Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz

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The logo of the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz

The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV, "Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution"^[1]) is the Federal Republic of Germany's domestic intelligence agency. Its main function is the surveillance of anti-constitutional activities in Germany.

[edit] Organization

The Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz with its headquarters at Cologne, is a federal institution under the control of the German Ministry of the Interior. 16 independent state based services (Landesämter für Verfassungsschutz, "State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution") exist in addition to this federal office.

Coordination between the different services and the parallelism of the state-based services is an ongoing problem. A merger into a single federal service has been a topic of discussion, but the proposal faces strong political resistance due to the highly regarded principles of federalism.

[edit] Presidents

The BfV headquarters in Cologne

1950 - 1954 Otto John
1955 - 1972 Hubert Schrübbers
1972 - 1975 Günther Nollau
1975 - 1982 Richard Meier
1983 - 1985 Heribert Hellenbroich
1985 - 1987 Ludwig-Holger Pfahls he disappeared in July 1999; in 2004 he was arrested in Paris in connection with charges that he was party to bribery in connection with an arms deal conducted while he was Deputy Secretary of Defence under Helmut Kohl in the 1990s.
1987 - 1991 Gerhard Boeden
1991 - 1995 Eckart Werthebach
1995 - 1997 Hansjörg Geiger
1997 - 2000 Peter Frisch
since 2000 Heinz Fromm

[edit] Duties and responsibilities

The main job of the Verfassungsschutz is to observe organizations that are considered a threat to the "free and democratic basic order" (Freiheitlich-demokratische Grundordnung) of the Federal Republic of Germany. While they do use all kinds of surveillance technology and infiltration, most of their information is assembled from publications of the observed organisations. The information is compiled into yearly reports (the Verfassungsschutzbericht) which are made available to the public; presumably there are more detailed, non-public reports given to the governments.

The organizations being currently observed by the Verfassungsschutz fall into the following groups^{[citation needed]}:

Right-wing political extremists (mainly Neo-Nazis, including the NPD and DVU political parties)
Left-wing political extremists, platforms, movements and parties like Attac, the Berlin "Sozialforum" and parts of the left-wing party Die Linke
Extremist organisations of foreigners living in Germany (most prominently Islamist terrorists)
Scientology (considered by the German government an authoritarian, anti-democratic commercial organisation rather than a religion)

Some of the Verfassungsschutz organisations have been given additional tasks by specific laws, such as the protection of government-related classified information, the monitoring of foreign secret services, or the monitoring of organised crime.