page_title: Border guard
section_title: Germany
hierarchical_section_title: Border guard / Border guards by country / Germany
caption_attribution_description: English: Late August 1961. East German guard Conrad Schumann jumps to freedom in West Berlin. From the booklet "A City Torn Apart: Building of the Berlin Wall." For more information, visit CIA's Historical Collections webpage (www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-pu...).
context_page_description: A border guard of a country is a national security agency that performs border security, i.e., enforces the security of the country's national borders. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard and rescue service duties.
context_section_description: In Germany, the Federal Police, a civilian agency subordinated to the Ministry of Interior, is - besides other duties - responsible for border control tasks. Until 2005, the Federal Police was called Federal Border Guard, and originally was a paramilitary organisation having mandatory service in the 1970s, but had its military rank structure changed into a civilian one in the 1970s and lost its wartime combatant status in the 1990s.
caption: East German Border Guard Conrad Schumann jumping the border in 1961
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