Gendarmerie of the Principality of Birkenfeld
The gendarmerie of the Principality of Birkenfeld , also known as the Ducal or Grand Ducal Gendarmerie , formed the state police of the Principality of Birkenfeld from 1817 to 1918 . In contrast to the vast majority of the German gendarmerie, it was not organized militarily and also not part of the Landdragonerkorps or the Gendarmeriekorps , although the principality was part of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg .
History 1817 to 1918
Structure, workforce
By integrating the Birkenfeld area in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg 1816/17 the question arose in the medium term after the organization of a national police, as most German states were built in the 1810s as Gendarmerien, even if this partly as police dragoons or gendarmes were called .
Although a gendarmerie had been founded in the Duchy of Oldenburg in 1817 with the Land Dragon Corps, their jurisdiction was not extended to the Principality or to the Principality of Lübeck, which is also Oldenburg . The background was obviously the great distance between the Oldenburg heartland and the principalities as well as the long and cumbersome communication channels that resulted.
When the area was taken over, there were four gendarmerie brigades under the command of Lieutenant Rosenbacher:
- Brigade Birkenfeld : 2 mounted and 2 foot gendarmes
- Brigade Oberstein : 1 sergeant , 1 foot policeman
- Brigade Nohfelden : 2 mounted gendarmes
- Brigade Herrstein : 1 brigadier, 1 foot gendarme
Information according to:
The eleven gendarmes obviously came from the Bavarian , Prussian and Imperial and Royal gendarmerie from the joint state administration commission (LAK), which had also issued a gendarmerie regulation on October 5, 1814. This regulation was valid until 1888 (see below). The gendarmerie was directly subordinate to the government in Birkenfeld and was a purely civilian institution that had no connection with the Oldenburg military . Your relatives were therefore not subject to such. B. the Oldenburg country dragons, later gendarmes, the military jurisdiction .
The tasks of the Birkenfeld Gendarmerie also included guarding government money transports to Frankfurt am Main . As a result, two gendarmes were absent for several days at a time and considerably weakened the already small workforce. This task was taken over by the Birkenfeld military contingent to relieve the gendarmerie from the 1830s.
When Rosenbacher, promoted to Rittmeister in 1833 , retired, the state government carried out a reorganization, which also raised the question of whether the gendarmerie should not be subordinated to the military contingent. However, the government itself refused. She argued that the management of the gendarmerie had to be very familiar with the local conditions, which was excluded at the military command, since their personnel were only stationed in the country for a short time. At this point in time the gendarmerie consisted of one non-commissioned officer (probably sergeant) and eight gendarmes. The re-filling of the commandant's position was refused with reference to insufficient capacity utilization. The state government therefore proposed to the grand ducal government in Oldenburg that this function should be performed by a member of the state government. This should be given the disciplinary authority of a captain to whom the sergeant was directly subordinate. The proposed regulation was introduced and lasted until the dissolution of the gendarmerie on April 1, 1937.
In 1888, the regulation from 1814 (see above) was replaced by the “Service Instruction for the Gendarmes of the Principality of Birkenfeld”. In 29 paragraphs, the service and pay, the rights and obligations of the gendarmes were regulated in detail. The staff at that time consisted of a sergeant, four sergeants and four gendarmes who were on duty in eight so-called supervisory districts. According to § 20, the gendarmes were auxiliary officers of the public prosecutor at the latest at this point in time .
The gendarmerie was relieved to a certain extent at the beginning of the 20th century, when local police forces were set up in Idar and Oberstein , whose main administrative police tasks, however, corresponded more to those of today's public order office . The criminal investigation service was carried out together with the gendarmerie.
During the First World War , the gendarmerie, whose members were not called up for military service, were supplemented by two military auxiliary gendarmes. A total of around 500 auxiliary police officers were hired to guard prisoners of war, to protect businesses and agriculture from acts of sabotage , although they were not uniformed and only wore a white band with the inscription "Police officer".
Shortly before the November Revolution, it became clear again that the Birkenfeld gendarmes were civil servants and not military personnel. When Grand Duke Friedrich August granted the oldenburg gendarmerie the right to wear his initials “FA” on the epaulets in April 1918, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Gendarmerie , the Birkenfeld fields were denied this with reference to their civil status.
Uniform, armament
Apart from a few photos that were taken at the beginning of the 20th century, there is so far (as of 2019) no pictorial tradition of the uniform.
With the takeover by Oldenburg, Rosenbacher had a uniform (mounting) analogous to the Oldenburg Land Dragon Corps, which in turn was based on that of the Oldenburg infantry . The Prussian army served as a model for the Oldenburg uniform from 1814/15 .
A black shako made of leather and felt with a cockade in the blue-red Oldenburg national colors served as headgear . The uniform skirt was blue and had a red collar and red lapels. The pants were also blue with two red stripes one inch each . In addition, boots and leather gloves were worn, as well as a coat in winter. Presumably white linen trousers were worn in the summer, analogous to the Oldenburg military.
The armament basically consisted of a saber . The mounted gendarmes also carried two pistols on their saddles , the foot gendarmes a light rifle . Revolvers or self-loading pistols were probably introduced later .
It is unclear when the tunic and helmet ( spiked hat ) were introduced, presumably by 1895 at the latest. From 1905, gray weather protection made of loden was allowed to be worn, in 1908, as in Oldenburg, a comfortable reed-colored litewka made of Serge was introduced for the summer .
Development from 1918 to 1937
The Free State of Oldenburg was created through the November Revolution ; the principalities of Birkenfeld and Lübeck became provinces or parts of the country. Like the Oldenburg gendarmerie, the structure of the Birkenfeld gendarmerie was not changed either. The number of staff remained more or less unchanged.
Political life became radicalized due to the unrest in the early 1930s, triggered by the Great Depression. There were violent and brutal clashes, mostly between members of the KPD and the NSDAP . Since the local police force was not sufficient to guarantee public safety and order, the so-called Revierabteilung Idar-Oberstein of the Oldenburg Order Police was founded in 1931 and remained in the region until 1935. The model was the district department in Bad Schwartau in the Lübeck part of the country, where due to serious unrest, the police from Oldenburg had to be detached .
The Birkenfeld gendarmerie was dissolved on April 1, 1937, 120 years after it was founded, in the course of the so-called establishment of the German police force, and its members were transferred to the new gendarmerie as part of the order police .
literature
- Helmut Lieber: History of the Police in the Birkenfeld Land. From the principality to the district , Birkenfeld (district adult education center Birkenfeld) 1987. ISSN 0723-3108
- H. Peter Brandt: The Birkenfeld region , in: Albrecht Eckhardt / Heinrich Schmidt (ed.): History of the State of Oldenburg. A manual , 3rd edition. Oldenburg (Holzberg) 1988, pp. 591-636. ISBN 3-87358-285-6
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Lieber: History of the police in the Birkenfeld country. From the principality to the district , Birkenfeld (district adult education center Birkenfeld) 1987. ISSN 0723-3108. P. 135.
- ↑ Helmut Lieber: History of the police in the Birkenfeld country. From the principality to the district , Birkenfeld (district adult education center Birkenfeld) 1987. ISSN 0723-3108. P. 139.
- ↑ Helmut Lieber: History of the police in the Birkenfeld country. From the principality to the district , Birkenfeld (district adult education center Birkenfeld) 1987. ISSN 0723-3108. P. 149.