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Schutzstaffel Abzeichen.svg
The SiPo was an agency of the SS.
Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-027-1475-38, Marseille, deutsch-französische Besprechung.jpg
Sicherheitspolizei officers in Marseilles during WWII.
Agency overview
Formed 26 June 1936
Preceding Agency Gestapo
Dissolved 22 September 1939
Superseding agency Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA)
Type State Security Police
Jurisdiction Germany Germany
Occupied Europe
Headquarters Prinz-Albrecht-Straße, Berlin
Employees 4,500[1]
Ministers responsible Wilhelm Frick (nominal authority) 1936-39, Interior Minister
Heinrich Himmler 1936-1939, Chef der Deutschen Polizei
Agency executive SS-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich 1936-1939, Director, SiPo and Gestapo

The Sicherheitspolizei (English: Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for their security police. In the Nazi era it was used to describe the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of the Gestapo (secret state police) and the Kripo (criminal police) between 1936 and 1939. As a formal agency, the SiPo was folded into the RSHA in 1939, but the term continued to be used informally until the end of the Third Reich.


The term originated in August 1919 when the Reichswehr Ministry set up the Sicherheitswehr as a militarised police force to take action during times of riots or strikes. However owing to limitations in army numbers, it was renamed the Sicherheitspolizei to avoid attention. They wore a green uniform, and were sometimes called the Green Police. However it was a military body, recruiting largely from the Freikorps, with NCOs and officers from the old German Imperial Army.[2]

Nazi Era[edit]



Furthermore in 1936, the state police agencies in Germany were statutorily divided into the Ordnungspolizei (regular or order police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (state security police). The two police branches were commonly known as the Orpo and SiPo (Kripo and Gestapo combined), respectively.[3] The Hauptamt Sicherheitspolizei was founded by Himmler, in order to create a centralized main office under Heydrich's overall command of the SiPo.[4]


In September 1939, with the founding of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), the Sicherheitspolizei as a functioning state agency ceased to exist as the department was merged into the RSHA.[5] The term SiPo was also used to describe security police force officials (but not the SD members of the RSHA).

Grades and pay 1938-1945[edit]

Officials of the Sicherheitspolizei belonged to Kripo and Gestapo which both had the same grade structure and pay grades as civil servants.

Pay Grade[6] Annual Pay in Reichsmark | [6] Grades in the junior executive service ( einfachen Vollzugsdienst der Sicherheitspolizei)
Grades in the senior executive service (leitenden Vollzugsdienst der Sicherheitspolizei)
Corresponding rank in SS
(in Wehrmacht-Heer) [6] [7]
A8c2 2 160 - 2 340 Kriminalassistent SS-Oberscharführer
2 000-3 000 Kriminaloberassistent SS-Hauptscharführer
A7a 2 350-3 500 Kriminalsekretär SS-Untersturmführer
A5b 2 300-4 200 Kriminalobersekretär SS-Untersturmführer
A4c2 2 800-5000 Kriminalinspektor SS-Obersturmführer
A4c1 2 800-5 300 Kriminalkommissar
< three years in grade
A4c1 2 800-5 300 Kriminalkommissar
> three years in grade
A3b 4 800-7 000 Kriminalrat
< three years in grade
A3b 4 800-7 000 Kriminalrat
> three years in grade
A2d 4 800-7 800 Kriminaldirektor SS-Sturmbannführer
A2c2 4 800-8 400 Regierungs-und Kriminalrat SS-Sturmbannführer
A2b 7 000-9 700 Oberregierungs-und Kriminalrat SS-Obersturmbannführer
A1b 6 200-10 600 Regierungs- und Kriminaldirektor SS-Standartenführer
A1b 6 200-10 600 Reichskriminaldirektor SS-Standartenführer

Mean annual pay for an industrial worker was 1,459 Reichsmark 1939, and for a privately employed white-collar worker 2,772 Reichsmark. [8]

Cold War[edit]


See also[edit]


  1. ^ Robert Gellately. "The Gestapo and German Society". Retrieved 2009-06-02. 
  2. ^ Edmonds, James (1987). The Occupation of the Rhineland. London: HMSO. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-11-290454-0. 
  3. ^ a b c Williams 2001, p. 77.
  4. ^ Weale 2010, pp. 134, 135.
  5. ^ Lumsden 2002, pp. 83, 84.
  6. ^ a b c d e Siegfried Beer, "Die Gestapostelle Linz, 1938–1945. Eine dokumentarische Rekonstruktion auf Basis der Recherchen des amerikanischen Militärgeheimdienstes CIC/MIS aus dem Jahre 1946." Klaus Luger/Johann Mayr (red.), Stadtgesellschaft. Werte und Positionen. Bürgermeister Franz Dobusch zum 60. Geburtstag gewidmet (Linz 2011): 315–356.
  7. ^ Andrew Mollo, Uniforms of the SS, vol. 5: "Sicherheitsdienst und Sicherheitspolizei 1931-1945" (London 1971).
  8. ^ Die Besoldung eines Soldaten der Wehrmacht Retrieved 2013-11-26