Notables
People	Ulrich Wegener, first commander Jarome Fuchs, current commander
Significant engagements	Lufthansa Flight 181 Arrest of terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams

Website

Official website

Notables
People	Ulrich Wegener, first commander Jarome Fuchs, current commander
Significant engagements	Lufthansa Flight 181 Arrest of terrorists Birgit Hogefeld and Wolfgang Grams

Grenzschutzgruppe 9 der Bundespolizei (Border Protection Group 9 of the Federal Police), commonly abbreviated GSG 9, is a counter-terrorism, hostage rescue and special operations police unit of the German federal police. Their counterparts on state level are the Special Deployment Commandos

On September 5, 1972, the Palestinian terrorist movement Black September infiltrated the Summer Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany, to kidnap 11 Israeli athletes, killing two in the Olympic Village in the initial assault on the athletes' rooms. The incident culminated when German police, neither trained or equipped for counter-terrorism operations, and underestimating the number of terrorists involved, attempted to rescue the athletes. Police did not have a specialized tactical sniper team at that time. The army had snipers, but the German Constitution did not allow the use of German Armed Forces on German soil during peacetime. The police rescue failed and the operation led to the deaths of one policeman, five of the eight kidnappers and all of the remaining nine hostages (subsequently called the Munich massacre). Apart from the human tragedy, Germany's law enforcement found itself severely compromised, in part due to Germany's historic relationship to Jews and Israel.

As a consequence of the mismanagement of the Olympic tragedy, the West German government created the GSG 9 under the leadership of then Oberstleutnant Ulrich Wegener so that similar situations in the future could be responded to adequately and professionally. Many German politicians opposed its formation, fearing GSG 9 would rekindle memories of the Nazi Party's Schutzstaffel (SS). The decision was taken to form the unit from police forces (as opposed to from the military, as are the equivalent forces in other countries) on the ground that German federal law expressly forbids the use of the military forces against the civilian population. Composing the special force from police personnel would avoid this difficulty. The unit was officially established on April 17, 1973 as a part of Germany's federal police agency, the Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Guard Service, renamed Bundespolizei or Federal Police in 2005). The name GSG 9 stood for Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (Border Guard Group 9) and was chosen simply because the BGS had eight regular border guard groups at the time. After the 2005 renaming, the abbreviation "GSG 9" was kept due to the fame of the unit and is now the official way to refer to the unit. Its formation was based on the expertise of the British SAS Counter Terrorist Units and Israeli Special Operations.

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