Re: POLIZEI

Hello DAWGIE

----- Original Message -----
From: <DAWGFACE47@webtv.net>

>
> KARL,  what exactly is meant by the WWII WEHRMACHT terms ORDER POLICE,
> SECURITY POLICE, AUXILIARY POLICE, and MILITARY POLICE??????

Those are not Wehrmacht terms, they are English ;-)

Here's a breakdown of WWII German police and military police forces:
http://www.feldgrau.com/police.html
There are a number of typos of simplifications here.

Here's a much more detailed page (in German)
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gliederungen/Ordnungstruppen/Index.h
tm

Feldgendarmerie are Military Police. These didn't exist before the War.
They
were drafted in from civilian police forces.
Feldjäger are, again, Military Police established as permanent forces
in
12/1943. Modern Bundeswehr MP still carry the name.
Geheime Feldpolizei (Secret Military Police) primarily tasked with
counterespionage and -sabotage and to ensure obedience in the
forces.Recruited from Gestapo personnel.
Streifendienste "Patrol forces" were tasked with rear area security and
ensuring military discipline back home.
There were military railroad security police, too.

Civilian police:

Ordnungspolizei (Orpo) "Order police" were the regular police, with
various
subgroups, including firefighters which were part of the police. The
largest
group were the "Schutzpolizei" (Schupo) 'protection police', your basic
uniformed cops.

The Security forces under the "Reichssicherheitshauptamt" Office of
homeland
security.included the "Kriminalpolizei" plainclothes police tasked witrh
criminal investigations and the infamous Gestapo Geheime Staatspolizei
Secret Police.

>  from my reading WEHRMACHT MPs were all NCOs and officers and all
> completed a very intensive 2 year school (that no doubt got shorter as
> the need arose for MPs) and were MP in the American sense of the 
term.
>
> i know that  some regular policemen, who had been formed into pre-war
> police battalions were actually what we would call para-military
forces
> now days.

Mainly the "Kasernierte Polizei" 'Police living in barracks'
>
> i know that there were special SD (?) or SS police battalons operating
> on the Eastern Front and elswhere, who were  feared and despised by
> WEHRMACHT soldiers as well as by the partisans.
>
> i have been reading up on the Easter Front and have come across many
> police vs partisan  actions.
>
> these run the gamut from static guard post , temperary checkpoint,
> strongpoint, vehicle patrols, horseback patrols, foot patrols , and
> armored trains vs partisans	 .
>
> but who were all of these other guys running about with the title of
> policeman?
>
> as i remember from talking with old landsers, the "polite" term for
WEHR
> MACHT MPs were "kettenhunde" or  "jaegerkopf".

When Feldgendarmerie or Feldjäger were on duty, they carried a badge on
a
chain around the neck:
http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Orden/Ringkragen.htm
Hence the Nickname "Kettenhunde" "Chained Watchdogs"

> also,  came across the modern German police titles;
>
> a. ABSCHNITTS BEVOLLMACHTIGTER

That's an East German "City Block officer" in charge of watching a city
block or town sector.

> (FREEWAY OR MOTORCYCLE POLICE? )

"Autobahnpolizei" - not really a separate branch.

>
> b.  SCHUTZ  POLIZEI

Mentioned above. These are your basic cops. Kriminalpolizei are the
plainclothes detectives.

(BORDER POLICE	OR SWAT POLICE?)

The "Bundesgrenzschutz" 'Federal Border Police' started off as border
protection, it now is also tasked with protecting federal institutions,
Germans in foreign countries, supporting the state police.

There is the Bundeskriminalamt, Federal Criminal Office, tasked with
coordinating and supporting important criminal investigations.

SWAT teams are part of the Schutzpolizei. They are called Mobile
Einsatzkommandos or Sondereinsatzkommandos 'Mobile/Special Operations
Teams'

>
> are the abov guys FEDERAL POLICE, state police, or ????

Except for the mentioned Federal forces, all German police are organized
at
the state level.

This also applies to the "Verfassungsschutz" 'Constitutional Protection'
tasked with (more or less secretly) gathering information about
terrorists,
radicals, subversives, etc. They are not police forces and cannot make
arrests. Any usable evidence they gather has to be handed to the normal
police and prsecutors.

Greetings
Karl Heinz