German Federal Coast Guard

Infobox Law enforcement agency
agencyname = German Federal Coast Guard
nativename = Koordinierungsverbund Küstenwache
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provideragency = Bundespolizei/Federal Police, Federal Agency for Agriculture and Nutrition, Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration and Zollkriminalamt
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The German Federal Coast Guard ( _de. Koordinierungsverbund Küstenwache) 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.

tructure and responsibilities

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
* "Wasserzoll" (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 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.

hips 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: three 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 "Wasserzoll" and black for the WSV.

A number of helicopters and planes are in use as well.

Ships include the following:
*BP17 "Bayreuth"
*BP21 "Bredstedt"
*BP22 "Neustrelitz"
*MS "Hiddensee"
*MS "Priwall"
*MS "Kalkgrund"
*FSB "Seeadler"
* "Hamburg"
* "Meerkatze"
*SUBS "Mellum"

See also

* Law enforcement in Germany
* German Navy

External links

* [http://www.kuestenwache.wsd-nord.de Official website] de icon