The Gewerkschaft der Polizei (Trade Union of the Police) is a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

. It represents 181,000 police employees, and is one of eight industrial affiliations of the German Confederation of Trade Unions

German Confederation of Trade Unions

The Confederation of German Trade Unions is an umbrella organisation for eight German trade unions, in total representing more than 7 million people . It was founded in Munich, 12 October 1949.The DGB coordinates joint demands and activities within the German trade union movement...

 (DGB). The GdP is one three trade unions for police employees in Germany, the other two being the Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft - affiliated with the German Civil Service Federation - and the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, which is exclusively for members of the Kriminalpolizei

Kriminalpolizei

is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany during 1936, the Kripo became the Criminal Police Department for the entire Reich...

.

The Trade Union of the Police was founded on a federal level on September 14, 1950 in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

. It emerged from the Interessengemeinschaft der Polizeibeamtenbunde (Pool of Police Officer Federations), which had existed in the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 occupation zone

Allied Occupation Zones in Germany

The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...

 and West Berlin

West Berlin

West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...

 to that point. It joined the German Confederation of Trade Unions on April 1, 1978. On a European level, the GdP is part of the European Confederation of Police

European Confederation of Police

The European Confederation of Police is the umbrella organization of 33 trade unions from 26 European countries, which represent a total of more than 500,000 police officers. It was founded in 2002 at a conference in Roskilde, Denmark, emerging from the Union Internationale des Syndicats de Police...

 (EuroCOP).

The GdP is open to all employees of the police - including police officers, customs

Customs

Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

 agents of the Bundeszollverwaltung

Bundeszollverwaltung

The Bundeszollverwaltung is an executive and fiscal administrative unit of the German government and part of the Federal Ministry of Finance. It was founded in 1949 in West Germany...

, administration workers, etc. It represents the job-related, social, economic, ecological, and cultural concerns employees and former employees of the police. It especially seeks an improvement of their work and living conditions and of civil service and labor law. To achieve this, the organization takes part in social and political discussions.

Presidents

• Fritz Schulte (1950-1955)
• Fritz Preuß (1955-1956)
• Fritz Kehler (1956-1958)
• Werner Kuhlmann (1958-1975)
• Helmut Schirrmacher (1975-1981)
• Günter Schröder (1981-1986)
• Hermann Lutz (1981-1986)
• Norbert Spinrath (1998-2000)
• Konrad Freiberg (2000-2010)
• Bernhard Witthaut (2010-)