Volkspolizei
The Volkspolizei (German for "People's Police") was the national police of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The officers were commonly nicknamed VoPo in West Germany. Although GDR citizens called the Volkspolizei "VP", "Bullen (Cops)" or even "die Grünen" (the greens, because of the green police uniform); the name "VoPo" was created by a West German newspaper (Bild-Zeitung). The VP was founded after World War II and abolished after German reunification. Volkspolizei officers received military training regularly. The so called "Kasernierte Einheiten der Volkspolizei" aka "Bereitschaftspolizei" can be considered as a second army. Unlike the "normal" police, they were equipped with APC's and artillery and trained as military units. Unlike the NCO's every commissioned officer had to be a member of the socialist party.
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Organisation
The Volkspolizei executed traditional police duties such as investigation and traffic control. The VP transferred most of their reports to the Ministry of State Security (MfS) and the high density of MfS informants in the GDP, especially in the forces, meant that every police action and investigation could be monitored as besides the official MfS liaison-officer (VO-Verbindungsoffizier), the MfS had agents in nearly every police unit. The Volkspolizei were a national police force and was directly administered by and subordinate only to the Ministry of the Interior.
Rather than the civil service status that West German police enjoyed, each Volkspolizist had a personal contract with the government. The monthly salary was above the average income.
Main Administration of the People's Police
The "VP" was administered by the Ministry of the Interior. The overall commander was the 1st Deputy Minister of the Interior and Chief of Police (Erster Stellvertreter des Ministers und Chef der Deutschen Volkspolizei). His section was subdivided into 5 departments:
- Criminal Investigation Department (Hauptabteilung Kriminalpolizei)
- Uniformed Police Department (Hauptabteilung Schutzpolizei)
- Railway Police Department (Hauptabteilung Transportpolizei)
- Traffic Police Department (Hauptabteilung Verkehrspolizei)
- Registration Department (Hauptabteilung Pass- und Meldewesen)
The military part of the "Volkspolizei",i.e. "Kasernierte Einheiten", was administered by the Deputy Minister of the Interior and Chief of the Administrative Center (Stellvertreter des Minister und Chef der Hauptinspektion).
Regional Commands
- 1. Berlin Presidium of the People's Police (Präsidium der Volkspolizei)
- 8 Police Inspectorates (Volkspolizei-Inspektionen)
- River Police Inspectorate (Wasserschutzpolizei-Inspektion)
- 2. 14 District commands - One per East German District, excluding Karl Marx Stadt.
- 3. Area Command of the People's Police, Wismut-Karl Marx Stadt in Siegmer-Schönau, to protect the state enterprise of Wismut AG.
Recruitment
To become a Volkspolizei officer, an East German needed to have completed at least a ten years of education and then vocational training (see education in East Germany), and completed their military service. A history of political loyalty was also a must.
After joining, a recruit would go through a 5-month course at the "VP-Schule" (Police Academy). The schedule contained political education, police law, criminal law and procedures and also military-style fitness training. Afterwards the recruit completed a 6-month practical internship.
Though vastly different from Western police forces in most respects, the reasons Volkspolizei officers gave for joining the force were the same as Western policemen: a desire to work with people, idealism, family tradition, belief in the system (though, in this case, the system in question differed) and the wish to serve one's country.
Effectiveness
When the army and the Volkspolizei erected the Berlin Wall in 1961, it was declared by the East German leadership that it would protect East Germany against what were represented as the negative elements of Western society, particularly fascist sympathizers (the wall was officially called the "anti-fascist protection rampart") and help on the way to a crime-free workers' state.
This partially came true. In comparison to West Germany, East Germany had almost no crime.
This crime-rate increased when the Wall fell in 1989, a common feature of transitions from one-party states. The unfamiliarity of the Volkspolizei with what were everyday occurrences in the West meant that the Volkspolizei were suddenly hit with crimes they were not equipped to solve after 1989. In Leipzig, for example, cases of serious theft rose 540% from 1989 to 1990.
History
Foundation
The Volkspolizei was effectively founded just following World War II, when the Soviet Union established central police forces in the regions of Germany it occupied (in violation of the agreements at the Yalta Conference and the Potsdam Conference). The SVAG approved the arming of community-level police forces on 31 October 1945.
The name Volkspolizei began to be used in 1946. In August of that year, the Volkspolizei was placed under the control of the German Administration of the Interior. The first Volkspolizisten were mostly former Wehrmacht officers who had converted to communism, as well as former German members of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. The "Volkspolizei" has been organized in the same style as the militia in the Soviet Union.
By November 1946, the Volkspolizei had more than 45,000 officers. In that same month the SVAG authorised the creation of the Border Police, 3,000 men who were charged with preventing mass emigration into West Germany. In December, the Transportpolizei was established.
Oath
The official oath that all Volkspolizei officers swore was:
Ich schwöre,
meinem sozialistischen Vaterland, der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und ihrer Regierung allzeit treu ergeben zu sein, Dienst- und Staatsgeheimnisse zu wahren und die Gesetze und Weisungen genau einzuhalten.
Ich werde unentwegt danach streben, gewissenhaft, ehrlich, mutig, diszipliniert und wachsam meine Dienstpflichten zu erfüllen.
Ich schwöre,
daß ich, ohne meine Kräfte zu schonen, auch unter Einsatz meines Lebens, die sozialistische Gesellschafts-, Staats- und Rechtsordnung, das sozialistische Eigentum, die Persönlichkeit, die Rechte und das persönliche Eigentum der Bürger vor verbrecherischen Anschlägen schützen werde.
Sollte ich dennoch diesen meinen feierlichen Eid brechen, so möge mich die Strafe der Gesetze unserer Republik treffen. [1]
English translation:
I swear,
to be loyal to my socialist fatherland, the German Democratic Republic and its government at all times, to keep official and state secrets, and to strictly obey laws and instructions.
I will unswervingly strive to fulfill my official duties conscientiously, honestly, courageously, vigilantly and with discipline.
I swear,
that I will, without reservation, under risk of my life protect the socialist social, state and legal order, the socialist property, the personality, the rights and the personal property of the citizens against felonious attacks.
If I nevertheless break this, my solemn oath, I shall be confronted with the punishment of the laws of our republic.
Purges
In the spring of 1949, the SVAG ordered that the Volkspolizei be purged of all "undesirable officers". This included anybody who had served in the Wehrmacht, anybody who had been a prisoner of war in the West, anybody who had come to East Germany as refugees from former German territories that had been placed under Polish or Soviet control, and anybody with relatives in West Germany.
People not deemed sufficiently committed to the communist cause were also dismissed. With these purges, the SVAG created a force that was, politically, steadfastly loyal. To further instill the correct politics into Volkspolizei officers, the Main Administration of Training was established in 1949. These training courses were run by communist heroes such as Spanish Civil War veteran Wilhelm Zaisser, and the man who would later become East Germany's Minister of Defence, Heinz Hoffmann.
By 1950, East Germany, though officially still without an army, was able to muster a well organised and well-armed security force, and with the establishment of the Volkspolizei came the foundations of the future Nationale Volksarmee.
Uprising of 1953
The first major use of the Volkspolizei in a crisis situation was on June 17, 1953, when workers in East Berlin rioted because of the raising of work quotas without an increase in salary. This led to mass demonstrations and strikes across East Germany. Backed by Red Army tanks, the Volkspolizei broke the strikes and killed about 50 people.
1948-1990
In 1953, the DVP possessed Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo as the sports club of the Ministry of Interior of the GDR.
The last East German law regarding the police was passed in 1968, saying that the duty of the policeman was not only the aversion of danger, but also "the protection of socialist achievements, of free life and the creative work of mankind".
Following reunification
In preparation of the german reunification in East Germany 5 federal states were founded. Every state created its own police forces. Every former VP-officer could apply for a job with the new police if he had not worked as an agent for the MfS. Recently before and after the reunification every VP officer had to undergo a new training based on West German law.
Even in the 21st century, there is much social stigma connected with being a former "VoPo", and the blame of having been on the "wrong side" during the Cold War is often leveled against many ex-Volkspolizei officers to this day.
See also
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Volkspolizei |
- EAST GERMANY - A Country Study (based on information from the Library of Congress)
- The Democratisation of the Police (With Reference to the Brandenburg Police) by John Chivers
- Former volkspolizist site in German.
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