Line #4 UsefulNotes/TheGestapo


1	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/SophieSchollTheFinalDays https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gestapo_sophie_schol.jpg]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Gestapo agents escorting [[LaResistance Sophie Scholl]] to the KangarooCourt.]]
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4	The '''Ge'''heime '''Sta'''ats'''po'''lizei, aka the Secret State Police of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. The Gestapo is one of the main points of reference we have when we think of the words SecretPolice (another would be UsefulNotes/TheStasi, its communist successor in UsefulNotes/EastGermany). Other such agencies existed previously, but the Gestapo made the trope famous.
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6	The organization was originally founded by UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's deputy UsefulNotes/HermannGoring in 1933 as an agency of UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}, the biggest of the German ''[[UsefulNotes/TheSixteenLandsOfDeutschland Länder]]'' at the time. After Göring reached an agreement with UsefulNotes/HeinrichHimmler in 1934, it was brought under the auspices of the SS in order to streamline the police forces of the German states into one centralized national agency that could do the bidding of the new regime without objection from the individual ''Länder''. Hitler appointed Himmler the Chief of German Police in 1936, but with Himmler's huge portfolio covering all SS matters inside and outside Germany, the day-to-day affairs of the Gestapo itself was mostly delegated to Himmler's subordinates in the Reich Security Main Office (''RSHA'' or ''Reichssicherheitshauptampt'').
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8	While the UsefulNotes/{{Abwehr}} was an ordinary intelligence organization whose main fault was that it was saddled with [[MyCountryRightOrWrong the wrong government]] (and to its credit was actively sabotaging Germany's war effort), the Gestapo was organized primarily to be an [[GovernmentConspiracy Official Department of Evilness]]. While the Abwehr was responsible to the state, the Gestapo was responsible to the Nazi Party. Thus, Hitler on the whole trusted the Gestapo more. As it turned out he may have been right to do so from his point of view, although having Hitler's trust [[YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame isn't much of a compliment]].
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10	The Gestapo kept people in Hitler's empire terrorized and docile. They were always trying to convince people that [[WeAreEverywhere they were everywhere]]. They were in charge of hunting fugitives from the concentration camps and those who [[SacredHospitality sheltered or assisted]] them, and fighting against LaResistance. The Gestapo was (in)famous for its fondness for ColdBloodedTorture, and also carried out forced disappearances under Hitler's infamous "Night and Fog" decree of 1941.
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12	Unfortunately for the Reich, they were not as skillful at dealing with other espionage agencies as they were at sowing terror. Officers were selected for political reliability rather than professionalism. And even more than the UsefulNotes/{{Abwehr}}, they were everybody's ChewToy. However, there were some effective agents who served here. One of them was SS-and-Police General Heinrich [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep "Gestapo"]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Müller_%28Gestapo%29 Müller]] (the only Chief of Gestapo from 1933 to 1945), who [[JustFollowingOrders had the reputation of robotic efficiency]] in dealing with internal dissent. Above him as head of the RSHA stood UsefulNotes/ReinhardHeydrich, who was known by Hitler as [[RedBaron "the man with an iron heart"]]. He served for ambition rather than ideology, but served very competently until he had the misfortune of being assassinated by LaResistance in Prague. Given that he was nicknamed "The Hangman" and gave the order for the Final Solution in the Holocaust, he probably [[KarmicDeath deserved it.]]
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14	In general the Gestapo was a scary organization. But it was far better at frightening people than it was at waging war.
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16	Contrary to popular belief usually fueled by incorrect portrayal of Gestapo in media (that often mix it up with the SS in general, especially of the ''Einsatzgruppen'' kind), Gestapo was, for the most part, a rather ineffective organization. It was [[OddlySmallOrganization permanently understaffed]] (in extreme cases little more than 100 officers were given jurisdiction over the area inhabited by several million citizens, while the most they ever had was one officer for every 2,000 citizens). Gestapo staff were constantly overworked with red tape and could rely only on the willingness of Germans eager to support the Nazi regime (which, frankly, usually bogged the proceedings further as officers had to separate useful information from exaggerations and blatant lies). In the occupied territories they were universally loathed and could rely only on information gained from [[LesCollaborateurs collaborators]]. Historians usually agree that despite what notoriety it gained later, Gestapo was absolutely no match for the [[UsefulNotes/MoscowCentre Soviet NKVD]]. The truly scary branch of internal and external counter-intelligence and security service had been the SD (''Sicherheitsdienst'' Security Service within the SS), which had been created and for some time led by Heydrich himself and always driven to do the best (or, judging by what they did in RealLife, the ''worst'').
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18	Despite the common portrayal in media, Gestapo officers never wore sinister [[BadassLongcoat black, leather coats courtesy of the SS]], sometimes complete with a black CommissarCap. That's pure [[RuleOfCool Hollywood invention]]. Until 1936 they actually didn't have any specific uniforms and were a plainclothes service. Later they were issued grey uniforms worn by all intelligence and SS administration services, but being SecretPolice most Gestapo officers preferred operating in inconspicuous civilian clothes and usually tried to protect their real identity.
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20	!!Media featuring the Gestapo includes:
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22	[[AC:Films:]]
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24	* ''Film/AceOfAces'': A Gestapo squad is seen ransacking a Jewish family's bookshop seemingly just for the sake of it. It's doubly ArtisticLicenseHistory because they all wear a black leather coat and a hat, and because it would be more of a ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) thing to do (and doing so right amidst the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames of Berlin was unlikely too, Nazi Germany liked its positive worldwide PR about that particular event).
25	* ''Film/BlackBook'': The SD is featured in this one. The Dutch resistance targets local SD leader ''Hauptsturmführer'' Ludwig Müntze (Creator/SebastianKoch), who turns out to be a decent, honorable man. The real threat turns out to be Müntze's deputy, ''Obersturmführer'' Günther Franken, who had the family of the film's Jewish protagonist lady slaughtered and planted his own [[TheMole moles]] in the Dutch resistance, to devastating effects.
26	* ''Film/GrampsIsInTheResistance'': In this French comedy, ButtMonkey [[LesCollaborateurs French collaborateur]] [[MeaningfulName Adolfo]] Ramirez (Creator/GerardJugnot) joins the French branch of the Gestapo (called "la Carlingue" historically, though it's never named in the film) and doesn't hesitate to torment the Resistance-aligned Bourdelle family with the power he now has after what they did to him early on in the film.
27	* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'': Major Dieter Hellstrom, who is shown to have the SS lightning bolts on his right uniform collar and a pre-war black uniform, somehow. All uniformed Gestapo personnel below the rank of colonel actually had blank black right collar patches.
28	* ''Film/IsParisBurning'': "Captain Serge" turns out to be a [[LesCollaborateurs French Gestapo mole]] who passed as a resistance officer and leads a bunch of unsuspecting young men who wanted to join the Resistance to their death straight into a trigger-happy squad of German soldiers.
29	* ''Film/JojoRabbit'': Captain Deertz (Creator/StephenMerchant) leads a team of Gestapo inspectors searching for dissenters and Jewish fugitives. They also have a comical insistence on saying "Heil Hitler" with every introduction.
30	* ''Film/LesPasseurs'': A [[LesCollaborateurs French]] [[TheMole mole]] working for the Gestapo infiltrates a people-smuggling network near the Swiss border. The film also features the Milice, more or less the [[LesCollaborateurs Vichy France]] equivalent of the SS and Gestapo combined.
31	* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'': Arnold Ernst Toht (Creator/RonaldLacey) is perhaps the most famous movie Gestapo agent, and also the [[ArtisticLicenseHistory most unrealistic]] (from how he dresses all the way to his {{Ghostapo}} mission far from Germany).
32	* ''Film/{{Resistance\|2020}}'': The infamous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Barbie Klaus Barbie]] (Creator/MatthiasSchweighofer) aka "The Butcher of Lyon" (who organized round-ups of thousands of Jews and tortured resistants to death, including the leading figure of Jean Moulin) is featured in the film.
33	* ''Film/SophieSchollTheFinalDays'': Sophie Scholl and her network are arrested by them.
34	* ''Film/WhereEaglesDare'': ''Sturmbannführer'' von Hapen is in a smiliar case to ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'''s Major Hellstrom, looking more like regular pre-war SS personel with lightning bolts. One also wonders what business he has snooping around high rank Wehrmacht officers.
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36	[[AC:Live-Action TV:]]
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38	* ''Series/AlloAllo'': Herr Otto Flick is a Gestapo agent tasked by Hitler to retrieve the painting of "The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies" by Van Clomp. He starts off as genuinely menacing, but quickly succumbs to VillainDecay as the writers realised his actor (Richard Gibson) [[TheComicallySerious could do/say anything with a straight face]], leading to Herr Flick becoming a character known for his ludicrously [[PaperThinDisguise Paper-Thin Disguises]]. His assistant, Herr von Smallhausen is an utter fool and a contender for the series' biggest ButtMonkey.
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40	[[AC:Video Games:]]
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42	* ''[[VideoGame/{{Commandos}} Commandos: Beyond the Call of Duty]]'': In the final level, several Gestapo agents guard a general whose secret documents the Commandos must steal with the help of a Dutch lady who's in the resistance. The agents have to be neutralized since they can unmask the Dutch resistant.

Context UsefulNotes / TheGestapo