German Federal Coast Guard

The German Federal Coast Guard () is a civilian law enforcement organisation whose primary missions are border protection, maritime environmental protection, shipping safety, fishery protection and customs enforcement. The "Küstenwache" is an association of several federal agencies, not a single entity like the United States Coast Guard.
The agencies that make up the "Küstenwache" have a common plan of action and direct their operations from two Coast Guard Centers (German: "Küstenwachzentren"), Neustadt (Holstein) for the Baltic Sea and Cuxhaven for the North Sea.
Structure and responsibilities.
Units and personnel from these federal agencies make up the coast guard:
Coast guard personnel.
The personnel serving with the "Küstenwache" include both police officers (in the case of the "Bundespolizei" and "Wasserzoll") and civilians from the Waterways and Shipping Office and other agencies. "Küstenwache" personnel do not have combatant status as it is not a military unit as other coast guards are. In contrast, the United States Coast Guard is both a military service and a law enforcement organisation and its commissioned officers have both police and military powers. However, police officers serving with the "Küstenwache" retain their usual police powers, adjusted to the maritime nature of their job.
Ships and other vessels.
A total of 27 ships and boats from the aforementioned institutions are in operation ("Bundespolizei": six ships; "Wasserzoll": eight customs cutters, four customs cruisers; WSV: three multi-purpose ships; BLE: two fishery protection boats, three fishery research ships).
The ships are all marked with the legend "Küstenwache" as well as a black-red-gold signet on the hull and the coast guard's coat-of-arms. However, the hull colour differs from agency to agency: blue for the "Bundespolizei", green for the "Zoll" and black for the WSV and BLE.
A number of helicopters and planes are in use as well.
Some Ships: