People's Police Union
The Union of the People's Police (GdVP) was a union formed at the beginning of 1990 for members of the People's Police , the fire brigade , the penal system and the Interior Ministry of the GDR under the umbrella of the FDGB .
Since August 1, 1948, police officers in the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR were no longer allowed to organize themselves independently. Existing union memberships had to be suspended for the duration of the employment relationship, new union memberships could not be entered into. Civilian employees of the People's Police, on the other hand, were able to organize themselves in the Union of Employees of State Bodies and Local Services (MSK), a member union of the FDGB.
In the course of the political turnaround in the GDR in autumn 1989, there were initiatives in various areas of the German People's Police (DVP) and the fire brigade, which is also subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior, as well as the penal system, and on December 10, 1989 a coordinating group "New beginning of trade unions" active throughout the GDR " educated. The aim of the spontaneous amalgamations was to create a professional representation in the People's Police and the other branches of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR (fire brigade, penal system, ministerial administration, Dynamo sports organization, educational institutions). The people's police reacted to increasing professional insecurity and social criticism because of their system-supporting role in the GDR.
After the agreement was reached on January 15, 1990 between the Minister of the Interior, Lothar Ahrendt , and the MSK trade union, the immediate abolition of the restraint of police union membership, the People's Police Union (GdVP) was formed at a founding conference in Berlin of the umbrella organization FDGB and organized around 83,000 members. On the 1st Ordinary Delegates Day of the GdVP on March 31, 1990, a board was elected for the first time under the chairmanship of the Berlin patrolman Guido Grützemann. After the conclusion of the unification treaty, an extraordinary congress decided to dissolve the GdVP on September 30, 1990 in view of the reunification and the associated sovereignty over police issues and the dissolution of the FDGB. The assets of the GdVP were placed under the liquidation sovereignty of the Independent Commission to review the assets of the parties and mass organizations of the GDR and later flowed into the districts of the Police Union (GdP) in the accession area, which were founded after reunification . The majority of the members of the GdVP also joined the GdP after reunification.