Border Troops of the GDR

The Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic, in German Grenztruppen der DDR, were a military force of the GDR and the primary force guarding the Berlin Wall and the border between East and West Germany. The Border Troops numbered at their peak approximately 47,000 troops. Except the Soviet Union, no other Warsaw Pact country had such a large border guard force.

The border guards were responsible for many deaths at the Berlin Wall. At least 29 border guards were killed in the line of duty.

By December 1945—within six months of the end of the war—each of the five states in the Soviet occupation zone had a central police force, in clear violation of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements. In early January 1946, the term Volkspolizei (People's Police) was applied publicly to the new police forces in East Germany, and in August of the same year these forces were placed under the central control of the newly created German Administration of the Interior, headed by Erich Reschke. In November 1946, the Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland (SMAD) directed the organization of the Deutsche Grenzpolizei (German Border Police), actually formed on 1 December 1946. The initial 3,000 recruits were organized and trained from People's Police resources, and by April 1948 the branch numbered 10,000, the total reaching 18,000 in 1950. The Grenzpolizei were armed and organised like a police force; and were subordinate to the Main Administration of the Border Police and Alert Units of the German Administration of the Interior. Eventually, the East German regime demanded a reorganization of the force along military lines, similar to their Soviet counterparts, the USSR Border Troops. In 1961, the Grenzpolizei were reorganized as the Grenztruppen der DDR. As part of the reorganization, the Grenztruppen der DDR were moved from the GDR Ministry of the Interior to the GDR Ministry of National Defense (MfNV). Although the border troops were originally part of the National People's Army (NVA), in 1973 they were separated from the NVA and reported thereafter directly to the MfNV.

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