94-419: Landespolizei ( German for 'state police'; German pronunciation: [ˌlandəspoliˈt͡saɪ] ) is a term used to refer to the state police of any of the states of Germany . The Landespolizei of today can trace its origins to the late 19th century, when Germany united into a single country in 1871, under Otto von Bismarck . Various towns and cities also maintained police forces, as
188-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
282-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
376-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
470-573: A "uniform career structure" that aims to avoid premature specialization, lets officers think in broad terms, makes career field changes easier and improves promotion opportunities. German citizenship is not required to be a police officer in Germany. Police departments in big cities are especially keen to recruit officers from ethnic minorities to reduce language and cultural barriers. However, minorities still make up less than one percent of officer numbers. The Land police have had women members since
564-563: A 24-hour basis, conduct day-to-day policing and serve as points of contact for local citizens. Below this level, the Polizeiposten are small police offices staffed by one or two officers, normally only during office hours. The State Police wear the state patch on the uniform sleeve and sometimes metal city badges are worn over the right breast pocket, indicating which police department they work for. Police officers can be transferred anywhere within their state. Once skilled, officers of
658-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
752-496: A half years at police school in combined classroom tuition and on-the-job training with police departments and the Bereitschaftspolizei . These people qualify as regular police officers and wear light blue stars on their shoulder straps, denoting rank in the first echelon of the police service. After duty as a patrol officer, someone with an outstanding record or wealth of experience can go on to two or three years at
846-524: A higher police school or college of public administration to qualify for the upper echelon which starts with Polizeikommissar (one silver star) and ascends to Erster Polizeihauptkommissar (five silver stars). Direct entry candidates with the Abitur high school diploma can also take these courses. Some states such as Hessen now train all their police officers for the upper echelon to improve pay and promotion chances. The very few candidates who qualify for
940-478: A minimum magazine capacity of 8 rounds, have a service life of at least 10,000 rounds, weigh no more than 1 kilogram and be within dimensions of 180 mm length×130 mm height×34 mm width, and be fully ambidextrous, safe to carry with a loaded chamber (both holstered and concealed in a pocket) and able to be quickly drawn and instantly ready to fire. Walther developed their tried and true P38/P1 design further into Walther P5 . However, due to its breech-locking design, it
1034-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
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#17327804645531128-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
1222-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
1316-439: A special feature, an own Border Police (Bayerische Grenzpolizei). Two separate and distinct uniforms were worn during this time by the state police (Green) and City Police (Blue). The last city police force was Munich, which was finally merged into the state police in 1975. This organization was also prevalent in the other American Sector states. From 1945 all German police forces wore different coloured uniforms, but beginning in
1410-511: A wide area or in a big city, and have administrative and supervisory functions. The Präsidium often has direct control of the force's specialist units, such as highway patrols , mounted police detachments and canine units. Under the regional headquarters, there are several district police headquarters ( Direktionen ) serving communities of from 200,000 to 600,000 citizens. Subordinate to each Direktion , there are several local stations ( Inspektion ) or precincts ( Revier ) that are staffed on
1504-507: A wide variety of specialised vehicles such as armoured cars, buses, water cannons, earth moving equipment and command and control vehicles. Arrest units give the Bepos special capabilities to secure evidence and arrest perpetrators at events where large crowds normally impede police operations. See article: Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft The East German Ministry of the Interior maintained
1598-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
1692-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
1786-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
1880-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
1974-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
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#17327804645532068-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
2162-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
2256-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
2350-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
2444-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
2538-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
2632-668: Is still part of the Bepo. After qualifying as a police officer, officers have to serve one to two years with the Bepo before moving on to law enforcement duties at a police station. Dedicated to the LKA: The individual Länder and the Federal Police conduct basic police training for their personnel. The length and thoroughness of this training contributes in large degree to the high level of police professionalism in Germany. Teaching all aspects of police work takes time but supports
2726-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
2820-646: Is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and the Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ),
2914-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
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3008-485: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
3102-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
3196-672: The Landespolizei (state police) and are available for crowd control, (large) demonstrations, sport events and to assist the Schutzpolizei when needed. Aside from their primary functions, in some states they also train police recruits who serve about three years in combined training and service in these police support units. The units of one federal state can be deployed to assist the police of another state in case of riots, civil disturbances as well as catastrophes. Their day-to-day duties vary by locality. In Hamburg they patrol
3290-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
3384-562: The Bereitschaftspolizei contingents are formed into 600 - 800 person battalions, but in the six largest Länder they are organized into regiments. Some police forces like Hamburg have additional alert platoons that are part of the state police and staffed by regular police officers in case of urgent need when support from the state or the Federal Police is not available. The units are equipped with their own transport and rations allowing them to be deployed quickly to other Länder without having to rely on outside support. They are equipped with
3478-568: The Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
3572-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
3666-480: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
3760-633: The Federal Police and the State Police forces of Germany. The Federal Ministry of the Interior maintains an office of the Bereitschaftspolizei in Berlin which monitors and coordinates the deployment of all Bereitschaftspolizei units in Germany. The ministry also provides standardized weapons, vehicles and other equipment. The Bundespolizei maintains 10 rapid reaction battalions (called Bundespolizeiabteilung or BPA) stationed around
3854-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
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3948-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
4042-502: The Land chief of uniformed police (gold wreath with one to three stars) or Federal Police chief (gold wreath with four stars). The DHPol that the states and Federal Interior Ministry administer jointly also provides specialized vocational courses for senior police personnel. All Landespolizei officers carry handguns while on duty. Each German state's Landespolizei differ from other states in what sidearm they carry; this list includes some of
4136-702: The Landespolizei . Another police is the Polizei beim Deutschen Bundestag (Police at the Bundestag). Crime: German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It
4230-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
4324-676: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
4418-550: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
4512-513: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
4606-563: The military police could not cope with this troubling security situation. Thus each of the Western Allies quickly permitted the formation of civilian police forces, including small numbers of heavily armed and military like organised police forces in Western Germany, under terms that reflected their own police structures and traditions. In all three Western zones, the emphasis was to decentralise, demilitarise and democratise
4700-469: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
4794-530: The reunification of Germany in 1990. All state police forces in the Federal Republic of Germany are subordinate to their respective Land (State) Minister of the Interior. The internal structures of these police forces differ somewhat (which makes generalizations subject to local variations), but in most cases, immediately subordinate to the interior ministries are the regional police headquarters ( Präsidium ). These headquarters direct operations over
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#17327804645534888-723: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
4982-748: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
5076-536: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
5170-451: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
5264-681: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
5358-655: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
5452-518: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
5546-408: The People's Police in East Berlin had three units located in Basdorf . Each Alert unit was organized as follows: 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
5640-483: The Swiss Army's new standard handgun, SIG Sauer P220 down to required dimensions, making a new model P225, which as P6 was adopted by most state police forces. Following the reunification, Thuringia State Police initially kept using the old Volkspolizei Makarovs due to lack of funds, Saxony State Police adopted the P7, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern adopted the P6 and Brandenburg adopted SIG Sauer's P228. New sidearms post-reunification: From 1945 till 1976,
5734-571: The country in Ratzeburg, Uelzen, Blumberg, Bad Düben, Duderstadt, Sankt Augustin, Hünfeld, Bayreuth , Bad Bergzabern and Deggendorf. These units can reinforce the federal police in any sphere of its missions and support the police forces of the Länder . They are also trained to assist local authorities in case of disasters and uprisings. Under new interior ministry plans, the number of Bereitschaftspolizei companies will increase from 28 to 29 comprising approx. 25 percent of Germany's police support units. The state Bereitschaftspolizei units are part of
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#17327804645535828-406: The design and sourcing of the police uniforms. Cap badges, patches and rank remain the same as before, just in blue. Vehicle liveries also changed to a silver/blue or white/blue design. The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA - the German Federal Criminal Police Office) and the Bundespolizei (BPOL - Federal Police, formerly known as the Bundesgrenzschutz/BGS) are federal institutions that are not part of
5922-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
6016-404: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
6110-435: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
6204-412: The forces were reconstituted after World War II. Initially, female officers were only assigned to cases involving juveniles and women but in the mid-1970s they were allowed to become patrol officers. The proportion of women on patrol duty is set to rise as 40-50 percent of police school inductees are currently female. Most police recruits are taken on directly after leaving school and spend about two and
6298-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
6392-437: The increasing number of new laws and regulations made controlling urban life more complicated. In Nazi Germany , all state and city forces were absorbed into the Ordnungspolizei , which existed from 1936 to 1945. After World War II , massive numbers of refugees and displaced persons, hunger and poverty characterised everyday life in Germany. Attacks by armed gangs, robbery, looting and black-marketing were commonplace, and
6486-493: 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 regiment (more closely to battalion size) 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 regiments. The Presidium of
6580-417: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
6674-449: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Bereitschaftspolizei The Bereitschaftspolizei (literally 'Readiness Police'/On-Call Police (Reserve); effectively riot police ), abbreviated BePo , are the support and rapid reaction units of Germany 's police forces. They are composed of detachments from
6768-488: The legend "Polizei" in bold lettering. All German State Police Forces (German: Landespolizei) and the Federal Police (German: Bundespolizei) shifted after 2005 to blue uniforms to conform with the common blue look of most police forces in Europe. In line with the uniforms, police vehicles and various items of equipment also changed their main color to blue. Although there are 16 states, currently only six types of state police uniforms are in use, because many states co-operate in
6862-506: The mid-seventies the police of all West German Länder and West Berlin wore the same uniform that Heinz Oestergaard designed most parts of in the early seventies. The standard uniform consisted of a tunic, parka, pullover without shroud, coat, visor cap and necktie in moss-green, trouser, pullover, and cardigan in brown-beige, and shirt (long and short sleeve) in bamboo-yellow. Shoes, boots, holsters, leather jackets, and other leather gear were black. Leather gloves were olive drab. Exceptions were
6956-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
7050-633: The municipal police forces become part of the Landespolizei , such as the Munich city police, which became Polizeipräsidium München as part of Bavarian State Police in 1975. The Landespolizei became the police force for the federal states in the West. East Germany created a unified national force in the form of the Volkspolizei , however this was reorganized according to the West German police upon
7144-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
7238-470: The performance of the regular tasks of the stations in the same time) to respond as fast as possible. The structure, equipment and training of Bereitschaftpolizei units is standard so that units from different parts of Germany can operate together without any problems. The Bereitschaftspolizei is assigned to barracks and organized into sections, platoons and 120 to 150 person training or rapid reaction companies called Hundertschaften . In most Länder ,
7332-628: The police service's executive ranks study for one year at a state police academy and then for another at the German Police University ( Deutsche Hochschule der Polizei – DHPol) in Münster-Hiltrup where graduates earn a master's degree in police administration. Direct-entry candidates with a university degree only study for six months at the DHPol. The executive echelon begins with Polizeirat (one gold star) and culminates with
7426-417: The police. Some restrictions were lifted as Cold War tensions grew. In addition, the botched hostage rescue attempt at Munich Olympic Massacre , as well as rise in organized crime and terrorism (Red Army Faction, Revolutionary Cells) proved that certain police functions necessitated central rather than local direction, thus the western state police forces underwent significant reforms in the 1970s. Most notably,
7520-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
7614-412: The state police can be moved theoretically nationwide. In practice, such requests are made by the officers themselves. They usually swap workplaces with an exchange partner from another federal state ('Stellentausch', job rotation). Such an exchange is thus possible nationwide and is not dependent on the state. State police forces are divided into the following branches: In some states the police academy
7708-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
7802-632: The subway system (alongside the security service), assist in raids (f.i. in the red-light district or organised crime ), perform traffic control duty and support regular police officers on patrols. Some states (e.g. the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg ) have a hybrid system, where units of the Schutzpolizei may act as units of the Bereitschaftspolizei (f.i. for sudden or large riots or terror attacks) - they form so-called Alarm- Hundertschaften with units from all Hamburg police stations (to ensure
7896-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
7990-568: The various Länder had a wide array of insignia and rank. Additionally, uniforms colours varied from green to blue, and various shades thereof. For example, the City State of Hamburg police NCOs wore blue uniforms with inverted British style chevrons and the Schleswig Holstein police wore green uniforms with Third Reich style rank. Bavaria maintained a State Police (Landespolizei) as well as City Police (Gemeinde / Stadt) forces and, as
8084-473: The visor caps with a white top worn by the Verkehrspolizei, or traffic police. The Verkehrspolizei wore white gloves, tunics, and coats during traffic duties and ceremonial duties (like white holsters and leather gear). In some Länder all officers wore visor caps with white tops in general. The Wasserschutzpolizei wore uniforms of a slightly different design. They had dark or navy-blue jackets, the shirt
8178-399: The weapons utilized by various Landespolizei, as well as weapons that have been phased out: Originally, post-WWII Landespolizei officers carried Walther's P38/P1 and PP(K) handguns. However, during the 1970s police reforms, the forces also agreed to standardize on handguns. New requirements included: that the guns fire 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge at a minimum muzzle energy of 500 J, have
8272-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
8366-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
8460-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
8554-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
8648-420: Was difficult to manufacture, thus driving up the price, and ended up being adopted only by Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate forces. Heckler & Koch presented the new P7 design, which was adopted by Bavarian State Police and Lower Saxony State Police. Saarland Police had adopted Heckler & Koch's other design, P9S before the standardization agreements and kept it. SIG Sauer chopped
8742-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
8836-486: Was white, and the visor cap had a white top. The BGS wore a forest green uniform with a bamboo-yellow shirt. After German reunification, the Volkspolizei was broken up into Landespolizei and switched to the standard uniform. During the period of transition they still wore their old uniforms, but with western-style sleeves and cap emblems. Vehicle markings were also redesigned to conform to a white and green livery with
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