Transportpolizei


The Transportpolizei was the transit police of the German Democratic Republic, whose officers were commonly nicknamed TraPos. It was part of the Volkspolizei and dealt with all modes of transit, but primarily with trains and railroads. It supervised all larger train stations and controlled the travellers, particularly at the border with West Germany, and directed traffic.
Before the building of the Berlin Wall, the Transportpolizei controlled the S-Bahn in West Berlin. In the 'interzone courses', there was always an escort party of the Transportpolizei present. The service training school of the Transportpolizei was in Halle.

History

The Transportpolizei was founded in 1953.https://www.bundesarchiv.de/im-archiv-recherchieren/stasi-unterlagen-einsehen/hinweise-zum-mfs/mfs-lexikon/detail/hauptabteilung-transportpolizei/ From January 1953 until February 1957, the Transportpolizei was part of the Ministry for State Security, in turn part of the Office of the Secretary of State. Starting from March 1957, it was transferred to the Volkspolizei, whose supervising inspector was Otto Auerswald.
After the German reunification of 1990, the Transportpolizei was dissolved, with some 1,200 of its personnel transferring to the German Bahnpolizei. On April 1, 1992, the Bahnpolizei was taken over by the German Federal Border Guard.

Organization

The Transportpolizei consisted of approximately 8,500 men that were organized from a national level and at district level, with each Deutsche Reichsbahn district: East Berlin, Cottbus, Dresden, Erfurt, Greifswald, Halle, Magdeburg and Schwerin. They wore dark-blue uniforms, instead of the standard green Volkspolizei uniform. They were organized into sixteen companies and equipped with small arms and RPG-7 shoulder-fired antitank grenade launchers.

Ranks

The following ranks were observed in the Trnasportpolizei: