Reich water protection
The Reichswasserschutz ( RWS ) formed the water protection police of the German Reich from 1919 until its dissolution in 1931 and was the first unified police authority at all. It was subordinate to the Reich Ministry of the Interior from 1919 to 1922 and then to the Reich Minister of Transport until it was dissolved . Personnel and material largely came from the Imperial Navy . After the dissolution, by far the largest part of the RWS was taken over by the Prussian Police . The establishment of the RWS went back to Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske .
founding
Little is known about the founding or history of the RWS; apparently he emerged from units of the Provisional Imperial Navy. It was formally founded on October 1, 1919. Structurally, the RWS was based on the security police (s) . Regarding the history, "Westermanns Police Atlas" noted in 1928:
(After 1919) a number of voluntary motorboat flotillas were created after the end of the war in order to combat the crime that was also occurring on the water at that time and to create a special police supervisory authority to deal with the increase in traffic and sport on inland waters and on the coasts.
Westermann's Police Atlas , Braunschweig 1928, quoted from Fox / Meyer, p. 277
The first head of the RWS was from October 1, 1919, Captain Walter Isendahl (born September 10, 1872, declared dead April 30, 1945). The official seat was Berlin W 66, Wilhelmstrasse 91-66, in the building of the former Prussian War Ministry . Isendahl initially remained in the (Provisional) Imperial Navy , but left there on April 7, 1920 with the character of Rear Admiral . Isendahl had been chief of the intelligence department of the Admiral's staff , the German naval intelligence service , from 1913 to early 1918 . At his own request, he resigned from service in the Reich on April 30, 1922. His successor was former corvette captain Karl Schneider as police chief sergeant in the RWS until the RWS was dissolved, whose rank was converted to police lieutenant colonel in the RWS in 1927 .
tasks
The RWS had the following tasks:
- Maintaining order and security on the waterways and on the coast.
- Preventing pushing and smuggling .
- Preventing arms and other shifts in favor of internal and external enemies.
- Prevention of asset shifts.
- Fisheries protection .
- Support of the state police and the Reichswehr .
In the coastal areas he was responsible within the three-mile zone . Although a Reich authority, he worked in close cooperation with local and regional police authorities on their behalf, e. B. the port police . He was not allowed in the occupied West German territories ; the Prussian Rhine Police were active there.
organization
In 1919 the RWS had a workforce of approx. 2150 men with a fleet of 229 steam and motor boats as well as 56 tug boats and rowing boats. In 1928 the RWS was structured as follows:
RWS management (Berlin W 66, Wilhelmstrasse 91–96, staffing 1919 20 civil servants)
Districts and subordinate commands:
- Mark (seat in Potsdam , commands in Berlin-Baumschulenweg , Wittenberge , Magdeburg as well as lock posts in Brandenburg , Oranienburg and Wernsdorf )
- East Prussia (headquarters in Königsberg , commandos in Königsberg, Tilsit , Elbing and Pillau )
- Unterweser - Ems (seat in Bremen , commands in Bremen and Emden )
- Schleswig - Lower Elbe (seat in Kiel , commands in Kiel-Holtenau , Hamburg and Brunsbüttelkoog )
- Upper Oder (seat in Breslau , commandos in Breslau, Kogel and Glogau )
- Unter-Oder (Headquarters Stettin , Command in Stettin)
- Ober-Weser (seat in Minden , command in Minden)
- Upper Elbe (seat in Dresden , commands in Dresden and Riesa )
Individual commands with several motor boats were subordinate to the district authorities.
In 1924 the Reich Water Protection Police School was set up in Berlin-Spandau to train the sergeants . The RWS officers were trained at the Higher Police School in Eiche near Potsdam, which was subordinate to the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. Between 1923 and 1932, 21 RWS officers were trained there. The successor to the RWS Police School was the Prussian Water Police School in Stettin, the successor of which is today's Water Police School in Hamburg.
Uniform, ranks, armament, official flag, official vehicles
The RWS initially wore a field-gray uniform with blue, white-rimmed collar flaps with an anchor and the letters "RWS". It was replaced by a blue uniform (dark blue uniform skirt with blue, white rimmed collar flaps with anchor button, black trousers and dark blue cap) in the context of the change in uniform of the security police (es) in 1921/22 and thus resembled the uniform of the Prussian security police. In summer a light khaki summer uniform was permitted. The hat cockade consisted of a black imperial eagle on a yellow background on a blue field with a white border.
The original naval ranks were converted into police ranks by the takeover of RWS by the Reich Ministry of Transport in 1922, e.g. B. Lieutenant at sea in Police Lieutenant or Maate in Wachtmeister. The rank badges corresponded to those of the Prussian Police.
The armament of the RWS consisted of truncheons , side guns , pistols , carbines , submachine guns , hand grenades and heavy machine guns .
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As the service flag , the floating units carried the service flag of the sea of the German Reich.
Service vehicles
The RWS service vehicles initially consisted almost exclusively of smaller units of the Imperial Navy such as B. the former submarine destroyer UZ 14 , which served as Tilsit 19 in the RWS from 1924 to 1927 . Former units of the Imperial Navy were:
Shallow mine clearing boats:
F 7 - 1920 RWS, March 31, 1931 - 1939 Aegir naval school boat, September 1939: R 113
F 10 - 1920 RWS, 1926 RM traffic boat Wilhelmshaven, ...
F 11 - 1920 RWS, March 31, 1931 - 1945 Naval training boat Odin.
F 14 - 1920 RWS, 1925 police boat in Bremen, ...
F 15 - 1920 RWS, 1928 ...
F 17 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1935, ...
F 20 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1931, sold
F 21 - 1920 RWS, 1928 ...
F 23 - 1920 RWS, 1931 police boat in Altona, ...
F 25 - 1920 RWS, 1929 police boat in Spandau, ...
F 27 - 1920 RWS, ...
F 34 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1928, sold
F 37 - 1920 RWS, 1940 harbor protection H 532
F 39 - 1920 RWS, 1929 retired, sold (Schlichting, Travemünde, no.?, 1917, 17.5 m mine clearing boat)
F 43 - 1920 RWS, 1939 harbor protection H 107
F 44 - 1920 RWS, 1928 ...
F 46 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1931, sold
F 47 - 1920 RWS, 1928 ...
F 52 - 1920 RWS, 1928 RM Verkehrsboot Nordholz in Cuxhaven, decommissioned in 1931, sold
F 53 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1928, sold
F 55 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1932, sold
F 58 - 1920 RWS, still in service in 1925, ...
F 60 - 1920 RWS, still in service in 1925, ...
F 61 - 1920 RWS, still in service in 1931, ...
F 62 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1931, sold
F 66 - 1924 RM traffic boat Pollux in Wilhelmshaven, 1932 retired, sold
F 68 - 1922 retired, sold
F 70 - 1920 RWS, 1931 police boat in Stettin, ...
F 71 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1931, sold
F 72 - 1924 RM traffic boat Castor, retired in 1932, sold
F 73 - 1924 RM traffic boat Sirius in Cuxhaven, ...
F 75 - 1924 RM traffic boat in Cuxhaven, 1926 ...
Fast motor boats with airship engines :
LM 27 - 1922 RWS, 1926 RM conversion UZ S 16, retired in 1930 and sold
LM 28 - 1922 RWS, 1926 RM conversion UZ S 17, retired in 1930 and sold
Submarine destroyer:
UZ 1 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1928, sold
UZ 2 - 1920 RWS, ...
UZ 3 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1922, sold
UZ 11 - 1920 RWS, 1926 still in service, ...
UZ 13 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1923, handed over to customs authorities
UZ 14 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1924, handed over to customs authorities
UZ 17 - 1920 RWS, ...
UZ 18 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1927, handed over to SA
UZ 19 - 1920 RWS, 1927 ...
UZ 20 - 1920 RWS, retired in 1923, handed over to the Nazi sports association
resolution
The RWS was dissolved due to the "Ordinance on the Dissolution of Reich Water Protection" of March 26, 1931, signed by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and Reich Minister of Transport Theodor von Guérard . The background was Prussian efforts in the Reichsrat to take over the RWS. By taking over most of the staff and the real estate, Prussia received its own water police, which was apparently "transferred" in 1937.
Movie
- In 1927 he made the eight-minute documentary The Reich Water Protection as Police on the Water .
literature
- The Reich water protection: 1919–1921 , o. O. 1921.
- Werner Fox / Günther Meyer: The Reich Water Protection (RWS). Eine Weimarer Episode , Hamburg (self-published by the authors) 1994.