Sicherheitspolizei (Weimar Republic)

In view of the unstable internal political situation in the early Weimar Republic, especially in the Reich capital, Berlin, Hauptmann Waldemar Pabst of the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division considered a barracked and militarily armed and trained police group necessary to control political violence.

[1] In the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19, extensive general strikes and street violence in March 1919 led Pabst to propose a corresponding concept to the Reichswehr Minister Gustav Noske.

The transfer to the local police or gendarmerie was by no means guaranteed, although in general a takeover was planned for the administrative service.

Depending on the size of the member state, the security police had a number of so-called special cars, mostly British Daimler DZVR 21s or German Ehrhardt 21s, which were usually equipped with two turrets with one machine gun each.

The security police were deployed extensively, combating the KPD's organized strikes and riots, including the Ruhr Uprising in the aftermath of the Kapp-Putsch in April 1920, the Mitteldeutscher Aufstand ("March Action") in March and April 1921, and the Hamburger Aufstand in October 1923, which were initiated in part by the KPD.

From 1929 up to the ascension of the Nazi Party to power, the police were almost continuously engaged in operations protecting or dispersing demonstrations and political events.

Like the Communists, the National Socialists saw a kind of praetorian guardianship of the mainstream democratic parties, especially the SPD in Prussia, which continuously constituted the government there from 1919 to 1932.