Story Highlights
- Historical event:
- 26 April 1933
- The Gestapo was established on this day in 1933, only three months after the Nazis came to power in Germany.
Gestapo stands for GEheime STAatsPOlizei (secret state police) and was founded on this day in 1933, just three months after the Nazis came to power in Germany.
The Gestapo was founded by the infamous Hermann Göring, soon after Hitler appointed him Minister President of Prussia.
It is interesting that Göring was a flying ace of World War I, who shot down as much as 22 enemy planes in aerial duels.
He became one of Hitler’s closest associates and was soon appointed to high positions. As the Minister of the Interior for Prussia, he commanded the largest police force in the whole of Germany.
From that police he singled out the intelligence and the political section and created a new unit out of them – the Gestapo.
Göring filled the Gestapo with Nazis. Rudolf Diels, Göring’s protégé, became the first commander of the Gestapo.
He is known for being in charge of the case of the famous Marinus van der Lubbe, the communist accused of torching the Reichstag.
Göring’s Gestapo became a competitor to Himmler’s SS. In the end, Himmler prevailed and Goering had to relinquish the Gestapo to him.
The Gestapo then, with the backing of the SS, became the main secret police force in Germany and the conquered areas.
