The Volkspolizei (German for "People's Police") served as the armed forces and the national police of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1946 to 1956. The Volkspolizei was responsible for most law enforcement in East Germany, but because of its organisation and structure it was also considered a paramilitary force. Unlike police forces in most countries, they were equipped with armored personnel carriers and artillery and trained as military units. Founding On October 31, 1945, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG) approved the arming of the community-level police forces; the forces which had been established in the regions of Germany the Soviet Union had occupied following World War II. In 1946 the name Volkspolizei began to be used and by August the organisation was placed under the control of the German Administration of the Interior. The first Volkspolizisten were mostly former Wehrmacht officers who had become communists, as well as former German members of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. The "Volkspolizei" were organized in the same style as the Militsiya in the Soviet Union. By November 1946, the Volkspolizei had more than 45,000 officers. At this time the SVAG authorised the creation of the Border Police, a branch of the Volkspolizei, to prevent mass emigration into West Germany. In December, another branch, the Transportpolizei, was established. Purges In the spring of 1949, the SVAG ordered that the Volkspolizei be purged of all "undesirable officers". This label included anybody who had served in the Wehrmacht, anybody who had been a prisoner of war in an Allied country other than the USSR, anybody who had come to East Germany as refugees from former German territories that had been placed under Polish or Soviet control, and anybody with relatives in West Germany. People not deemed sufficiently committed to the communist cause were also dismissed. With these purges, the SVAG created a force that was steadfastly loyal in its politics. To further instill the correct politics into Volkspolizei officers, the Main Administration of Training was established in 1949. These training courses were run by communist heroes such as Spanish Civil War veteran Wilhelm Zaisser and the man who would later become East Germany's Minister of Defence, Heinz Hoffmann. By 1950, East Germany, though officially still without an army, was able to muster a well organised and well-armed security force, and with the establishment of the Volkspolizei came the foundations