As you are all no doubt aware, the Schengen Agreement removed internal border controls between signatory states, except in “exceptional circumstances”. Similarly, the Bundesgrenzschutz (German Federal Border Guard) has allegedly been renamed the Bundespolizei (Federal Police) to “reflect the realities of the 21st Century”. I was therefore a little surprised to be asked for my passport by Bundesgrenzschutz personnel whilst sitting on a train. Now, being stopped by officials and asked to show my identity papers is nothing new, nor surprising - I do look very suspicious. It has given personal strength to my opposition to ID cards in the UK though, not just on the grounds that in the UK the database behind the ID cards is insanely over-reaching, stupidly expensive and it’s another weight on the wrong side of the scales, altering the balance between governed and governers (you’re there to serve us, remember?) - but because I’ve seen how it operates on the ground; Far too often “random” controls involve demanding that the three people with dark skin (and me) “prove” they are who they say they are (and far too often I don’t have my passport with me - after all, given my propensity for losing keys, glasses and the like, do I really want to take my passport ‘the only acceptable form of ID for British citizens in Germany’ with me when I go jogging?). What was surprising yesterday was that four people, in Bundesgrenzschutz uniform got on the train at Forbach in France and during the 10km journey to Saarbrücken in Germany, went through the entire train demanding to see the ID/Passports of everyone on board. After showing one of them my passport, I asked the man (who was, I should add, friendly, courteous and polite) why border passport controls were still taking place 15 years after Schengen. “Oh, it’s not a border control,” he said, “just a random, spot check” (of everyone on a train, which just happened to be crossing a border).
Personally, I think they were just bored and trying to re-live old times.
German Phrase For Today: “Einsatzschwerpunkt: Präsenzstreifen, insbesondere im grenzüberschreitenden Verkehr” – Border/No Border? Make up your minds.
Song playing as this was published: Fiona Apple “Paper Bag”
The Bundesgrenzschutz still exist and probably always will. They have a big infrastucture. I too never carry my passport or English driving licence on the grounds that they are too easy to lose.
Did a post today about ID cards. Very sad. Hate politics.
I think trains are the one place where you can count on still having to show your passport. At least whenever we cross over from Holland into Germany by train there are always customs officiers on the trains.
They were reliving past glories. Many of us look back with nostalgia to the days when someone else wore the moniker of evil empire.
methinks they were bored.
Experience of ‘random’ requirements to prove your ID
Haddock, Karl: I’ve been reading through their website - it’s at bundespolizei.de but the contents detail the Bundesgrenzschutz - go figure. Anyway, as the “normal” police are organised at a Länder level the BGS are responsible for national level policing, for example as a form of railway police. Part of their remit is to “show presence” on trains, particularly on trains travelling to/from other countries, I’m not sure whether “showing presence” actually means de facto border controls, but that was how it worked on Monday evening.
As for crossing from Holland, bearing in mind its liberal drug laws, I believe there were provisions in the original treaty for checks. Certainly whenever I drive to the UK I take the ferry from Hook of Holland and on the return trip the car has been pulled over by the police immediately after crossing into Germany every single time.
I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that out of all of my travelling in Europe, only my trips to the UK and Ireland netted me any passport stamps.
Like a good paranoid, I carried my passport with me every time I left the house; after more than a year of that, it’s looking pretty battered. Of course, I never needed it. I must’ve looked sufficiently ‘German’/non-threatening that I never ended up in anyone’s spotcheck. Even when the BGS officers were questioning everyone ahead of me in the airport passport line to the nth degree, they’d just flip through the pages of my passport until they found my Aufenthaltstitel sticker and dismiss me with a you’re-one-of-us-now nod ( … in one case, even though my sticker had expired more than a year before!)
As for national ID cards: what good did Germany’s national ID + compulsory address-registration system do in the case of September 11th, beyond helping the authorities and news media to find the empty apartments of Hamburg’s terror-cell members AFTER they’d already left the country and done the deed? Hearing otherwise reliably liberal Democratic legislators here in the US parrot that we need national ID to ‘prevent another 9/11′ just makes me sick.
a different skin color sometimes warrants a more thorough passport check. i get that every single time I enter any country in Europe and in the USA.
going through immigration in Zagreb, I was subjected to a ” you?! just here for a short vacation?!” it sounded more like “how can a citizen of a 3rd world country (I have a Philippine passport) afford to come to Europe?” or maybe, it’s just me being defensive. i guess, both.
I have to admit that although I suppose I should have my passport with me at all times, I don’t (except for international travel, of course), and have never been asked for it. I guess I just fit in well with the local flora and fauna.
[…] he UK population, eh Charles? Secondly I want to pick up on two comments to my post below (Pre-Schengen Nostalgia). Christina (Mausi), a “disturbingly white” Canadian ex-pat notes: […]
Yesterday travelling by train from Brussels to Strasbourg I was checked by French border police as I left Luxembourg. I went a tad cold as I realised I was carrying neither my passport or Belgian id card. In the end I proffered a business card and they were happy to accept it.
So the question was raised, what on earth were they up to, they checked everybody, there were five of them, they found somebody who had no ID whatsoever, and they let it ride, must be bored.
[…] France the German border police entered the train and “examined” it. Differently from last time they did not demand to see the ID or passports of everyone on board, in fact they onl […]
nice site
hello people i have a question,any of u know if ther are any border control in the port of hook of holland when coming in with the ferry(and with that i mean if i come from england to hook of holland port do i need to go through a passport check)
tnx alot and nice site (o_-)
Shamir:
Yes there will definetly be border controls between the UK and Continental Europe (either getting on the ferry or getting off or both).