Page "Gestapo" Paragraph 48

The local offices of the Gestapo, known as Stapostellen and Stapoleitstellen, answered to a local commander known as the Inspekteur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (" Inspector of the Security Police and Security Service ") who, in turn, was under the dual command of Referat N of the Gestapo and also his local SS and Police Leader.

The classic image of the Gestapo officer, dressed in trench coat and hat, can be attributed to Gestapo offices in German cities and larger towns.

This image seems to have been popularized by the assassination of the former Chancellor General Kurt von Schleicher in 1934.

General von Schleicher and his wife were gunned down in their Berlin home by three men dressed in black trench coats and wearing black fedoras.

The killers of General von Schleicher were widely believed to have been Gestapo men.

At a press conference held later the same day, Hermann Göring was asked by foreign correspondents to respond to a hot rumour that General von Schleicher had been murdered in his home.

Göring stated that the Gestapo had attempted to arrest Schleicher, but that he had been " shot while attempting to escape ".