50 Years IBZ Gimborn

y organising events on behalf of third parties. The original intention,
though, to stand out by offering international events involving police
officers from a variety of European countries, could initially be realised
only to a very narrow extent. Within the international bodies of the IPA
there was still no majority to be found that was disposed to combine
foresight with courage to grasp the opportunity that was materialising
in Gimborn.
True, the founding in 1969 created a fait accompli which was followed by
more of the same, so that – from our present vantage point we might say:
luckily – there was simply no turning back; nevertheless in its earliest
years the condition of the IBZ was a precarious one, particularly in
financial terms.
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Learning & growing together
It was only in the second half of the 1970s that stabilisation and steady
development began to emerge, which were to have lasting effects on
identity and conference structure. One key element was recognition of
the Centre under the Weiterbildungsgesetz (law on adult education and
further education) of North Rhine-Westphalia, which entered into force
in 1974 and enabled generous expansion of adult education under public
and private administration. That Law also ensured solid basic funding of
everyday operation and staff for the IBZ. For the very first time since the
IBZ was founded, its budget problems were palpably alleviated. Even so
the use of state funds to finance own educational work which, on top
of that, was called “political” in accordance with German terminology,
led to great qualms notably among those circles of the IPA, both
domestically and abroad, who felt an obligation to tradition. Wasn’t this
a contradiction of the absolute independence of the IPA as laid down
in the International Statutes? Wasn’t there a risk that political party
interests might possibly make their influence felt? It took many years to
allay those misgivings.
A further development was, in the long term, at least as significant as
operation based on the Weiterbildungsgesetz: the acknowledgement of
the IBZ as a training centre of the IPA, which was reflected in the provision
of educational events for IPA Members and progress in the number and
structure of the Members of the Association.
After Jürgen Klös came into the office of President of the German IPA
Section the decision was made to utilise the potential of the IBZ for the
IPA. While formerly the attitude of the previous German Federal Board
towards the founding of a conference centre had actually verged on the
hostile, rather than simply passive, now a cautious yet decisive change
began to unfold. The German Section introduced a procedure under which
their own Section Members were entitled to lower participation fees
than non-Members. Under the chairmanship of Artur Winkelmann, who
had retired in 1974, the first IPA seminars took place, characterised from
the start by trans-regional, even international, participation and by the
principle of voluntary attendance. Success was so sweeping that in the
following years the number of IPA seminars was increased considerably
each year to accommodate the demand. Courtesy of public debate, in
those years there was no shortage of varied topics. These included:
the value shift expressed by the student movement at the end of the
1960s; a multitude of reform plans for state and society; Ostpolitik and
domestic German policy; terrorist attacks with domestic and foreign
1970s