Bundesgrenzschutz Geschirr, BGS Plates & Cup Dining Set

I received a very unique and wonderful gift from a friend in Berlin the other day........... and original set of porcelain dishes and cup from the Bundesgrenzschutz!

These dishes were standard in the dining rooms of the BGS units in West Germany up until the BGS was renamed the Bundespolizei, and ceased to be the Bundesgrenzschutz in 2005.  

After 1990, when East Germany rejoined with the West, the BGS units in the former East Germany, continued to use the old dining ware from the east German Volkspolizei, Grenztruppen, and NVA.  I will be on the lookout for a set of these dishes to accompany my BGS marked set.............

This BGS dining set is very heavy duty and beautiful!  They are a wonderful addition to my ever growing collection of Bundesgrenzschutz items,


Here are a few of the hallmarks on the bottom of the plates and cup:

Here are the photos of the set:

And now to finish things off, here are  few photos of a BGS Christmas celebration in the BGS dining hall...... sometime in the 1950's or 1960's.  You can see the dining ware on the tables........

 

Rheinland-Pfalz Polizei & Saarland Polizei, Hat Badges

To finish up this little run of German Police hat badges and patches, let's end with two more..........

The first is a hat badge for the Rheinland-Pfalz Polizei......

and the second is a hat badge for the Saarland Polizei.

These two hat badges date to the post-1975 era.  They are attached to the hat with metal prongs.

Here are some photos of the Rheinland-Pfalz badge:

Here are some photos of the Saarland badge:

To finish things up, here are some archive photos from the original Polizei departments:

Rheinland-Pflaz Polizei:

Saarland Polizei:

Hamburg Polizei Patch

Since I've been dragging out my old German police patches and badges for the blog these last few days, I figured I ought to keep on the theme and showcase one more patch.

This is a uniform patch from the old green style Hamburg Polizei uniforms.  The green uniforms, and this style patch, were adopted in 1975.  They are obsolete now that the Hamburg Polizei have switched over to the standard blue police uniforms.  I believe this was around 2007.

Here is a good web page with great information about the Hamburg Polizei:
http://www.policemotorunits.com/id298.html 

Here are a few pictures of my Hamburg Polizei patch:

And to finish things off, here are a few Hamburg Polizei archive photos:

1980 Clash Concert Riots

Polizei Nordrhein-Westfalen Patch & Badge, North Rhine-Westphalia Police Patch & Badge

Here is another pair of German police items from my collection......... A shoulder uniform patch and hat badge from the Nordhein-Westfalen Polizei.

The Polizei Nordrhein-Westfalen, or NRW Polizei, are the state police of North Rhine Westphalia.  They are in charge of all police activities, from traffic control, to enforcement and investigation.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia page that gives a good description of this police agency (in German):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polizei_Nordrhein-Westfalen 


This patch and badge date to the 1975 to the present.  In 1975, the NRW Polizei adopted this insignia and the standard German Police uniform of tan pants, bamboo shirt and green dress uniform. As of December 2011, they have changed the uniform again and have adopted an all dark-blue uniform.  The vehicle paint scheme has also changed from green and white to blue and white.

As an interesting side note, the  Polizei Nordrhein-Westfalen have been deployed to Afghanistan for some time now and are involved in training the Afghanistan Police.  The uniform they wear there is a bit different from the standard continental uniform.  As you can see, it has the German Federal Flag on the sleeve, in addition to the department patch.

The badge has the NRW crest over the standard German "star burst" background.  It attaches with metal prongs on the back.  This badge is worn on the front of the duty and dress hats and berets.

Here are the photos of this badge and patch set:

Here are some photos of the Polizei Nordrhein-Westfalen and their vehicles: