View source for Prussian Secret Police

{{short description|19th and 20th-century political police in Prussia}}
{{Expand German|Preußische Geheimpolizei|date=December 2023}}
{{nofootnotes|date=March 2012}}
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| formedyear      = {{Start date and age|1854}}
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The '''Prussian Secret Police''' ({{langx|de|'''Preußische Geheimpolizei'''}}) was the [[secret police]] of [[Prussia]] in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1851 the [[Police Union of German States]] was set up by the police forces of [[Austria]], Prussia, [[Bavaria]], [[Saxony]], [[Hanover]], [[Baden]], and [[Württemberg]] (Deflem 1996). It was specifically organised to suppress political dissent in the wake of the [[German revolutions of 1848–49|1848 revolutions]] which spread across Germany. For the next fifteen years the Union held annual meetings to exchange information. 

==Establishment==
[[Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey]], the Police Commissioner of [[Berlin]], was appointed by King [[Friedrich Wilhelm IV]] on 16 November 1848. He was to prove to be a key figure in the development of the [[secret police]] in Prussia as well as the whole union. By 1854, thanks to his close relationship with the king he was appointed {{lang|de|Generalpolizeidirektor}} (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 in [[Berlin]] and developed a Prussian information catalogue on political opponents, focusing on revolutionaries involved in the 1848 uprisings. But as he saw [[Paris]] and [[London]] as the centers of political intrigue he was keen to organize the policing of political opponents outside borders of national jurisdictions.
[[File:Flag of Prussia (1892-1918).svg|thumb|The [[flag of Prussia]] from 1892-1918.]]

==Reputation==
The Prussian Secret Police has historically held a bad reputation, as it was the model upon which the [[Gestapo]] was later founded.{{cn|date=November 2021}} 

==Reorganization under a new name==
The Prussian Secret Police was renamed in 1933 as the Gestapo. [[Abolition of Prussia|Prussia itself was dissolved]] as an administrative entity following [[World War II]].

== See also ==
* [[Wilhelm Stieber]]

==References==
* Deflem, Mathieu (1996). [http://deflem.blogspot.com/1996/09/international-policing-in-19th-century.html "International Policing in Nineteenth-Century Europe: The Police Union of German States, 1851–1866"]. ''International Criminal Justice Review'' 6:36–57.
* Deflem, Mathieu (2002). ''Policing World Society: Historical Foundations of International Police Cooperation''. Oxford, UK: [[Oxford University Press]]. 

{{Authority control}}
[[Category:1854 establishments in Prussia]]
[[Category:Organizations established in 1854]]
[[Category:1933 disestablishments in Germany]]
[[Category:Organizations disestablished in 1933]]
[[Category:Defunct German intelligence agencies]]
[[Category:Defunct law enforcement agencies of the Weimar Republic]]
[[Category:Weimar Republic intelligence agencies]]
[[Category:Kingdom of Prussia|Secret Police]]
[[Category:Secret police]]
[[Category:Frederick William IV of Prussia]]
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