Border guard of the GDR

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The border guard of the GDR was a police border guard organization set up under the de Maizière government in 1990 at the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR , which was incorporated into the Federal Border Guard (BGS) when the two German states were reunified .

History of origin

Beginning in January 1990 gave the then Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR , Hans Modrow , the instruction to establish a "border guards of the GDR" while reducing the border troops of the GDR by 50 percent of the workforce to 28,000 men, including the date of the NVA assumed 6th Border Brigade Coast and the Passport Control Unit (PKE) of Main Department VI of the MfS . On April 2, 1990, the Minister for National Defense , Admiral Theodor Hoffmann , issued the order No. 46/90 for the formation of the "Border Guard of the GDR". After the formation of the first freely elected government of the GDR, in connection with the entry into force of the " currency, economic and social union " between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic on July 1, 1990 with Order No. 10/90 of the Minister for Disarmament and Defense , Rainer Eppelmann , dated June 26, 1990 “the measures of border surveillance and the control of cross-border traffic” on the inner-German border and in Berlin against residents. At the same time, the militarily organized border troops of the GDR were subordinated to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Peter-Michael Diestel , for the ongoing controls at the borders with the Republic of Poland , ČSFR , the sea borders and airports . At the same time, Eppelmann ordered members of the border troops to be formed from July 1, 1990 under the responsibility of the head of the border troops of the GDR under the direction of the interior minister to form a "GDR border guard". The border guard offices that had been established had to be gradually handed over to the Minister of the Interior. On July 5, 1990, the deputy prime minister and minister of the interior of the GDR, Peter-Michael Diestel, issued an order on the basis of a "resolution of the Council of Ministers on the further formation, management and deployment of the GDR's border guards" in the ministry's area of ​​responsibility of the interior to form a “main border protection department” and to form a police border protection with approx. 7000 positions for police officers and approx. 1000 positions for administrative staff. The first chief of this police border guard was the last interior minister of the GDR government under Modrow and later advisor to Diestels, Inspector General Lothar Ahrendt , and the first chief of staff was the former deputy chief of the staff of the border troops, Frithjof Banisch .

With the “Law on the Tasks and Powers of the Police” of September 13, 1990, this border guard was assigned the task of guarding the external borders of the GDR as a new part of the Ministry of the Interior.

Structure of the border guards of the GDR

In anticipation of the reunification of the two German states and with the advisory influence of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, especially Ulrich Kersten , the establishment and organization of the police border guard in the GDR was already closely aligned with the Federal Border Guard of the Federal Republic of Germany. The main directorate of the border guards of the GDR in Berlin, which is affiliated to the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, with around 250 members, was subordinate to:

Personnel of the border guards of the GDR

Sleeve badge

According to the stipulations of the Interior Ministry, the border guard posts were to be advertised for applicants from the German People's Police, the border troops of the GDR and the GDR customs administration, whereby only 75 percent of the posts had to be filled in order to fill the other posts with officials from the Federal Border Guard (BGS ) to occupy. For these tenders published in July 1990, the GDR Interior Ministry issued recruitment criteria that were coordinated with the Federal Ministry of the Interior. It stipulated that "no members [...] of the border troops, insofar as they are involved in the killing or injury of people through the use of firearms in the border service, [...] will be employed". The selection of the applicants was incumbent on the personnel selection commissions of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, which also had to monitor compliance with the selection criteria. Around 3,500 members of the border troops were selected for border protection in the GDR by September 1990. The members of the NVA and the border troops selected from the area of ​​the Minister for Disarmament and Defense for border protection were released from active military service and signed a new service contract with the border protection of the GDR, usually with lower service titles for the German People's Police. In addition, there were around 1800 members of the transport police entrusted with the railway police tasks in the GDR , around 1200 members of the passport control units of the former Main Department VI of the MfS and 200 former members of the MfS from other service units (e.g. counter-terrorism, personal protection) and in the way about 60 members of the railway police of the Deutsche Reichsbahn from the western part of Berlin who were not GDR citizens. Furthermore, former members of the customs administration (especially at the border crossings and airports, where they were entrusted with the control of air traffic safety), as well as members of the riot police of the Ministry of the Interior and the operational security commandos of the People's Police at the airports, were hired into the border guard Criminal Police, the NVA (especially helicopter pilots, technicians and members of the navy for maritime surveillance) and various civilian employees were selected. The uniform consisted of the uniform of the German People's Police with the shield-shaped sleeve patch "Grenzschutz".

Transfer to federal jurisdiction

In the unification treaty , the governments of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany agreed that the border guards of the GDR would become federal responsibility and that the employment relationships of the members of the border guards of the GDR would continue to apply to the federal government from October 3, 1990. Already in the development phase, the Federal Government monitored the establishment of the border protection very closely with the help of advisers at the GDR Interior Ministry. The personnel and structure of the border guards in the GDR were completely taken over by the Federal Border Guard (BGS) on October 3, 1990. The East Border Guard was made independent as part of the BGS's riot police, was assigned the air squadrons and outsourced the management of the border guard departments to the East Border Guard, the GDR border guard flotilla was affiliated to the BGS See and the border guard offices were subordinate to the Koblenz Border Guard Directorate. The previous main border protection department in Berlin became a branch of the Koblenz border protection department.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Ritter / Peter Joachim Lapp, The Border: A German Building, Links, Berlin 2009, p. 140
  2. ↑ cf. Klaus Froh: The generals and admirals of the NVA. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2003, p. 284
  3. ↑ GDR GBl. I 1990, p. 1989
  4. ↑ Volker Koop, Excluded - The Fall of the GDR Border Troops, Brandenburgisches Verl.-Haus, Berlin 1993, pp. 55 and 176
  5. ↑ Jürgen Ritter / Peter Joachim Lapp, The Border: A German Building, Berlin 2009, p. 143
  6. ^ Written report from the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Eduard Lintner, to the Bundestag member Joachim Clemens (CDU) from May 14, 1993
  7. ↑ Unification Agreement of August 31, 1990, Article 13 Paragraph 2, Federal Law Gazette II p. 885, 1055
  8. ↑ Unification Agreement of August 31, 1990, Annex I, Chapter XIX, Subject A, Section III, Item 1, Federal Law Gazette II p. 885, 1055