Federal Criminal Police/Bundeskriminalamt (BKA)

The Bundeskriminalamt dates back to March 1951. At that point in time, the ”Law on the Establishment of a Federal Criminal Police Office” came into force. A short time afterwards the ”Criminal Police Office for the British Zone” in Hamburg became the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office), abbreviated BKA. Legislators thus acted on the authority granted by the German Constitution to set up central agencies at Federal level for police information and communications as well as for criminal police work. Wiesbaden was designated as the headquarters for the new criminal police agency that same year.

The development of the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) as the criminal police of the Federation over more than 50 years must be viewed in the context of social and political developments as well as technical progress.

The orientation, build-up and expansion of the Bundeskriminalamt are, and always have been, closely tied to the national and international development of crime and the specific role of the BKA within the existing security architecture in Germany, Europe and the world.