Security Police (Weimar Republic)

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Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H29544, Berlin-Wedding, police raid
Bundesarchiv Bild 102-02699, Berlin, Red Front Fighters Day

The Security Police ( SiPo or Sipo ) was a paramilitary German police force that was set up in most of the countries of the Weimar Republic at the end of 1919 and was largely financed by the Reich . It was the first German barracked police force and the forerunner of today's riot police .

Lineup

The state security police were set up in most of the German states at the end of 1919 and were operational by mid-1920.

In view of the unstable internal political situation with conditions similar to civil war, especially in the capital of Berlin, Captain Waldemar Pabst of the Guard Cavalry Rifle Corps considered a barracked and militarily armed and trained police force necessary. It should be a more useful tool in counterinsurgency than the existing police force inherited from the monarchy. During the March fighting in Berlin on March 10, 1919 , Pabst sent a corresponding concept to the Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske , who approved the plan and, together with Wolfgang Heine , promoted its implementation. According to Noske's will, the police force created in this way was also to form the core of the new Reichswehr .

On September 8, 1919, 2500 police officers from all over Germany demonstrated with the Reich Association of the German Police against the construction of the Sipo.

Hunter patrol. Painting by Richard Knötel around 1910

In contrast to the conventional police on duty, who usually wore blue uniforms, the Sipo was also called the "green police" after the color of the uniform. The gray-green uniform largely corresponded to the uniform of the army's hunter troops . A special external feature was the shako, also adopted by the hunters, as headgear.

Conversion and reorganization

As early as 1920, the security police were disbanded due to French protests and, depending on the country, either the Schutzpolizei (Schupo; in the Free State of Prussia , Saxony and Württemberg), the State Police, such as the Bavarian State Police in the Free State of Bavaria or the Ordnungspolizei (Orpo; in Hamburg , Oldenburg Order Police in the Free State of Oldenburg , Lübeck , Anhalt, Baden, Mecklenburg-Schwerin). In Hesse the term Security Police was retained, in Mecklenburg-Strelitz the Security Police was renamed the State Police, in Thuringia the term Landespolizei was used (from 1931 also Schutzpolizei), in the Republic of Baden the term group police .

The employment relationships were initially regulated by the Reich Law on the Protective Police of the Länder of July 17, 1922, which was repealed by the law of July 10, 1926.

France feared covert rearmament and saw the new force as a threat to its national security. The planned aviation component of some security police had to be given up again, and artillery and tanks were also prohibited. France explicitly insisted on the abolition of the green uniform, since this was understood as camouflage clothing, which is what it was. As a result, a blue uniform was introduced in most of the federal states (Prussia, Hamburg, Baden, Hesse, Thuringia, Oldenburg, Braunschweig, Lippe); only Bavaria, Württemberg, Mecklenburg and Bremen received skirts in dark green color. The trousers were mostly black or black and blue. The Saxon variant was particularly noticeable with a rather light medium blue color. However, it sometimes took years until the uniforms were completed, as the uniforms that had already been purchased had to be used up for the Sipo. The steel helmets were generally abolished and only issued again around 1930. The terms "Sipo" and "green police" were popular, but also in the authorities until the end of the barracked police forces in the federal states in 1935.

Strength, training, equipment and armament

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12319, Brandenburg an der Havel, Police School
Bundesarchiv Bild 102-11946, Berlin, protection police, exercise

Personnel strength of the protection and order police in 1929 (the total figures result from the inclusion of the strengths of the federal gendarmerie and the local police force):

country Protection or order police candidate Police overall
Free State of Prussia 52.905 2.016 91,177
Free State of Bavaria 9.131 No 13,549
Free State of Saxony 6,755 328 12,657
People's State of Württemberg 2,823 467 04,782
Republic of Baden 3,327 124 04,988
People's State of Hesse 2,000 200 03,170
Hamburg 4,100 No 04,782
Bremen 2,086 100 02,345
Lübeck 431 16 518
Free State of Oldenburg 375 20th 555
Free State of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 900 60 01,136
Free State of Braunschweig 570 30th 941
Free State of Thuringia 1,094 175 02,804
Free State of Anhalt 260 40 368
Free State of Lippe 15th No 70

The training of the Orpo / Schupo was paramilitary tailored to the so-called police fight, but at the same time the officers were also prepared for work in individual duty. In Hamburg and in the city of Oldenburg, the officers also performed most of the duty in the area. The period of service was, similar to the Reichswehr, 12 years. The transfer to the local police or gendarmerie was by no means guaranteed, although a transfer to the administrative service was generally planned. However, at the latest with the global economic crisis of 1929, this could no longer be achieved, as all countries had to cut staff.

Police special car Ehrhardt 21 around 1921

The equipment and armament was designed entirely for combat use against heavily armed insurgents. Depending on the size of the country, Orpo / Schupo had a diverse number of so-called special vehicles , i.e. H. Police tanks , mostly of the Daimler DZVR 21 or Ehrhardt / 21 model , which were usually equipped with two towers each with a machine gun. Machine guns, carbines and machine pistols were part of the equipment, as were hand grenades. All training, equipment and armament were aimed at civil war-like use in both large cities and the open countryside.

Calls

Federal archive Image 183-K0105-0601-004, March fights in Central Germany, Eisleben

The most important missions of the Orpo / Schupo were the Ruhr uprising as a result of the Kapp Putsch in April 1920, the Central German uprising in March / April 1921 and the Hamburg uprising in October 1923, some of which were initiated by the KPD . From 1929 until the so-called "seizure of power" by the National Socialists , the barracked police forces were almost uninterrupted in action to protect or break up demonstrations and secure political events.

The development from 1933

Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10811, Berlin, securing a session of the Reichstag

The National Socialist concept of the People's State originally envisaged only a very weak police force. Like the communists, the National Socialists saw in the barracked police forces a kind of Praetorian Guard of the democratic parties, especially the SPD in Prussia, which was continuously involved in government there from 1919 to 1932. In addition, the Hitler putsch on November 9, 1923 in Munich was suppressed by the intervention of the Bavarian state police . In 1933, the conversion of the previous Orpo / Schupo into state police (Lapo) began. From August 1934 (first in Anhalt, Braunschweig and Oldenburg) until the end of 1935 these were also dissolved and integrated into the Wehrmacht that was now established .

literature

  • Peter Leßmann-Faust: The Prussian protection police in the Weimar Republic: patrol service and street fighting , Frankfurt am Main (publishing house for police science) 2012. ISBN 978-3-86676-196-4 .
  • Christian Knatz: "An army in a green skirt"? The Central German uprising in 1921, the Prussian protection police and the question of internal security in the Weimar Republic , Berlin (Duncker & Humblot) 2000. ISBN 3-428-09898-6 .
  • Lothar Danner : Hamburg order police. Reflections on its history 1919-1933 , Hamburg 1958.
  • Klaus Gietinger : "Der Konterrevolutionär", Hamburg 2009, pp. 167–170.
  • Wilhelm Hartenstein: The combat deployment of the police in the event of internal unrest , Charlottenburg 1926.
  • Heinrich Lankenau : Memorandum on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Oldenburg Ordnungspolizei , Oldenburg 1929.
  • Ludwig Renn : Postwar , Vienna / Berlin 1930.
  • Hellmuth Witt: Additions Lothar Danner: Ordnungspolizei Hamburg , Hamburg 1985.
  • Siegfried Zaika: Police history: The executive in the light of previous conflict research: Investigations into the theory and practice of the Prussian protection police in the Weimar Republic to prevent and combat internal unrest , Lübeck 1979.
  • Daniel Schmidt: No commissioners. Prussian police officers between soldierly self-image and police professionalism 1919 to 1935 , in: Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift , Vol. 69, 2010, No. 1, pp. 37–58.
  • Helmut Rettinghaus: Legacy and Mission. Police rider units Germany then and now. Historical development of mounted police units in Germany from 1600 to the present day , Langen / Hessen (Rettinghaus) 2010. ISBN 978-300-02835-5-0 .
  • Georg Tessin : German associations and troops 1918-1939. Old army. Volunteer associations. Reichswehr. Army. Air force. State Police , Osnabrück 1974.
  • Hans-Joachim Neufeldt, Jürgen Huck , Georg Tessin: On the history of the Ordnungspolizei 1936-1945 , Koblenz ( Federal Archives ) 1957 (printed as a manuscript).
  • Erwin B. Boldt: The reform that was given away. The reconstruction of the Hamburg police between the Weimar tradition and the requirements of the British occupation forces 1945 - 1955 , Münster a. a. (Lit) 2002. ISBN 3-8258-5945-2 .
  • Bernhard Schreiber: The security forces in the Republic of Baden 1918–1933. From the People's Army to the Unified Police, Glottertal 2002. ISBN 978-3-00-009614-3 .
  • Johannes Schwarze: The Bavarian police and their historical function in maintaining public security in Bavaria from 1919–1933 , Munich (Wölfle) 1977. ISBN 3-87913-081-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Gietinger, "Der Konterrevolutionär", Hamburg 2009, pp. 167–169.
  2. ↑ Klaus Gietinger, "Der Konterrevolutionär", Hamburg 2009, p. 168.
  3. ↑ Klaus Gietinger, "Der Konterrevolutionär", Hamburg 2009, p. 169.
  4. ^ Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 597 ff., Link
  5. ↑ RGBl. 1926, Part I, p. 402, link
  6. ↑ On the term Praetorian Guard cf. Leßmann-Faust, Die Prussische Schutzpolizei , p. 70.