Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft

The Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften (VPB, German for Police Company) were barracked, paramilitary riot and anti-insurgency police units in East Germany, under the control of the (East German) Ministry of the Interior. They had the status of a regiment, and were considered part of the Armed Forces of the German Democratic Republic, even though they were never a part of the National People's Army (NVA) or the Ministry of National Defence (East Germany) and were the militarily armed and trained branch of the Ministry for State Security which operated as the secret police force of the GDR. As such, they were comparable to the Internal Troops of the NKVD in the Soviet Union. They are often confused with the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the military units of the Volkspolizei, which were transformed into the NVA in 1956.

Organization

Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft from Basdorf on duty at the Brandenburg Gate before the fall of the Berlin Wall

The East German Ministry of the Interior maintained the independent Department of the Alert Units of the Volkspolizei known as the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaften (VPB). It consisted of between 12,000 and 15,000 men (sources disagree) in 21 Volkspolizei Alert Units of battalion strength. There was usually one unit per district of East Germany but the key districts of Halle, Leipzig and Magdeburg, with their large working class populations, and Potsdam all had two units. The Presidium of the People's Police in East Berlin had three units located in Basdorf.

Each Alert unit was organized as follows:

• Headquarters section
• Four alert companies:
  • One mechanized company in wheeled armored personnel carriers
  • Three motorized companies in trucks
• Support company
  • Anti-tank platoon with 3x45 mm/57 mm(later ATGM's)
  • Artillery platoon with 3x76.2 mm ZiS-3 field/anti-tank guns
  • Mortar platoon with 3x82 mm mortars
• Headquarters and staff company with:
  • signals platoon
  • engineer platoon
  • chemical platoon
  • reconnaissance platoon
  • transport platoon
  • supply platoon
  • control section
  • medical section

Equipment

These units were equipped with light and medium infantry weapons, SK-1 wheeled armoured personnel carriers, SK-2 water cannon (both armoured and unarmoured versions) and buses. Their uniform was the standard Volkspolizei grey-green. The political reliability of the Alert Units was of particular importance to the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) as they would be used against the population in the event of social disorders such as the strike of 17 June 1953 in the industrial areas of East Germany.

See also

• Alert police
• Bereitschaftspolizei