The Western Allies, Intelligence, and Police Organizations in Post-War Germany and the Nazi Past

When the Western allies began to create a transatlantic security network during the early Cold War, it was obvious that German intelligence and police organizations would have to play a pivotal role. This meant that institutions had to be established or re-founded serving purposes that before 1945 had been the task of NS-organizations such as the Gestapo, the SS, and the SD of the “Reichssicherheitshauptamt”. At the same time, the Allies were determined to prevent the resurrection of these same Nazi-organizations in a new disguise and thus had to negotiate terms and to establish ground-rules as well as to preclude the influx of former members of SS, SD and Gestapo into these organizations.

Using an international relations and institutional history approach, the paper analyzes why, even though a renaissance of Gestapo, SS, and SD did not occur, Bundesnachrichtendienst, Bundeskriminalamt, and Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz have had a fundamentally uneven record in conforming to the Allies’ prerequisites.