9th People's Police Company

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 9th People's Police Company ( 9th Company for short ) was a secret special anti- terrorist unit of the People's Police Readiness of the Ministry of the Interior (MdI) of the GDR and the head of the district authority of the German People's Police (BDVP) subordinated to Potsdam and in a new building on the Site of the former army sergeant school of the Wehrmacht stationed in Eiche near Potsdam . The Chief of Staff of the MdI Colonel General Karl-Heinz Wagner gave orders for deployment . The Minister for State Security was able to request this unit, while the leadership remained with the MdI.

With the formation of the Border Guard Group 9 (GSG 9) of the Federal Border Guard in the Federal Republic, measures to set up such anti-terror units were also carried out in the MdI of the GDR. The 9th VP Company is not identical to the "Service Units IX " made up of members of the criminal and protection police of some district authorities of the German People's Police (DVP).

Various specialist publications assume that the 9th People's Police Company of the MdI was actually a completely legendary MfS service unit, as was the case with parts of the Criminal Police (K) of the DVP. The MfS had its own anti-terror unit with the minister’s working group, task area “S” , later Department XXIII , and still later Main Department XXII .

assignment

The 9th People's Police Company specialized in the fight against terrorism, hostage rescue and personal protection and was always deployed when there were special risk situations, i.e. also in the fight against serious crime and rampages of mentally disturbed perpetrators.

organization

structure

The 9th Company was divided into:

  • a management component consisting of:
    • the company commander
    • the deputy company commander
    • the deputy for political work
    • the back office manager
    • the armorer
    • the dishwasher
    • the master for organization (administrator for regulations, etc.)
    • the train drivers
    • the group leaders
    • the company team with:
      • Security guards / kitchen crew
      • a regulatory group ( road traffic management )
      • three armored personnel carriers / SPW PSH
      • News group with SPW PSH K2 (leadership) and R-123 , UM 2, R 108, UFT and UFS
  • the units
    • two rifle platoons with three groups each (riflemen: temporary subordinates)
    • 3rd move:
  • Besides, there was
    • a party secretary ( subordinate to the district leadership of the SED of the MdI)
    • an FDJ secretary (subordinate to the district leadership of the FDJ of the MdI)
    • the MfS Abwehr officer who was directly subordinate to Main Department VII ("Abwehr") of the MfS (not a member of the 9th VPK).

Troop strength

The troop strength was 111 men:

  • 8 officers
  • 90 sub-leaders, 17 of them professional sub-leaders
  • 13 constables.

(Source: location plan of the MdI unit, valid from November 1, 1980, GVS I 052360)

history

founding

As a legend circulated among the officers of the barracked units: “The 9th Company was set up in 1978 at the latest, almost at the same time as the top secret Blumberg office . For this purpose, some officers trained as sports teachers at the German University for Physical Culture in Leipzig were used. You were originally intended for the use of the troops as an officer for training in the People's Police standby . "

In fact, on April 1, 1980 , the Minister of the Interior and Chief of the German People's Police issued Order No. 0056/80 on the formation of an MdI deployment unit :

"1. (1) In order to solve special tasks in cooperation with the forces of work direction IX, an operational unit of the MdI is to be formed on the basis of the confirmed structural documents by November 30, 1980 with the Potsdam location.

(2) The 8th company of the transport police is to be disbanded with the formation of the MdI operational unit .
(3) The head of the BDVP Potsdam is responsible for setting up the MdI operational unit and disbanding the 8th company of the transport police.

2. The operational unit of the MdI is subordinate to the head of the BDVP Potsdam.

3. The deployment of the operational unit takes place on the basis of operational principles confirmed by the Minister of the Interior and Chief of the German People's Police.

(...)

7. (1) The operational training of the operational unit is to be organized on the basis of a training program that corresponds to its operational principles and is to be developed by the Readiness Department and is to be carried out as planned from December 1, 1980.

(...)

10. The operational readiness of the MdI unit is to be established by March 30, 1981. "

- Command No. 0056/80

Experience in the training of special reconnaissance forces was available with the "lone fighter courses" based on the model of the infantry school Hammelburg of the Bundeswehr at the officers' college in Dresden . These one-week courses (review) ran from 1971 onwards in the third academic year prior to the practical training. It ran for the last time in 1974. The training of special reconnaissance platoon leaders continued.

Calls

The company was deployed several times, for example. B. In the early 1980s in Frankfurt (Oder) , when two escaped prisoners holed up armed in a skyscraper.

Under the code name "Operation Mask", members of the unit in the Babelsberg film studios became women. For days they cycled down lonely streets on which a few hours beforehand members of the unit, lightly armed (baton, handcuffs and torch), had taken position in bushes and trenches. The goal was to fix a multiple sex offender. However, this was only found later through normal criminal work.

The unit secured Helmut Schmidt's visit to Güstrow in December 1981 . It was also used for guard duties with the background of preventing hostage-taking and assassinations during the Leipzig trade fair .

In May 1983 the unit secured the FDJ Pentecost meeting in Potsdam. The aim was to prevent the placement of explosives in containers (e.g. bags, pouches, suitcases). The unit appeared partly in civilian clothes and as an FDJ-ler.

A further application was made on the evening of 12 December 1986 on the closure and ensure the Aeroflot machine of type Tu-134 , which in Berlin-Bohnsdorf had crashed on the approach ( Aeroflot Flight 892 ).

literature

  • Jörn Steike: The riot police of the GDR 1950–1990. History - structure - tasks - legal structure . tuduv-Verlags-Gesellschaft, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-88073-443-7 , ( Tuduv studies - series political sciences 55).
  • Dr. Rainer Lambrecht, From the barracks to the official seat - From the history of a military and police accommodation in Potsdam-Eiche , Potsdam 2010, ISBN 978-3-939090-07-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: Federal Archives DO 1 / 0.2.2, GVS I 056101 Bl. 1 to 3, personal