The Berlin Fire Brigade ( - Berlin Fire Defence) is the fire and emergency medical service for Berlin, Germany. As well as firefighting, the Berlin Fire Brigade provides fire prevention, technical rescue services, emergency medical services, and assistance in case of chemical, biological, radioactive and nuclear hazards. (CBRN defense)
The brigade was officially formed on February 1, 1851, by Ludwig Scabell, under the command of King Frederick William IV. Since August 2018, the Berlin Fire Brigade is under the command of its Fire Chief, State Fire Director Dr. Karsten Homrighausen.Dr. Karsten Homrighausen appointed new Landesbranddirektor , by the Mayor of Berlin, 07/31/2018 Landesbranddirektor, short LBD, translates in German to State Fire Director.
The Berlin Fire Brigade is the oldest and largest municipal fire brigade in Germany. It has a total of 4,479 staff,12/2019: (website: berliner-feuerwehr.de) including 4,082 operational firefighters and officers based at 35 main fire stations. It is supported by an additional 1,537 volunteer firefighters based at 59 volunteer fire stations. Freiwillige Feuerwehr - "Free Willing Fire Defence" is the term used for Volunteer Fire Stations. The Berlin Fire Brigade has an annual budget of around €250,000,000, which includes personnel costs and investments.
In 2019, Berlin Fire Defence received 478,281 emergency calls. It is the busiest of all fire services in Germany. Approximately 83% of the alarms per year are for the emergency services, 5% for technical assistance and only 2% for firefighting.
History
Industrialization and Wilhelminian period (1851-1899) Back in the mid-19th century, Berlin suffered a series of devastating fires. The city grew rapidly and buildings became more and more crowded. Resources could no longer keep up with the size of the buildings. Therefore, The King of Prussia decided in 1851 to command Ludwig Scabell to set up a professional fire brigade and ensure its training and equipment .Wolfgang Hornung-Arnegg: Feuerwehrgeschichte. Kohlhammer, 4. Auflage. 1995, , S. 61. Scabell created the Berlin Fire Defence with the support of the former Berlin Police Chief Carl von Hickeldey. Within a very short period, almost 1,000 men were hired and trained while the professional fire stations were built. In the same year, the world's first electrical fire alarm network was installed in Berlin. The implementation was carried out by the German company Siemens & Halske. The innovation connected the headquarters at the Molkenmarkt with 24 fire stations and all police stations within the city. In 1854 the very first newly built fire station was opened, two years later a new water supply network with 1,520 hydrants went into operation in Berlin. Scabell retired in 1875 and was succeeded by Gustav Witte. In 1879 together, with the engineer and manufacturer Greiner, they received the German patent for the world's first turntable ladder.Wolfgang Hornung-Arnegg: Feuerwehrgeschichte. Kohlhammer, 4. Auflage. 1995, , S. 73. The Berlin Fire Brigade put their first turntable ladder, built by the German company BAMAG, into service at the main fire station in 1882.Eckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, , S. 41.
Turn of the century, First World War and Weimar Republic (1900-1932) In 1901 the International Fire Protection Exhibition took place in Berlin to mark the 50th anniversary of the professional fire brigade.Wolfgang Hornung-Arnegg: Feuerwehrgeschichte. Kohlhammer, 4. Auflage. 1995, , S. 80. In 1906 at the fire station in Berlin-Grunewald, the first gasoline fire truck in Germany equipped with a fire pump was put into service.Wolfgang Hornung-Arnegg: Feuerwehrgeschichte. Kohlhammer, 4. Auflage. 1995, , S. 85. In 1908 Berlin purchased its first electric fire engine. https://mercedes-benz-publicarchive.com/marsClassic/en/instance/ko/14-September-1908.xhtml?oid=4909697 (Accessed 3/6/2023) Standage, Tom, A Brief History of Motion, from the Wheel to the Car, to What Comes Next. During the First World War from 1914 to 1918, seven hundred officers had to transfer from the Berlin Fire Brigade to the Wehrmacht, where part of the firefighters were deployed in the newly created flamethrower regiments.Eckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, , S. 68f.
National Socialism (1933-1945) On December 15, 1933, the term Feuerlöschpolizei (lit. 'Firefighting Police') was introduced for all Prussian fire brigades. The fire brigades throughout the German Reich were placed under the Ordnungspolizei, abbreviated Orpo (lit. 'Order Police'), in 1938. These Brigades were called the Feuerschutzpolizei (lit. 'Fire Protection Police'). The previously red fire vehicles, blue uniforms and fire service ranks were replaced by green fire vehicles, green uniforms and police ranks. They were issued firearms and batons. With few exceptions, the Nazi-led fire protection police did not intervene in the November pogroms in 1938 when the synagogues in Berlin were set on fire.
One city - two fire brigades (1946-1990) After the Second World War, six of the 38 professional fire stations were lost. Of the 51 volunteer fire stations, three were totally destroyed while twelve were only partially.Eckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, , S. 106. On November 21, 1948, the Berlin Fire Defence was divided into two separate authorities in East and West Berlin.Wolfgang Hornung-Arnegg: Feuerwehrgeschichte. Kohlhammer, 4. Auflage. 1995, , S. 103. The first post-war fire stations were built on both sides during the 1950s. Technology and training in East and West developed separately. In 1952 the East Berlin Fire Brigade was incorporated into the Volkspolizei, abbreviated VoPo, (lit. 'German People's Police') as "Organ F" and issued firearms and batons.Eckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, , S. 119. East Berlin also received a "west turntable ladder" to protect the massive buildings on Stalinallee, today known as Karl-Marx-Allee. The turntable ladder type DL 52 manufactured by Metz, with a rescue height of over 50 meters, had a car that could be used as an elevator.Hans-Jörg Schierz: Berliner Feuerwehrfahrzeuge – Von 1960 bis heute. Walter Podzun, 1998, , S. 138f. In the days after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, the West Berlin Fire Brigade had to keep using its jumping blankets because people jumped from buildings on the demarcation line towards freedom in West Berlin. In 1969, the West Berlin Rescue Service was incorporated into the fire brigade. The Berliner Rettungsdienst was the ambulance service of Berlin. Since then, the West Berlin Fire Brigade has also been responsible for emergency medical services. In East Berlin, rescue and emergency medical services were carried out by the rescue office independently of the fire brigade until reunification. Since the early 1980s, the West Berlin fire brigade has repeatedly been involved in May riots in Berlin-Kreuzberg. A fire truck from the Berlin-Kreuzberg fire station was completely destroyed on the night of May 1, 1987.Hans-Jörg Schierz: Berliner Feuerwehrfahrzeuge – Von 1960 bis heute. Walter Podzun, 1998, , S. 144f.
Development since reunification On October 3, 1990, the day of German reunification, "Organ F" the East Berlin Fire Brigade, was handed over to the West Berlin Fire Director Wolfgang Scholz. At that time, the fire brigades had a total staff of 3,788 in West Berlin and 1,112 in East Berlin. In 1992 W. Scholz retired and Albrecht Broemme was appointed as the new Fire Director of Berlin.Eckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, . In 1993/94, due to the high volume of urban traffic and the numerous new measures to calm the increase, new vehicle concepts were tested in the city districts. The firefighting vehicle LHF 16/12 City, short "City", was 2.2 m shorter, 20 cm narrower; and therefore, more agile than the conventional LHF 16 of the Berlin Fire Brigade. After the successful testing phase, 41 vehicles of this type were ordered from 1994 to 1997.Eckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, , S. 155. On New Year's Eve 2000 there was a total failure of the IT control center, including the fallback level. For several hours it was not possible to place emergency calls. The vehicles were sent on patrols. There was only a marginal connection with the so-called Year 2000 problem.Jürgen Kuri: Dumm gelaufen? – Anatomie eines Computer-GAUs, c't 13/2000, Page 216. The affected operational control system FIS was replaced in 2000 by the more modern IGNIS and in 2017 by its successor IGNIS-Plus.Berliner Feuerwehr: Launch of IGNIS-Plus. 04/03/2018 In May 2006, Fire Director Albrecht Broemme became president of the Technisches Hilfswerk. The civil protection and disaster relief service of Germany. Initially, his deputy Wilfried Graefling became the temporary director and eventually the new Fire Director of Berlin in November 2006. Graefling left the Berlin Fire Brigade at the end of July 2018 and retired. His successor since August 1, 2018 is Karsten Homrighausen.Dr. Karsten Homrighausen zum neuen Landesbranddirektor ernannt , Der Regierende Bürgermeister von Berlin, Senatskanzlei, retrieved 31 July 2018 In 2018, colleagues from the Berliner Fire Brigade protested in front of the Rotes Rathaus, the home to the governing mayor and the government (the Senate of Berlin) of the Federal state of Berlin. Firefighters protested under the catchphrase "BerlinBrennt" (lit. 'Berlin is Burning'). The causes included the increasing number of operations, inadequate equipment including vehicles and materials, as well as the lack of personnel.Andreas Kopietz, Alexander Schmalz: Personalmangel: Die Berliner Feuerwehr verhängt immer häufiger den Ausnahmezustand Before the reunification of Berlin in 1990, only West Berlin had more staff than the reunited city from West and East in 2018.
Fire Chiefs
TenureNameOfficial Title1851–1875Ludwig ScabellBranddirektor1875–1887Gustav WitteBranddirektor1887–1893Alexander StudeBranddirektor1893–1905Erich GiersbergBranddirektor1905–1922Maximilian ReichelOberbranddirektor1922–1933Walter GemppOberbranddirektor1933–1943Gustav WagnerGeneralmajor1943–1945Walter GoldbachGeneralmajor1945–1948Karl FeierabendOberbranddirektor (East Berlin until 1952)1949–1957Ludwig WissellOberbranddirektor (West Berlin)1952–1963Ernst EttrichOberst der Feuerwehr (East Berlin)1957–1968Friedrich KaufholdOberbranddirektor (West Berlin)1963–1970Rudi MöschOberst der Feuerwehr (East Berlin)1968–1970Heinz Hoene Landesbranddirektor (West Berlin)1970–1990Horst MeierBranddirektor (East Berlin)1970–1988Kurt-Werner SeidelLandesbranddirektor (West Berlin)1989–1992Wolfgang ScholzLandesbranddirektor1990Manfred SchäferOberbrandrat (East Berlin)1992–2006Albrecht BroemmeLandesbranddirektor2006–2018Wilfried GräflingLandesbranddirektorseit 2018Karsten HomrighausenLandesbranddirektor
Special Operations
September 26, 1908 - Two elevated railway trains collide at metro station Gleisdreieck - 18 deadEckart Lottmann: Berliner Feuerwehr – Auf der Drehleiter der Geschichte. be.bra, 1996, , S. 61f. February 27, 1933 – Reichstag fire (German parliament) May 21, 1980 - Partial collapse of the congress hall 1983 - Attack on the Maison de France April 5, 1986 - Attack on the La Belle discotheque - three dead (2 US soldiers, 1 Turkish civilian) 16–21 December 1989 - Fire in a building with three hotel pensions on Kurfürstendamm / corner of Wielandstrasse extends to the largest hotel fire in German post-war history - eight deadHelmut Raab, Manfred Gihl: Die Feuerwehr im Einsatz. SWAN, 1991, , Page 86ff.; Der Tagesspiegel, 17 December 1989. 1989/90 - Video wall collapsed at the New Year's Eve party at the Brandenburg Gate