Bavarian Border Police
Encyclopedia
Bavarian State Police
The Bavarian State Police has approximately 32,000 officers and roughly 5,600 civilian employees and is therefore one of the biggest police forces in Germany.-Organisation:The 10 regional police authorities in Bavaria are:...
(Polizei Bayern). It was the third arm of the police force alongside the state police
State police
State police are a type of sub-national territorial police force, particularly in Australia and the United States. Some other countries have analogous police forces, such as the provincial police in some Canadian provinces, while in other places, the same responsibilities are held by national...
and the so-called 'readiness police' (Bereitschaftspolizei
Bereitschaftspolizei
The Bereitschaftspolizei are the support and rapid reaction units of Germany's police forces...
) It existed from 1946 (independently from 1952) to 1998 and was responsible for the federal borders in Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
.
In 1945 the Bavarian Border Police - then known as the Bavarian State Border Police (Bayerische Landesgrenzpolizei) - was reformed. The latter had existed from 1919 to 1934 in the shape of a Bavarian Border Police Commissariat on the borders between Lindau on Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
and Eger
Cheb
Cheb is a city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic, with about 33,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the river Ohře , at the foot of one of the spurs of the Smrčiny and near the border with Germany...
. Its reformation was authorised by VA No. 72 on 15 November 1945 which established a Bavarian State Border Police force, the order taking effect from 1 March 1946. The first units were deployed by the American occupation powers as "Border Police".
On 15 March 1947 the overall responsibility for border control
Border control
Border controls are measures used by a country to monitor or regulate its borders.The control of the flow of many people, animals and goods across a border may be controlled by government Customs services. Security is enforced by various kinds of Border Guards and Coast Guards...
and implementation of Military Government Law No. 161 was transferred to the Bavarian Border Police. However the border police continued to receive their orders from the Military Government. The responsibility for checking members of the allied military forces and their dependents was exclusively carried out by American military personnel.
On 28 October 1952 the Bavarian Police Organisation law was passed. Articles 34 to 41 of this law governed the border police and their mission which was "The supervision and policing of the state borders, especially supervision of border traffic and carrying out the dispatch and reception of people, including the supervision of passengers at airports". Their departments were given descriptions that corresponded to those of the state police.
The last agreement over responsibilities vis-à-vis the Bundesgrenzschutz
Bundesgrenzschutz
Bundesgrenzschutz was the first federal police organization in Western Germany after World War II permitted by the Allied occupation authorities. In July 2005, the BGS was renamed Bundespolizei to reflect its transition to a multi-faceted police agency.It was established in 1951...
was spelt out by an administrative agreement dated 16 July 1975 between the Interior Ministry and the Bavarian State Government
Landtag of Bavaria
The Landtag of Bavaria is the unicameral legislature of the state of Bavaria in Germany. Between 1946 and 1999 there was an upper house, the Senate of Bavaria. The parliament meets in the Maximilianeum....
which dealt with the exercise of tasks by the border police arm of the police service in Bavaria.
No other state in Germany had its own border police in the post-war era. Events in the late 1980s signalled the end of the Bavarian Border Police. Austria's entry into the EU
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
on 1 January 1995 and on 28 April 1995 to the Schengen Treaty fundamentally changed the situation on the Bavarian-Austrian border.
From 1 January 1997 border controls on traffic from Austria were lifted in stages.
With the incorporation of the Bavarian Border Police into the Bavarian State Police their history came to an end on 31 March 1998. They were replaced by police departments that almost exclusively deal with cross-border traffic. These include: the Missing Persons Police Department (Polizeiinspektion Fahndung or PIF) with border police stations (GPS) and the Search and Inspection Force (Fahndungs- und Kontrolltrupp or FKT). FKT officials are civilian and also work outside Bavaria in areas near the border. The border officers (Grenzbeauftragter) are the only vestige of the old border police that remains.