[in ink] 1st Copy 3 copies 1st copy
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The Fuehrer and Reich's Chancellor. Berlin, 17 August 1938
[in ink]
10
[Signature illegible]
By means of the nomination of the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police in the ministry of the interior on June 17th 1936 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, page 487), I have created the basis for the unification and reorganization of the German police.
With this step, the Schutzstaffeln of the NSDAP which were under the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police even up to now, have entered into close connection with the duties of the German police.
In order to regulate these tasks and in order to delineate the common tasks of the SS and of the Wehrmacht, I hereby order the following inclusively and basically:
[the above written in pencil]
I. General
1. Being a political organization of the NSDAP, the SS as such does not need any military set-up and training for its political obligations. It carries no weapons.
2. For special inner-political tasks for the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police, tasks which I might have to assign to him from time to time, or for the mobile use within the wartime army (SS-Verfuegungstruppe). The following SS units which either already exist, or will be set up in case of mobilization, are exempted from the regulations of number 1:
The SS-Verfuegungstruppe.
The SS-Junkerschulen.
The SS-Totenkopfverbaende.
The SS-reinforcement Totenkopfverbaende (police reinforcement).
In peacetime they are under the Reichsfuehrer SS and chief of the German police, who, with the exception mentioned in paragraph II, alone has the responsibility for the organization, training, arming, and full use in regard to inner-political tasks given him from me.