Bavarian Political Police
The Bavarian Political Police (), BPP, was a police force in the German state of Bavaria, active from 1933 to 1936. It served as a forerunner of the Gestapo in Bavaria, the secret police during the Nazi era, and was predominantly engaged in the persecution of political opponents of the Nazis. The combination of political police and concentration camps under the control of the SS in Bavaria became the model for all of Nazi Germany, with Heinrich Himmler, within a short time, controlling all police forces in the country. Munich, Bavaria's capital, became the testing ground for the Nazi terror of the following twelve years. History Background Bavaria, Germany's second-largest state after Prussia, and specifically its capital Munich was the breeding ground of the Nazis. It was Munich where the Nazi Party was founded and where Adolf Hitler's political career began. The party newspaper, '' Völkischer Beobachter'', and Hitler's Mein Kampf were published in Munich. For these reasons, t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Free State of Prussia, Prussia into one organisation. On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936. Instead of being exclusively a Prussian state agency, the Gestapo became a national one as a sub-office of the (SiPo; Security Police). From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It became known as (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the (SD; Security Service). The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. The power of the Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious org ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army. Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, History of Berlin, Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany. Prussia formed the German Empire when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by 1932 Prussian coup d'état, an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and ''de jure'' by Abolition of Prussia, an Allied decree in 1947. The name ''Prussia'' derives from the Old Prussians who were conquered by the Teutonic Knightsan organized Catholic medieval Military order (religious society), military order of Pru ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Bavarian People's Party
The Bavarian People's Party (German: ; BVP) was a principally Catholic christian democratic political party in Bavaria during the Weimar Republic. After the collapse of the German Empire in 1918, it split away from the federal Centre Party and formed the BVP in order to pursue a conservative and regionalist stance. It dominated in state politics; all Ministers-President from 1920 onwards were from the BVP. In the national Reichstag it remained a minor player with only about three percent of total votes in all elections. The BVP disbanded shortly after the Nazi seizure of power in early 1933. It was not reformed after the war; much of its electorate was absorbed by the new centre-right regionalist Christian Social Union in Bavaria. Founding There had been a Bavarian wing of the Centre Party throughout the years of the German Empire. After Germany's defeat in World War I and the outbreak of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, leading Bavarian members of the Centre Party ar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Max Troll
Max Troll (1902 – 7 April 1972) was a German communist-turned-informer who betrayed hundreds of Bavarian communists to the Bavarian Political Police, a forerunner of the Gestapo, between 1933 and 1936. Troll spent a short time in Dachau concentration camp and served in the German Army during World War II. After the war he was sentenced to ten years in jail for his role as informer and released after five, in contrast to his Gestapo handlers who were not prosecuted. Troll was never a Nazi, opposing the regime instead, but a number of factors have been cited for his betrayal, among them financial difficulties, his treatment while being held at Dachau and the threat of physical violence against his stepbrothers should he not cooperate. Biography Early life Troll, the son of a truck driver, and born in Lower Bavaria, grew up in Munich. Troll worked as a labourer on building sites and as a life guard for the city of Munich, but lost his job in 1931 because of his left-wing activities ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Social Democratic Party Of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together with Lars Klingbeil, who joined her in December 2021. After losing the 2025 federal election, the party is part of the Merz government as the junior coalition partner. The SPD is a member of 12 of the 16 German state governments and is a leading partner in seven of them. The SPD was founded in 1875 from a merger of smaller socialist parties, and grew rapidly after the lifting of Germany's repressive Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890 to become the largest socialist party in Western Europe until 1933. In 1891, it adopted its Marxist-influenced Erfurt Program, though in practice it was moderate and focused on building working-class organizations. In the 1912 federal election, the SPD won 34.8 percent of votes and became the largest party in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Franz Josef Huber
Franz Josef Huber (22 January 1902 – 30 January 1975) was a German police and security service official during the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany eras. He joined the Nazi Party and the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in 1937 and worked closely with Gestapo chief Heinrich Müller. After the German annexation of Austria in 1938, Huber was posted to Vienna, where he was appointed Inspector of the Security Police (''Sicherheitspolizei''; SiPo) and Security Service ('' Sicherheitsdienst''; SD) for the '' Reichsgaue'' Vienna, Lower Danube and Upper Danube. He rose to the rank of SS-'' Brigadeführer'' and was responsible for mass deportations of Jews from the area. After the end of World War II, Huber underwent denazification proceedings but never served any prison time. He was employed by the West German Federal Intelligence Service from 1955 to 1964. He died in Munich in 1975. Early life Huber was born on 22 January 1902 in Munich. He attended school through "seven classes of gymn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Josef Albert Meisinger
Josef Albert Meisinger (14 September 1899 – 7 March 1947), also known as the "Butcher of Warsaw", was an SS functionary in Nazi Germany. He held a position in the Gestapo and was a member of the Nazi Party. During the early phases of World War II Meisinger served as commander of ''Einsatzgruppe'' IV in Poland. From 1941 to 1945 he worked as liaison for the Gestapo at the German embassy in Tokyo. He was arrested in Japan in 1945, convicted of war crimes and was executed in Warsaw, Poland. Early life Meisinger was born in Munich, the son of Josef and Berta Meisinger; he enlisted on 23 December 1916 and served during World War I in the 230th ''Minenwerfer'' Company (a type of short-range mortar), 22nd Bavarian Pioneer Battalion in the 30th Bavarian Reserve Division. After being wounded in battle he was awarded the Iron Cross and the Bavarian Military Merit Cross. On 18 January 1919 he attained the rank of ''Vizefeldwebel'' (senior sergeant), and on 19 April 1919 he entered t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Heinrich Müller (Gestapo)
Heinrich Müller (28 April 1900; date of death unknown, but evidence points to May 1945) was a high-ranking German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) and police official during the Nazi era. For most of World War II in Europe, he was the chief of the Gestapo, the secret state police of Nazi Germany. Müller was central in the planning and execution of the Holocaust and attended the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, which formalised plans for deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe—the "Final Solution to the Jewish question". He was known as "Gestapo Müller" to distinguish him from another SS general named Heinrich Müller. He was last seen in the ''Führerbunker'' in Berlin on 1 May 1945 and remains the most senior figure of the Nazi Party, Nazi regime who was never captured or confirmed to have died. Early life and career Müller was born in Munich on 28 April 1900 to Roman Catholic Church, Catholic parents. His father had been a rural police official. Müller atte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Bundeszentrale Für Politische Bildung
The Federal Agency for Civic Education (FACE, (''bpb'')) is a German federal government agency responsible for promoting civic education. It is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Thomas Krüger has served as president of the agency since 2000. The modern agency was established in West Germany in 1952 by the Adenauer government to counteract communism during the Cold War, but it has its roots in earlier government agencies dating back to the First World War. Objective In 1997 the objectives for bpb were specified, and these were officially defined in 2001. Its task is now to promote understanding of political issues, strengthen awareness for democracy and willingness to participate in political processes amongst the citizen. Furthermore, a committee of 22 members of the Bundestag is responsible for monitoring the effectiveness and political neutrality of the bpb. Bpb publishes (a magazine published quarterly) and (APuZ), a weekly topical journal of essay ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Dachau Concentration Camp
Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, social democrats, and other dissidents. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory northeast of the medieval town of Dachau, about northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria, in southern Germany. After its opening by Heinrich Himmler, its purpose was enlarged to include forced labor, and eventually, the imprisonment of Jews, Romani, Germans, and Austrians that the Nazi Party regarded as criminals, and, finally, foreign nationals from countries that Germany occupied or invaded. The Dachau camp system grew to include nearly 100 sub-camps, which were mostly work camps or , and were located throughout southern Germany and Austria. The main camp was liberated by U.S. forces on 29 April 1945. Prisoners lived in constant f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Nazi Concentration Camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Following the Night of Long Knives, 1934 purge of the Sturmabteilung, SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the Schutzstaffel, SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals", "Black triangle (badge), asocials", and Jews. After the beginning of World War II, people from German-occupied Europe were imprisoned in the concentration camps. About 1.65 million people were registered prisoners in the camps, of whom about Holocaust victims, a million died during their imprisonment. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Franz Ritter Von Epp
Franz Ritter von Epp (born Franz Epp; from 1918 as Ritter von Epp; 16 October 1868 – 31 January 1947)Lilla, Joachim: Epp, Franz Ritter v.'. In: Staatsminister, leitende Verwaltungsbeamte und (NS-)Funktionsträger in Bayern 1918 bis 1945. Bayerische Landesbibliothek Online. Retrieved on 12 November 2015.Epp's death date is often erroneously given as 31 December 1946. According to Lilla, Staatsminister, this error was replicated from the . The correct date, 31 January 1947, is confirmed by Epp's death certificate in the civil registry of Munich. was a German general and politician who started his military career in the Bavarian Army. Successful wartime military service earned him a knighthood in 1916. After the end of World War I and the dissolution of the German Empire, Epp was a commanding officer in the and the . His unit, the ''Freikorps Epp'', was responsible for numerous massacres during the crushing of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. He was a member of Bavarian Peopl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |