Guard of Honor

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Guard of honor of the Guard Battalion at Bellevue Palace in Berlin
Honorary post of the Garde républicaine at the Élysée Palace in Paris
Guard of honor at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw
Post of honor at Buckingham Palace in London

Honor guard (also honorary post ) refers to a group of soldiers who are in the protocol service and who are responsible for a building, a memorial or the like for traditional or representative purposes. placed under military guard .

tradition

The tradition of placing honor guards goes back to ancient times. High-ranking personalities were entitled to a permanently present guard, who for this purpose usually took up positions in front of the entrance of the room in which the person concerned was staying. This guard served a double purpose: on the one hand to actually protect against possible attacks, on the other hand the presence of a guard was also a status symbol (comparable to the function of a modern standard ) because it made the presence of a significant person visible to the outside world. In the course of time, the importance of real protection against attacks declined (modern honor guards normally do not carry ammunition in their weapons; professional bodyguards are usually responsible for protection ), but the representational function has remained.

In many countries there are permanent honor guards, i.e. those who continuously perform the honor guard duty on certain representative buildings and objects. This applies in particular to states in which a monarch is head of state . Here, the honor guards in their representative protective function are mostly in special reference to his person. So are z. For example, at Buckingham Palace in London or at the Prince's Palace in Monaco, there are constant honor guards. For this reason, the units that soldiers assign to such security services usually have the addition of the guard - or body - in the unit name. Often such units also have very long lines of tradition; their soldiers often wear historical or historicizing uniforms when serving as honor guards . In addition to palaces or offices of heads of state, v. a. Guards of honor placed at national memorials ( Tomb of the Unknown Soldier ).

A permanent guard of honor usually consists of two soldiers with crew rank under the command of a non-commissioned officer . You are part of a so-called guard team , which usually has strength (approx. 20 to 30 soldiers) and is in turn under the command of an officer (the so-called guard on duty ). The soldiers of the guard who are not on duty are in the so-called guard room ; This is one or more rooms set up for this purpose in the guarded building or a building in its vicinity (for example, the guard room for the NVA honor guard was located at the Neue Wache in Berlin in the neighboring armory ). Usually only the two soldiers of an honor guard are visible from the guards; the commanding sergeant appears only when the change of post is carried out, in which the two posts of an honor guard are replaced by two other soldiers. The duration of the assignment as an honor guard is about one to two hours; The physical exertion of standing still can hardly be sustained any longer. Standing still while on duty has a traditional military background: On the one hand, the guards of earlier days had to pay full attention to their assigned area and were not allowed to be distracted, and on the other hand, honor guards were and are representatives of their respective army and thus also figureheads for their discipline. This aspect is the content of the amusement of tourists and onlookers, especially in particularly popular places, who, for example, have themselves photographed together with the guards and try to induce reactions. For this reason, police officers or non-active members of the security team are often assigned to ensure that such attacks do not get out of hand.

A “(major) changing of the guard ” usually takes place regularly at institutions where there is a permanent guard of honor . The otherwise simple process of changing posts is accompanied by a marched formation of honor and usually also a music corps . Such changing of the guard is often an attraction for tourists .

Germany

In the German Empire , the provision of honor guards was carried out in a very inflationary manner. For example, honor guards were placed in front of almost all of the Hohenzollern palaces, such as the Berlin City Palace , some of the palaces in Potsdam and almost all of the royal houses of the empire . Even during the First World War , these were not withdrawn.

During the Weimar Republic , an honor guard regularly raised in front of the Neue Wache Unter den Linden in Berlin, which quickly developed into a popular tourist destination.

During the Nazi era , this was retained and expanded to include a double post in front of the Reich Chancellery, which was taken over by the SS-Stabswache Berlin (later Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler ) from March 17, 1933 . A special place for Nazi propaganda was the Feldherrnhalle in Munich , where an SS staff guard was also on duty.

In the GDR , the tradition of an honor guard in front of the Neue Wache Unter den Linden , which was rededicated as a memorial for the victims of fascism and militarism, was continued from 1962. Every Wednesday and on public holidays the large guard parade of the honor company of the guard regiment "Friedrich Engels" of the NVA took place there. The replacement of the guard of honor and the march past the formation took place in the Prussian drill step .

Today the Bundeswehr only provides honor guards on special occasions, such as state visits or wreath-laying ceremonies (e.g. on Memorial Day or on July 20 ). In the German Navy , guests of honor are welcomed on board with a large or small honor guard depending on their rank on protocol- related occasions . The large honor guard consists of 37 soldiers, the small honor guard of 13 soldiers. The guard of honor comes under rifle and presents during the ceremonial boarding or disembarking of the guest.

Picture gallery

literature

  • Hans-Peter Stein: Symbols and ceremonial in German armed forces - from the 18th to the 20th century. Mittler Verlag, Bonn 1984. ISBN 978-3-8132-0161-1 .

Web links

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