Whatever Happened to the Wasserschutzpolizei ?

[Guest Rick Research]

I have been transcribing the 1 September 1941 SchuPo and Gendarmerie Majors-to-Generals Seniority List and have come upon an oddity.

Several, actually.

Every single officer of the Weimar era Wasserschutzpolizei who had been a fomer Imperial navy officer (the only ones I have data on) are in the 01.09.41 listed as Schutzpolizei:

no more blue uniforms? ALL gone to Polizeigr?n ?? !!

The ex-Imperial navy officers who were NOT SS and Party members/were frozen overlong in unpromoted ranks were actually...

BACK in the Kriegsmarine but still being carried on the Polizei rolls!

These can be verified--unlike the vast bulk of former Imperial army reserve officers in the Police-- because the WW1 Naval Honor Rank List, Naval Officers Association directories, and the 1941 Polizei DAL all include first names and full dates of birth to match them up-- and Lohman-Hildebrand confirms their WW2 naval service.

Which makes me wonder whether a LOT of the "passed over" SchuPo and Gendarmerie officers had actually gone back to the ARMY during the war.

There is a profound change in the character of the German police command officer corps between 1941 and 1944. FAR more of the 1944 joint SS/Police officers had ZERO previous connection with the police whatsoever.

That really makes me wonder whaat the 'after final victory" police officer corps would have looked like-- since the combat SS officers seem unlikley candidates for returning to traffic and street crime control.

[Robin Lumsden]

That really makes me wonder what the 'after final victory' police officer corps would have looked like.

Almost certainly something like this.

Beat cop, Berlin, 1950........................if Himmler's plans had gone through.

[JoeW]

Rick, they were listed under Schupo because the Wasserschutzpolizei was a branch of the Schupo. Its official abbreviation of SW indicated Schutzpolizei Wasser. I agree that the senior officer ranks showed more and more SS-Police ranks as the war progressed. But at the same time, many of the police background general officers, even with SS membership, were taking retirement and bailling out of the sinking ship. Political reliability was a necessity, so Himmler looked to non-police background men for the vacant positions. Yet there was a new wave of young policemen ready to assume the helm, graduates of Tolz and Braunschweig, many of whom were in combat batallions. They were trained in police duties after Tolz and Braunschweig and would have filled the void.