The idea to establish a Gendarmerie (from French: gens d'armes: "armed people") military force charged with police duties originated from the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire.

Initially composed of eighteen regiments and part of the army, its operational command was transferred to the Austrian Ministry for the Interior in 1860 and wholly severed from the armed forces in 1867.

The military origins were still represented in the retention of the old insignia, a flaming grenade, after the Gendamerie became a component of the civil administration in 1918.

Gendarmerie became a vital instrument for suppression of constitutional or democratic ambitions during the post-revolutionary era of Austrian neo-absolutism in the 1850s and 60s, which brought it the hate of the middle class.

During the First World War, the Gendarmerie was used in a number of roles including maintaining public order in the hinterland areas as military police (Feldgendarmerie), fighting espionage and partisans, and arresting deserters.

After the war the Gendarmerie in the Republic of Austria remained militarily organized, but was employed for civilian tasks.

After the lost war, considering Austria's shrunken size, the number of Gendarmerie service members was largely reduced.

There was a transport department, a Kriminalabteilung (and not as in many TV-series the "CID") and a Grenzgendarmerie (border gendarmerie) beside the individual Gendarmerieposten in the municipalities, which were increasingly folded up lately.

The terrorist assault on the OPEC headquarters in 1975 led to the establishment of a special task force of the Gendarmerie, the Gendarmerieeinsatzkommando EKO Cobra.

50 km south of Vienna) and gets activated for all acts of terrorism and kidnapping in addition to other particularly dangerous employments.

Furthermore there are so-called in the context of the Cobra since 1981 Air Mars neck, those as civilian companions during endangered flights Austrian Airlines along-fly.

A battalion of Bereitschaftspolizei for extensive use in events such as large meetings, concerts, soccer games, demonstrations, pl there were additionally separately in each Land of the Federal Republic a "Gendarmerie employment unit EE".

On December 9, 2004, the National council with the votes of ÖVP and FPÖ decided this should take place on July 1, 2005 and that the new name should be the "Federal Police".