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Prior to January 1934 independent police groups
(State Police) were organized in various parts of Germany.
These police groups held the responsibility for regular police
duty in cities and townships in the 15 provincial territories
of the German Reich. With the advent of the National
Socialist Party, police forces began to come under the direct
control of the Schutzstaffel (SS). It was Heinrich
Himmler's intention to slowly take control of all police and
security related organizations in order to manage under a
single umbrella all national security issues in the Third
Reich. On 23 April 1934 new insignia was introduced for
wear on State Police (Landespolizei) helmets. This took
the form of a large, white mobile swastika and the National
tricolored shield of Germany.
Helmets were typically
painted a light to medium green color, but many were also
painted satin finish black.
The color changes and decal combinations were a
direct result of the transition of the Landespolizei to
National (Reich) control. Prior to this time, the State
Police were independently responsible for overseeing all
police related activities within their own state. There
were 15 different independent State Police groups until all
were integrated into the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) on 28
July 1936.
As Prussian
Minister of the Interior, Hermann Göring playing an integral
role in the early formation of the Landespolizei groups based
on the formation of the same within the state of Prussia.
The Prussian Landespolizeigruppe "General Göring" was the
model by which all other Landespolizei groups were modeled
prior to their incorporation into the Order Police.
State Police groups were trained as paramilitary units and
were often used to enforce the will of the National Socialist
Party when needed. Although associated with the National
Socialist Party, many police officers at the time were not
members of the Nazi Party. The depressed economic state
of Germany in the mid- 1930's reduced the amount of state
support that most police forces were allotted. As a
result, many police members were slowly drawn into the
National Socialist movement for the mere sake of obtaining
much needed funding, support, and equipment to do their jobs.
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