
178. Municipal Police: Motorised Gendarmerie Wachtmeister, 1937, Parade Uniform.
The Motorised Gendarmerie (Motorisierte Gendarmerie) was part of the Gendarmerie proper and was formed in 1936 to cope with the increase of traffic on the main and ordinary roads as well as the national autobahnen (see also No. 166). Their jurisdiction was not limited by geographical divisions. They were organised throughout the Reich into Bereitschaften (Stand-by Squads) containing three or four platoons of men and vehicles each and which formed a mobile reserve available in barracks located at strategic points on the German highway system. Troops of the Motorised Gendarmerie were distinguished by a chocolate brown cuff-title worn on the left sleeve of their tunic and bearing the silver embroidered words 'Motorisierte Gendarmerie'.to describe formations of the Schutzpolizei, generally in company strength, which were quartered in barracks in the larger towns and cities throughout Germany. They were equipped with armoured cars and weapons which in the main consisted of heavy and light machine-guns, submachine-guns, rifles, pistols and grenades. Their function was to act as a mobile reserve for the ordinary Municipal Police when additional manpower was needed at any scenes of mass demonstrations, severe air raids or similar emergencies. They constituted a valuable arm of shock troops to supplement the National Socialist Party's own para-military formations. They could be described as the lineal descendants of the earlier Landespolizei, a paramilitary body of police permitted to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles (No. 181).
179. German Order Police: Senior Inspector of Administration Police, 1938, Service Uniform.
The Administrative Police (Verwaltungspolizei) was the administrative branch of the ORPO, units of which were attached to Police agencies. Their various clerical record keeping and general administrative police functions included the enforcement of administrative regulations such as the supervision of buildings, theatres, factories, shops etc., the keeping of records, the writing of reports, taking of statements, registering of aliens, guarding of prisoners, and the issuing of permits, passports, licences etc., together with their inspection and regulation duties. Included in this administrative force were the Health Police (Gesundheitspolizei), the Factory and Shops Police (Gewerbepolizei) and the Building Police (Baupolizei). In smaller units members of the Schupo or Gendarmerie were called upon to carry out these functions. In large police stations and Reviere, however, personnel of the Verwaltungspolizei were stationed and entrusted with this work. They were regular civil service employees but were given extensive periods of training at Police Administrative Schools. The small cloth badge worn above the left cuff on the tunic of the Polizei Oberinspektor (No. 179) known as the 'Kreuz des S�dens' (Southern Cross) (see also No. 225) commemorated the traditions of former German colonial police troops inherited by Protection Police units in Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin and Stuttgart.
180. Reich Protection Police: Wachtmeister Police Tank Formations, 1944, Black Panzer Uniform.
Police Tank formations were a war-time extention of the Barrack Police (Kasernierte Polizei), see No. 177. Police crews of armoured vehicles were issued with the special black Pazter uniform, the same style of uniform as worn by the German Army's armoured fortnations, those of the Hermann G�ring Division and the Waffen-SS. The uniform carried Police insignia as shown in No. 180 and it was worn together with the black field replacement cap, also with police insignia.
181. German Police Formations: Oberwachtmeister Landespolizeigruppe 'General G�ring', 1935, Service Uniform.
The Protection Police formations in Prussia before June 1934 wore uniforms of dark blue (see No. 19). From that date all police uniforms were changed to what is referred to as 'police-green'. Members of the Landespolizeigruppe 'General G�ring' had begun to wear their police-green uniforms a year earlier in July 1933. On 22nd December 1933 the whole unit was authorised to wear on the left sleeve of their tunics and greatcoats a dark green cuff-title bearing the white cotton or silver-aluminium gothic lettering 'L.P.G. General G�ring'. On 23rd September 1935 the Land Police Group General G�ring was ofticially transferred into the Luftwaffe to become the Regiment 'General G�ring'. For a short period of six months from September 1935 to approximately February 1936, as a provisional measure until new Air Force uniforms became available, members of the LPG General G�ring continued to wear their police-green uniforms but with the addition Luftwaffe cap insignia and the Luftwaffe National Emblem worn on the right breast of their tunics (No. 181).
182. German Police Formations: Penal Institution Strafenstaltsbeamte, 1940, Service Uniform.
The German prison system consisted of a) Ordinary Prisons and b) Extraordinary prisons. The ordinary prison system and penal institutions in GerInany were adIninistered by the Minister of Justice (Department V), which dealt with the administrative officials (No. 182) in charge of local institutions. The General-Staatsanw�lte (Prosecutors) attached to the Oberlandesgerichte (High Courts) had certain supervisory functions. The ordinary prison system was administered largely by civil servants trained in penology, subject to the superimposed Nazi control. The German prison system comprised a number of types of prisons, including the following: Arbeitshaus for the detention and education of vagrants, prostitutes, etc., after service of sentence; Haftanstalt, for punishment of minor offences (�bertretungen); Jungendarrestanstalt, for punishment of minor youthful offenders; Jungendgef�ngnis, for punishment of youthful criminals; Sicherungsanstalt, for detention of habitual or dangerous criminals after service of sentence, StrafanstaltStrafgef�ngnis, for adults sentenced to imprisonment; Zuchthaus, pmitcntiary for adults sentenced to penal servitudel Untersuchungsgcf�ngnis-ulltersuchungsha remand prison attached to a court, for detention ofaccused persons pending trial, also used for prisoners serving short sentences for minor offences. The extraordinary prisons were a parallel system of prisons and concentration camps (Straflager) created during the Nazi regime for the express purpose of detaining party, political and racial prisoners. These were administered by Heinrich Himmler as head of the Security Police, (see No. 41 and Nos. 127, 128, 170) through the Gestapo, with internal camp organisation of prisoners headed by habitual criminals of the worst type. They were conducted with systematic terrorism and brutality. The majority of internees were German political offenders and Jews, but there were also a number of ordinary criminals, military delinquents and non-Germans. A few special camps existed for women. Officials of the German (ordinary) prison service, warders and administrative personnel wore uniforms of police-green with gold yellow insignia and carmine-red as their piping colour.
183. German Police Formations: Female Police Auxiliary Helper, 1944, Service Dress.
Women had been employed in certain branches of the German police forces for many years. Their presence was necessary in the event ofa female being arrested. They acted as female jailers in charge of women criminals. They were also employed more widely as telephone switchboard operators, secretaries and filing clerks, jobs at which they were particularly adept and which as the war progressed they took on in ever increasing numbers thereby filling the shortages in police manpower. They wore a simple uniform of police-green material. Their insignia consisted of the German Police eagle emblem worn on the front of their side caps and on the left upper arm or left cuff of their tunics (No. 183).