The Constable’s New Clothes

Jens Jäger of the Department of History is Researching How the State Discovered Public Relations

Stable states should have a positive image for the general public. Since the Enlightenment, they have therefore increasingly invested into public relations. They learned about mass media, lobbied for better equipment and gave the police new uniforms.

by Sebastian Grote

There is a Cologne Carnival song about a constable who has done nothing all day long. The Carnival classic about the supposedly lazy policeman has its origins in a satire with which a generation of young people provoked the authorities. At the same time, it is also a charming way to make fun of uniformed civil servants. However, it not only says something about the constable, but also about the fundamental relationship between the state and its citizens. Whether it is folksongs, caricatures or children’s books – the satirical depiction of authorities is often an alternative concept of the image that they present of themselves. Ever since the Enlightenment, authorities have given serious thought to how the image of state institutions can be improved through public relations. When the state, as represented on the street by the police, comes into contact with citizens, it should be perceived as a partner, not as an opponent.

Nothing left to chance

“The image of the police is the first line of defense, not the police themselves. If they have a positive image, this will basically benefit all of their interactions with the population and create trust in the state, thereby stabilizing its institutions,” says Professor Jens Jäger of the Department of History of the University of Cologne. “If the image is negative, then dealing with the public will be complicated – and this depends on the image of the police projected in the media.” The historian is researching how the representation of the state has developed over the last 250 years. His work involves digging through the diverse sources available on the subject. Political science literature, tracts, official regulations and newspaper articles all provide information about how state workers should behave and how the public perceived this behavior. Jäger is convinced that nothing was left to chance. “The concept of representation for state institutions originates with their redefinition of their behavior toward the general public. In my opinion, this is a central component of modernization,” he explains.

More effective governing

Since the Enlightenment, the authorities have set the course for modern states: they should be more rational and concentrate on the greater good of the population. Visionaries such as Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi and later Carl Julius Bergius wrote about how the state should function and the role officials should play in it. “According to them, governing should be transparent and, above all, more effective so that personnel resources are utilized in a sensible manner,” explains Jäger. In their political analyses, they also define characteristics that every official should have for their job: these include that they have a friendly but authorative character when dealing with citizens. This concept of the ideal profile of a civil servant gradually found its way into encyclopedias. This created a standard against which the behavior of civil servants could be measured. Senior civil servants reformed their departments – something that was supposed to be visible before officials actually encountered the general public. Citizens, on the other hand, had the feeling that they were dealing with predictable institutions instead of arbitrary infringements of the state.

PR for shipbuilding

The fundamental changes in the media that unfolded in the nineteenth century dramatically revolutionized representation once again. More information began to reach more and more people. News, photographs, caricatures, brochures and posters created new power relations because the media could control the image of authorities. The orders of a prime minister or the head of an agency alone no longer counted for much. So called literary offices and press offices – which were originally based at the government offices – were given the task to generate positive publicity for the authorities. “State institutions reacted to the changes in the media with the establishment of offices that were to make them more visible and promote their work. That significant political decisions are portrayed in a positive light both at home and abroad was particularly important in this context,” says Jäger. One of the better known examples of this was the news office of the German Imperial Naval Office in the German Empire. It was founded to make the imperial navy known and popular in order to convince both the general public and policy makers of the importance of shipbuilding during the arms race against England. Public opinion was thus used as a strategic instrument in the country’s new imperialist ambitions.

What should the police wear?

However, even smaller institutions such as local police authorities were breaking new ground in relation to public relations in the Kaiserreich. The history of the police plays a special role in Jäger’s research because no other state institution is so visible in daily life. At the beginning of the 1870s, the Berlin Police set up an office responsible for systematic presswork. The members of staff sought contact with media representatives to influence coverage in favor of the police. Self-representation and image cultivation were not limited to newspaper articles, however. The outward appearance of officers as representatives of the authorities as a whole also influenced public perception. “Since the nineteenth century, the modern police in the form of uniformed civil servants have been visible for the general population,” explains Jäger. But how should individual police officers be dressed so that they seem both friendly and authorative? When in 1829 the British Home Secretary Robert Peel founded London’s Metropolitan Police, the first uniformed police force in the United Kingdom, he made a point of making sure their uniforms did not resemble military uniforms. The uniforms of the police in the public sphere should instead place emphasis on peaceful cooperation between citizens and the law enforcement officers.

Friend and helper

It was not until after World War I that Albert Grzesinski, the Prussian Interior Minister and Chief of Police of Berlin, made efforts to democratize the police force. Instead of former soldiers, recruits came from the civil population. That had an effect on the appearance and behavior of the police: “The new officers were a representation of democratic order. This included a friendlier tone as well as dismantling communication barriers,” says Jäger. The slogan “The Police – Your Friend and Helper” is said to have been created by Grzesinski. The new public perception of the police was intended to help break down tensions between the state and the general public. Without military insignia, police on the street symbolized a well-functioning civil body politic. It represented a state to which citizens were gladly loyal. “If everyone understands this norm, then only a small apparatus is necessary to implement it,” concludes Jäger. After all: “The more law-abiding the citizens are, the less police are required by the state.”