Civil Defense Organisation
Selbstschutz can be defined as the local self-help of the civil population and of local and national institutions and infrastructures against air raids and catastrophes. The term was coined in the 1920s and was widely used in the 1930s as part of the German preparations for the Second World War.
The German Selbstschutz was part of a comprehensive system of air-raid protection conceived by the German government and which covered the civil population, industry and public administrations.
There are several forms of Selbstschutz: - the Selbstschutz of the local population, organised by air wardens and forming small first intervention squads, - the Selbstschutz of infrastructures (railways, post and telecommunications, waterways, police, SS) and of public bureaucracies (ministry of finance, for instance), - the Werkluftschutz of private industry. All forms of Selbstschutz became eventually mandatory, at latest with the start of the war in 1939.
Besides its official function, air-raid protection, the Selbstschutz and its administrative organisation, the Reichsluftschutzbund, had additional functions: - mentally and practically preparing the German population for war, - fostering the feeling of belongingness (Volksgemeinschaft), - controlling the political opinion (through the air-wardens) in the city wards, - security: collaborating with the local police and the Gestapo.
After the end of World War II the organisation was dissolved.
With the Cold War and concomitant German rearmement a new denazified Selbstschutz organisation was created, based on the experience of its forerunner and organised by the Bundesluftschutzverband (BLSV), which was later renamed the Bundesverband für den Selbstschutz (BVS). Among its major activities were the training of the civil population in first aid and propaganda for constructing air-raid shelters. In West Germany in the 1980s, standard telephone directories included a page with instruction from the BVS how to protect yourself in catastrophes and in case of attacks.
With the end of the Cold War the BVS was dissolved in 1997.
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