Saar battalion
The Saarbataillon was a Saarland police force from 1946 to 1955.
history
The Saar battalion was set up in Saarbrücken in April 1946 by order of the French military governor Gilbert Grandval . The formation was affiliated with the Saarland gendarmerie and was intended as a militarily organized force; However, this project was abandoned again soon after the establishment. Instead, the Saar battalion was set up as a tightly managed riot police .
The battalion was 200 men in two companies ; The unit was equipped like a military with carbines and the associated bayonets and machine guns .
In addition to maintaining internal order, the troops' tasks included security services and representation and protocol tasks . The Saar battalion provided the posts for the official seats of Grandval and the Saarland Minister-President Johannes Hoffmann and formations of honor for official occasions.
After 1950 the Saar battalion was often used by the Saarland government to combat demonstrations and to break up events that were directed against the separation of the Saarland from Germany and which were therefore viewed as unconstitutional. The harshness and violence that were used by the unit led to a pronounced aversion to the Saar battalion in large parts of the Saarland population. During the election campaign in the run-up to the referendum on the Saar Statute in the summer of 1955, the Saar battalion was deployed against rallies by opponents of the Statute and the Hoffmann government.
After the rejection of the Saar Statute, and in view of the looming return of the Saar in German territory the Saar Battalion was initially in the on October 27th, 1955 Police training inspection converted, on September 13, then the riot police department .
Uniformity
The Saar battalion was not yet in uniform at the time of its formation; It was not until 1947 that the unit received khaki uniforms, which stood out from the gray of the Saarland gendarmerie and the dark blue of the state police due to their military-style coloring. In 1952 the khaki was abandoned and uniform dark blue uniforms were introduced for all police forces in the Saarland.
A peaked cap in the color of a uniform was worn as headgear ; a painted steel helmet with an aluminum comb based on the French police helmets pattern was used.
literature
- Heinrich Schneider : The miracle on the Saar . Seewald-Verlag Stuttgart, 1974. ISBN 3-512-00350-8
- Karl Albrecht: The development of the Saarland police since 1945 , 1951 ( PDF )