A Police democratises itself
Diskussionskommando Berlin
First Meeting
By 1969 it was absolutely necessary to put an end to the spiral of violence the demonstrations had turned into, culminating in the notorious “Battle of Tegeler Weg”. A definitely new way to deal with it was urgently needed, as Klaus Hübner recalls in his book “Ein- satz”: "I had to cope with a contradiction – my creed, largely documented, that a police officer has to see himself doing his work as a member of the very society, that has charged him with the task to take wholehearted- ly care of its security, on one hand and the logical consequence on the other that he behaves like every- body else, that is: as a human being. A human being with all the aspirations a self determined society opens to him as well as with all those creaturely anxieties that are not easily controlled by the cool mind."
They were officers from all sorts of
departments and services as well as of
almost all ages, with 25 years as an
average. Klaus Hübner explained his
vision of the task force to come, leaving
no doubt that what he had in mind didn't
have any role-model whatsoever. What's
more, the attempt was by no means
allowed to fail. The officers were granted
one day of time to think about it. Those
who decided to be part of the new
special unit for anti-riot field testing and
special tasks, would start service on the
following day at 9 a.m. Eventually,
everybody left with their minds full of
thoughts and nearly no word.
The following morning, 47 police officers
showed up to report for duty – that's
why the unit was soon called Group 47
(ironically, that was actually the name of
a well-known post-war initiative of more
or less left-liberal West German writers
founded in 1947), to find Werner Textor
as their first leader. Preparations for the
new task started on the spot.
Copyright D e t l e f W u l f f 2008-2016 / English: P i e k e B i e r m a n n, Berlin Germany
68th Revolt
In the meantime, radical rally leaders had
declared violent action against things as
legitimate. Police officers were named as
"pigs" or "bulls", and thus reified too, reduced
to mere things. Klaus Hübner recalls how he
turned to a Free University psychologyprofes-
sor, Siegfried Schubenz, asking him:
"What makes a distinction between per-
sons and things? What do they have in
common by no means?"
Schubenz's answer: "It's the language!
Only a human being can talk to a human being."
Hübner conclusion: "I needed volunteers for
an experiment that was never attempted before."
In early April 1969 a circular was sent to all de-
partments to find these volunteers. By the end
of the month, 60 officers showed up in
“Schlieffensaal”, a big hall in the Riot Police
Department II building on Kruppstraße, in Berlin-
Moabit, to get familiar with the idea of a special
unit to be eventually established.
A Police democratises itself
