Team - The early BEPO has been of great interest lately. I have enjoyed seeing the rarely seen artifacts and pictures posted by our members of this understudied police force that played such a key role in the Berlin Crisis and other Cold War incidents.
Found below is a mishmash of info gleaned from postings by inactive member SvenWittnebel who served in the BEPO for an extended period.
It's all rather rough, but if you hang in there, you may glean a few nuggets that may shed some light on your BEPO collection. At the very least, the blurb may help you achieve a better understanding of a very interesting BRD formation.
I've sent Sven a PM inviting him to visit us on the BRD forum. With any luck he'll take me up on my invitation.
All the best - TJ
· Bundesgrenzschutz was a paramilitary agency for border patrol and ALSO a federal police (for assisting the state polices).
· Bundeskriminalamt was (and still is) the federal criminal investigation department.
· Polizei des Bundestages is still (a very small) agency to protect the federal parliament.
The federal minister of the interior had a staff with a police officer (general rank) "Inspekteur der Bereitschaftspolizeien der Länder". In a case of emergency he is able to assume the command of all state alert police battalions (Bereitschaftspolizei, paramilitary trained/equiped during cold war era). Just now it is Jürgen K., in the mid eighties a platoon captain (PHK).
The former Volkspolizei is now totally organized like the (West-) German police, the Bahnpolizei of the Bundesbahn or the Transportpolizei of the Reichsbahn didn't exist as these railway authorities are now not longer ownend by the state(s). Bahnpolizei is now a branch of the Bundespolizei = the former BGS.
BGS and Bereitschaftspolizei lost their combatant status and "heavy" weapons (G3, MG3, handgrenade DM51, 81mm mortar, 81mm Bazooka, and the BGS the APC SW2 with 20mm machine cannon).
And I made a mistake (my memory... it's more than twenty years ago
). My platoon captain (PHK = Polizeihauptkommisar = Hauptmann) was a Jürgen K.
Jürgen Schubert was a captain in the second company of our battalion, I was in the fourth.
(Einsatzabteilung = battalion, Einsatzbereitschaft = company. We had these days five battalions with each four companys with each four platoons plus a Technische Einsatzabteilung = engineer battalion with three companys in West-Berlin).
His and my company were billet in the same quarter, so we met some times for playing Skat or Doppelkopf
when we were at alert status during the times of the house squatter riots, waiting for the alarm signal.
That's why I remember his name, he was one of the officers who don't differentiate between the ranks.
And no, I never met him again after I left the Bepo.[/QUOTE]
QUOTE=SvenWittnebel;1636729]We call the "heavy weapons" "besondere Waffen = special weapons"
Until the wall came down we had a frequently training with P1/P6, MPl/MP5, G3 and MG3 (but only with bipod).
Handgrenades, mortars, Bazookas and the Feldlafette/tripod were stored since the mid seventies into the western Alliies armories. Some kind of PC to show that we were a more civilian police...
Our Senator od the interior and the police generals (Polizeidirektor/Leitender Polizeidirektor) tells us: "If we need the special weapons, we have enough old guys with the knowledge to use them and to advice the younger workmates..."
PHM = Polizeihauptmeister. Last rank of the NCO class but not to compare with the normal military ranking system, more like the US specialists. Same wage as a PK (Polizeikommisar = Leutnant in the Bundeswehr), but more wage as an Bw-Leutnant.[/QUOTE]
SvenWittnebel - In West-Berlin we had "Manurhin" (Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin (MANURHIN), Mulhouse-Bourtzwiler, France (licensed). G3s and Manurhin P1, MPl/k, PPK, MG3 and flare pistols/tear gas launchers... during the cold war era.
My Y-strap was made by Larsen post war f.e., some had wartime ones, like many other items (like the mentioned grease gun) some of us had war time helmets cause they had big sizes, not the post war BGS type from 1953.
Our MG3 MRH 3A f.e. were MG42 from Mauser Berlin-Borsigwalde, converted by Manurhin into 7,62x51. (Still with eagles...) In 1982 or '83 I had to show the MG3 drill to the British city commander, a Brigadier, at the Kruppstrasse barrack, a former barrack of a WWI Gardedragoner-Regiment. I never said anything about the MG42/59, MG1 (A3/4/5), MG2 orMG3 (A1) from the Bundeswehr because I had shoot just one of them only one time and don't care much for the model or property stamps and proof marks on it. I'm just familiar with our Mauser MG42/MG3 MRH A3 as a service weapon of the West-Berlin police. And they had shown still the tiny Waffenamt eagle. After reunification we lost our paramilitary and combatant status (like the BGS a few years later) as well as our "heavy weaponry". (G3, MG3, hand grenades, mortars and Bazookas), just a few G3s survived and were stored at police stations in areas with wild boars and our SEK (SWAT-like) still got some. I shoot this rifle and the MG permanently two times a year minimum from March 1980 until summer of 1991 - what means from my time in the police academy until reunification.
Believe it or not - we also had hand grenades DM51 and US made 81mm mortars and 81mm Bazookas in our arsenals. I don't know if it's helpfull for your research, but I will try to call an much older workmate (also retiered) who was an instructor in the Bereitschaftspolizei (alert or barracks police) in the early sixties. I know that he was familiar with the MG and the Feldlafette/tripod.
Found below is a mishmash of info gleaned from postings by inactive member SvenWittnebel who served in the BEPO for an extended period.
It's all rather rough, but if you hang in there, you may glean a few nuggets that may shed some light on your BEPO collection. At the very least, the blurb may help you achieve a better understanding of a very interesting BRD formation.
I've sent Sven a PM inviting him to visit us on the BRD forum. With any luck he'll take me up on my invitation.
All the best - TJ
· Bundesgrenzschutz was a paramilitary agency for border patrol and ALSO a federal police (for assisting the state polices).
· Bundeskriminalamt was (and still is) the federal criminal investigation department.
· Polizei des Bundestages is still (a very small) agency to protect the federal parliament.
The federal minister of the interior had a staff with a police officer (general rank) "Inspekteur der Bereitschaftspolizeien der Länder". In a case of emergency he is able to assume the command of all state alert police battalions (Bereitschaftspolizei, paramilitary trained/equiped during cold war era). Just now it is Jürgen K., in the mid eighties a platoon captain (PHK).
The former Volkspolizei is now totally organized like the (West-) German police, the Bahnpolizei of the Bundesbahn or the Transportpolizei of the Reichsbahn didn't exist as these railway authorities are now not longer ownend by the state(s). Bahnpolizei is now a branch of the Bundespolizei = the former BGS.
BGS and Bereitschaftspolizei lost their combatant status and "heavy" weapons (G3, MG3, handgrenade DM51, 81mm mortar, 81mm Bazooka, and the BGS the APC SW2 with 20mm machine cannon).
And I made a mistake (my memory... it's more than twenty years ago
). My platoon captain (PHK = Polizeihauptkommisar = Hauptmann) was a Jürgen K.Jürgen Schubert was a captain in the second company of our battalion, I was in the fourth.
(Einsatzabteilung = battalion, Einsatzbereitschaft = company. We had these days five battalions with each four companys with each four platoons plus a Technische Einsatzabteilung = engineer battalion with three companys in West-Berlin).
His and my company were billet in the same quarter, so we met some times for playing Skat or Doppelkopf
when we were at alert status during the times of the house squatter riots, waiting for the alarm signal. That's why I remember his name, he was one of the officers who don't differentiate between the ranks.
And no, I never met him again after I left the Bepo.[/QUOTE]
QUOTE=SvenWittnebel;1636729]We call the "heavy weapons" "besondere Waffen = special weapons"
Until the wall came down we had a frequently training with P1/P6, MPl/MP5, G3 and MG3 (but only with bipod).
Handgrenades, mortars, Bazookas and the Feldlafette/tripod were stored since the mid seventies into the western Alliies armories. Some kind of PC to show that we were a more civilian police...
Our Senator od the interior and the police generals (Polizeidirektor/Leitender Polizeidirektor) tells us: "If we need the special weapons, we have enough old guys with the knowledge to use them and to advice the younger workmates..."
PHM = Polizeihauptmeister. Last rank of the NCO class but not to compare with the normal military ranking system, more like the US specialists. Same wage as a PK (Polizeikommisar = Leutnant in the Bundeswehr), but more wage as an Bw-Leutnant.[/QUOTE]
SvenWittnebel - In West-Berlin we had "Manurhin" (Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin (MANURHIN), Mulhouse-Bourtzwiler, France (licensed). G3s and Manurhin P1, MPl/k, PPK, MG3 and flare pistols/tear gas launchers... during the cold war era.
My Y-strap was made by Larsen post war f.e., some had wartime ones, like many other items (like the mentioned grease gun) some of us had war time helmets cause they had big sizes, not the post war BGS type from 1953.
Our MG3 MRH 3A f.e. were MG42 from Mauser Berlin-Borsigwalde, converted by Manurhin into 7,62x51. (Still with eagles...) In 1982 or '83 I had to show the MG3 drill to the British city commander, a Brigadier, at the Kruppstrasse barrack, a former barrack of a WWI Gardedragoner-Regiment. I never said anything about the MG42/59, MG1 (A3/4/5), MG2 orMG3 (A1) from the Bundeswehr because I had shoot just one of them only one time and don't care much for the model or property stamps and proof marks on it. I'm just familiar with our Mauser MG42/MG3 MRH A3 as a service weapon of the West-Berlin police. And they had shown still the tiny Waffenamt eagle. After reunification we lost our paramilitary and combatant status (like the BGS a few years later) as well as our "heavy weaponry". (G3, MG3, hand grenades, mortars and Bazookas), just a few G3s survived and were stored at police stations in areas with wild boars and our SEK (SWAT-like) still got some. I shoot this rifle and the MG permanently two times a year minimum from March 1980 until summer of 1991 - what means from my time in the police academy until reunification.
Believe it or not - we also had hand grenades DM51 and US made 81mm mortars and 81mm Bazookas in our arsenals. I don't know if it's helpfull for your research, but I will try to call an much older workmate (also retiered) who was an instructor in the Bereitschaftspolizei (alert or barracks police) in the early sixties. I know that he was familiar with the MG and the Feldlafette/tripod.
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