German Federal Coast Guard - Misplaced Pages

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Law enforcement agency

German Federal Coast Guard Küstenwache des Bundes

Racing stripe
Jurisdictional structure
Federal agency	Germany
Operations jurisdiction	Germany
General nature	Federal law enforcement
Specialist jurisdiction	Coastal patrol, marine border protection, marine search and rescue.
Operational structure
Services provided by	Bundespolizei/Federal Police, Federal Agency for Agriculture and Nutrition, Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration and Bundeszollverwaltung
Uniformed as	German Federal Coast Guard

The German Federal Coast Guard (German: Küstenwache des Bundes) 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

Since 2007 the Joint Situation Center Sea (GLZ-See) is in service. GLZ-See is coordinating the operational units of the federal government (Küstenwache) and the coastal states of Germany (Wasserschutzpolizei).

Units and personnel from these federal agencies make up the coast guard:

Bundespolizei (Federal Police), Ministry of the Interior
Waterways and Shipping Offices, Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration (WSV), Federal Ministry for Transport, Construction and Urban Development
Kontrolleinheit See (Maritime Customs Service), Federal Customs Administration, Federal Ministry of Finance
Federal Agency for Agriculture and Nutrition (BLE), Federal Ministry of Consumer Protection, Food, and Agriculture

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 many 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:

BP 24 Bad Bramstedt
BP 25 Bayreuth
BP 26 Eschwege
BP 81 Potsdam
BP 82 Bamberg
BP 83 Bad Düben
MS Priwall
MS Kalkgrund
FSB Seeadler
Hamburg
SUBS Mellum

Ranks

Official titles (ranks): From top to bottom; middle service to senior service.

References

"Bundespolizei - Küstenwache". www.bundespolizei.de. Retrieved 2023-07-26.

External links

Link for the Coast guard arm of the German Federal Police, In German

European Border and Coast Guard

Union agency

National authorities*

Terrestrial	Estonia Finland Greece Hungary Latvia Lithuania Netherlands Norway Police Military Poland Slovakia Spain Civil Guard Customs Surveillance Service
Maritime	Belgium Cyprus Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Iceland Italy Latvia State Border Guard Naval Forces Lithuania Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Spain Civil Guard Safety and Rescue Society Customs Surveillance Service Sweden

*Patrolling the external borders of the Schengen Area
European Union Portal

v t e Coast guards
Africa	Djibouti Egypt Kenya Libya Liberia Nigeria Seychelles Somaliland
Asia	Azerbaijan Bangladesh China Coast Guard MSA ~~Marine Surveillance~~ India Indonesia Bakamla Sea and Coast Guard PSDKP Japan Malaysia Maldives Myanmar Pakistan Coast Guards Maritime Security Agency Philippines Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Taiwan United Arab Emirates Vietnam Coast Guard Fisheries Surveillance Yemen
Europe	European Union Albania Belgium Croatia Cyprus Finland France Maritime Gendarmerie Maritimes Affairs Customs Coast Guard Georgia Germany Greece Iceland Ireland Italy Coast Guard Carabineers Financial Guard Netherlands Caribbean Norway Portugal Romania Russia Coast Guard National Guard Spain Customs Surveillance Service Civil Guard Sweden Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Coast Guard Border Force Isle of Man Jersey
North America	Antigua and Barbuda Barbados Belize Bermuda Canada Cayman Islands Costa Rica Haiti Jamaica Mexico Panama Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Trinidad and Tobago United States of America Coast Guard Auxiliary CBP
Oceania	Australia Maritime Border Command AMSA New Zealand
South America	Argentina Ecuador Colombia Guyana Peru Suriname Venezuela
Border guard Coast guard Customs Law enforcement agency Types Intelligence agency

v t e Law enforcement in Germany
Federal law enforcement agencies	Federal Coast Guard Federal Criminal Police Office BKA ASE Federal Customs Service Customs Investigation Bureau ZUZ Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Federal Police PSA BPOL GSG 9 Directorate 11 German Parliament Police Military Police Z Commission
State police forces	Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin Brandenburg Bremen Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony Mecklenburg-Vorpommern North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt Schleswig-Holstein Thuringia
Special units or branches	Arrest unit Criminal police State Criminal Police Office Motorway police Protection police Reserve police Special Task Force (SEK) Water police
Local public order forces	Municipal police
Defunct	Federal Border Protection German People's Police Railway Police Transport Police
Nazi Germany (Defunct)	Uniformed police Schutzpolizei Criminal police Gestapo State Security Police SS Security Service (SD) Customs Border Guards

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