Crime and criminal justice history in Germany. A report on recent trends
1. Introduction In Germany, modern crime and criminal justice history had a late start. In the 1970s and the early 1980s, when crime and criminal justice history had already become a significant feature of historical writing in Western Europe and in Northern America, very few pioneers among German historians had ventured into the area. Three pioneers stand out: Dirk Blasius, Carsten Küther and Alf Lüdtke. By the time that the statement was made about the ‘late start’ of the history of German ...
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1. Introduction

2. German Crime and Criminal Justice Histories

A. Crime and Criminal Justice History as Social History

B. The Cultural Turn in German Crime and Criminal Justice History

C. The early modern and Ancien Régime Policey

in German Crime and Criminal Justice History

9Research on the early modern and Ancien Régime German concept of Policey has been extensive. The word Policey can be translated simply as ‘police’, but is best understood as a pre-modern theory and practice of government that aimed at the well-being of the population. Included in its model of good government were the control of, and the application of sanctions against those who opposed the intentions of the authorities.

D. The History of the Prison

13This view cannot be separated from a conceptual shift which occurred not only in German prison history but also in the history of the German police. In many of these studies one can find similar essentials that cluster around a denial of strict top-down perspectives, and that challenge the notions that conceive of criminal justice institutions – the police, the criminal courts, and the prison – as all-powerful and as able to enforce their will on those treated by them. This top-down-notion was, in part, influenced strongly by Max Weber’s concept of Herrschaft (Domination),

but it was also shaped by models of conflict theory which leaned significantly on Marxian ideas of class conflict. This shift away from top-down models has been partly the consequence of new research questions (see for this the section on ­German police histories below), and partly a follow-up from orientations towards Foucauldian notions of power (Macht), especially in the sense in which power is seen a medium that is accessible and/or can be used from different sides, not only by those on the top of political and social hierarchies, but also by those below.

3. German Police during the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries

A. Police in Germany during the Nineteenth and the early Twentieth centuries

B. German Polices during the Nazi Period: Continuity, Rupture, or a New Terrain?

C. Police in Germany after 1945

33For the victorious allies, the police of Nazi Germany was one of the institutions which had to be controlled and subjugated for an effective military government of occupied Germany. But the allied forces not only wanted control; they wanted also completely to reconstruct the German police. Although in practice each of the allies proceeded differently in its zone, certain general principles were agreed on, such as the abolition of the Gestapo, the dismissal of Nazis among police personnel, and the complete reversal of the centralizing policy pursued by the Nazis with reference to the police. In the British zone this reversal led, more or less, to a complete abolition of the traditional German police system. The military government and the German authorities alike aimed at implementing what was perceived as the English model. They replaced state police by local and communal police forces.