50 Years IBZ Gimborn

50 YEARS OF IPA CONFERENCE CENTRE
In fact, the IBZ ought not to even exist. That, at least, is the impression
you get when looking back on forty years and realising the circumstances
and prospects under which the project was undertaken.
Within the IPA the notion of renting a real-life Castle and running it
permanently with its own staff was quite fantastic. After all, at that time
the IPA was viewed by many of its Members as an association for the
promotion of friendship and travel, which pledged strict allegiance to
the principles of ideological and political neutrality, banned any economic
activity whatsoever, and rejected paid full-time staff outright in favour
of support from wholly unpaid volunteers. Anyone who was in the IPA
utilised the advantages of membership exclusively by becoming active
themselves; by seeking personal contacts with fellow officers and embarking
on joint activities within the Association with kindred spirits. The minimal
amount of paperwork required could be dealt with by a handful of Members
at their own kitchen tables, so to speak, during their free time.
FOUNDING
Gimborn Castle in 1969
After 50 years the IBZ presents itself today in a manner which, however
rocky things appeared to be at the beginning, may well have been the
objective in the minds of the founders. Since then the IBZ has become a
centre of information and education as well as a forum for encounters and
further training, principally for police officers of all ranks and branches,
which is known far beyond the German borders.
In the whole world, the IBZ is unique. It is the only institution for the
entire International Police Association (IPA), and as a privately sponsored
teaching institute intended primarily for police officers it is the only one
of its kind.
To many, the concept that the IPA might, one day, possess its own
offices, with its own telephone, personal computer, and communications
technology, appeared alien to the “IPA” idea. All those things would
cause the loss of a fundamental aspect of personal co-operation within
an altruistic association that aimed at achieving close personal contacts
across all borders. The IPA was not tied to one particular place. The IPA
was everywhere: anywhere IPA friends met.
Accordingly, it is not surprising that the idea, towards the end of the
1960s, of founding an inter-regionally oriented institution in Gimborn
that would be most intimately linked with the IPA name was controversial.
Was the original principle of the IPA, conjured up by Arthur Troop, its
legendary founder, still evident? Was the IPA about to be transmogrified