THE GESTAPO

The legacy of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich is one of violence
and cruelty. Hitler needed a large amount of support to realize his
ideas and among the most feared of his loyalists were the
German Gestapo, his secret police. The group was charged with
rooting out all internal opposition that threatened Hitler and the
Nazi Party.
The term Gestapo is a shorted form of Geheime Staatspolizei,
which means Secret State Police. The loyalty of this police force
was not directed at people or the public good, but to Hitlers
increasingly oppressive fascist regime. As the name of the police
force indicates, its responsibilities revolved around serving the
state and destroying its internal enemies.
The Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had suspended
many rights, including Habeas Corpus. As the state grew
increasingly oppressive, it was to be expected that rebellion and
resistance would answer its expanding restraint. The Gestapos
main directive was to locate these factions and deal with them
accordingly.
Origin
While the Gestapo reported to Hitler, he was not the person that
originally established the force. Rather, it was the high ranking
Nazi official, Hermann Gring, who first had the idea. Gring came
to power when Hitler instated him as the Prussian Interior
Minister, giving him command of an incredibly massive police
force. Gring very quickly filled the ranks with Nazis, ensuring
that the police would be loyal to him and Hitler. In particular, the
political and internal intelligence wings of the police force were
comprised almost exclusively of Nazis. Gring eventually merged

the political and the intelligence divisions together on April 26,

1933, with the new unit being called the Gestapo.

Power Struggles in the Gestapo

There existed power struggles among the different Nazi Party
officials at the time of the Gestapos instatement. Heinrich
Himmler, for one, was involved heavily with the police force in
Bavaria and felt his power was being minimized by Gring. There
were also many concerns over the official Commander of the
Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. It was deemed that he did not possess a
sufficient level of ruthlessness to use the Gestapo as intended.
Eventually, Himmler would become the Chief of all Police outside
of Prussia. As one of his first moves, he would name Reinhard
Heydrich the new Commander of the Gestapo.
Regardless of the many different power struggles that occurred
among his subordinates, Hitler knew he had their loyalty. The
leaders of the Gestapo would become some of the most powerful
figures in Germany. They would also quickly become some of the
most feared.
Elimination of Judicial Review
Almost immediately after being elected, Hitler was able to
assume dictatorial power in Germany. He was no longer
constrained by the parliament and could enact laws on his own
without their approval. To consolidate his power, he removed
many of the checks and balances from those entities that served
him. One way this was achieved was through removing judicial
review from the Gestapo. In short, the Gestapo only had to
answer to Hitler and were not affected by the law. This allowed
Hitler to use them as agents of domestic terror. Needless to say,

this made the populace more fearful of the police force and less
willing to oppose the Nazi Party.
The specific tasks of the Gestapo were to protect the Nazi Party
from acts of espionage and treason. So, the Gestapo could not
really be called a German police force as much as the tool of one
party.

The Structure of the Gestapo

The Gestapo did not consist of a single entity. Like any other
police force, there were divisions tasked with specific goals and
responsibilities. Departments of the Gestapo were listed from A to
E, with each of them in its own area of responsibility. Department
A dealt with political opponents of the Nazi Party and the State.
Department B oversaw sects and churches. Department C was
somewhat of an internal affairs division dealing with party and
administration affairs. Department D had jurisdiction over
occupied
territories.
Department
E
centered
on
counterintelligence.
Joining
The bulk of the Gestapo came from the police forces. While Hitler
and the Nazis dissolved various governments they felt were
disloyal, select preexisting police forces were not disbanded. Party
loyalty was not always demanded of those police officers in low
level ranks of the Gestapo, the reason for this being that certain
police and civil servant skills were required for the Gestapo to
function. Therefore, technocratic, bureaucratic and police skills
were highly valued when hiring lower level Gestapo members.

Opposition
There was a large amount of opposition to the Gestapo, most of
which came from college campuses. Such activities were quickly
suppressed, with their organizers dealt with brutally. Very few
continued to challenge the Gestapo.
The Fall of Hitler and the Gestapo
At the end of World War II, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker.
His government officials were persecuted in the Nuremberg trials,
and the Gestapo was condemned as a criminal organization.