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East Germany Foundation of the People's Police
By December 1945--within six months of the end of the
war--each of the five states in the Soviet zone had a central
police force, in clear violation of the Yalta and Potsdam
agreements. In early January 1946, the term Volkspolizei
(People's Police) was applied publicly to the new police forces
in East Germany, and in August of the same year these forces were
placed under the central control of the newly created German
Administration of the Interior, headed by Erich Reschke.
Included within the structure of the People's Police was a
special group called the Garrisoned People's Police (Kasernierte
Volkspolizei--KVP). The group, first known as the Garrisoned
Alert Units, was organized in 1948 but not officially recognized
until 1952. These police, as the name indicates, lived in
garrisons, or barracks, which usually were located in rural
areas. The forces were organized and equipped as light infantry.
The cadre comprised mostly former officers of Adolf Hitler's
Wehrmacht who had undergone a conversion to communism while held
as prisoners in the Soviet Union. Later the KVP was to be the
major source of cadres for the armed forces of East Germany. The
basic organization was similar to that of a Soviet battalion, and
the uniforms were supplied by the Soviet Union. Initially the KVP
was armed with captured German weapons, but gradually these were
phased out in favor of Soviet weapons.
Why the People's Police was created is more difficult to
explain. It could be argued that creation of the force was one of
the first steps in the establishment of a sovereign state. The
preponderance of evidence, however, indicates that in 1945 Stalin
had no intention of forming an independent East German state. A
reasonable explanation for the establishment of the police force
may be found in the Soviet model on which the German
Administration of the Interior was patterned. Under the Soviet
system, uniformed troops subordinate to the Ministry of the
Interior were assigned to tactical units to prevent
counterrevolutionary activities. It would seem logical from the
Soviet standpoint that the German Administration of the Interior
have similar security forces.
Whatever the motivation, centralization of the police,
beginning at the state level, was underway within a few months of
the end of the war. According to Otto Opitz, who at that time was
president of the police in Dresden and later became a senior
official in the East German government, the SMAD approved the
arming of community-level police forces on October 31, 1945, a
date that East Germany also recognizes as the birth date of its
armed forces.
From its inception, the People's Police prospered rapidly. By
November 1946, the force numbered 45,000 men; two years later, it
had grown to 60,000. By 1950 the KVP component alone totaled
70,000. With this growth came better definition of functions and
a more sophisticated organization. In November 1946, the SMAD
directed the organization of the Border Police. The initial 3,000
recruits were organized and trained from People's Police
resources, and by April 1948 the branch numbered 10,000, the
total reaching 18,000 in 1950. In December 1946, the Railroad
Police was established in the same manner. By 1948 the latter
unit, redesignated the Transport Police, consisted of 7,400 men.
By the end of 1948, the German Administration of the Interior
had a large, well-organized security force under its command. The
units were subordinate to the Main Administration of the Border
Police and Alert Units, one of the primary agencies.
Corresponding offices formed in each of the five states to
coordinate police activities were removed from the jurisdiction
of local authorities and directly subordinated to the central
administration. While efforts were made to ensure the
professional competence of security forces by exploiting the
experience of Wehrmacht veterans, of whom there was no shortage,
the principal concern was political reliability.
In its pursuit of reliability, the SMAD gave its first purge
order in spring of 1949. This order directed the dismissal, from
all branches of the police, of personnel who had been German
police before 1945, had been prisoners of war in the West for
extended periods, or had come to the Soviet-occupied zone of
Germany as refugees from former German territories that had been
placed under Polish or Soviet control. Those with close relatives
in West Germany were also dismissed. In effect, anyone suspected
of possible political unreliability was fired. At the same time,
the first steps toward producing a reliable and professional
cadre were taken by establishing the Main Administration of
Training. The first training courses, run in 1949, were directed
by such venerable communists as General Wilhelm Zaisser, the
renowned "General Gomez" of the Spanish Civil War, and his
deputy, the Soviet-trained general Heinz Hoffmann. Hoffmann later
became minister of defense, commander of the National People's
Army (Nationale Volksarmee--NVA), and a member of the Politburo
of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische
Einheitspartei Deutschlands--SED), positions he continued to hold
until his death in 1985.
By 1949 the nascent East German state had a well-organized
and centrally controlled national security force. Although it had
no armed forces in name, the foundation for the services had been
well laid, and the establishment of the German Democratic
Republic justified creating such a force.
Data as of July 1987
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