[3] Bavaria, Germany's second-largest state after Prussia, and specifically its capital Munich was the breeding ground of the Nazis.
[7] In the early stages, the two organisations were rivals, with Hermann Göring controlling the Prussian version and Heinrich Himmler, the Bavarian unit.
[8] On 9 March 1933, Adolf Wagner, acting Bavarian minister of the interior under Reich Governor of Bavaria Franz Ritter von Epp, appointed Himmler chief of the Munich Metropolitan Police.
[12] The first major concentration camp, initially for political prisoners, was opened at Dachau in 1933,[13] as local jails were soon at capacity because of the large number of arrests after the Nazis took power.
[1] In Bavaria, the political police at first only targeted communists and members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, with thousands of people being taken into protective custody.
[15][14] The Bavarian Political Police, now part of the Gestapo, became the Geheime Staatspolizei Staatspolizeileitstelle München, led by Walter Stepp, who had been in charge of the force since 1935.
Sepp, in turn, had succeeded Jakob Beck, who led the Bavarian Political Police from April 1934 to February 1935, acting for Heydrich.
[1] After integration into the Gestapo, the Bavarian branch was led by Walter Sepp (until 1937), Lothar Beutel (1937–1939), Erich Isselhorst (1939–1942) and Oswald Schäfer (1942–1945).