Customs officer (occupation)

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Uniform of a Roman customs guard ( Beneficarius ) - reconstruction in the German Customs Museum

The occupation of the customs officer (regionally also called Mautner ) is one of the oldest known occupations and is already known from the Bible .

history

Wherever there is an orderly community, tax collectors also appear. Most tax collectors were unpopular among the citizens, being on arrangement of the respective state power the taxes exacted or other compulsory charges.

Roman antiquity and the Bible

In the Roman Empire , taxes and duties (border duty, market duty) in the provinces were not collected directly by the state, but rather the state leased the areas to individual customs tenants (Latin publicani ), who had them collected by sub-officials (the customs officers - Greek τελώνης) which one took from the local population. The tenants had to deliver a fixed sum to the state, so that the state can reduce the risk e.g. B. could shift bad harvests on this. It was therefore obvious that the tenants and customs officers would demand more than was necessary or even allowed in order to generate surpluses from the income. So they were hated and despised and denied their civil rights, e.g. B. they were not admitted as witnesses in court.

John the Baptist advised the tax collectors: “Do not ask for more than is prescribed for you!” ( Lk 3:12, 13  LU ). The obligation to pay taxes to the Roman authorities was a constant nuisance to the Jews. Those charged with collecting taxes were deemed unworthy of any recognition. Therefore, in the New Testament, “tax collectors and sinners” are often mentioned as one unit.

middle Ages

With the end of the Roman Empire, customs law passed to the Frankish and later to the German kings. The medieval tariffs were internal tariffs that were levied when passing certain customs posts on land or waterways or in public markets. Other professional groups such as millers , bakers or the craft professions had the right and the duty to appear as a collector of government taxes.

Modern

From the 1930s to 2001 training in so-called customs schools took place in Germany . In 1935, on the initiative of the State Secretary for Finance, Fritz Reinhardt , the establishment of customs schools, at which border officials were also trained, began. Until then, the customs officers had been trained in the departments, which should now be centralized and standardized. The training system and the appointment of teachers was directed by Reinhardt, who sometimes gave lessons in the schools himself. The schools were administratively subordinate to the respective Chief Finance President, the State Secretary was responsible for all other questions.

present

Today customs officers are permanent employees of the customs authorities of the respective country. They are often also civil servants, such as the German customs officers of the Federal Customs Administration . You are occupied with a variety of original and assigned tasks, primarily customs controls , the collection of taxes and duties , observation and / or protection of national borders ( border supervision and border protection ), prevention and prosecution of smuggling , e.g. B. from cigarettes, consumer electronics and drugs. A specially trained dog team is often used to detect drugs. The training of customs officers in Germany takes place today through the education and science center of the Federal Finance Administration .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b J. Jeremias, Zöllner und Sünder, p. 2. Digital Library Volume 12: Religion in Past and Present, p. 36196 (see RGG Vol. 6, p. 1928) (c) JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck)
  2. ↑ Peter Lichtenberger: ECONOMY - The Roman tax system - The customs system in the Roman Empire - The tariff collection. In: imperium-romanum.com. Retrieved on February 5, 2018 : “The collection of customs duties was already in the hands of publicani (tax tenants) in Republican times. This method saved the Roman state from having to maintain an army of tax officials. "
  3. ^ A b c Fritz Rienecker, Gerhard Maier, Alexander Schick, Ulrich Wendel: Lexicon for the Bible . R.Brockhaus, Witten 2013, ISBN 978-3-417-26550-7 , Zöllner, p. 1295 .
  4. ↑ Tax collector. In: Bible Lexicon. bibelkommentare.de, accessed on March 1, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b The medieval and early modern customs system. In: Tax Museum / Financial History Collection Museum Guide. Federal Ministry of Finance, December 9, 2010, accessed on January 17, 2018 .
  6. ↑ People eat where customs officers once held their hands. In: RP ONLINE. RP Digital GmbH, July 7, 2017, accessed on January 17, 2018 : “Customs house 1257 in Monheim used to monitor goods traffic on the Rhine. [...] Because it was important in the Middle Ages to keep an eye on the Rhine in order to collect lucrative tariffs for the flourishing freedom of Monheim, the customs station at that time was built directly on the river. "
  7. ↑ Customs Border Guard - History & Background. In: zoll Grenzschutz.de. Customs Border Guard, 2020, accessed March 4, 2020 .
  8. ↑ New duties for customs. In: Collections. Zollmuseum Friedrichs, accessed on January 18, 2018 .
  9. ^ Vera Vester: Stories of a customs officer in the border museum. In: Schleswig-Holstein Magazin. NDR , February 6, 2020, accessed on March 1, 2020 .