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| Prussian Secret Police Preußische Geheimpolizei | |
|---|---|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 1854; 171 years ago (1854) |
| Dissolved | 1933; 92 years ago (1933) |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction | Prussia |
| General nature | |
ThePrussian Secret Police (German:Preußische Geheimpolizei) was thesecret police ofPrussia in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
In 1851 thePolice Union of German States was set up by the police forces ofAustria, Prussia,Bavaria,Saxony,Hanover,Baden, andWürttemberg (Deflem 1996). It was specifically organised to suppress political dissent in the wake of the1848 revolutions which spread across Germany. For the next fifteen years the Union held annual meetings to exchange information.
Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey, the Police Commissioner ofBerlin, was appointed by KingFriedrich Wilhelm IV on 16 November 1848. He was to prove to be a key figure in the development of thesecret police in Prussia as well as the whole union. By 1854, thanks to his close relationship with the king he was appointedGeneralpolizeidirektor (General Director of Police). Effectively he was a minister of police independent from the minister of the interior. Von Hinckeldey founded the Berlin political police inBerlin and developed a Prussian information catalogue on political opponents, focusing on revolutionaries involved in the 1848 uprisings. But as he sawParis andLondon as the centers of political intrigue he was keen to organize the policing of political opponents outside borders of national jurisdictions.
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The Prussian Secret Police has historically held a bad reputation, as it was the model upon which theGestapo was later founded.[citation needed]
The Prussian Secret Police was renamed in 1933 as the Gestapo.Prussia itself was dissolved as an administrative entity followingWorld War II.
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