Germany
During World War II, Colonel General Heinz Guderian was appointed Inspector General of Armoured Troops on 1 March 1943, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler.
Since the reestablishment of the German armed forces after World War II, the Inspector General of the Federal Armed Forces (Generalinspekteur der Bundeswehr) is the highest-ranking soldier, responsible for the overall military planning and the principal military advisor of the Federal Minister of Defense and the Federal Government. Head of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces (Führungsstab der Streitkräfte), his position is broadly equivalent to that of the American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In the German federal police (Bundespolizei), the highest-ranking police officer is called inspector of the federal police as well, although this position is a more coordinating than commanding one. For all state alert police services there also exists an inspector (Inspekteur der Bereitschaftspolizeien der Länder). Even every of the sixteen German state police departements has an inspector, as the highest-ranking police officer. The state police presidents are normally not police officers. They are administration officials. The competence for police services in Germany is assigned to the federal states of Germany. The federal police is a coordinating police département with only a few competences, e.g. in border control or airport and trial security.
In the scope of responsibility of the state police departements the federal police can only act with permission or request of the local state police.
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Famous quotes containing the word germany:
“The tears I have cried over Germany have dried. I have washed my face.”
—Marlene Dietrich (1904–1992)
“By an application of the theory of relativity to the taste of readers, to-day in Germany I am called a German man of science, and in England I am represented as a Swiss Jew. If I come to be regarded as a bête noire the descriptions will be reversed, and I shall become a Swiss Jew for the Germans and a German man of science for the English!”
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955)