The Geheime Staatspolizei, abbreviated Gestapo, was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
Gestapo headquarters at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8 in Berlin (1933)
Rudolf Diels, first Commander of the Gestapo; 1933–1934
Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring at the meeting to formally hand over control of the Gestapo (Berlin, 1934)
1938 Gestapo border inspection stamp applied when leaving Germany
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method. It may consist of a group of letters or words taken from the full version of the word or phrase; for example, the word abbreviation itself can be abbreviated as abbr., abbrv., or abbrev.. It may also consist of initials only, a mixture of initials and words, or words or letters representing words in another language. Some types of abbreviations are acronyms or grammatical contractions or crasis.
Example of 15th-century Latin manuscript text with scribal abbreviations
Sign in New York City subway, reading "Penna." for Pennsylvania, showing American style of including the period even for contractions.