Customs border protection

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ZGS epaulette pad until 1945 (RFV = Reich Finance Administration )

The Customs Border Guard (ZGS) was responsible for guarding the borders of the German Reich and the borders of most of the occupied territories from 1937 to 1945 .

prehistory

Until the end of the German Empire in 1918, each federal state was independently responsible for guarding the borders and collecting customs duties within the framework of the rules and principles of the German Customs Union . After the loss of the First World War and the high reparation payments as a result of the Versailles Treaty of 1919, a uniform and essentially centralized financial administration was established for the first time during the Weimar Republic with the Erzberger financial reform . With this, the collection of customs and border guards were standardized and subordinated to the divisions of the Reich Finance Administration (RFV) as customs border service (ZGD). Large countries like Bavaria and Prussia had their own border police even then.

founding

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, the tasks and structures of the customs border service remained untouched for the time being. By 1936 Heinrich Himmler , the Reichsführer SS , had risen to become "Chief of the German Police". From the end of 1936 he tried to get control of the ZGD. Himmler used the police and the SS to investigate the border in order to obtain information about strength, organization and equipment.

On March 20, 1937, the Reich Ministry of Finance (RFM) received a telex with an invitation from the Prussian Prime Minister Hermann Göring to a ministerial meeting on March 22, 1937. The topic was the security of the state, especially the guarding of the borders. Those involved in the RFM suspected that Himmler was reaching for the ZGD, with the fact that only a few days before the head of the customs department at the RFM had died unexpectedly. In a short period of time, documents were compiled and the Chief Financial Officer of Brandenburg, Johannes Hoßfeld , appointed General Inspector of Customs Border Protection. This was the first time the name Customs Border Guard was used.

During the meeting it turned out that Himmler had given false information about the ZGD, whereupon Göring refused to be subordinate to the SS, but stipulated that the SS border police should have more rights at the borders. This created a duality that lasted almost until the end of the war.

In 1937 the ZGS was reorganized, new guidelines were drawn up and new uniforms issued. In 1938/39 the ZGS took part in the occupation of Austria , the Sudetenland, the " rest of the Czech Republic " and the Memelland . In 1939 the Customs Border Guard Decoration was donated.

War effort

A chief customs officer of the French Customs Border Guard (left) in February 1944

During the war , the ZGS was used from 1939 in most of the occupied countries to guard the borders and fight smuggling. The largest foreign administrations arose in occupied France with around 10,000 men and in the Polish General Government with around 7,000 men at the beginning. The ZGS offices followed the campaigns in Scandinavia, against Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. At this point in time, however, the use of customs gave way to more and more military tasks. The ZGS was used to guard militarily and economically important facilities, as a listening post and sometimes also at the front. After Italy had left the Axis powers in 1943 , the ZGS was also active there.

The ZGS increasingly had to hand over personnel to the Wehrmacht . The resulting gaps were filled from the so-called ethnic German population groups or with members of the cohorts born before 1900. These men were grouped together under the name of the reinforced border inspection service or customs border guard reserve .

The ZGS was increasingly attacked by partisans in all operational areas from around mid-1943 . This led to a partly fortress-like expansion of the accommodations and equipment with machine weapons.

After the assassination attempt on July 20, 1944 , Hitler placed the ZGS under the control of the SS . Within a few months, ZGS executives were replaced by police or SS forces. This succeeded almost completely in the Reich, in the foreign administrations only in a few cases. From November 1944, the pushed back customs border guards were grouped into battalions and deployed in combat on the Eastern Front in Bohemia / Silesia and on the Western Front. The mostly militarily barely trained or outdated units suffered high losses and were quickly wiped out. On May 2, 1945, the ZGS was again subordinated to the Reich Ministry of Finance.

structure

Epaulets of the general ranks of the customs border guard

The Customs Border Guard was not an independent organization within the Reich Finance Administration, but a conceptual amalgamation of various departments. The inspector general also only had the right to give instructions on border issues. Only the district customs commissariats and the border inspection posts were referred to as customs border guards in the strict sense. It had the following structure:

  • Reich Finance Minister
    • State Secretary
      • General Inspector of Customs Border Guard
    • Oberfinanzpräsident (command post or main command post abroad)
      • Head of Customs Department
        • Head of border department
      • Head of the main customs office (command post abroad)
        • Head of the District Customs Office
          • Head of the Border Inspectorate

Motor vehicle flags for tax and customs officials

On August 22, 1939, members of the Reich Finance Administration were allowed to use their own motor vehicle flags. The stands had to be attached to the left fender, while it was allowed to set the Reich Service flag on the right . All flags had an inch green ground cloth. The inch eagle, which had a special shape, and the braids were either gold or aluminum in color. The following flags were introduced:

  • 1

  • 2

  • 3

  • 4th

  • 5

  • 6th

  • 7th

  • 8th

1 = Minister, 25 × 25 cm, wing width of the eagle 18 cm, golden braids 16 and 4.5 mm wide
2 = State Secretary, like ministers, but without the 4.5 mm wide braid
3 = Inspector General of Customs Border Guard and Ministerial Directors of the Personnel Departments - and administrative matters, 20 × 30 cm, wing width of the eagle 18 cm, braid 16 mm wide
4 = chief finance president in upper financial districts with border, like general inspector, but braid 10 mm wide
5 = finance president in upper financial district with border, wing width of the eagle 18 cm, weft 15 mm wide, all aluminum-colored
6 = border officers, like finance presidents, but weft 8 mm wide
7 = chief customs officer (border), pennant 20 × 30 cm, wing width of the eagle 14 cm, weft 8 mm wide
8 = district customs officer (border), like chief customs officer , but weft 4.5 mm wide

After the war

After the end of the war in 1945 , the customs border guard was lifted by the Allies , border guards and the fight against smuggling were taken over by Allied occupation forces, special units such as the BFS - British Frontier Service , and the newly formed German police. In order to standardize the guarding and deploy experienced personnel , the customs border guard was re-established in 1947, initially in the British occupation zone . The American zone of occupation soon followed . On April 1, 1949, the law on the customs control center and the customs border service came into force in the Bizone . This ended the term customs border guard, as z. B. the border to the Soviet occupation zone was not a customs border in the strict sense. The old designation (customs) border inspection service was reintroduced after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany in May 1949.

See also: Federal Customs Administration , Cuxhaven Mine Clearance Association

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uniforms market 1939 p. 299 and 1942 p. 44.
  2. ↑ BRITISH BORDER OPERATIONS IN GERMANY . history.army.mil. Retrieved June 23, 2020.