Compulsory Border Protection Service: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:49, 23 December 2023

Revision as of 13:30, 7 June 2024

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== History ==

The implementation of compulsory border guard service has to be seen in a historical context. Until the 1980s the BGS was organized as a [[paramilitary]] force that could be deployed nationwide, either at the [[Inner German border|inner-German border]], but also elsewhere in case of [[civil disorder]]. Domestic military operations of any kind on the territory of [[West Germany]] were prohibited for the ''Bundeswehr'' at that time. The BGS used heavy military equipment and the officers were officially [[combatant]]s until 1994. Furthermore, the member states of the [[Warsaw Pact]] maintained a very large number of [[Internal Troops]], mainly staffed by conscript soldiers like the [[East Germany|East German]] [[Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft | Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften (VPB)]]. Interior troops were a considerable reinforcement of the [[infantry]] forces during the [[arms race]] of the [[Cold warWar]] period and were not affected by disarmament negotiations as they were not part of the regular military.

After the "[[German Emergency Acts]]" (German: ''Notstandsgesetze'') were enacted in 1968, the tasks of the BGS changed slowly. The military task was gradually reduced, because in a [[State of Defence (Germany)|State of Defence]] (German: ''Verteidigungsfall'' or ''V-Fall'') the ''Bundeswehr'' was and still is thereafter empowered in very limited circumstances to be deployed in domestic disturbances. Nevertheless, the BGS was equipped with light and medium infantry weapons until the mid-eighties and still, now nominated as ''Bundespolizei'' maintains [[armoured personnel carrier]]s like the ''[[LAPV Enok]]'' or ''[[Mowag Eagle]]''.