The head of the Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Robert Schäfer, is to become the new state police chief.

According to information from the FAZ, Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) proposed the 64-year-old police officer for this office.

The decision must now be confirmed by the Hessian cabinet.

Schäfer will thus return to his original position as a police officer.

Catherine Iskandar

Responsible editor for the "Rhein-Main" department of the Sunday newspaper.

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Schäfer was born in Bad Hersfeld in 1958 and joined the Hessian police force in 1974.

In 2005, the police officer became head of the operations department at the Frankfurt police headquarters, where he was responsible, among other things, for operations in Frankfurt in connection with the football World Cup.

In October 2008, Schäfer was appointed Vice President of the West Hesse Police Headquarters in Wiesbaden.

Two years later he finally became head of the agency.

He has been President of the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution since February 2015.

There he focused primarily on prevention programs against extremism.

The security authorities had been hearing for a long time that Schäfer wanted to switch back from the secret service to the police.

Under his leadership, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had changed structurally, relevant posts were no longer filled with employees from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as was previously the case, but with police officers, which has provoked criticism in secret service circles that secret service structures that are important for early detection of extremist developments would be too softened.

After the murder of Walter Lübcke, Schäfer had to explain, among other things, why his authorities had classified the CDU politician's killer as "cold" and Stephan E., a proven right-wing extremist with a similar past, was therefore no longer under the surveillance of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

As a police officer, on the other hand, Schäfer is a recognized and proven expert in connection with operational structures.

He succeeds Roland Ullmann, who retired in September.

At the age of 64, Schäfer has also almost reached the age limit, but can continue to hold the office of state police chief up to the age of 67.