Conrad Schumann: The Man Who Lept Into History

Many of the greatest events in world history are the result of seemingly insignificant acts that somehow forever alter the state of human affairs. It can also be proven looking throughout history that even though Generals and Commanders are given credit for victories, it is the enlisted man who actually fights to secure that victory. Their actions are rewarded through varying honors and citations for heroism or gallantry, but it is the General or Commander to whom the history books will record the victory in the name of. This same scenario goes for not only military engagements but also political statements in both war and peacetime. History knows it was Erich Honecker and Nikita Khrushchev who are responsible for initiating the order to begin the construction of the Berlin Wall around the allied occupied sector of Berlin. It is also recognized that Erich Honecker issued the order to shoot to kill persons trying to flee from the German Democratic Republic for freedom in West. But occasionally, there are certain everyday individuals whom in the face of increasing disagreement with policy or other acts will act on impulse and be forever etched into the face of history. One such case is that of Conrad Schumann.

Born Hans Conrad Schumann on 28 March 1942 in Zschochau, Sachsen, Germany, Conrad Schumann was young when the Second World War ended and Germany was divided up amongst the victorious allies. He would grow up in the Soviet occupied sector of eastern Germany which would later become the German Democratic Republic. He would go on to serve as a soldier in the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften, the barracked paramilitary riot control police unit of the East German police. Following three months of training in Dresden, he was sent to a non commissioned officer's academy in Potsdam for advanced leadership. Shortly after the completion of the training academy, Schumann volunteered for service in Berlin. He would be given the rank of Sergeant.

At the time, Berlin was a hotspot of the Cold War. With allied military forces positioned in West Berlin deep inside the heart of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin would be potential ignition source for any future conflict in Europe. Citizens of the East German state were flooding into East Berlin hoping for the opportunity to escape to the West via defection into West Berlin. The so called 'Brain Drain' was severely damaging the East German economy as skilled craftsmen and laborers all fled to the relative freedom of the West. The decision was soon made by East German leaders with the approval of their Soviet allies to begin the construction of a protective barrier, a wall around the western sector of the city of Berlin to prevent further Republikflucht or 'Flight from the Republic'. The construction of the Berlin Wall would begin on 13 August 1961, with Soviet tanks and armored vehicles taking up positions at checkpoints and road crossings facing West as a deterrent while East German soldiers, policemen and laborers began stringing barbed wire and later began emplacing bricks for the Wall around the city. History would soon be made with a simple gesture which would begin in Soviet East Berlin and end in the French sector of West Berlin.

On 15 August 1961, Schumann was ordered to report to the corner of Ruppiner Straße and Bernauer Straße (Straße is the German word for Street) to stand guard during the third day of construction of the new Anti Fascist Protective Barrier as it was designated by the East German government. Schumann shouldered his MPi41 submachine gun, an East German variant of the Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun and began his duty of standing guard along the low wire entanglement of barbed wire which comprised the Wall fortification. On the western side of the wire emplacement, citizens of West Berlin took notice of the young East German soldier standing his post. Soon, the West Berliners began shouting "Komm' rüber!" or "Come Over!" urging him to defect from the East German sector into the West. To assist in the escape, a West German police car pulled into position a short distance away and waited in case the young soldier chose to escape to freedom in the West.

With the large gathering of Western citizens, Schumann's colleagues were soon distracted by the commotion. Using this distraction to his advantage, the 19 year old Schumann, swapped his loaded submachine gun for an empty one and began contemplating his future. Hesitating momentarily, Schumann then began determined to defect to West Germany and sprinted, leaping over the barbed wire fence he ran into the back of the waiting police car and was hastily driven away from the scene by the West German police. Schumann's defection was captured on film in the form a series of images taken by photographer Peter Leibing and also his entire escape including his preparations for the defection attempt which were captured on 16mm film from the same vantage point. As he made his way to the waiting police car, he was greeted with a barrage of cheering West Germans welcoming him to the West. The images of the young East German fleeing into the West were broadcast around the world and became an iconic symbol of the Cold War, particularly the quest for freedom by the oppressed people of the East. In that instant he became both a hero of the Free World, and a traitor to his East German compatriots.

The next stop for the young non commissioned officer was a debriefing station operated by the West German police in West Berlin. A simple and modest fellow, rather than ask for some special item, favor or treatment, all Schumann asked the West Germans for was a sandwich. When inquiries began by the West Germans as to why he chose to defect to the West rather than to remain in East Germany, he replied that he was angered by a scene presented to him during his time guarding the new barrier areas. The scene he described as an East German child who had attempted to flee into West Berlin being dragged back into East German territory by border guards. He stated that he did not want to live enclosed like some caged animal.

He would later be permitted to leave West Berlin and he relocated to Bavaria in southern Germany. He would meet his wife Kunigunde in the town of Günzburg. Günzburg is notoriously known as the birthplace of infamous Nazi medical officer Dr. Josef Mengele. Conrad and Kunigunde would get married and they would have a son. Schumann would find work first working briefly as a nurse and at the Grombacher winery before landing a job working on an assembly line for the Audi automobile company. Although, Schumann had left the German Democratic Republic he had never truly escaped. It would be a mixture of the unwanted fame and attention that would drive him into a deep state of depression. For the first decade after his famed defection, he took to alcohol to comfort him. Not one dollar of the money made from his defection images would go to Schumann or his family and even though an iconic figure of western propaganda, government officials only showed interest in gathering information from him that he did not have. Schumann described the inquiries from the German government as making him feel as if he was being Squeezed like a lemon.

For a long time, the only contact he had with his family in East Germany were through letters which were being influenced by agents of the East German Stasi. As a defector, and traitor, he was a prime target for the East German secret police. His family tried to persuade him to return to East Germany promising that nothing would happen to him, a farce nonetheless dictated by the Stasi who wanted to apprehend Schumann for their own purposes. He began contemplating returning to East Germany for a visit, but this idea was only abandoned when a West German policeman persuaded him not to go back. Lonely, and depressed, Schumann declared there was only one point that he truly felt free and this was on 9 November 1989, when the Berlin Wall was torn down. It was only after this that Schumann was able to return to his native Sachsen. His return to his home had mixed results, as many people welcomed him and yet others shunned him labeling him as a traitor even though East Germany no longer existed.

With the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the communist East, Schumann was again thrust back into the spotlight as a national hero and he feigned happiness and adulation about his situation as he posed for pictures and signed posters and pictures. He made appearances at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in the years after reunification often signing pictures for tourists. His signed posters and pictures would become a best selling souvenir at the Museum and tourists regularly formed long queues for a chance to meet the young non commissioned officer who had defected to freedom during one of the high points of the Cold War.

Following returning home from a from a family rowing trip, on 20 June 1998 the weight of his depression proved to great for the Cold War icon and Schumann committed suicide. He hung himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg where his wife Kunigunde would find him hours later. Described by his neighbors as a quiet man, all he had to show for the impact of his defection years ago was the portrait of his defection from East Germany hanging on a living room wall and a photograph of himself standing with American President Ronald Reagan.

The Sword & Shield of the Party: The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit

The Ministerium für Staatssicherheit known as the Ministry for State Security or commonly referred to as the Stasi was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic charged with conducting both foreign and domestic intelligence gathering operations. Another organ of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, was the Staatssicherheitsdienst or State Security Service which was a research institution for the investigation of 'political crimes' in the German Democratic Republic. The Stasi was a primarily an organ employed by the East German SED communist party to monitor the population of East Germany, and politically oppression the population through use of surveillance, terror, intimidation and the wearing down of political opponents and dissidents. Foreign intelligence was carried out by the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung or Intelligence Headquarters of the Stasi. It was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin -Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. It was widely regarded as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world. The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party). It was outlawed and considered a criminal organization following the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and several Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1990.

The Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950. It was modelled on the Soviet MGB, and was regarded by the Soviet Union as an extremely loyal and effective partner organization. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the German Democratic Republic, and Erich Mielke was appointed as his deputy. Zaisser, who tried to depose SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht after the June 1953 uprisings in the economic sector of East Germany was after this being removed by Ulbricht and replaced by Ernst Wollweber. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke.

In the early years of its existence, the Stasi waged a campaign against Jews, who were already subject to widespread discrimination and violence in the Soviet Union. The Stasi took extensive measures to censor the fact that Jews had been victims during the previous regime and in one instance, even took gold from the bodies of Jews. The Stasi labeled Jews as harbingers of pro-capitalist sentiments and thus labeled them as criminals against the East German regime. Gypsies were also blamed and targeted in a similar manner.

Between the years of 1950 and 1989, the Stasi employed a total of 274,000 people in an effort to root out what it identified as 'the class enemy'. In 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 agents full time, including 2,000 fully employed unofficial collaborators as well as 13,073 soldiers and 2,232 officers of the Nationale Volksarmee. Thus number was boosted with an additional 173,081 unofficial informants inside the German Democratic Republic and 1,553 informants inside the borders of the Federal Republic of Germany. In terms of the identity of Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter or Stasi informants, by 1995, 174,000 had been identified, which approximated for some 2.5% of East Germany's population between the ages of 18 and 60.10,000 Stasi informant's were under the age of 18.

While these calculations were taken from official records, according to the federal commissioner in charge of the Stasi archives in Berlin, because many such records were destroyed in the final hours of the East German nation, there were likely closer to 500,000 Stasi informants active at the time of the collapse. A former Stasi Colonel who served in the counterintelligence directorate estimated that the figure could be as high as 2 million if occasional informants were included in this number.

Full time officers were posted to all major industrial centers as the extensiveness of any surveillance operation largely depended on how valuable a product was to the economy. Also one tenant in every apartment building was designated as a watchdog of sorts, order to record and file a report to an Area Representative designated by the Volkspolizei. Spies reported every relative or friend who stayed the night at another persons apartment. A common practice for surveillance was for tiny holes to be drilled in apartment and hotel room walls through which Stasi agents placed special video cameras to record the actions of East German citizens. Public services such as schools, universities, and hospitals were extensively infiltrated by agents of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit.

The Stasi had formal categorizations of each type of informant, and had official guidelines on how to extract information from, and control, those who they came into contact with. The roles of informants ranged from those already in some way involved in state security positions such as the Volkspolizei and the Nationale Volksarmee, to those considered as members of dissident movements such as performers in the arts and members of the Protestant Church. Information gathered about the latter groups were frequently used to divide or discredit members of the labeled organization. Informants coerced and were made to feel important, given material or social incentives, and were imbued with a sense of adventure, and only around 7.7%, according to official figures, were coerced into full cooperation. A significant proportion of those informing were members of the SED Communist Party often to employ some form of blackmail, which was not uncommon. A large number of Stasi informants held fairly unsuspecting jobs not normally associated with espionage such as trolley conductors, janitors, doctors, nurses and teachers. The Stasi director Erich Mielke believed the best informants were those whose jobs entailed frequent contact with the public.

The Stasi's ranks swelled considerably after Eastern Bloc countries signed the 1975 Helsinki accords, which Erich Honecker viewed as a grave threat to his regime because they contained language binding signatories to respect "human and basic rights, including freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and conviction." These were largely viewed as 'western policies of fascism'. The number of Stasi informants peaked at around 180,000 in this year, having slowly risen from 20,000 to 30,000 in the early 1950s, and reaching 100,000 for the first time in 1968.  This growth was attributed largely as a response to Ostpolitik and worldwide protests. The Stasi also acted as a proxy for the Soviet KGB to conduct activities in other Eastern Bloc countries, such as the Peoples Republic of Poland or Czechoslovak Socialist Republic where the Soviets were generally despised by the population.

The Stasi infiltrated almost every aspect of East German life. In the mid 1980s, a network of informants for the Stasi began growing in both East and West Germany. By the time East Germany collapsed in 1989, the Stasi employed 91,015 employees and 173,081 informants. About one of every 63 East Germans had collaborated with the Stasi. By at least one estimate, the Stasi maintained greater surveillance over its own people than any secret police force in world history. The Stasi employed one full time agent for every 166 East Germans. The ratios swelled when informers were factored in; counting part-time informers, the Stasi had one informer per 6.5 people. By comparison, the Nazi Gestapo employed one secret policeman per 2,000 people. This comparison led Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal to call the Stasi even more repressive than the Nazi Gestapo. Additionally, Stasi agents took great  measures to infiltrate and undermine West Germany's federal government and intelligence agencies.

In some cases, spouses even spied on each other.

People were imprisoned for such reasons as trying to leave the country without official permission, or for telling political jokes considered criticizing of the SED communist party. Prisoners were often kept isolated and disoriented, knowing nothing of what was going on in the outside world.

After the middle of the 1950s, the Stasi ordered that executions were to be carried out in strict secrecy, and were usually accomplished with a guillotine and, in later years, by a single pistol shot in the neck. In most instances, the relatives of the executed were not informed of either the sentencing of the victim or the execution.

After the Berlin Wall fell, X-ray machines were found in prisons across East Berlin. It was duely noted that three of the best known East German dissidents died within a few months of one other, of similar rare forms of leukemia. Survivors of the imprisonment in these facilities state that the Stasi intentionally irradiated political prisoners with high doses of lethal radiation, possibly to provoke cancer development in them.

The Stasi perfected the technique of psychological harassment of perceived enemies which it termed 'Zersetzung'. Zersetzung was essentially a term borrowed from chemistry which literally means "decomposition" or "undermining".

By the 1970s, the Stasi had decided that methods of overt persecution which had been employed up to that time, such as arrest and torture, were too crude and obvious. It was realized soon after that psychological harassment was far less likely to be recognized for what it was, thus being easily concealed and so its victims as well as their supporters, were less likely to be provoked into active resistance. This also ensured that they would often not be aware of the source of their problems, or even its exact nature. Zersetzung was designed to side track and "switch off" perceived enemies so that they would lose the will to continue any activities deemed inappropriate by the East German government.

Tactics employed under Zersetzung generally involved the disruption of the victim’s private or family life. This often included breaking into homes and messing with the contents of the home such as moving furniture, altering the timing of an alarm, removing pictures from walls or sinply by replacing one variety of tea with another. Other more menacing practices included mysterious phone calls or unnecessary deliveries, even including sending a sex toy to a target's wife. Usually victims had no idea the Stasi were responsible for such activities. Many thought they were losing their minds, and mental breakdowns and suicide would often result.

One great advantage of the harassment perpetrated under Zersetzung was that its subtle nature meant that it was able to be quickly denied. That was important given that the German Democratic Republic was drastically trying to improve its international standing during the 1970s and 1980s.

Zersetzung techniques have since been adopted by other security agencies.

Other files known as the Rosenholz Files, contained the names of East German spies abroad, which led American intelligence agencies to capture them. After German reunification, it was revealed that the Stasi had secretly aided left wing terrorist organizations such as the Red Army Faction, even though no part of the group had ever been ideologically aligned with East Germany.

Directorate X was responsible for spreading disinformation. Rolf Wagenbreth, the director of disinformation operations once stated, "Our friends in Moscow call it ‘dezinformatsiya'. Our enemies in America call it ‘active measures,’ and I, dear friends, call it ‘my favorite pastime'".

Stasi experts also helped to build the secret police of Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia.

Fidel Castro's regime in Cuba was particularly interested in receiving training from Stasi. Stasi instructors were sent to and worked in Cuba. Cuban communists also vice-versa received training in East Germany. The Stasi Chief Markus Wolf described how he set up the Cuban state security system based along the patterns of the East German system.

The Stasi's experts worked with building secret police systems in the People's Republic of Angola, the People's Republic of Mozambique, and the People's Republic of Yemen.

Stasi experts helped to set up Idi Amin's secret police.

Stasi organized, trained, indoctrinated Syrian intelligence services.

Stasi experts helped Kwame Nkrumah to build his secret police. When Ghanaians overthrew the regime, Stasi Major Jurgen Rogalla was imprisoned.

The Stasi sent agents to the West as sleeper agents. For instance, sleeper agent Günter Guillaume became a senior aide to social democratic chancellor Willy Brandt, and reported about his policies and his private life.

The Stasi also operated at least one brothel. Agents were used against both men and women working in Western governments. "Entrapment" was used against married men and homosexuals alike.   

Martin Schlaff, according to the German parliament's investigations, the Austrian billionaire's Stasi codename was “Landgraf” and registration number "3886-86". He made money by supplying embargoed goods to East Germany.

Sokratis Kokkalis, Stasi documents suggest that the Greek businessman was a Stasi agent, whose operations included delivering Western technological secrets and bribing Greek officials to buy outdated East German telecommunications equipment.

The Red Army Faction, commonly known as the Baader-Meinhof Gang was a terrorist organization which killed dozens of West Germans and others in terrorist attacks across Europe.

The Stasi ordered a campaign in which cemeteries and other Jewish sites in West Germany were vandalized often smeared with swastikas and other Nazi related symbols. Funds were also secretly channelled to a small West German group for it to defend former Nazi Adolf Eichmann.

The Stasi channelled large amounts of money to pro Neo-Nazi and other anti-Semetic groups in the West, with the purpose of discrediting the West's anti-fascist stance.

The Stasi worked in a campaign to create extensive material and propaganda against the State of Israel.

In the murder of Benno Ohnesorg, a Stasi agent carried out the murder, which stirred a whole movement of left wing protest and violence. The Economist describes it as "the gunshot that hoaxed a generation".

In a campaign called Operation Infektion, the Stasi helped the KGB to spread HIV/AIDS disinformation that claimed the United States had created the disease. Millions of people around the world still believe in these claims.

In the Sandoz chemical spill, the KGB reportedly ordered the Stasi to sabotage the chemical factory to distract attention from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster six months earlier in the Ukraine.

Investigators have found evidence of a death squad that carried out a number of assassinations including assassination of Swedish journalist Cats Falck, on orders from the East German government from 1976 to 1987. Attempts to prosecute members of the group have since failed.

The Stasi attempted to assassinate Wolfgang Welsch, a famous critic of the East German regime. Stasi collaborator Peter Haack (Stasi codename "Alfons") befriended Welsch and then fed him hamburgers poisoned with thallium. It took weeks for doctors to find out why Welsch had suddenly lost his hair.

Documents in the Stasi archives state that the KGB ordered Bulgarian agents to assassinate Pope John Paul II, who was known for his criticism of human rights in the communist bloc, and the Stasi was asked to help with covering up traces of the assassination plot.

A special unit of the Stasi assisted Romanian intelligence in kidnapping Romanian dissident Oliviu Beldeanu from West Germany.

In 1975, the Stasi recorded a conversation between senior West German CDU politicians Helmut Kohl and Kurt Biedenkopf. It was then "leaked" to the Stern magazine as a transcript recorded by American intelligence agencies. The magazine then claimed that Americans were wiretapping West Germans and the public believed the story.

Recruitment of informants became increasingly difficult towards the end of East Germany's existence, and after 1986, there was a negative turnover rate of informants. This had a significant impact on the Stasi's ability to survey the population, in a period of growing unrest, and knowledge of the Stasi's activities became more widespread. The Stasi had been tasked during this period with preventing the country's economic difficulties which were becoming a political problem, through suppression of the very worst problems the state faced, but it failed to do so.

Stasi officers reportedly had discussed rebranding East Germany as a democratic capitalist country to the West, but which would be in practice taken over by Stasi officers. The plan specified 2,587 Offiziere im besonderen Einsatz or  “officers on special assignment”  would take over power and it was registered as Top Secret Document 0008-6/86 of 17 March 1986. According to Ion Mihai Pacepa, the chief intelligence officer in communist Romania, other communist intelligence services had similar plans. On 12 March 1990 Der Spiegel reported that the Stasi was indeed attempting to implement 0008-6/86.

On 7 November 1989, in response to the rapidly changing political and social situation in East Germany in late 1989, Erich Mielke resigned. On 17 November 1989, the Council of Ministers or Ministerrat der DDR renamed the Stasi as the Office for National Security or Amt für Nationale Sicherheit, which was headed by Generalleutnant Wolfgang Schwanitz. On 8 December 1989, East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow directed the dissolution of the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit, which was confirmed by a decision of the Ministerrat on 14 December 1989.

As part of this decision, the Ministerrat originally called for the evolution of the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit into two separate organizations: a new foreign intelligence service to be known as the Nachrichtendienst der DDR and an "Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the GDR" or Verfassungsschutz der DDR, along the lines of the West German Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz. However, the public reaction to this decision was extremely negative, and under pressure from the "Round Table" known as the Runder Tisch, the government dropped the creation of the Verfassungsschutz der DDR and directed the immediate dissolution of the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit on 13 January 1990. Certain functions of the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit  reasonably related to law enforcement were handed over to the East German Ministry of Internal Affairs. The same ministry also took guardianship of remaining Amt für Nationale Sicherheit  facilities.

When the parliament of Germany investigated public funds that disappeared after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, it found out that East Germany had transferred large amounts of money to Martin Schlaff through accounts in Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein, in return for goods “under Western embargo”. Moreover, high-ranking Stasi officers continued their post-East German careers in management positions in Schlaff’s group of companies. For example, in 1990 Herbert Kohler, Stasi commander in Dresden, transferred 170 million marks to Schlaff for "hard disks" and months later went to work for him. The investigations concluded that “Schlaff’s empire of companies played a crucial role” in the Stasi attempts to secure the financial future of Stasi agents and keep the intelligence network alive. The Stern magazine noted that KGB officer Vladimir Putin worked with his Stasi colleagues in Dresden in 1989.

During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Stasi offices were overrun by enraged citizens, but not before the Stasi destroyed a number of documents which equated approximately 5% of the files.

As East Germany began to fall, the Stasi did as well. They began to destroy the extensive files that they had kept, both by hand and with the use of shredders.

When these activities became known, a protest erupted in front of the Stasi headquarters. On the evening of 15 January 1990, a large crowd of people formed outside the gates in order to stop the destruction of their personal files. In their minds, this information should have been available to them and also have been used to punish those who had taken part in Stasi actions. The large group of protesters grew and grew until they were able to overcome the police and gain entry into the complex. The protestors became violent and destructive as they smashed doors and windows, threw furniture, and trampled portraits of Erich Honecker, leader of the GDR. Among the destructive public were officers working for the West German government, as well as former Stasi collaborators seeking to destroy documents. One explanation postulated as to why the Stasi did not open fire was for fear of hitting their own colleagues. As the people continued their violence, these undercover men proceeded into the file room and acquired many files that would become of great importance to catching ex-Stasi members.

With the German Reunification on 3 October 1990 a new government agency was founded called the Office of the Federal Commissioner Preserving the Records of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. There was a debate about what should happen to the files, whether they should be opened to the people or kept closed.

Among the high-profile individuals who were arrested and tried for Stasi activities after the collapse of the German Democratic Republic were Erich Mielke, Third Minister of State Security of the GDR, and Erich Honecker, head of state for the GDR. Mielke was sentenced to six years in prison for the murder of two policemen in 1931. Honecker was charged with authorizing the killing of would be escapees along the Inner German Border and the Berlin Wall. During his trial, he went through cancer treatment. Due to the fact that he was nearing death, Honecker was allowed to spend his final time in Chile. He died in May 1994.

The Trump Card of the Party: Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften

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. 

The Law of the Workers Paradise:The Volkspolizei

The Volkspolizei or 'People's Police' sometimes referred to also as VoPo or VP, was the national police force and principal law enforcement organ of the German Democratic Republic. The Volkspolizei were responsible for most law enforcement activities in East Germany, but its organization and structure were comprised as such that it could be considered a quasi-military force as well. Unlike law enforcement agencies in most western countries, the Volkspolizei were equipped with equipment such as armored personnel carriers and artillery pieces and Volkspolizei personnel were trained along the same lines as units of the Nationale Volksarmee.

While any East German citizen could become a non-commissioned officer in the Volkspolizei, all members of the commissioned officer corps were required to be members of East Germany's ruling communist authority the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands of 'Socialist Unity Party of Germany'  often abbreviated as SED.  The Volkspolizei, being the principal force responsible for law and order in the declared Socialist Workers Paradise, was expected to maintain and enfore the interests of the SED Communist Party, the ruling regime as well as maintaining public order.

The Volkspolizei was initially founded following the conclusion of World War II when the Soviet occupational authorities took the East German remnants of the Nazi Ordnungspolizei commonly referred to as the 'Orpo' and the Kriminalpolizei referred to as the Kripo and reorganized them into a centralized agency that would be politically reliable to the new communist authority. This was done when the SMAD or Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland ' Soviet Military Administration in Germany established centralized police forces in the regions of eastern Germany it occupied following the cease of hostilities. By establishing these groups, the Soviets clearly were in violation of the agreements at the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference during the final years of the war. The SMAD officially approved the arming of these community-level police forces on 31 October 1945.

From 1952, these groups were reorganized along the existing Soviet police services with Section Representatives or ' Abschnittsbevollmächtigte' being appointed for communities and towns. Interested and concerned citizens could voluntary assist the Volkspolizei as a 'Helfer der Volkspolizei' or Helper of the People's Police. The Volkspolizei was placed under the control of East Germany's Ministry of the Interior with a network of district authorities and district offices reporting to the Chef der Deutschen Volkspolizei or 'Chief of the People's Police'. Rather than the civil service status that West German police enjoyed, each Volkspolizist had a personal contract with the East German government. The monthly salary was usually above the average income of a regular citizen of the German Democratic Republic. Officers in the Volkspolizei wore a system of rank insignias similar to those worn by the Nationale Volksarmee.

Underneath the centralized body of organization, the Volkspolizei was divided into five branches of police services, each with its own specialized areas of operation. These services were:

1. Schutzpolizei - Service Police
2. Verkehrspolizei - Traffic Police
3. Wasserschutzpolizei - Water Police
4. Kriminalpolizei - Prosecution Police
5. Transportpolizei - Transportation Police

Following the conclusion of an investigation, the Volkspolizei usually transferred most of their reports to the notorious Ministry of State Security or 'Stasi'.  Given the high density of informants working for the Stasi in the German Demcratic Republic, especially in the armed forces, meant that every police action and investigation could be monitored. Besides the official Stasi liaison-officer in the Volkspolizei known as a 'Verbindungsoffizier', the Stasi had agents imbedded in  nearly every police unit. The overall commander was the First Deputy Minister of the Interior and Chief of Police known as the 'Erster Stellvertreter des Ministers und Chef der Deutschen Volkspolizei'. His section was subdivided into five departments respective to the five branches of service of the Volkspolizei organization:

• Hauptabteilung Kriminalpolizei - Criminal Investigation Department
• Hauptabteilung Schutzpolizei - Uniformed Police Department
• Hauptabteilung Transportpolizei - Railway Police Department
• Hauptabteilung Verkehrspolizei - Traffic Police Department
• Hauptabteilung Paß und Meldewesen - Registration Department

The militarized organization of the Volkspolizei known as the Kasernierte Einheiten, was administered by the Deputy Minister of the Interior and Chief of the Administrative Center or Stellvertreter des Minister und Chef der Hauptinspektion.

Recruitment into the ranks of the Volkspolizei required at least ten years of education, some established vocational training, military service, and a history of political loyalty to the SED communist party. Upon joining the force, a recruit would undertake a five month training and indoctrination course at the Police Academy or Volkspolizei-Schule. The course schedules contained a curriculum of political education and indoctrination, police law, criminal law and procedures, and military style physical fitness training. Upon completion of this course, the recruit would then complete a six month practical internship. From 1962, the Volkspolizei had its own university located in Berlin-Biesdorf from which around 3,500 police officers were trained up to end of the German Democratic Republic in 1989. There were also several other technical schools utilized by the Volkspolizei. The Kasernierten Einheiten, which were the barracked units had their own independent training facilities. Volkspolizei officers were initially trained alongside the Landstreitkräfte of the NVA. Then from 1963 to 1971 the officers were transitioned from the NVA schools to the Volkspolizei officers' school in Dresden-Wilder Mann. Limited time soldiers and lower grade leaders were trained in Leigau near Dresden up until the dissolution of the GDR.

The reasons given by many Volkspolizei officers for joining the force was a desire to work with people, along with idealism, family tradition, belief in the communist system and the wish to serve the German Democratic Republic.

The official oath that all Volkspolizei officers swore was:

German:

Ich schwöre meinem sozialistischen Vaterland, der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik und ihrer Regierung allzeit treu ergeben zu sein, Dienst- und Staatsgeheimnisse zu wahren und die Gesetze und Weisungen genau einzuhalten.

Ich werde unentwegt danach streben, gewissenhaft, ehrlich, mutig, diszipliniert und wachsam meine Dienstpflichten zu erfüllen.

Ich schwöre,

daß ich, ohne meine Kräfte zu schonen, auch unter Einsatz meines Lebens, die sozialistische Gesellschafts-, Staats- und Rechtsordnung, das sozialistische Eigentum, die Persönlichkeit, die Rechte und das persönliche Eigentum der Bürger vor verbrecherischen Anschlägen schützen werde.

Sollte ich dennoch diesen meinen feierlichen Eid brechen, so möge mich die Strafe der Gesetze unserer Republik treffen.

   

English:

I swear, to be loyal to my socialist fatherland, the German Democratic Republic and its government at all times, to keep official and state secrets, and to strictly obey laws and instructions.

I will unswervingly strive to fulfill my official duties conscientiously, honestly, courageously, vigilantly and with discipline.

I swear,

that I will, without reservation, under risk of my life protect the socialist social, state and legal order, the socialist property, the personality, the rights and the personal property of the citizens against felonious attacks.

If I nevertheless break this, my solemn oath, I shall be confronted with the punishment of the laws of our republic.

The Volkspolizei maintained a force of approximately 80,000 full time police officers along with nearly 177,500 volunteers. Each Volkspolizei precinct throughout the country maintained a Hausbücher which essentially contained citizens personal identification numbers. This database allowed the Volkspolizei and the Ministry of State Security's agents to gain access to all the information they required about every citizen in East Germany.

With the accession of the German Democratic Republic to the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, authority over the law enforcement agencies went to the newly created federal jurisdiction. About 40 percent of the Volkspolizei's employees had to leave the service.