DDR Wasserwirtschaft

[Paul R]

I have long been interested in the role of this obscure formation. It is my understanding that they were niether considered to be military nor police. Any clarification on their exact role will be greatly appreciated.

The Wasserwirtschaft uniform is the light blue one on the Right.

I am sorry for the crappy photo, but it is what I have. If you all want more detailed photos, please let me know.

Now lets see what you have!

[Grant Broadhurst]

Thanks for showing these Paul , I,ve never heard of them !

Are they the waterways police or similar ?

Can we have close ups of the insignia ?

[jon m.]

Here is a link to the Berlin Wasserschutzpolizei.

Wasserschutzpolizei

How about the internal markings?????

Edited May 15, 2007 by jon m.

[Paul R]

Here is a link to the Berlin Wasserschutzpolizei.

Wasserschutzpolizei

How about the internal markings?????

I will make some better photos of the insignia and check for internal markings as well.

I think that the Wasserschutzpolizei is a different organization than the Wasserwirtschaft ?

[Guest Rick Research]

Apparently... but WHY? Any organization monitoring barge traffic, inspecting cargo, enforcing commercial regulations... would "normally" seem to have been doing EXACTLY what the Water Police already did.

Intriguing.

Maaaaaaaybe, these were the canal LOCK-KEEPERS and that sort of personnel?

[ehrentitle]

I believe there role was water management rather than policing functions. This would include water treatment and waste water management. They might have also had roughly some of the same functions of US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in management of clean water standards. Kevin

Edited May 15, 2007 by ehrentitle

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

Kevin is correct. The Wasserwirtschaft was not a policing organization. They were involved in clean water, water management, wet lands preservation etc. They were often placed in commercial firms to make sure they treated water correctly during the manufacturing process. Their uniforms are not common.

The Ministerium fur Umweltschutz und Wasserwirtschaft came into being in 1976. Their original uniform accessories only lasted for 76/77 and then some changes were made. These changes stayed in effect until the dissolltion of the DDR in 1999.

Here is a picture of the cap cords and cap badges worn by the Wasserwirtschaft. Cap cord #77 was only worn in 76/77. In the photo, cap cord 80a looks blue but is is actually silver. The different cap cords were worn for different positions held. Shoulder boards and the stars on them indicated a position held and not an actual rank although they did indicate a more senior position within the Ministerium or the firm where they held a post. It is impossible to list all the possible positions held for each shoulderboard and star combination because I would have to reproduce the entire book to do that.

I can say that the sold gold cord was worn only by the Minster and the gold cord with the blue flecks was worn by the Staatssecretar and the Stellvetreter des Ministers positions.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited May 15, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Paul R]

How many men were in this organization? (stand-by for photos)

[speedytop]

Hi,

1952 - 1972 Amt f?r Wasserwirtschaft

1972 - 1990 Ministerium f?r Umweltschutz und Wasserwirtschaft (MfUW), Ministry of environment protection and water economy

Source:

"So funktionierte die DDR"

Rowohlt, 1994, Paperback

Band 1 Lexikon der Organisationen und Institutionen A - L, 608 pages

Band 2 Lexikon der Organisationen und Institutionen M - Z, 650 pages

Band 3 Lexikon der Funktion?re, 416 pages

Regards

Uwe

[Paul R]

Ok... here are the photos.

[Paul R]

Insignia

[Paul R]

Tag... seems to be a private tailored uniform.

Sorry for the glare. The liner would best be described as some sort of plastic type of material... Maybe some sort of crude artificial silk?

[Paul R]

And the visor that came with it.

[Paul R]

And inside... seemingly un-issued

[ehrentitle]

The irony was that East Germany had some of the most industrially polluted waterways in Europe. The full magnitude of pollution wasn't realized until after unification. Kevin

[Paul R]

What was the cause of most of the pollution? Human and daily waste, nuclear waste, or industrial? Are things looking better there now?

[ehrentitle]

According to this magazine article it was industrial pollution. Major industries discharged untreated water containing mercury, arsenic, lead, phosphorus directly into rivers like the Elbe and Saale. It said that GDR water purification laws were regularly violated in favor of industries that used large amounts of water in their processes like the textile, film, chemical and paper industries. The reason? Installing modern pollution controls on aging industrial plants was cost prohibitive in the cash strapped GDR economy. Other major causes of pollution were the agriculture industry and the discharge waste from cities. Kevin

Edited May 16, 2007 by ehrentitle

[Paul R]

Hopefully, things have been getting better there, over the past 17 years. Sounds like a huge mess. I wonder what the men and women hired into the Wasserwirtschaft when they saw what they were up against?

Anyone know the size of this organization, manpower wise?

[Gordon Craig]

SPEEDYTOP,

Thanks for the correction on the date of the Ministerium and the name of the predecessor. Nothing in print in English on this organization so it is great to have your input.

Paul R.

No idea how many people were involved nor if all of those who worked for the Ministerium were uniformed. There may have been a small uniformed contingent and a civilian clothed section was well. I say a small uniformed contingent because of the small number of Wasserwirtschaft uniforms that seem to be available. There is a lot of Wasserwirtschft insignia available on ebay.de and most of it has got to be repro. There is just too much of it to be real. Thanks for starting the thread. I expect we will learn a lot from it.

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

SPEEDYTOP,

According to my reference material there were five different colours of underlay on the shoulderboards. They were;

Hellgr?n

Rot

Orange

Hellgrau

Schwarz

What I do not know is what these different colour signified. Was it different branches of the organization related to their job function?

Regards,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

I need to correct my earlier post. I do have the information that I asked SPEEDYTOP for. Here it is.

There are actually seven different colours;

Yellow-Ministry Personnel

Green-Water Service Directorate

Green w/navy buttons-Water Service Directorate (boat personnel)

Turquoise-Water Service Local Offices

Red-Water Management Department

Orange-Water Service Technical Schools

Grey-Water Project Supervisory Service

Black-Machinist and Maintenance Service

SPEEDYTOP,

According to my reference material there were five different colours of underlay on the shoulderboards. They were;

Hellgr?n

Rot

Orange

Hellgrau

Schwarz

What I do not know is what these different colour signified. Was it different branches of the organization related to their job function?

Regards,

Gordon

[Paul R]

Thank you for the information, Gordon!!

It does seem to be a very interesting formation... almost made completely for show? From what I understand, they were very ineffective.

[Gordon Craig]

Paul R,

I don't know how effective they were. I think they would like to have been effective but wading through the Communist bureaucratic mess must have been almost impossible. Especially with the Russian troops changing the oil in their vehicles and just letting it drain out onto the ground. Germans are by nature clean, neat and tidy and keeping their water clean would have been something that they would have wanted to do. All conjection on my part but I like to think that they wanted to look after their country and not just wear a uniform to parade around in.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

Here are some pictures of Wasserwirtschaft uniforms from my files. The first picture is of a uniform from the Deutschen Historischen Museum (DHM) in Berlin.

[Gordon Craig]

Next a woman's uniform for the Wasserwirtschaft. These uniforms are very rare.