The Grenztruppen's main role was preventing Republikflucht, the illegal migration from the GDR, and were controversially responsible for many deaths at the Berlin Wall.

By December 1945, within six months of the end of the Second World War, each of the five states in the Soviet Zone of Occupation had new police forces in clear violation of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements[citation needed].

In early January 1946, the name Volkspolizei (People's Police) was publicly applied to the new police forces in the Soviet Zone, and in August these forces were placed under the centralized control of the newly created German Administration of the Interior, headed by Erich Reschke.

The initial 3,000 recruits of the Grenzpolizei were organized and trained from Volkspolizei resources, and by April 1948 numbered 10,000 personnel before rising to 18,000 in 1950.

The Grenztruppen became the fourth service branch of the National People's Army (NVA), the armed forces of the GDR.

This continued until the 1980s when the rise of the Solidarity trade union in Poland saw the GDR considerably toughen the Grenztruppen's presence along their border.

For most visitors to East Berlin and the GDR, including persons who utilized the land transit routes (road and rail) between West Germany and West Berlin, their exposure to the Grenztruppen der DDR consisted of dealing with the members of the Pass and Control Units (Paß- und Kontrolleinheiten, PKE) who processed travelers passing through the GDR's Grenzübergangsstellen (border crossing points).

The headquarters of the Grenztruppen der DDR was located at Bestensee-Pätz (a small village southeast of Berlin in the present-day state of Brandenburg), near Königs Wusterhausen.

The Grenzregiment 25 "Neithardt von Gneisenau" was disbanded in August 1983 and its units dispersed among the other border regiments of the command.

A Border-crossing Security Regiment (the GÜST Sicherungsregiment SiR-26 "Walter Husemann") was disbanded in 1985 and its forces dispersed among the border regiments, as the centralized location made the deployment of security details through the city to the various border crossings around West Berlin difficult.

In the final years of its existence the German Democratic Republic sought warming up of its relationship with the Federal Republic of Germany and as one of the signs of goodwill the regiment was transferred to the Land Forces of the National People's Army on November 1, 1985 (becoming the Artillerieregiment-40) and directly subordinated to the Chief of Artillery and Rocket Forces.

In accordance with a June 1989 decision of the National Defence Council of the GDR, the Grenztruppen der DDR were extensively reorganized as of 30 November 1989.

The scale of the task was immense, as not only did the fortifications have to be cleared but hundreds of roads and railway lines had to be rebuilt.

To increase their capability to search for persons attempting to flee the GDR, most units had German Shepherd dogs.

Undoubtedly the most controversial aspect surrounding the Grenztruppen der DDR concerns those who were killed or wounded while attempting to flee East Germany into the West.

However, the Zentrale Ermittlungsstelle für Regierungs- und Vereinigungskriminalität [de] (ZERV), which existed from 1991 to 2000 as a branch of the Berlin Police, registered 421 suspected cases of killings by armed GDR border guards.