Why are German border checks alternately performed by border police and customs?

12/11/2017 6:34:13 AM

Half a century ago, Germany was right on the Iron Curtain. Now it is in the middle of the EU.

  • There was the Bundesgrenzschutz, the Federal Border Guards, who protected the borders. In wartime they would have come under military command, except for the female officers. They also had the premier German counter-terrror team of the time, the GSG-9.
  • When the Iron Curtain came down, it was transformed into the Bundespolizei. In addition to border protection, it polices the rail system and provides reinforcements to state police forces. The name and the focus changed from border control to manpower-intensive general police tasks.
  • Then there was/is the Bundeszollverwaltung, the Federal Customs Administration, to collect customs at the border and do some other law enforcement tasks regarding taxes and money.
  • They still do customs e.g. in the big seaports, but they are much more visible in their other roles, e.g. enforcing labor laws.

So, slightly different focus (as dunni said in his answer), but mostly a historical relic to have both at the border.

12/10/2017 9:43:02 PM

Since the introduction of ‘temporary’ immigration checkpoints at many of the German land borders to the Schengen countries in September 2015, the Federal Police have not enough capacities to perform all the duties themselves, but have delegated some of their work to other authorities like the regular police force or customs. Immigration checkpoints at the German-Austrian border are e.g. usually operated by the state police.

The police and customs have many overlapping authorities and customs officers have extended authorities in border proximity, less than 30km from the border. There, customs officers are entitled to stop anyone and request identification (ZollVG § 10).

12/10/2017 7:24:35 PM

One task of the Zoll is the Grenzaufsicht (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenzaufsicht). An english translation could probably be “border inspection”, contrary to border protection, which is a task of the Bundespolizei. However Grenzaufsicht also includes detection and prevention of illegal movements over the borders, so they are authorised to check documents of people crossing the borders.

Credit:stackoverflow.com‘

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Hello,My name is Aparna Patel,I’m a Travel Blogger and Photographer who travel the world full-time with my hubby.I like to share my travel experience.

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