Stephan Jänicke (died 1929) was a German policeman who served in the Berlin Police under the Weimar Republic. Jänicke was the son of deaf parents, and he grew up translating the radio for them. Jänicke was a close associate of policeman Gereon Rath, and he took up a romantic interest in Charlotte Ritter. In 1929, he was assigned by political police chief August Benda to spy on chief inspector Bruno Wolter and investigate his ties with the secretive and anti-democratic Black Reichswehr. Wolter took notice of Jänicke's spying when Jänicke, who used binoculars to lip-read Black Reichswehr meetings, was accused of stealing a Panoramic by a street urchin, catching the attention of Wolter, Alfred Nyssen, and the other right-wingers at their public meting. Wolter retaliated by shooting Jänicke dead in an industrial area at night, preventing Jänicke from incriminating him.
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