The
Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften or 'People's
Readiness Police' were the militarized units of the Volkspolizei in the German
Democratic Republic. Essentially, the East German equivalent of a SWAT or
special tactics team, these units were
highly motorized and tasked with maintaining public order and quelling uprising
as well as matters of civil unrest.
In 22 September 1948,
the Soviet Military Administration in Germany formed the Alert Police
officially designated as 'Bereitschaftspolizei'. This unit was designed as a
force of armed units housed in barracks and trained in military fashion. These
units were organized and equipped in a manner reflective of Landstreitkräfte
motorized infantry forces. The force consisted of forty units of anywhere
between 100 to 250 men each, which were subsequently subordinated to provincial
authorities. Initially many of the officers and men recruited into these units
were among German POWs held in the Soviet Union.
In November 1948 the
German Interior Administration or Deutschen Verwaltung des Innern, took
responsibility over the force as well as
the border troops and included them in section which would be named
Hauptabteilung Grenzpolizei und Bereitschaften 'HA GP/B'. The section was first
renamed to Verwaltung für Schulung 'VfS' on August 25, 1949, and then to
Hauptverwaltung für Ausbildung 'HVA' on October 15, 1949 and finally to the
Kasernierte Volkspolizei 'KVP' on 1 June 1952. In addition to ground troops,
HVA and KVP also included a separate naval and air arm. By December 1952, KVP
membership was recorded at up to 90,250 men. The communist party and Soviet
military authorities exercised strict ideological control over the force.
On 1 March 1956 the
Kasernierte Volkspolizei units were transferred over to the become the newly
established defense force of the German Democratic Republic, the Nationale
Volksarmee.
Separately, the East
German Ministry of the Interior maintained, from 1960 an independent Department
of the Alert Units of the Volkspolizei which would be officially known as the
Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften. This service consisted of a force numbering
between 12,000 and 15,000 men organized into 21 Volkspolizei alert units of
battalion strength. In the vicinity of East Berlin, there were six of these
units ready to respond to orders from the East German government. There was
usually one unit per district of East Germany but the key districts of Halle,
Leipzig and Magdeburg, with their large working class populations, and Potsdam
all had two units.
In 1962, these units
were reorganized into several independent battalions, separate of the service
branches of the standard East German Volkspolizei. It would serve as the East
German counterpart to the West German Bundesgrenzschutz, France's National
Gendearmerie or Italian Carabinieri. With the instatement of conscription into
the East German armed forces by the communist government, service in the
paramilitary services of East Germany the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften,
Grenztruppen der DDR, Wachregiment Feliks Dzerzhinsky, Ministry for State
Security and Zivilverteidigung (Civil Defense) were also subjected to the basis
of military law. Conscripts drafted into the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften served
for a period of 18 months of compulsory service serving longer as a reservist
to the Nationale Volksarmee.
These reservists fell
under the command of the Nationale Volksarmee Military District Command upon
being called up for service. Provisions for incorporating reservists into the
Volkspolizei after completion of military service was authorized as well.
In the function of
riot control police, the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften paralleled the district
authorities of the standard Volkspolizei along with the Zentralen Kräfte
Schutzpolizei or Central Police Forces. These units were divided into squadrons
equipped with machine guns and various other infantry small arms. Personnel in
the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften were not
trained in law enforcement operations like that standard Volkspolizei.
Each alert unit was
organized into seven companies as follows:
Headquarters section
Four alert companies:
- One mechanized company in wheeled armored personnel carriers
- Three motorized companies in trucks
Support company
- Anti-tank platoon
- Artillery platoon
- Mortar platoon
Headquarters and
staff company with:
- Signals platoon
- Engineer platoon
- Chemical platoon
- Reconnaissance platoon
- Transport platoon
- Supply platoon
- Control section
- Medical section
Of the 21
Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften units in East Germany, six were deployed in the
immediate vicinity of East Berlin of these units were included the specialized
counter-terrorism unit 9. Volkspolizei-Kompanie based in Potsdam-Eiche and a
Helicopter aviation unit located in Diepensee at the Berlin-Schönefeld airport
in East Berlin. These units were equipped with light and medium infantry
weapons such as the MPi version of the AK-74 assault rifle, RPK light machine
gun and RPG-7 and RPG-18 rocket propelled grenade launchers. They maintained
mobility armed with varying armored vehicles such as the SK-1 wheeled armored
personnel carriers, SK-2 water cannons in both armored and unarmored versions
and buses.
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