BGS BundesGrenzSchutz

[SCHUPO]

Thank you for the information Klaus. I appreciate the help.

[Huntzman]

George / Klaus

Actually, the police in Hessen also had a Grenzpolizei.

Andrew

[SCHUPO]

Andrew,

Thanks for the info on the Hessen Grenzpolizei. This is going to be more difficult than I thought. Here is a link to photos of the holster and the markings that may be helpful.

http://daggers.infopop.cc/eve/forums...4/m/8040025675

George

[Huntzman]

George

Yeah, the Hessen Grenzpolizei kinda gets lost / forgotten because they were only in operation from early 1946 till late 1949.

I'll check out the holster images later this evening.

Andrew

[Klaus1989]

I was not aware of Hessen Grenzpolizei. The only border they had then was with SBZ. One source I looked at claimed Bayerische Grenzpolizei was only one, so I learned something new.

Unfortunately photos do not work. Could you post on WAF?

The Austrian borderguard was Grenzschutz and Swiss is Grenzwachtkorps, so only Bayern, Hessen and the DDR had "Grenzpolizei."

regards
Klaus

[Huntzman]

Klaus

Yeah, I think that the fact they were only around for four years has led to the belief only Bavaria had a Grenzpol.

You can see the patches they wore here:

http://www.huntzmanpatches.com/GERMAN_hessen(C).htm

As you can see, both versions featured cyrillic lettering.

If your curious about the Bavarian patches, check them out on this page:

http://www.huntzmanpatches.com/german_bavaria(C).htm

Andrew

[SCHUPO]

Andrew,

Please feel free to post my holster pictures here as I do not have posting privileges on this site.

George

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

Regarding the cuffbands worn by BGS folks seen in two earlier photographs. Did they in fact wear der Spiess cuff stripes? I have a BGS tunic with a "Grenzschutzeinzeldienst" cuff title for a single service post like the old WWII Gendarmerie. Did the Bundesgrenzschutz wear any other cuff titles other than this one?

George,

Took me a while to answer but here I am! The "Single Service" cuff band was worn by the Passport Control section of the BGS. It is the only cuffband that I know of that the BGS wore.
Yes the BGS wore der Speiss piston rings. I have a photo circa 1952 and one circa 1956 showing them in wear.
I would dearly love to add a BGS tunic with the Single Service cuffband to my collection.

Regards,

Gordon

[SCHUPO]

Thanks for the reply Gordon. I could not tell from the small photos what the cuff bands were in this thread. That explains my Einzeldienst cuff title. I thought these were related to the old single service Gendarmerie posts in the mountains where one very senior NCO ran the post while living there. A sort of one-stop rural law enforcement control point.

George

[Gordon Craig]

George,

You were close on who wore the Single Service cuffband. These guys were usually only at small locations and acted as Customs Agents as well as Border Guards, Passport Control etc. Multi-Tasking we would call it these days. I think most of them came from the Passport Control Section of the BGS but they could have been drafted in from any part of the BGS I suppose.

Regards,

Gordon

[Klaus1989]

Gordon:
There was Grenzschutzeinzeldienst tunic on ebay.com a couple weeks ago. Starting price was $50 and I did not bid because I have to watch how much I spend, but since I think it went unsold, you might want to check back.

According to the Bundespolizei website, they wore special blue tunic until 1970 when they adopted same tunic as BGS but with cufftitle. Any photos of this early tunic?

regards
Klaus

[Gordon Craig]

Klaus,

Thanks for the heads up on this BGS tunic. I appreciat it very much. I didn't see it listed for sale. If you put it on your watch list please PM me with the auction number and I'll have a look for it. I've been watching what I spend recently as well but as I said before, I would really like to add one to my collection. I did not know that they wore blue tunics until the 70s and I do not have a picture of that uniform. At least I don't think I do. I'll have to go through my files and see what I can find. Always possible that I have a photo of this tunic and didn't realize what I was looking at.

Regards,

Gordon

[Klaus1989]

Well this is only mention of those uniforms:

02.05.1970
Der Grenzschutzeinzeldienst erhält eine neue graugrüne Dienstbekleidung (wie der übrige BGS) als Ersatz für die bisherige dunkelblaue Uniform.

Unfortunately I did not watch it because I had no intention on bidding on it. I think I found it under German tunic or some rather vague search. It was complete (rare for BGS tunics).

regards
Klais

[Gordon Craig]

Klaus,

Thanks. I'll see if I can find it. If you see it relisted please let me know.

Regards,

Gordon

[Huntzman]

Gordon

I recall seeing that as well, although I think Klaus was correct about it being an obscure listing. It wasn't your usual "German Police" search. I'll keep an eye out as well.

I would love to see someone post a photo of the old GSE uniform. Any GSE uniform pic is tough to find, but one in the old uniform has eluded me.

Your right, the forerunner was Bundespasskontroll. Bundespasskontroll ran from 1951-61 when it was renamed GSE. Here is a photo of an old passkontroll badge.