Police | Center of uncertainty

Police President Oliver Stepien on the far left and next to him Interior Minister Jan Redmann Photo: dpa/Britta Pedersen The Brandenburg police headquarters is located in an old barracks at Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 143 in Potsdam-Eiche. House 9 was opened in 1956 as a cultural and kitchen center for the riot police housed here in the GDR. His outside staircase is now so fragile that some steps are blocked with cones. Inside, the building is furnished with modern tables and chairs. But everything seems a bit lost in the large rooms.

Brandenburg's police have had a situation center manned around the clock for a long time and this still exists. The so-called 360-degree security center has been new since Wednesday. What was missing was a “Situation Room,” says Interior Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) this morning. In the White House in Washington, briefings take place in the Situation Room. It was established under US President John F. Kennedy. The Bay of Pigs invasion had previously failed. The Cuban revolution had asserted itself. A lack of real-time information is said to be responsible for this failure. This shouldn't happen again.

On May 2, 2011, in the Situation Room in the West Wing of the White House, US President Barack Obama watched a legally highly questionable special operation live on the screen: US marines broke into a house in Pakistan and shot Osama bin Laden. He was the head of the Al-Qaeda terrorist network and responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001, in which hijackers piloted passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, killing almost 3,000 people. This is for historical context.

The Situation Room in Potsdam Oak is more spacious than the Situation Room in the West Wing of the White House, as seen in photos. In Potsdam on Wednesday morning, four women and eleven men sat down, six of whom were wearing civilian clothes and the others were wearing police uniforms. The police headquarters are represented, the State Criminal Police Office and Department 4 of the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for police, fire protection and rescue services.

"There have been a few incidents this year that show us how necessary this is."

"It's a special day," says Interior Minister Redmann. It wasn't until after September 1, 2026, when an attack was carried out on the Jänschwalde power plant, that the suggestion to network better came. "There were a few incidents this year that show us how necessary this is." Dangers are no longer abstract, but concrete, explains the minister. In the past, three forest fires in a row would have made you think of carelessness, of carelessly thrown away cigarette butts. Nowadays, says Redmann, people wonder whether there might be a dark foreign power behind it, whether it could be the first stage of something bigger.

From now on, the current situation will be discussed once a week in the 360-degree security center. “We want to hope that it doesn’t become necessary more often,” explains Redmann. The agenda for the first meeting includes, among other things, the fight against drones, youth violence in Potsdam and the riots in France. What impact could the education protests in Paris, which resulted in clashes with the police, have on Brandenburg? This should be clarified in good time. “Don’t wait for the situation to arise!” That’s Redmann’s motto. There are calls for solidarity with students in France. Are there also calls to break shop windows? Brandenburg wants to keep an eye on this so that it can then plan police operations. There was already a first solidarity demonstration in Berlin at the weekend. It shouldn't have been the last. “We also want to be prepared in Brandenburg,” says Redmann.

»We all have limited resources here. Nobody wants to have pointless work groups. “No one has time to waste,” says the minister, responding to the suspicion that this appointment is simply intended to demonstrate the ability to act in front of television cameras.

“It shouldn’t be a show event,” assures Police Chief Oliver Stepien. He expects something from meeting once a week. “We can reach evaluation results more quickly.” After a year, an assessment should be made of what has been achieved. For example, the fire brigade, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Bundeswehr should be called in depending on the occasion.

The question from state parliament member Sven Hornauf (BSW) about the Bundeswehr's CH47 helicopters, which are stationed at the Holzdorf air base, fits in with this. The state government had tried to make the upgrade attractive to the population by saying that the helicopters could also be used to fight forest fires from summer 2027. MP Hornauf reminds us of this and now - as the year 2027 is approaching - he would like to know what the situation is.

In response to his parliamentary question, Interior Minister Redmann said that the state government was sticking to the assessment "that the capabilities of heavy transport helicopters can also be useful in supporting forest firefighting." But Redmann blocked all detailed questions. Statements about the equipment of the helicopters and the qualification level of the crews could enable conclusions to be drawn about the current and future operational readiness of the Bundeswehr. “The state government is therefore refraining from publicly presenting relevant details.”

The BSW MP Hornauf suspects that the alleged benefit for the state of Brandenburg is only an illusion. He speaks of a “beautiful example of beautiful appearances when justifying rearmament.”

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