Ordnungspolizei

Orpo

Ordnungspolizei
Ordnungspolizei commander pennant
The Orpo was under the administration of the Interior Ministry, headed by members of the SS
Kurt Daluege, chief of Ordnungspolizei (2nd from l.) with Adolf von Bomhard, Orpo Generalleutnant (3rd from l.) at the police academy at Rathenow, Havelland, in the autumn of 1940
Agency overview
Formed	26 June 1936
Superseding agency	Landespolizei (W.Germany) Volkspolizei (E.Germany)
Type	National Police
Jurisdiction	Germany Occupied Europe
Headquarters	Hauptamt Ordungspolizei, Berlin NW 7, Unter den Linden 72/74 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E / 52.50722; 13.38250
Employees	401,300 (1944)
Ministers responsible	Heinrich Himmler 1936–1943, Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of German Police Wilhelm Frick (nominally) 1936-1943, Reich Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler 1943–1945, Reich Interior Minister
Agency executives	SS-Oberstgruppenführer und Generaloberst der Polizei Kurt Daluege, Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, 1936–1943 SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei Alfred Wünnenberg, Chief of the Ordnungspolizei, 1943–1945
Parent agency	Reichsinnenministerium (Reich Interior Ministry)

The Ordnungspolizei (German: [ˈʔɔɐ̯dnʊŋspoliˌt͡saɪ], Order Police), abbreviated Orpo, were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1945. The Orpo organization was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favor of the central Nazi government (Verreichlichung of the police). The Orpo was under the administration of the Interior Ministry but headed by members of the SS until the end of World War II. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo were also referred to as Grüne Polizei (green police). The force was first established as a centralized organisation uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been organised on a state-by-state basis.

The Ordnungspolizei encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organizations, including fire brigades, coast guard, civil defense, and even night watchmen. Deployed along with the German Army (Wehrmacht) in the invasion of Poland in 1939, it had the task of policing the civilian population of the conquered and colonized countries beginning in spring 1940.

Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was named Chef der Deutschen Polizei im Reichsministerium des Innern (Chief of German Police in the Interior Ministry) on 17 June 1936 after Hitler announced a decree which was to "unify the control of police duties in the Reich". Traditionally, law enforcement in Germany had been a state and local matter. In this role, Himmler was nominally subordinate to Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick. However, the decree effectively subordinated the police to the SS, making it virtually independent of Frick's control. Himmler gained authority as all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies were amalgamated into the new Ordnungspolizei, whose main office became populated by officers of the SS.