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Kriminalpolizei is the usual designation of the criminal investigation services in the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ...

Germany

The criminal investigation services of Germany's federal states' police forces are called Kriminalpolizei or simply Kripo . They are organized variously according to state law and report to their state's interior ministry, or - in case of the Bundeskriminalamt and the investigating units of the Bundespolizei- to the federal interior ministry. Germany is a Federal Republic made up of 16 States, known in German as Länder (singular Land). ... The Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA (in English, Federal Criminal Office, or Federal Criminal Bureau), is a federal police agency in both Germany and Austria. ... Bundespolizei or BPol for short, is the Federal Police of Germany. ...

As policing in the Federal Republic of Germany is primarily a matter of the states (Landespolizei) , the state Kriminalpolizei services have responsibility for the vast majority of criminal investigations. Landespolizei is a term used in the Federal Republic of Germany to denote the law enforcement services which patrol the German Bundesländer and is the approximite equivalent to the State police in the United States of America. ...

Kripo candidates are mostly (transfer from federal police bodies is rare, but possible) regular state police officers who have done well in police school and in their first years of street duty. After rigorous screening and examination, a small number are chosen to receive a technical education in criminology at a police college. Those completing the course then serve a three-year apprenticeship before attaining full status as an investigator.

The Kriminalpolizei’s detectives work in plainclothes and investigate crimes and incidents. They interview victims and witnesses, collect evidence and interrogate suspects in a continual effort to solve crimes and arrest perpetrators. Detectives also work to locate missing persons and recover stolen property. Investigators may be assigned to precinct detective squads or one of dozens of specialized investigative units that have borough, citywide or regional jurisdiction. Plainclothes often refers to a member of law enforcement, such as a detective or police officer, who, instead of wearing a uniform typically associated with the occupation, will wear ordinary clothes, in order to avoid detection or identification as a member of law enforcement. ...

The origins

1799 six police officers in Berlin were assigned to the prussian Kammergericht (the responsible superior court of justice) in order to investigate more prominent crimes. They were given permission to work in plainclothes, when necessary. Their number increased in the following years.

1811 their rules of service were specified in the Berliner Polizeireglement, 1820 the denomination Kriminalkommissar was introduced, 1872 the new Kriminalpolizei was distinguished from the Schutzpolizei.

Based on the experience with this new kind of officers other german states - as Bremen did 1852 - reformed their police bodies and at the end of the nineteen century the Kriminalpolizei was established nationwide.

Kripo in Nazi Germany, from 1936 to 1945

The Kriminalpolizei was the professional detective service of Germany between 1936 and 1945, when it was overtaken by the SS.The Kriminalpolizei were commanded by Artur Nebe until 1944, when Nebe was denounced and executed after the failed attempt to kill Adolf Hitler in July 1944. In the last year of its existence, the Kripo was commanded by Ernst Kaltenbrunner, as before indirectly through the RSHA. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... A detective (also commonly called a dick or gumshoe) is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... SS-Gruppenführer (General) Arthur Nebe (13 November 1894–21 March 1945) was Berlin Police Commissioner in the 1920s and an early member of both the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schutzstaffel (SS). ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Hitler redirects here. ... SS-Obergruppenführer Dr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner Ernst Kaltenbrunner (October 4, 1903 – October 16, 1946) was a senior Nazi official during World War II. // Born in Ried im Innkreis, Austria, he was the son of a lawyer. ... Reinhard Heydrich - the first director of RSHA The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS created by Heinrich Himmler on September 22, 1939, through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Agency), the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). ...

The Kriminalpolizei typically worked in conjunction with the Ordnungspolizei with administrative needs furnished by the SS-Hauptamt. The Kripo was organized in a tier system, with central offices in all towns and smaller cities. These, in turn, answered to headquarters offices in the larger German cities which answered to the Central Office of the Kriminalpolizei, considered a sub-office of the RSHA. Flag of the Ordnungspolizei The Ordnungspolizei (OrPo) was the name for the regular German police force that existed in Nazi Germany between the years of 1936 and 1945. ... The SS-Hauptamt (translated as SS Head Office) was the central command office of the German Schutzstaffel (SS). ... Reinhard Heydrich - the first director of RSHA The RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt (Reich Security Main Office), was a subordinate organization of the SS created by Heinrich Himmler on September 22, 1939, through the merger of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD, or Security Agency), the Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police). ...

The Kriminalpolizei was mainly concerned with serious crimes such as rape, murder, and arson. A main area of the group's focus was also on "blackout burglary", considered a serious problem during bombing raids where criminals would raid abandoned homes, shops, and factories for any available valuables. The Skyline Parkway Motel in Afton, Virginia after an arson fire on July 9, 2004. ...

Kripo members were considered full members of the Allgemeine-SS but could also hold corresponding Orpo rank. Most Kripo detectives referred to themselves by police investigator titles such as Kriminalrat, instead of SS or Orpo rank. The Kripo was also one of the manpower agencies upon which the Einsatzgruppen were formed and several senior Kripo commanders, Artur Nebe among them, were assigned as Einsatzgruppen Commanders. now. ... The Ranks and insignia of the Ordnungspolizei developed in 1936 after the incorporation of Germanys regular police forces in the SS. Ordnungspolizei Rank Titles Ordnungspolizei ranks were based on local police titles and were considered a separate system from the ranks of the SS. It was also possible for... A member of Einsatzgruppe D is just about to shoot a Jewish man kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. ...

The novel Fatherland, set in an alternate history where Germany won the Second World War, focuses around a central character (Xavier March) who is a Sturmbannführer in the office of the Kriminalpolizei. Artur Nebe also appears in the novel as an Oberstgruppenführer, still serving as the commander of the Kripo twenty years after the close of World War II. Fatherland is a bestselling 1992 thriller novel by the English writer and journalist Robert Harris which doubles as a work of alternate history based on the premise of a world in which Nazi Germany was triumphant in World War II, in a similar way to Philip K. Dicks The... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Sturmbannführer Collar Patch Sturmbannführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party which was used by both the Sturmabteilung (SA) and the Schutzstaffel (SS). ... SS-Oberstgruppenführer Collar Insignia Oberstgruppenführer was the highest commissioned SS rank with the exception of Reichsführer-SS, which was a special rank held by Heinrich Himmler. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead...