Ernst Gennat (1 January 1880-20 August 1939) was director of the Berlin criminal police.
Biography[]
Ernst Gennat was born in Berlin, Germany in 1880, and he served in the Imperial German Army before leaving Frederick William University without a degree in 1905 and becoming a policeman. He oversaw the creation of a homicide squad, becoming lieutennat inspector at the age of 45, and he pioneered the exact preservation of evidence at crime scenes as a development of forensic science. He also created a central file for murder cases, with every violent death being systematically documented. His phenomenal memory and empathy, as well as his opposition to forcible means in interrogations, made him a well-liked and successful policeman, and he continued to serve in the Berlin Police even under Nazi rule, while maintaining distance from the NSDAP. He became departmental director in 1934 and deputy police director in 1935, and he died of a stroke in 1939.