248 German Security Unit

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Honor roll of the 248 German Security Unit in Berlin-Wilhelmstadt (2014)

The 248 German Security Unit - Royal Military Police (short form: 248 GSU - RMP or 248 GSU or GSU) was a German service organization of the British Armed Forces in Berlin, initially set up in December 1950 as a pure guard and paramilitary unit, and from April 1982 the largest and only one A company of the British military police RMP formed from mainly German nationals . Since it was set up , it has had different names, depending on its organizational structure, and was demobilized without replacement in September 1994 as a result of German unification .

Until it was incorporated into the military police, it was considered an Independent Unit (Independent Unit) and corresponded to a motorized infantry unit throughout its deployment time .

assignment

The primary task of the 248 German Security Unit was the protection and guarding of the most important barracks and properties of the British armed forces in the former West Berlin in order to keep the soldiers deployed in the city free for their original tasks. In the 1950s, the protection tasks focused primarily on the numerous coal stores, since coal was the most urgently needed raw material of the time.

The legal assignment of tasks resulted primarily from the Allied Kommandatura Berlin / Order (BK / O) and its subordinate service regulations .

The other guard objects of the 248 German Security Unit also included the British headquarters at the Berlin Olympic Stadium , various barracks, ammunition depots and fuel depots, and the British military hospital . In the 1970s, after the previous guard had changed status to a guard police, the unit took over the protection of other important objects, so u. a. for the Villa Lemm , the residence of the British city commandant , for the residence of the commander of the Berlin Brigade (early 1980s), the NAAFI shopping center Summit House in Berlin- Westend and the British officers' club.

With the takeover of the residences of the two highest commanders, the 248 German Security Unit was also given indirect personal protection tasks for the person of the respective commander and his family for the first time .

Since the end of the 1960s, the unit was involved in annual maneuvers , the intensity of which increased massively in the 1980s after it was integrated into the 2nd regiment of the British Military Police.

In addition to the original guard and protection service, the 248 German Security Unit would also have been deployed in civil unrest, but this never happened in practice.

The 6941st Guard Battalion of the US armed forces in Berlin was considered a counterpart to the 248 German Security Unit, albeit without the status of a guard police .

The way to the German service organization

The historical roots of the later 248 German Security Unit go back to 1944, when the designated victorious powers were grappling with the question of the form in which organizations could be built up from prisoners of war and volunteers in an occupied Germany in order to keep their own soldiers free for their original tasks.

Already on 13 April 1943 was British Lieutenant General Sir Frederick E. Morgan chief of the newly established authority Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander and thus chief of staff of the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Western Europe . Morgan worked out plans that dealt with the situation of the premature end of World War II due to the collapse of the German resistance .

As options, Morgan put forward a possible deception, a classic invasion plan that resulted in Operation Overlord, and finally the sudden landing on the continent after the collapse of the resistance.

Based on the military experience of the events during the last months of the war in 1918, Morgan ordered Operation Rankin on May 22, 1943, because it was once again assumed that the German troops would suddenly collapse . At first, the elaborations made slow progress because there was disagreement between the British and US governments in serious areas . Above all, the post-war order in defeated Germany and the intervention of military authorities in civil administrative matters slowed down the plans again and again.

Ultimately, a preliminary concept was presented in time for the Quadrant Conference in Québec in August 1943 . Superficially, based on an unconditional surrender , it was already determined for the British side that they should occupy the entire northern area, i.e. the Netherlands , Denmark , the Ruhr area and north-west Germany . A regulation on Berlin has not yet been made. At the same time it was decided to use military administrations . Finally, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill approved the plans.

Still, there were many unanswered questions and both governments were under pressure with the approaching D-Day . These points were finally summarized in 72 studies under the code name Operation Talisman after the Normandy landing in July 1944.

Operation Eclipse

Operation Talisman dealt with all essential issues that the military valued as a matter of priority after the end of World War II. This included not only the disarming of the German armed forces and the control of those who were disarmed, but also the takeover of war material , the supply of prisoners of war and, above all, the implementation of the directives of the occupying powers .

After the established occupation zones and other additions were decided in the Second Québec Conference on September 16, 1944, Operation Talisman finally came into effect. From a historical perspective, this day is therefore also a kind of founding act of the later German Security Unit, because the parameters of the post-war order established there also provided for the establishment of Allied service groups.

After the original alias Talisman was compromised, it was renamed Operation Eclipse in November 1944 .

It was planned that Operation Eclipse should initially only be implemented gradually until the occupation of Germany. Two allied army groups were planned for the occupation , the 21st (UK) Army Group and the 12th (US) Army Group , which were now working out their own plans. Although it was only planned if a total surrender would be signed or the majority of the German armed forces capitulated or taken captive, the implementation of Operation Eclipse actually took place in parts before the end of the Second World War.

The ingenious plan also provided for the German armed forces to be disarmed, but not entirely disbanded. Rather, it was planned to assign facilities to them and manage themselves. Churchill in particular spoke out against a quick dissolution of the Wehrmacht because he did not rule out a military conflict with the Soviet Union and therefore wanted to fall back on willing German soldiers. This also explains the fact that the Wehrmacht was not officially dissolved until August 1946.

As early as July 1945, Churchill had labor companies set up in the British sector which, ostensibly, were not about maintaining discipline and order , but rather about restoring the security of public life and an intact infrastructure . The main aim was to use the Germans who were militarily trained and known to be disciplined.

The German Service Organization was born

On October 1, 1945, the newly organized Labor Service was formed from the existing labor companies in Hamburg , which at the beginning of 1946 still included around 140,000 German prisoners of war who were deployed in very different areas. Sub-areas of the Labor Service were integrated into the German mine clearance service, whose members had to rescue and defuse the numerous naval mines of the war.

In 1947, the Labor Service was reformed again and merged into Allied Service Groups , later referred to as the German Service Organization, from which the German Civil Labor Organization emerged in the summer , which finally became the German Service Organization (GSO ) was renamed. German nationals were employed in a wide variety of professions and uses, including in the classic craft sector , as drivers , as cooks or in security services.

All German service organizations were given special historical importance in connection with the establishment of the Bundeswehr . The focus was not only on the orderly dissolution of the Wehrmacht and the restoration of public life and infrastructure, but also the question of the rearmament of Germany, because as early as 1947 the western victorious powers suspected a steadily growing threat from the Soviet Union.

In 1950 the German service organizations did not represent their own troops in the military and political sense, but from the beginning they made a considerable contribution to the operational capability of the Allied forces. The meanwhile 140,000 men in the service groups should therefore be increased to 200,000 men, whereby all those involved agreed that only a fraction was also “fit for defense”.

In contrast to the other victorious powers, the British concentrated the tasks of the GSO primarily on supporting their own armed forces. Overall, the development of the German service groups was viewed with great political skepticism. With the establishment of the European Defense Community in 1951, the service groups were seen as a kind of contribution to the case of defense . The federal government pushed for a legal status solution, because in the event of war the service groups would have been deployed within the Allied forces. Thus the question of the sovereignty of the young Federal Republic almost threatened to fail because the Allies themselves would set up "German armed forces" without involving the Federal Government. Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , who was deposed as Lord Mayor of Cologne in 1945 by the British for "incompetence", praised the work of the USA as an occupying power, but did not fail to sharply oppose the British plans.

With the accession to NATO took place from November 12, 1955, the convening of the first soldiers in the newly established Bundeswehr. A contract also stipulated that the German service groups would be dissolved by May 7, 1957. Only a few foreign service groups or civil German work units were allowed to remain. The idea of ​​taking over complete service groups in the Bundeswehr was dropped.

Independent Unit (1950–1982)

In Berlin, too, which was subject to a special statute as a sector city, the Western Allies set up German service organizations. The USA and Great Britain also decided to form new sub-units from the already existing structures, which, uniformed and armed, were to take over the protection of their most important properties.

For the British sector , the Chief of Staff of the Rhine Army issued the order to set up the German Service Organization Berlin (Watchmen's Service), short form: GSO Berlin (WS), on December 1, 1950.

The addition "Watchmen's Service" was a distinction to the remaining GSO units. It is noteworthy that the addition appeared in different spelling variants and in both plural and singular forms in correspondence and on documents . It was also regulated that the Berlin GSO units had to show a reference to the city in the standard name or that this had to be regulated by applications .

The new GSO Berlin (WS) was set up with a total strength of 350 men in two companies , each with a staff department and four platoons , whose members were equipped with specially dyed British military clothing as well as long and short weapons . In terms of structure and organization, it corresponded to a military unit, even if the guards were formally not soldiers but German civilian employees. As a paramilitary unit, the Watchmen's Service was also an Independent Unit of the British Brigade , which was not subordinate to a fixed regiment , but to the British Garrison Admin Unit (BGAU), i.e. the administrative department of the staff unit. Their head, mostly an officer with the rank of major , thus assumed the position of commanding officer .

The site barracks of the GSO Berlin (WS) became the Smuts Barracks in the Berlin district of Wilhelmstadt in the Spandau district . There, the new unit initially took over nine buildings, including the Kitcheners Block, which the formation used until its demobilization in 1994. It was thus one of only two units that was continuously stationed in Smuts Barracks until the Allies withdrew.

In advance, the Rhine Army put together a staff of former Wehrmacht officers, who from November 16, 1950 formed the construction command of the new unit until it was formally commissioned.

Mobilization on December 1, 1950

On December 1, 1950, she officially took up her service and was initially assigned to the East Surrey Regiment. In keeping with an international military tradition , the GSO Berlin (WS) also received its own motto, Animus et Vigilantia ( courage and vigilance ), which has not yet been awarded in the British military, as well as the standard colors white and green , which on the one hand represent the Allied victory over Germany and on the other hand stood for the hope of reconciliation between the victors and the vanquished.

The members of the Watchmen's Service received six weeks of basic training and led military ranks , which, however, had no similarities with the ranks of the British armed forces. In individual cases, the names of the team ranks were even based on those of the former Reich Labor Service . The officers again carried the usual British police ranks .

The Watchmen's Service received a German unit leadership consisting of the unit leader and his deputy . The former Wehrmacht officer A. Meiners, who as Chief Superintendent was also one of the two company commanders, became the first leader . Due to British reservations , however, Meiners did not hold a position as Officer Commanding , as would have been the norm in principle. The actual management, also that of the quartermaster's office and the training system , was the responsibility of the respective British regimental commander.

Only German citizens who were barracked for six weeks in the Smuts Barracks during basic training were admitted as applicants . Most of the “men from the very beginning” were formally drafted as part of a measure taken by the employment office and committed for one year. This “voluntary compulsion” initially contradicted the employment conditions of the German service organizations, which included the principle of voluntariness, as these were officially civil and not military in character.

Members of the German Service Organization enjoyed immunity in Germany in matters related to the exercise of their duties. In all other cases, they were subject to UK and German jurisdiction and were only allowed to reside in the western sectors. The first uniform of the new troops, the so-called battledress uniform , which mainly consisted of dyed British military clothing including an Australian bush hat, looked extremely adventurous .

Johannes Gohl becomes unit leader

In 1952 the previous unit leader of the Watchmen's Service left the service and was replaced by Johannes Gohl (1908-1982), who took on the new rank of Staff Superintendent . Gohl was a former major in the Wehrmacht and joined the then 100,000-man army in 1927 . He was best known as the battalion commander who succeeded in 1944 against US units in recapturing the militarily relevant height 327 near Sagliano on the Rubicon .

Gohl was also the first Berlin GSO officer to assume the autonomous position of officer commanding .

Also in 1952, on Gohl's initiative, the unit received a dog squad with initially ten animals , which was later increased to 30 dogs . The internally Biters & Barkers designated (biters and Beller) protection and guard dogs remained a firm figurehead of the unit whose handler over time numerous to demobilization of the 248 German Security Unit Awards at International comparison competitions , u. a. won the Rhine Army biathlon competition at the Sennelager site . The animals were legally classified by the military as a weapon and not as an aid, which also had an impact on the threat of using dogs against people.

Organizationally, the service dogs were used in the individual trains of the unit and thus formally did not form an independent train.

In March 1955, the Watchmen's Service was reduced to 156 men and a complete company was disbanded, which was consistent with the formation of the Bundeswehr. Many of the previous GSO members migrated to the new German army, but also to the newly established auxiliary police station of the Berlin police .

A year later, the Berlin collective agreement between the brigade and the civilian workers also came into force. a. To compensate for disadvantages vis-à-vis the soldiers, especially in the case of the non -duty-free purchase of highly taxable goods . As a result of the contract , the members of the German Service Organization were officially classified as civil employees and were allowed to elect a works council to represent the employees for the first time . Organizing in trade unions was still prohibited .

In the late 1950s, the Watchmen's Service experienced a number of setbacks that continued into the 1960s. Many relatives switched to the armed forces or the police . In addition, some employees who were in the eastern part of the city in August 1961 could not return to West Berlin because of the sudden closure of the Soviet sector and the subsequent construction of the Berlin Wall . This fact led to the fact that the public service, which was also affected , attracted lucrative offers and recruited other members of the unit. It was not until the late 1960s that more adjustments were made. At the same time, the British military government took further measures to increase the attractiveness of the unit.

German Service Unit (Berlin)

In 1968 the previous Watchmen's Service was renamed the German Service Unit (Berlin) and at the same time it was converted to the status of a Security Guard Unit , which in terms of military status was formally equivalent to a regular police guard. This was the first time that the unit, which remained subordinate to the British Garrison Admin Unit as an independent unit, was officially granted police status within the Berlin Brigade.

Associated with this were authority to issue orders for police measures. This included, in particular, the right to be sent off places , identity checks , the seizure of property and the search of property and people - the latter, however, only on request. In addition, the HSE members were given the right to carry out detention , i.e. in the broadest sense of provisional arrest , which had not been legally provided for until then.

With the change in status, parts of the team ranks also received new rank designations, because the Berlin collective agreement also took into account such an increase with higher basic salaries . Thus, the unit members who were previously paid as civil employees (later: "ZB staff") were now transferred to the salary levels of the civil security staff as employees (later: "ZS staff").

In addition, the GSU members wore the badge of the Berlin Brigade, known as the "peacock eye", on their uniforms since their status was raised. For the first time, they were identified as part of the British armed forces.

Change at the top of the unit

In the same year the previous unit leader Johannes Gohl resigned from the service and retired . He was followed by Wolfgang Schiller (1930–2009), who was obliged to join the Volkssturm in 1945 .

Further changes were made in the organizational structure of the German Service Unit (Berlin), which now separated from the train model and formed five sections. It remained an independent unit and was assigned to individual regiments stationed in Berlin in constant rotation. Furthermore, the British Military Government created the office of the British Supervisory Element , which corresponded to a liaison officer . The respective post holder was basically a NCO of the British Military Police and had the rank of Warrant Officer 1 - with exceptions.

In the 1970s, the unit developed into a modern security guard and received modified uniforms and improvements in labor law. For the first time, members of the German Service Unit were allowed to organize themselves in a union.

After there were several incidents and security problems on the grounds of Villa Lemm , which had previously been protected by the Berlin police , the British military government ordered that this task be transferred to the German Service Unit. Thus, since the tenure of David Scott-Barrett , the unit was also responsible for the protection of the British city commander, his family and guests.

This assignment of tasks was particularly outstanding because the British city commandant also received members of the royal family at least once a year who were staying on the Maifeld in Berlin for the occasion of the acceptance of the Queens Birthday Parade and who resided in the Villa Lemm during their stay . In 1978 and 1987 Queen Elisabeth II stayed personally as a guest at Villa Lemm, which was therefore also under the protection of the unit.

While the residences of the American and French city ​​commanders continued to be protected by the Berlin police, the German Service Unit was the only German service organization of the Allies that was indirectly responsible for the protection of a city commandant and at times also for the protection of a head of state .

In the following years, the unit was also given the task of guarding the residence of the commander of the Berlin Brigade in the district of Charlottenburg, for the British officers' club and the NAAFI shopping center . In addition, she has been involved in security measures on the occasion of the annual Queens Birthday Parade on the Maifeld since Queen Elisabeth II's first state visit to Germany, which also took the monarch to Berlin in 1965 .

The German Service Unit (Berlin) thus gained more and more importance within the Berlin Brigade, which was also due to the service dog squadron, which was recognized in broad circles, was involved in important objects and shaped the image of the unit.

British Military Police Company (1982-1994)

On April 1, 1982, the German Service Unit (Berlin) was incorporated into the newly established 2nd Regiment of the British Military Police and was given the designation 248 German Security Unit - 2 Royal Military Police in October of the same year, which also ended the time as an Independent Unit and the unit was assigned to a permanent regiment for the first time and placed under a regimental commander.

Within the British military police, she formed the regular formations of the 2nd regiment in Germany with the 246 Provost Company and the 247 Provost Company. In addition, the 248 German Security Unit was not only the only company within the entire British military police that was recruited from non-British people, but also the largest with an average of 250 members. It also had the largest inventory of firearms and ammunition within the regiment.

Despite being connected, the unit retained its previous uniform and only changed its beret badge. Thus an external affiliation to the military police was not perceptible, which was also related to legal status requirements. At the beginning of the 1980s, approaches were already taken, according to which the members of the 248 German Security Unit were to receive uniform uniforms and badges of rank as well as the traditional red berets of the Royal Military Police, but these projects were never realized. Only the head of the department Wolfgang Schiller and his representative Heinz Radtke were officially equipped with red berets, lanyards and stable belts as part of their integration into the military police .

At the same time, the 248 German Security Unit received more legal competencies. Thus, under certain conditions, their relatives were entitled to use direct coercion against people and were able to carry out measures of immediate execution .

In the focus of the public , the unit for a short time moved even after the death of the former Hitler -Stellvertreters Rudolf Hess on 17 August 1987. This had the last prisoner in Spandau Prison , which bordered directly on the property of Smuts Barracks, life taken. The body of Hess was then taken to the British Military Hospital in Berlin-Westend for an autopsy , which was a temporary protected object of the 248 German Security Unit. In this context, the protective measures of the GSU and British units were massively increased and also supplemented by shooters who were positioned on the roofs.

In addition to their regular guard duty , members of the unit also took part in simulated house-to-house fights in the practice town of Fighting City and in maneuvering exercises that have now also been carried out outside of Berlin. In addition, a Liaison Platoon (liaison train) was formed at the end of the 1980s , whose members and British military police formed joint crews for the radio patrol cars . This one-off project was abandoned after only a few months, however, because the unit was unable to provide permanent staff.

In response to the increased threat in connection with the Second Gulf War , several qualified members of the 248 German Security Unit were brought together in a Quick Reaction Team in 1990 , who received additional training in special weapons and were subjected to special infantry training.

A short time later, all unit members also received anti-terror training, for which the entire unit was removed from watch activities for a calendar week.

As early as the 1980s, British military service IDs were issued for members of the unit when they were recruited, which were deposited with a department of the Special Investigation Branch of the military police. The British Military Government thus paved the way for HSE members to voluntarily switch to active soldiers in the British Army in a V case. However, this regulation was only provided if both countries, i.e. Great Britain and Germany, had declared the V case and had been deployed as allies. With the reunification of Germany in 1990, this regulation was no longer applicable.

In the second half of 1989, women were hired for the first time in the security service of the 248 German Security Unit in response to a declining number of applicants. A short time later, British nationals, mainly former soldiers, were also allowed to join the unit, so that the number of recruits rose again.

German unity and demobilization

With the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, the events of the 248 German Security Unit also rolled over after the end of the Allied presence in Germany became apparent.

The four-power status that had been in effect until then, as well as the Potsdam resolutions, formally ended with the Two-Plus-Four Treaty , which was signed in Moscow on September 12, 1990 and officially entered into force on March 15, 1991. The British city commander Robert Corbett , who has been in office since 1989, was also indirectly involved in the negotiations and advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on Berlin issues.

In connection with a military presence, the two-plus-four treaty primarily regulated the withdrawal of the Soviet armed forces by 1994 and the reduction in the strength of the Bundeswehr. At first there was no statement about the Western Allied troops. However, it has been regulated that Germany will regain its full internal and external sovereignty and that the four-power responsibility for Berlin and Germany as a whole will no longer apply. This also declared the end of the 248 German Security Unit.

With the completion of German unification on October 3, 1990, the strength of the British armed forces was already reduced. Only a few days later a formation of the 248 German Security Unit said goodbye to the previous city commandant Robert Corbett, whose term of office formally ended on October 2nd at midnight. During this time phase, the GSU head of department Wolfgang Schiller announced the foreseeable end for the 248 German Security Unit in a Part One Order . It remains remarkable to this day that the members of the unit, despite everything, continued to do their duty undeterred and thus maintained the watch.

In September 1992 a social plan with a severance pay system was presented as an incentive due to the previously announced “discharge for military reasons” by the British armed forces . According to this, the police on guard were also guaranteed a transitional allowance as “income protection”, the amount of which was based on the years of service, but in many cases had a not inconsiderable lower age limit.

In November 1993, the members of the unit finally received their letters of resignation effective September 30, 1994.

The year 1994 was therefore all about saying goodbye to the 248 German Security Unit. At the beginning of the year, the last 12 recruits completed their basic training, which only received fixed-term employment contracts . On April 1, the 2nd regiment of the Royal Military Police, to which the unit had belonged since 1982, was disbanded. On that date, she lost her regimental number. Nevertheless, the 248 German Security Unit remained part of the military police, although it was officially subordinated to the Royal Logistic Corps with the remaining soldiers of the 247 Provost Company .

On April 7, the unit was a participant in the Disbandment Parade (dissolution parade) of the previous 2nd regiment in the British headquarters at Berlin's Olympic Stadium. A month later, on May 6th, a formation of the military police including the 248 German Security Unit took up their 1990 Freedom of Tiergarten honor again and held a farewell parade in the Tiergarten district belonging to the British sector . On this occasion, the entire former regiment was awarded the flag ribbon of the State of Berlin, which was presented by Social Senator Thomas Krüger .

After all, the 248 German Security Unit was one of the formations that took part in the 27th and last Allied parade on June 18, 1994, with which the soldiers said goodbye to Berlin.

The Berlin Brigade announced at the end of 1993 that the British armed forces would be withdrawn from Berlin at the end of September 1994. Only a small remaining contingent , organized in the formed British Residual Interest Organization (BRIO) , remained in the city in order to handle the last property handovers and other administrative activities until mid-December 1994.

In order to also cover the protection during the last months, BRIO formed a 58-person security unit (BRIO Security), the structure of which was organized in August 1994 and recruited from previous police officers of the 248 German Security Unit on October 1, 1994.

The GSU itself last started its day shift on September 29, 1994 and appeared one day later to undress in the Smuts Barracks. Since 1950 it has been subordinate to a total of ten different regiments. On September 30, 1994, the British associations formally withdrew from Berlin.

The 248 German Security Unit was one of those units that ended their service on the day of the withdrawal. It was also the last long-term German service organization with security tasks for the Allies in Berlin, which was demobilized after exactly 43 years and 303 days of active service.

As early as the night shift from September 29th to 30th, the last six guard objects were protected by members of the BRIO Security, whose men, however, performed their duty unarmed. They were also present when on December 15, 1994 the last two properties, including the Alexander Barracks, were handed over to the Federal Property Office of the Oberfinanzdirektion Berlin.

Before that, the last Union Jack was overtaken by men from BRIO Security, which was interpreted as a tribute from the British armed forces.

To this day, attention is drawn to the fact that during the entire time the 248 German Security Unit was deployed there was no targeted firing of fire at people who led to injuries or death.

Applications and ranks

In its almost 44-year history, the 248 German Security Unit consistently had the same badges of rank , although some were assigned or supplemented differently depending on the respective organizational structure and the rank titles. In 1978 service awards were also awarded for the first time , the award and manner of wearing them based on the regulations of the British Armed Forces (Long Service Good Conduct) .

With its change of status in 1968, the German Security Unit carried the badge of the Berlin Brigade, known as the peacock eye. When in 1983 the then city commander Bernard Gordon-Lennox ordered the British soldiers to remove the brigade badge from their uniforms, the GSU was ultimately the only unit that kept the peacock's eye on the uniform.

Historians suspect that Gordon-Lennox, who had just assumed office, was an opponent of the open use of troop identification.

criticism

National identity

The members of the 248 German Security Unit, along with the other civilian employees of the German service organizations, have been subject to social criticism for years , with the charge of serving under a “foreign flag ” in their own country . This derivative, which, ultimately, by the first garrison commander of the Bundeswehr in Berlin, Brigadier General Hasso Freiherr von Uslar-Gleichen was raised, was especially so in content contradictory, because it is especially in the GSU to any British unit, but a German in the British armed forces acted, which was also equipped with a uniform style that was always Prussian. In addition, the members of the German service organizations were financed exclusively by their own taxpayers 'money and not by foreign taxpayers' money, which in Berlin was initially handled by the State Office for Occupation Burdens and later by the State Office for Defense Burdens.

From August 1994 onwards, support was provided centrally by the Defense Burden Office in Birkenfeld (Nahe) .

External impact

It was not uncommon for the police officers to be accused of arbitrariness because, in accordance with their regulations, they briefly detain people, set up barriers or take action against taking photographs in the direction of the military properties. Berlin newspapers also took up such allegations, although in most cases they were misrepresented and rejected and refuted by the responsible British military authorities.

At least on one occasion, the unit was used contrary to the law, when it was called in to cordon off measures in April 1966 after the crash of a Soviet Yak-28 in West Berlin's Stoessensee and was officially deployed as part of a British company. Due to this purely inner-Allied situation, however, the involvement of a German service organization was not permitted due to the four-power status.

In 1984, the agency management received an extras -request for the filming of the British production Wildgänse 2 , which in the 1985 cinema came. Some settings were made in front of the Summit House on Theodor-Heuss-Platz in Berlin-Charlottenburg, which was one of the objects of protection of the GSU. The relatives, however, were forbidden to participate in the film project, presumably because of the content of the film about the fictitious liberation of Rudolf Hess.

Alignment with public service

During the entire time the 248 German Security Unit was deployed, the discussion of the “civilian character” was the focus of the employees who performed their duties as members of the British armed forces in uniform and armed. Demands by the works council as well as the union of public services, transport and traffic (ötv) , the komba and the German salaried workers union , to bring HSE members fully into line with the public service, were denied. There was also no formal classification in the federal wage agreement for employees , which failed due to reservations by the Berlin administration . However, this also contradicts the administrative actions of the German authorities, which denied the status of the public service but applied legal bases such as the Federal Personnel Representation Act (e.g. when the dismissals were carried out on September 30, 1994).

German authorities, to which retired HSE members switched, assessed the pre-employment periods at the 248 German Security Unit, some of which were fully recognized as a public service and thus also had pension effects, assessed very differently. The British military authorities did not intervene in this discussion and led the employees of the German service organizations as civilian employees on the basis of the agreements on the four-power status. These specifications were complied with in detail, so that GSU head of department Wolfgang Schiller, who was awarded the status of Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elisabeth II in April 1978 , only received it in a civilian version.

Allied parade

The members of the German service organizations in the Western Allies did not take part in the official Allied parade in Berlin until 1994 because they were not formally part of the occupying powers in terms of their four-power status . Only the US brigade tied the then 6941st Labor Service Center (later: 6941st Guard Battalion), which was also a German service organization, into a parade in the 1960s. This led to a wave of protests from the Soviet occupying forces, whereupon this one-off action remained for the time being.

With the entry into force of the two-plus-four treaty, the four-power status and the allied right of reservation ended. On this occasion, the British authorities decided to have the 248 German Security Unit march in the last Allied parade on June 18, 1994. The 6941st Guard Battalion was already demobilized at this point.

Basic military service in the Bundeswehr

With the completion of German unity on October 3, 1990, the men who had previously lived in West Berlin were no longer exempt from basic military service. Police officers of the federal government and the state of Berlin as well as members of the Berlin guard police at the time , all of whom were formally “doing their duty at the weapon” , were still not drafted into the Bundeswehr . The British military authorities tried several times to obtain an exemption for the members of the 248 German Security Unit in order not to endanger the protection of their properties through sudden loss of personnel. However, this application was denied by the German authorities, so that the eligible unit members had to do their basic military service in the Bundeswehr in the future.

Whereabouts of the service dogs

In 1994 only 13 of the originally 30 service dogs were still in use at the 248 German Security Unit, which were formally classified as weapons. When the unit was closed, the animals were returned to the Sennelager site in Lower Saxony , where suitable dogs were selected for further use within the British armed forces. Since a transfer to third parties was not possible, especially because of the potential danger of the trained animals that are considered not suitable four-legged friends were euthanized . The attempt of individual dog handlers to buy their animals and take them over failed. How many dogs were ultimately killed is not known.

Conduct of the German authorities

From 1993 onwards there were numerous events in the offices of the 248 German Security Unit in which the Berlin Senate, but also the Bundeswehr and the police repeatedly assured the possibility of a takeover. In this way, the Berlin police wanted, above all, to replenish their security guard duties with qualified employees. Ultimately, the promises made by the various agencies were not kept. This behavior was repeatedly criticized on July 1, 2011 by the former district mayor of Berlin-Tiergarten, Wolfgang Naujokat. In 1994, Naujokat tried several times to urge the Senate departments to keep the word given. In September 2014, the former mayor Eberhard Diepgen also described the behavior at the time as a shame . The main criticism was the fact that a further employment concept was created for the Soviet (from 1990 Russian ) civilian workers in the additional provisions of the Unification Treaty of August 31, 1990, while the civilian workers of the Western Allies were not taken into account. As a result of the failure of the authorities, it is also assessed that individual former HSE members saw no personal future for themselves and chose to commit suicide .

Veteran status

The former members of the 248 German Security Unit are currently not officially granted veteran status by the British Ministry of Defense , but the title leadership is benevolently tolerated. In contrast to the Federal Republic of Germany , where there have been official war veterans again since the first war missions abroad , in Great Britain only every experienced soldier is referred to as a war veteran, and every non-experienced soldier as a military veteran. However, the current legal opinion of the UK Department of Defense is that the Cold War was not an officially declared war to justify such recognition. Historians suspect a feared wave of claims for claims behind the view of London , which, however , have always been fundamentally excluded for German civil employees by the Four Power Agreement .

Representation in media and literature

In almost all film reports and specialist books of the present, the role of the 248 German Security Unit is portrayed incompletely or entirely incorrectly. Mostly she is reduced to her original guard duties and the organizational forms and their unit names are mixed up or wrongly assigned to the individual time phases. As a result, their status as part of the Berlin Brigade and, from 1982, also of the Royal Military Police, is historically suppressed.

It is also not uncommon for the date on which the 248 German Security Unit was set up to be mistakenly equated with the entry of the first British troops into Berlin in July 1945.

Perception in the present

Culture of remembrance

As part of maintaining tradition and a healthy culture of remembrance of the Cold War era , in addition to actual veterans, former unit members of the 248 German Security Unit appear again and again in historical HSE uniforms during official events. This is generally welcomed by the British government and the military, but subject to the same conditions that apply to veterans. For example, the wearing of uniforms bearing the former British brigade badge at public events is subject to approval and is reserved exclusively for former unit members. In addition, there are specifications for the external appearance, but not for the ranked rank, since classifications at the active deployment time were not made by British bodies, but exclusively by the agency management within the framework of the available contingent. The only exception was the position of unit leader, which was only filled with the consent of British military posts.

In January 2020, the British Ministry of Defense and the British Embassy in Berlin issued an official wearing permit for a former uniting member for the first time.

In September 2014, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its demobilization , the former unit was honored with the plaque of honor of the German Security Unit , which was unveiled at the former company building, which currently serves as the grammar school of the Wilhelmstadt schools. At the ceremony , representatives of the British Embassy and the district office of Berlin-Spandau participated.

All German service organizations of the US and British armed forces in Berlin entrusted with security tasks were honored with the Plaque of Honor on December 1, 2015, which was unveiled on the grounds of the Allied Museum in the Dahlem district by its director at the time, Gundula Bavendamm .

Club work

The tradition of the former unit has been maintained since its foundation on April 11, 2010 by the Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit, which, as an association registered in Berlin, is primarily recruited from former members of the security police.

With exhibitions and publications, not only the work of the unit, but also that of the British armed forces is brought closer. The association works temporarily with authorities, organizations and individuals, including the British Embassy in Berlin , the District Mayor of the Spandau District Helmut Kleebank , the Allied Museum and the former British city commander Robert Corbett.

The governing mayor Michael Müller , his predecessors in office Eberhard Diepgen, Walter Momper and Klaus Wowereit , the former district mayors Wolfgang Naujokat, Konrad Birkholz and Christian Hanke as well as numerous former military officials and the British Ministry of Defense are already supporting the work of the association. An outstanding event was the meeting between the association's board of directors and the then British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in July 2018.

Since 2010 there has also been a cooperation with the Wilhelmstadt schools in the Berlin district of Wilhelmstadt , which have taken over almost the entire property of the former Smuts Barracks, which was the site barracks of the 248 German Security Unit from 1950 to 1994. Since October 2018, the former military site has also been the association's postal headquarters.

In addition, from 2013 to 2018 the association was one of the official participants in the celebrations of the annual Remembrance Sunday on the property of the British military cemetery in Berlin-Westend .

In recognition of its social commitment, the Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit was funded by the Spandau district in 2015 on the occasion of an exhibition project. In addition, the association was proposed for the Eberhard Diepgen Prize in 2018 .

The association came under fire from January 2020 after the contemporary witness project GSU History succeeded in clearing up and correcting the previously misrepresented subordination of the former 248 German Security Unit before 1982. To this day, however, the association insists on its version and opposes a representation refuted by former military members and historians.

Since the end of 2018, the association has hardly made an appearance due to actions directly serving to preserve history. Even the 25th anniversary of the demobilization of the unit on September 30, 2019 was ultimately no longer mentioned.

Contemporary witness project

In February 2019, the GSU History eyewitness project was launched, which is also supported by numerous eyewitnesses and protagonists from the previous unit. It interlinks the memories of those who were politically and militarily responsible with the experiences of unit members as well as historical circumstances that directly or indirectly influenced the development of the agency.

As part of the project, interviews with the relevant people are primarily carried out and scientific, official and military documents are evaluated. As early as January 2020, as part of a research, it was possible to clarify and correct the previously misrepresented subordination of the unit before 1982 with the help of historians and contemporary witnesses.

At HSU History, the political events of the 1940s are also consciously included for the first time, in which the foundations for the establishment of later Allied service groups were created.

One focus of the eyewitness project is researching the biographies of former unit members and other historically relevant people. Although proportionally not tenable, the former police officers in their entirety formed a possible cross-section of society. An investigation showed that during the period in which the unit was set up between 1950 and 1994, approx. 5,000 people were employed by the 248 German Security Unit.

Most of the former employees returned to their apprenticeships or stayed in the security industry. Others switched to the public service or have completed an undergraduate degree , in individual cases a university degree.

The former HSE members also include entrepreneurs, professional officers , district politicians and several book authors .

The best-known former members of the unit included Johannes Gohl, the test pilot of the Wehrmacht Ernst Voigt and the entrepreneur and bodyguard Horst Pomplun .

Awards and honors

literature

  • Friedrich Schulz: Service group GCLO, GSO - A German post-war trilogy . Ed .: Association of the German Service Organizations, Bonn 1956
  • Udo Wetzlaugk: The allied protective powers in Berlin . Ed .: State Center for Political Education Berlin, 1982
  • Heinz-Ludger Borgert, Walter Stürm, Norbert Wiggershaus : Service Groups and West German Defense Contribution - Preliminary Considerations for Arming the Federal Republic of Germany . Boppard on the Rhine, 1982
  • Robert Corbett : Berlin and the British Ally 1945–1990, 1991
  • Volker Koop : Occupied - British occupation policy in Germany . be-bra, 2007, ISBN 978-3-89809-076-6 .
  • Michael Bienert , Uwe Schaper , Andrea Theissen: The Four Powers in Berlin . Volume 9. Landesarchiv Berlin, 2007, ISBN 978-3-9803303-0-5 .
  • Friedrich Jeschonnek, Dieter Riedel, William Durie: Allies in Berlin 1945–1994 . Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8305-0397-2 .
  • Jan Berwid-Buquoy: Jaroslav Hašek and his "good soldier Schwejk" . ReDiRoma-Verlag, Remscheid, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86870-250-7 .
  • Carsten Schanz: From the barracks to the educational campus . Ed .: The fountain. July 2015
  • Carsten Schanz: 248 German Security Unit in Berlin . Ed .: Royal Military Police Journal. April 2015, pp. 8–9.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BAOR Locations. Retrieved February 11, 2018 .
  2. ^ Friedrich Schulz: Service group GCLO, GSO - A German post-war trilogy . Ed .: Support Community of the German Service Organizations, Bonn. 2nd Edition. Part 1, 1956, OCLC 81344727 .
  3. ↑ Federal Government: Answer to Question No. 148 . In: Federal Chancellery, BK 4285/50 . March 6, 1951.
  4. ^ British Army of the Rhine: Formation of units: Watchmen's Service EU / 914/1 . October 18, 1950.
  5. ↑ Carsten Schanz: The short game in the Gordon block . In: GUARD REPORT . 5th year. Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., March 2015, p. 1-8 .
  6. ↑ Carsten Schanz: The 1950s: The difficult beginnings. In: Kameradschaft 248 GSU e. V. Accessed February 11, 2018 .
  7. ↑ British Troops Berlin (Ed.): ADMIN Instructions . Appendix G, Part 1.
  8. ^ Declaration about Berlin . GCBL, p. 335, May 5, 1955.
  9. ↑ Carsten Schanz: And they followed Caesar's footsteps . In: GUARD REPORT . Edition 64, 7th year. Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., January 2017, p. 1-8 .
  10. ^ Carsten Schanz: Naples German port commander . In: GUARD REPORT . Edition 65, 7th year. Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., February 2017, p. 1-6 .
  11. ↑ Carsten Schanz: With courage and vigilance . In: GUARD REPORT . Issue 66, 7th year. Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., March 2017, p. 1-9 .
  12. ^ German employees union, Berlin (ed.): Collective agreement for the employees of the German service organizations and work units (GSO and LSU) employed by the allied armed forces and authorities . October 31, 1956.
  13. ↑ Sir Robert Corbett: One Night Changes the World . In: GUARD REPORT . Issue 50, 5th year. Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., November 2015, p. 5-10 .
  14. ↑ Sir Robert Corbett: The Incredible Unity . In: GUARD REPORT . Issue 51, 5th year. Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., December 2015, p. 4-7 .
  15. ^ Social plan for civil workers dismissed for military reasons in the British armed forces in Berlin . 4th September 1992.
  16. ↑ Badges and symbols. In: Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit e. V. Accessed February 13, 2018 .
  17. ^ Friedrich Jeschonnek, Dieter Riedel, William Durie: Alliierte in Berlin 1945-1994 . 2nd Edition. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-8305-0397-2 , pp. 399 .
  18. ^ Matthias Berner: Uniformed men remove three anti-firing range posters . Ed .: Volksblatt Berlin. September 8, 1983.
  19. ^ Carsten Schanz: Mayor Dr. Hanke: "Where I can help, I'll do it" . In: GUARD REPORT . Comradeship 248 GSU e. V., July 2011, p. 1-2 .
  20. ↑ Letter from the Ministry of Defense, reference no. 2015-07-02T09: 53: 38: of July 30, 2015
  21. ↑ Communication from the Ministry of Defense, Army Secretariat, dated December 14, 2020 and from the British Embassy Berlin dated January 15, 2020
  22. ↑ The roll of honor was officially inaugurated. In: website of the Kameradschaft 248 GSU e. V. September 30, 2014, accessed March 10, 2018 .
  23. ^ Plaque of Honor solemnly unveiled. In: website of the Kameradschaft 248 GSU e. V. December 1, 2015, accessed March 8, 2018 .
  24. ↑ Zellmer meets British Foreign Secretary. In: website of the Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit e. V. July 24, 2018, accessed July 24, 2018 .
  25. ↑ First step: move to the Smuts Barracks. In: Kameradschaft 248 German Security Unit eV October 1, 2018, accessed on October 9, 2018 .
  26. ↑ HSE history needs to be corrected. In: GSU History. February 9, 2020, accessed on February 11, 2020 (German).
  27. ↑ What it is about. In: GSU History website. November 4, 2019, accessed November 4, 2019 .