When Michaela Vetter heard that her new boss would be a boss, she thought: “exciting”. Actually, she had expected a man. As a deputy, she temporarily headed the Schwabing police station after the previous head, Peter Breitner, retired after 13 years. Police director Silke Weeger took over his post at the beginning of September.
Since then, the two have been a team within a team and are the first female dual leadership in a police station in Munich. In addition to many other departments, the police headquarters in the Bavarian capital maintains 25 local districts for the city and district of Munich. But in addition to Schwabing, only five other districts are managed by women.
Externally, the two women could not be more different: Silke Weeger small and petite, her dark hair cut short, Michaela Vetter a good head taller, with long blond hair.
The police was not on the list of her career aspirations
Becoming a police officer was by no means at the top of Silke Weeger’s career wish list. If her mother had had her way, she would have become a doctor or a teacher. She herself wanted to be a sports journalist or foreign correspondent, but not because Herrieden, in Middle Franconia, where she grew up, would have been too cramped.
The fact that she finally applied to the police while she was studying German, history and psychology was pure coincidence, she says. A friend had an empty application form left over. “A great and fortunate coincidence,” emphasizes the 40-year-old police director today. Working with people, in a team, practice and management, responsibility for the safety of others, the variety, all of this suits her very well. “As a police officer, you can choose many jobs in one job.”
Michaela Vetter, on the other hand, went to the police on purpose. “That’s always been on my mind,” says the native of Upper Franconia near Bamberg. “I told my great-grandmother about it.” The 49-year-old police chief was one of the first female cohorts in the Bavarian police, women have only been employed there since 1990. Women in uniform also attracted attention on the streets. When she had to direct traffic after an accident during her internship, her colleague in Bamberg shouted at her to put her in the car right away, otherwise there would be another crash because everyone was just staring at her.
Of course, the colleagues check out the new one
“Of course it was a change for the men when women came into their world,” says Vetter. Suddenly women’s changing rooms, women’s toilets had to be created. Of course, the colleagues in the guards and other departments would have checked who the new guy was. But this is also the case for male colleagues. “A palpation, like anywhere else.”
It was and probably is not just a pure palpation in the working world of the police. People remember the 22-year-old policewoman who shot herself with the service gun in 1999 on the way to police station 14 in Munich at a motorway rest area.
In a farewell letter, the young woman cited mobbing and sexual harassment at her office as the reason for her suicide – one of several cases from the past.
Bullying, stupid sayings, sexist allusions, oppression, exclusion, violations of boundaries: they both say they have never experienced behavior and hostilities of this kind against themselves. On the contrary: her superiors always stood behind her, says Weeger.
The police force in Munich is still male-dominated
The police force is still dominated by men: the Munich police headquarters has 5,380 employees, 1,342, i.e. almost 25 percent are women. In Schwabing there are 47 with an average staffing of around 150 employees.
But they weren’t preferred either. That would never have been an option for Silke Weeger. “I don’t want to be someone who gets favoritism,” she says firmly. “I really like to be treated equally.” The same applies the other way around: you didn’t have the feeling that you had to do more to get into positions comparable to those of a man. In sports and operational training, there are standardized specifications that create comparable conditions for all genders. Either you pass or you don’t – no matter what gender you are.
Whether on assignments, in a team or in terms of leadership style: It’s not a question of gender, but of personality, “because not everything can be learned,” says Vetter. The decisive factor in how you are perceived is how you appear – as a manager, in a team, on the street. Team spirit yes, esprit de corps no, especially not when it comes to missteps, Weeger and Vetter also agree on their attitude.
But isn’t there that little difference in how women and men approach problem solving? “Apart from the character, who shaped you is crucial,” says Weeger. “You look at things from your superiors and adopt them, but you also want to do some things differently and develop your own style from them.”
The Schwabinger Wache is one of the larger ones in the city. This can also be seen from the three gold stars on Weeger’s uniform jacket – the level of rank also determines the leadership of a particular guard. Weeger and Vetter’s service area covers 6.86 square kilometers and has almost 73,500 residents.
In the north, the area with its 340 trendy bars, restaurants, inns, bars and the famous promenade Leopoldstraße borders on Milbertshofen, in the east on the Isar, in the south on Maxvorstadt and in the west on the Olympic Park. At large street festivals and demonstrations, motorcades of celebrating football fans keep the police in suspense.
Belonging to the first female dual leadership in Munich is nothing special for her, says Weeger. But spontaneous readiness for action day and night, life-threatening situations: You still allow yourself the cliché question that is always only asked of women and never of men: What about the compatibility of work, career and family?
It is not a problem for them personally, both assure them. But it is sometimes difficult for colleagues. But even in the higher offices, people know that this is a major topic now and in the future, says Weeger. Parental leave for men has also arrived at the police headquarters and is no longer taboo.
Silke Weeger likes to read Scandinavian thrillers
Both find their balance with gardening, traveling and cycling; Weeger also enjoys reading Scandinavian crime novels. Silke Weeger and Michaela Vetter have never crossed paths in the police corridors before. And yet, after only a few weeks, in the inconspicuous office on Johann-Fichte-Strasse, which is more reminiscent of any tax office, they seem as if they were already a well-rehearsed duo.
Both plead for open, honest dealings in the house. “That has to be a management principle,” says Weeger. You have to be assessable for your colleagues, have an attitude and represent it in a comprehensible manner. “It doesn’t matter whether they go to Weeger or Vetter.”