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Grepo is the short form of the German word for border police (German : Grenzpolizei). It is usually found in English referring to the Grenztruppen der DDR (Border Troops of the GDR) who guarded the inner German border and the Berlin Wall, but can be used to refer to other border police, such as the former Bayerische Grenzpolizei (Bavarian Border Police), Hessen Grenzpolizei, and the separate Bundesgrenzschutz ("Federal Border Guard", now part of the Bundespolizei "Federal Police")
The word Grepo has been used in many Cold War spy novels. Possibly the first use was by Len Deighton in his 1964 book Funeral in Berlin. [1]
The related term Vopo (Volkspolizei) has also been used in English fiction. The abbreviation for the criminal police—Kripo—is less common in English texts.
The Volksmarine was the naval force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1956 to 1990. The Volksmarine was one of the service branches of the National People's Army and primarily performed a coastal defence role along the GDR's Baltic Sea coastline and territorial waters.
GSG 9 der Bundespolizei, formerly Grenzschutzgruppe 9, is an elite special forces unit of the German Federal Police (Bundespolizei) to combat terrorism and violent crime, including organized crime. In addition to its headquarters location in Sankt Augustin-Hangelar near Bonn, it has a second location in Berlin. Since 1 August 2017, it has been subordinate to the Federal Police Directorate 11. The state police (Landespolizei) maintain their own regional tactical units known as the Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK).
Jäger is a German military term referring to specific light infantry units.
A gendarmerie is a military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term gendarme is derived from the medieval French expression gens d'armes, which translates to "men-at-arms". In France and some Francophone nations, the gendarmerie is a branch of the armed forces that is responsible for internal security in parts of the territory, with additional duties as military police for the armed forces. It was introduced to several other Western European countries during the Napoleonic conquests. In the mid-twentieth century, a number of former French mandates and colonial possessions adopted a gendarmerie after independence. A similar concept exists in Eastern Europe in the form of internal troops, which are present in many countries of the former Soviet Union and its former allied countries.
The inner German border was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1990. De jure not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was 1,381 kilometres (858 mi) long and ran from the Baltic Sea to Czechoslovakia.
Bundesgrenzschutz is the former name of the German Bundespolizei. Established on 16 March 1951 as a subordinate agency of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the BGS originally was primarily focused on protecting the West German borders. During their early days, BGS units had military structures, training and equipment. The law enforcement officers legally had military combatant status until 1994. A major part of the early BGS personnel joined the newly founded German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) in 1956 and thus significantly contributed to West Germany's rearmament. The BGS was renamed to Bundespolizei on 1 July 2005. The change of name did not have any effect on the legal status or competencies of the agency, but rather reflects its transition to a multi-faceted police agency with control over border, railway and air security.
The Federal Police is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the German Federal Government, being subordinate to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community. The Federal Police is primarily responsible for border protection and railroad and aviation/air security. In addition, the agency is responsible, among other tasks, for the protection of federal constitutional bodies. It provides the federal alert police and GSG 9 special police unit, which can also be used to support the federated states of Germany. Ordinary police forces, meanwhile, are under the administration of the individual German states (Bundesländer) and are known as the Landespolizei. In addition to the Federal Police, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the German Parliament Police exist as further police authorities at the federal level.
DGP may refer to:
The Bull from/of Tölz (in German:Der Bulle von Tölz is a German television series which has been produced and broadcast by Sat.1 since 1996. As of January 2009, 69 self-contained feature-length episodes have been made.
Law enforcement in Germany is constitutionally vested solely with the states, which is one of the main features of the German political system.
There are many widely varying names of Germany in different languages, more so than for any other European nation. For example:
Zollgrenzschutz (ZGS) was an organization under the German Finance Ministry from 1937 to 1945. It was charged with guarding Germany's borders, acting as a combination Border Patrol and Customs & Immigration service.
The Helmstedt–Marienborn border crossing, named Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn (GÜSt) by the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was the largest and most important border crossing on the Inner German border during the division of Germany. Due to its geographical location, allowing for the shortest land route between West Germany and West Berlin, most transit traffic to and from West Berlin used the Helmstedt-Marienborn crossing. Most travel routes from West Germany to East Germany and Poland also used this crossing. The border crossing existed from 1945 to 1990 and was situated near the East German village of Marienborn at the edge of the Lappwald. The crossing interrupted the Bundesautobahn 2 (A 2) between the junctions Helmstedt-Ost and Ostingersleben.
The Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic was the border guard of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from 1946 to 1990.
The Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) was the precursor to the National People's Army (NVA) in East Germany. Their original headquarters was in Adlershof locality in Berlin, and from 1954 in Strausberg in modern-day Brandenburg.
The Bavarian Border Police is a police division within the Bavarian State Police. It is the third arm of the police force alongside the state police and the riot police (Bereitschaftspolizei) It existed from 1946 to 1998 and was responsible for the federal borders in Bavaria. It was re-established as an independent arm in 2018, having no responsibility for border control.
The border guards of the inner German border comprised tens of thousands of military, paramilitary and civilian personnel from both East and West Germany, as well as from the United Kingdom, the United States and initially the Soviet Union.
The Ministry of National Defense was the chief administrative arm of the East German National People's Army. The MND was modeled on the Ministry of Defense of the Soviet Union. The headquarters of the Ministry was in Strausberg near East Berlin. The Guard Regiment Hugo Eberlein provided security and guard services to the Ministry. The Ministry also had its own publishing house, Military publishing house of the German Democratic Republic.
Berlin is a city-state and the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany.