The german separation between police and the offices for the protection of the Constitution. Legal framework

Abstract

“The rule of law and the federal state, as well as the protection of the fundamental rights could forbid the fusion of certain offices or the delegation of these offices with functions that are incompatible with their constitutional position“1. In this manner the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany mentions the separation between police and the offices for the protection of the constitution. After the terrorist attacks in the USA, Spain, France, Belgium and Germany, the teamwork between the state offices has kept on intensifying. The discussion (debate) about the legal framework of the separation principle continued however to exist. In a time, where the security of the citizens steals away the space of the fundamental rights, to treat this subject is of the utmost importance2, in order not to allow the recurrence of the mistakes of the Weimar Republic. The article deals with the legal framework of the German separation between police and the offices for the protection of the constitution and gives an answer to the question if this principle has a constitutional status.