April 26, 1933

Gestapo

Prussia establishes the Secret State Police Office

The founding law ran to only four articles — and one of them still allowed appeals to an administrative court.

Four articles, promulgated on the 26th

A Prussian law dated 24 April was promulgated by Hermann Göring on 26 April 1933 and took effect that day, creating the Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt — the Secret State Police Office, abbreviated Gestapa — in Berlin.

It ranked as a higher Prussian police authority subordinate directly to the Prussian interior minister, and was authorised to carry out political-police duties alongside or in place of ordinary police authorities.

The interior minister could determine its functional and territorial jurisdiction, and the office could request police action from every police authority within that jurisdiction. Rudolf Diels headed it.

Prussian, and not yet beyond the courts

This was a Prussian office, not the later unified Reich-wide organisation. Centralisation of the various state political police forces under the Gestapo name came later, principally under Himmler in 1936.

The 1933 law expressly assigned appeals to the Berlin Administrative Court. Judicial review was excluded only by the separate law of 10 February 1936.

Gestapa and Gestapo are related but distinct abbreviations: the first names the office, the second the Geheime Staatspolizei.

Claims the founding law does not support

The law does not say Göring merged separate political and intelligence units on 26 April. What it documents is the establishment of a central Prussian Secret State Police Office for political-police duties.

Göring did not hand over every formal power on 20 April 1934 either: he appointed Himmler deputy chief and inspector, Himmler obtained practical control while Göring remained nominally chief for a time, and Bundesarchiv chronology places Heydrich in charge from 22 April 1934.

The often-repeated story about a post-office clerk and a franking stamp is not substantiated by the archival and museum accounts consulted here.

Sources

Researched 24 Aug 2026 9 sources not yet audited

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and legal act are well attested. Terminology requires care: the office’s formal name produced the abbreviation Gestapa, while Gestapo abbreviates Geheime Staatspolizei and became the familiar name for the wider organization.