces under the Weimar Republic stayed on in their jobs.
Gellately argued that it was because of the widespread willingness of Germans to inform on each other to the Gestapo that Germany between 1933 and 1945 was a prime example of panopticism.
On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936.
Göring took over the Gestapo in 1934 and urged Hitler to extend the agency's authority throughout Germany.
Soon only Prussia was left. Concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to effectively counteract the power of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Göring handed over control of the Gestapo to Himmler on 20 April 1934.
Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SS Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst; SD).
In 1934, a special Gestapo office was set up in Berlin to deal with homosexuality. Despite male homosexuality being considered a greater danger to "national survival", lesbianism was likewise viewed as unacceptable—deemed gender nonconformity—and a number of individual reports on lesbians can be found in Gestapo files.
Efforts to resist the Nazi regime amounted to very little and had only minor chances of success, particularly since the broad percentage of the German people did not support such actions. ===General opposition and military conspiracy=== Between 1934 and 1938, opponents of the Nazi regime and their fellow travellers began to emerge.
As early as 1935, a Prussian administrative court had ruled that the Gestapo's actions were not subject to judicial review.
Between 1933 and 1935, some 4,000 men were arrested; between 1936 and 1939, another 30,000 men were convicted.
Yet a significant number of them still worked against the National Socialist government. During May 1935, the Gestapo broke up and arrested members of the "Markwitz Circle", a group of former socialists in contact with Otto Strasser, who sought Hitler's downfall.
On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936.
For the Gestapo, the next two years following the Night of the Long Knives, a term describing the putsch against Röhm and the SA, were characterised by "behind-the-scenes political wrangling over policing". On 17 June 1936, Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in Germany and named Himmler as Chief of German Police.
The basic Gestapo law passed by the government in 1936 gave the Gestapo carte blanche to operate without judicial review—in effect, putting it above the law.
Between 1933 and 1935, some 4,000 men were arrested; between 1936 and 1939, another 30,000 men were convicted.
Less than two weeks later in early May 1933, the Gestapo moved into their Berlin headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8. As a result of its 1936 merger with the Kripo (National criminal police) to form sub-units of the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; Security Police), the Gestapo was officially classified as a government agency.
Over time, membership in the Gestapo included ideological training, particularly once Werner Best assumed a leading role for training in April 1936.
By March 1937, the Gestapo employed an estimated 6,500 people in fifty-four regional offices across the Reich.
Efforts to resist the Nazi regime amounted to very little and had only minor chances of success, particularly since the broad percentage of the German people did not support such actions. ===General opposition and military conspiracy=== Between 1934 and 1938, opponents of the Nazi regime and their fellow travellers began to emerge.
Additional staff were added in March 1938 consequent the annexation of Austria and again in October 1938 with the acquisition of the Sudetenland.
From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
The SS officer Werner Best, one-time head of legal affairs in the Gestapo, summed up this policy by saying, "As long as the police carries out the will of the leadership, it is acting legally". On 27 September 1939, the security and police agencies of Nazi Germany—with the exception of the Order Police—were consolidated into the Reich Main Security Office (RSHA), headed by Heydrich.
After Germany conquered Poland in the autumn of 1939, Gestapo officials believed that they had neutralised Polish intelligence activities.
Between 1933 and 1935, some 4,000 men were arrested; between 1936 and 1939, another 30,000 men were convicted.
This was partly because of the Venlo incident of 9 November 1939, in which SD and Gestapo agents, posing as anti-Nazis in the Netherlands, kidnapped two British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officers after having lured them to a meeting to discuss peace terms.
Nevertheless, in practice there was jurisdictional overlap and operational conflict between the SD and Gestapo. In September 1939, the SiPo and SD were merged into the newly created Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Main Security Office).
In 1939, only 3,000 out of the total of 20,000 Gestapo men held SS ranks, and in most cases, these were honorary.
For example, in 1939 Stettin and Frankfurt am Main only had a total of 41 Gestapo men combined.
The Gestapo office in Saarbrücken had 50 full-term informers in 1939.
Gellately has also suggested that the Gestapo was "a reactive organisation...constructed within German society and whose functioning was structurally dependent on the continuing co-operation of German citizens". After 1939, when many Gestapo personnel were called up for war-related work such as service with the Einsatzgruppen, the level of overwork and understaffing at the local offices increased.
From the mid-1930s into the early 1940s—various groups made up of communists, idealists, working-class people, and far-right conservative opposition organisations covertly fought against Hitler's government, and several of them fomented plots that included Hitler's assassination.
It was the Gestapo chief, SS-Brigadierführer Heinrich Müller, who kept Hitler abreast of the killing operations in the Soviet Union and who issued orders to the four Einsatzgruppen that their continual work in the east was to be "presented to the Führer." ===Female Criminal Investigation Career=== According to regulations issued by the Reich Main Security Office in 1940, women who had been trained in social work or having a similar education could be hired as female detectives.
In addition, political prisoners throughout Germany—and from 1941, throughout the occupied territories under the Night and Fog Decree (Nacht und Nebel)—simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody.
The Poles identified and tracked German military trains to the Eastern front and identified four Order Police battalions sent to occupied areas of the Soviet Union in October 1941 that engaged in war crimes and mass murder. Polish agents also gathered detailed information about the morale of German soldiers in the East.
After Heydrich's 1942 assassination, Himmler assumed the leadership of the RSHA until January 1943, when Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief.
According to Gestapo case files, the majority of those arrested for homosexuality were males between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. ===Student opposition=== Between June 1942 and March 1943, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime.
After Heydrich's 1942 assassination, Himmler assumed the leadership of the RSHA until January 1943, when Ernst Kaltenbrunner was appointed chief.
According to Gestapo case files, the majority of those arrested for homosexuality were males between eighteen and twenty-five years of age. ===Student opposition=== Between June 1942 and March 1943, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime.
During the first five months of 1943, the Gestapo arrested thousands suspected of resistance activities and carried out numerous executions.
Student opposition leaders were executed in late February, and a major opposition organisation, the Oster Circle, was destroyed in April 1943.
Later, the British and Americans did not want to deal with anti-Nazis because they were fearful that the Soviet Union would believe they were attempting to make deals behind their back. The German opposition was in an unenviable position by the late spring and early summer of 1943.
In January 1943, Himmler appointed Ernst Kaltenbrunner RSHA chief; almost seven months after Heydrich had been assassinated.
The District Office in Nuremberg, which had the responsibility for all of northern Bavaria, employed a total of 80–100 full-term informers between 1943 and 1945.
Up to 30 April 1944, at least 6,639 persons were arrested under Nacht und Nebel orders.
As late as 6 June 1944, Heinrich Müller—concerned about the leakage of information to the Allies—set up a special unit called Sonderkommando Jerzy that was meant to root out the Polish intelligence network in western and southwestern Europe. In Austria, there were groups still loyal to the Habsburgs, who unlike most across the greater German Reich, remained determined to resist the Nazis.
Stauffenberg and his group were shot on 21 July 1944; meanwhile, his fellow conspirators were rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp.
The District Office in Nuremberg, which had the responsibility for all of northern Bavaria, employed a total of 80–100 full-term informers between 1943 and 1945.
Gellately argued that it was because of the widespread willingness of Germans to inform on each other to the Gestapo that Germany between 1933 and 1945 was a prime example of panopticism.
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