Order Police (Schutzpolizei)
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| Name | Order Police (Schutzpolizei) |
| Native name | Schutzpolizei |
| Formation | 1918 (Prussian reforms); reorganized 1936 |
| Dissolved | 1945 |
| Type | Police force |
| Jurisdiction | Nazi Germany; occupied Europe |
| Headquarters | Berlin |
| Parent agency | Ordnungspolizei; Ministry of the Interior |
Order Police (Schutzpolizei) was the uniformed municipal and state police force in Nazi Germany integrated into the national Ordnungspolizei system under Heinrich Himmler and Kurt Daluege. It operated across Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and other German states, interacting with institutions such as the SS, Wehrmacht, Gestapo, and RSHA in policing, security, and occupation duties during the interwar period and World War II. The force's activities connected to events including the Anschluss, Operation Barbarossa, the Final Solution, and postwar denazification.
History
The Schutzpolizei emerged from the Prussian police reforms following the Franco-Prussian War and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, linking to actors like Otto von Bismarck, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the Weimar Republic. During the Weimar era Schutzpolizei units intersected with the Reichswehr, Freikorps, and political conflicts involving the Spartacist uprising, the Beer Hall Putsch, and the Reichstag Fire. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 the Schutzpolizei was centralized under the Prussian Ministry of the Interior and then subordinated to the SS and Ordnungspolizei leadership, a process involving Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, and Reinhard Heydrich. In 1936 reorganization consolidated municipal Schutzpolizei within the Ordnungspolizei framework, affecting cities such as Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, and Cologne and preparing units for roles in the occupations of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, and the Soviet Union.
Organization and Structure
The Schutzpolizei was structured into Schutzpolizei stations, precincts, and branch offices mirroring models from Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg, with command tied to the Reich Interior Ministry and the SS Main Office. Divisions included Schutzpolizei uniformed patrols, Verkehrspolizei traffic units, Bereitschaftspolizei mobile battalions, and Schutzpolizei criminal investigation liaison with the Gestapo and Kriminalpolizei in the RSHA network. Regional organization reflected administrative units such as Gaue, Regierungsbezirke, Kreise, and Gemeinden, with coordination alongside Wehrmacht Army Groups, Waffen-SS formations, Ordnungspolizei battalions (OD), and police regiments deployed to occupied territories such as the General Government, Reichskommissariat Ukraine, and Ostland.
Roles and Functions
Schutzpolizei performed municipal law enforcement, public order, traffic regulation, crowd control, and riot suppression in cities including Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Stuttgart while cooperating with agencies like the Gestapo, Kripo, and SS in political policing and counterinsurgency. During wartime its roles expanded to occupation policing, anti-partisan operations, security duties for Army Group North and Army Group Center, and support for Einsatzgruppen actions linked to the Holocaust, often operating alongside Wehrmacht units, Ordnungspolizei battalions, and Hiwis. The force provided manpower for deportations coordinated with the Reich Ministry of Transport, concentration camp administration overseen by Theodor Eicke and Oswald Pohl, and security tasks in ghettos such as Warsaw, Łódź, and Minsk.
Uniforms, Ranks, and Insignia
Schutzpolizei uniforms derived from Prussian and Reichswehr traditions, sharing elements with SS and Wehrmacht tunics, helmets, and field gear seen in images from Berlin, Nuremberg rallies, and front-line postings. Rank structures paralleled SS and police hierarchies with titles that corresponded to positions in the Ordnungspolizei and were influenced by personnel policies from the Reich Interior Ministry, Göring's Prussian state apparatus, and Himmler's SS personnel office. Insignia included regional emblems, cockades, and shoulder boards that echoed symbols used by the SA, NSDAP, Stahlhelm veterans' organizations, and various municipal heraldry in towns such as Magdeburg and Königsberg.
Involvement in Nazi Policies and War Crimes
Units of the Schutzpolizei were implicated in crimes associated with the Holocaust, mass shootings, deportations, and reprisal killings in occupied Poland, the Soviet Union, Greece, and the Balkans, acting in concert with Einsatzgruppen commanders such as Otto Ohlendorf, Paul Blobel, and Arthur Nebe. Collaborations with authorities including Adolf Eichmann's RSHA transport offices, Theodor Eicke's concentration camp inspectorate, and the Wehrmacht chain of command linked Schutzpolizei operations to events such as the Babi Yar massacre, the Jedwabne pogrom, and anti-partisan operations like Operation Reinhard and the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. Postwar prosecutions and investigations by Allied military tribunals, the Nuremberg trials, the Poland Institute of National Remembrance, and German denazification courts examined Schutzpolizei roles alongside those of the SS, Gestapo, and Ordnungspolizei leadership including Kurt Daluege and Heinrich Himmler.
Postwar Dissolution and Legacy
After 1945 Allied Control Council directives and denazification policies dissolved Nazi policing structures, with elements of municipal policing in West Germany and East Germany reconstituted under new bodies such as the Polizei in the Federal Republic, the Volkspolizei in the German Democratic Republic, and legal frameworks influenced by the Allied occupation authorities, the Basic Law, and the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Historical assessments by historians in institutions like the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, the German Historical Institute, and scholarship on figures such as Christopher Browning, Ian Kershaw, and Saul Friedländer have examined Schutzpolizei complicity alongside debates in German courts, parliamentary inquiries, and memorial projects in cities including Berlin, Warsaw, and Minsk. The legacy of the Schutzpolizei continues to inform studies of policing, atrocity prevention, and the transformation of security forces after regimes such as the Third Reich.