Back Ordnungspolizei Afrikaans شرطة النظام (ألمانيا النازية) Arabic Nasist Almaniyasında intizam polisi Azerbaijani Ordnungspolizei BAR Ordnungspolizei Czech Ordnungspolizei Danish Ordnungspolizei German Ordnungspolizei Esperanto Ordnungspolizei Spanish Saksa Korrapolitsei Estonian
| Order Police Ordnungspolizei | |
|---|---|
 Orpo flag | |
.jpg)
| |
| Common name | Grüne Polizei |
| Abbreviation | Orpo |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 26 June 1936 |
| Dissolved | 1945 |
| Employees | 401,300 (1944 est.)[1] |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Legal jurisdiction |  German Reich German-occupied Europe |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Berlin NW 7, Unter den Linden 72/74 52°30′26″N 13°22′57″E / 52.50722°N 13.38250°E |
| Elected officers responsible |
|
| Agency executives |
|
| Parent agency | Interior Ministry |
The Ordnungspolizei (Orpo, German: [ˈɔʁdnʊŋspoliˌtsaɪ], meaning "Order Police") were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945.[2] The Orpo was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction was removed in favour of the central Nazi government ("Reich-ification", Verreichlichung, of the police). In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, the commander (Reichsführer-SS) of the Schutzstaffel (SS), was appointed Chief of the German Police in the Interior Ministry. The top and upper leadership positions of the Orpo were filled by police officers who belonged to or had joined the SS. Owing to their green uniforms, Orpo members were also referred to as Grüne Polizei (Green Police).[a] The force was established as a centralised organisation based in Berlin uniting the municipal, city, and rural uniformed police that had been previously organised on a state-by-state basis.[2]
The Ordnungspolizei encompassed virtually all of Nazi Germany's law-enforcement and emergency response organisations, including fire brigades, coast guard, and civil defence. Himmler and Kurt Daluege, chief of the Orpo, worked to transform the police force into militarised formations ready to serve the regime's aims of conquest and racial annihilation. Police troops were first formed into battalion-sized formations for the invasion of Poland, where they were deployed for security and policing purposes, also taking part in executions and mass deportations.[4] During World War II, the force was tasked with policing the civilian population of the occupied and colonised countries.[5] In 1941, the Orpo's activities escalated to genocide, when the Order Police battalions formed into independent regiments or attached to Wehrmacht security divisions and Einsatzgruppen, and perpetrated crimes against humanity and mass-murder in the Holocaust.
- ^ Müller-Hillebrand 1969, p. 322.
- ^ a b Robertson 2008.
- ^ Westermann 2006, p. 132.
- ^ Showalter 2005, p. xiii.
- ^ Browning 2001, p. 97.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).