PREPARING THE POLICE (ORPO) FOR WAR - Roots of German Militarism № 3

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Roots of German Militarism

PREPARING THE POLICE FOR WAR

Episode № 3

Military1945

Episode № 281

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There were two main Police forces of Nazi Germany under the Reichsführer-SS, Heinrich Himmler from 1936:

Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; order police) consisting of the regular uniformed police

- Gemeindepolizei (GemPo; municipal protection police)

- Schutzpolizei (SchuPo; state protection police)

Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo; security police) consisting of two sub-departments, the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo; secret state police) and Kriminalpolizei (Kripo; criminal police)

In September 1939, the SiPo and the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) were folded into the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA; Reich Security Main Office) where they were made separate departments.

LEADERSHIP

The leadership of the German police was formally vested in the Minister of the Interior, Wilhelm Frick from January 1933, who along with Hermann Göring exercised executive power over Germany's police organs; this was an important part of Adolf Hitler'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."[2] This action effectively merged the police into the SS and removed it from Frick's control.[3] As Germany's most senior policeman, Himmler had two goals; first the official goal of centralization and Gleichschaltung: reforming the German police forces after Nazi Party 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.[4]

By August 1936, the Gestapo was standardized across the Reich, wherein all political police—of which there were seventeen different organs—were merged. Command and control of the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) was exerted through Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei, founded in 1936, under the successive leadership of Kurt Daluege (1936–1943), who was later replaced by Alfred Wünnenberg (1943–1945).[6] Command and control of the Gestapo and the Kripo were since 1936 exerted through Hauptamt Sicherheitspolizei, and from 1939 through the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA). These organization along with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), became departments of the RSHA—initially under Heydrich (1936–1942) and then Ernst Kaltenbrunner (1943–1945) until World War II's end.