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The Nazi concept of the role of the police originally called for only a very small force. Like the Communists, the National Socialists saw a kind of praetorian guardianship of the mainstream democratic parties, especially the SPD in Prussia, which continuously constituted the government there from 1919 to 1932.
[149] Nonetheless, German authorities ordered the mobilisation of reserve Polish police forces, known as the Blue Police, which strengthened the Nazi police presence and carried out numerous "police" functions; in some cases, its functionaries even identified and rounded up Jews or performed other unsavory duties on behalf of their German masters.
The military career of Adolf Hitler, who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until 1945, can be divided into two distinct portions of his life. Mainly, the period during World War I when Hitler served as a Gefreiter (lance corporal [A 1]) in the Bavarian Army, and the era of World War II when he served as the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) through his ...
Himmler and Heydrich wanted to extend the power of the SS; thus, they urged Hitler to form a national police force overseen by the SS, to guard Nazi Germany against its many enemies at the time—real and imagined. [84] Interior Minister Frick also wanted a national police force, but one controlled by him, with Kurt Daluege as his police chief ...
Kriegsstärkenachweisungen (KStN) – the German equivalent of the American table of organization and equipment (TO&E) or the British war establishment. Kriegstagebuch – war diary. Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) – "Criminal Police" – in Nazi Germany, it became the national Criminal (investigative) Police Department for the entire Reich in July 1936.
The Prussian Secret Police has historically held a bad reputation, as it was the model upon which the Gestapo was later founded. [citation needed] The Prussian Secret Police, however, did not routinely engage in persecution or the abuse of police powers, and did not behave in the way that other secret police forces might. [citation needed]
The term originated in August 1919 when the Reichswehr set up the Sicherheitswehr as a militarised police force to take action during times of riots or strikes. Owing to limitations in army numbers, it was renamed the Sicherheitspolizei to avoid attention. They wore a green uniform, and were sometimes called the "Green Police".
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]