For decades transparency and self-criticism were largely absent at Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Only in 2007 did the agency begin a systematic review of its own past. Its website now acknowledges that “until the late 1960s, the agency was shaped primarily by leaders who had been socialized under National Socialism,” and that a generational change from 1969 produced a fundamental transformation.
Founded on March 15, 1951, in Wiesbaden, the BKA was part of a broader pattern: postwar West German institutions — from the courts and military to intelligence services like the BfV and BND — were staffed in their early years by many former Nazis. Ex-members of the NSDAP and the SS played roles in creating the BKA. Seventy-five years on, the agency has become more open about that heritage while emphasizing its contributions to internal security in a democratic Europe.
Operating within Germany’s federal system, the BKA coordinates responses to national security threats together with 16 state police forces. Its priorities include political and religious extremism, drug trafficking, international terrorism, cybercrime, and protection of high-profile individuals such as the chancellor and federal president. The rise of left-wing terrorism from 1968 — epitomized by the Red Army Faction (RAF) and its kidnappings and murders of public figures like employers’ association president Hanns Martin Schleyer — was an early severe test for the agency.
Political reactions to growing threats led to a major expansion of the BKA. Its budget now stands at about €1.24 billion. Staff numbers rose from roughly 1,200 in 1970 to over 4,500 by 2000, and have continued climbing to nearly 9,400 today, with the 9/11 attacks in 2001 a key inflection point for strengthening security services. The Joint Counter-Terrorism Center (GTAZ), created in Berlin in 2004, brought the BKA together with state criminal investigation offices, the federal border police, the Customs Criminal Investigation Office, intelligence services and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).
The Office of the Federal Prosecutor General (GBA) sits at the GTAZ as well and can commission the BKA to carry out investigations, especially into suspected terrorism, espionage and sabotage. BKA work often leads to indictments and convictions; a high-profile case from 2019 involved the killing of a Georgian man in central Berlin, where courts concluded the perpetrator acted on behalf of the Russian state.
Right-wing extremism has been a major focus. When the National Socialist Underground (NSU) was exposed in 2011, the BKA led investigations that showed the group had murdered nine immigrant-background men and a female police officer over many years. A parliamentary probe characterized the failure to detect the NSU as a “total state failure,” criticizing security agencies including the BKA. That fallout helped produce the Joint Center for Countering Extremism and Terrorism (GTEZ) in 2012, reflecting closer cooperation between police and intelligence bodies.
Internationally, the BKA is well connected, working closely with Europol on terrorism, organized crime, child abuse and human trafficking, and maintaining liaison officers in more than 50 countries, usually embedded in German embassies.
On its 75th anniversary the BKA faces intensifying challenges in the digital era. At a Wiesbaden ceremony Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged further reinforcement of the BKA and other security services, arguing that “internal security and external security can no longer be separated.” The growing use of artificial intelligence by criminals is a particular concern; BKA President Holger Münch has long sought expanded powers to meet these threats. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has indicated he will allow the BKA to use the US surveillance platform Palantir, despite worries about reliance on a foreign firm.
Plans to deploy AI-driven biometric facial recognition have drawn sharp criticism from the Left Party, which warns such tools risk mass surveillance and may clash with European law. Legal challenges have already forced adjustments: in 2024 Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled parts of the surveillance of suspects’ contact persons unconstitutional, prompting reforms of the BKA Act to better protect individual rights.
This article was originally published in German.
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