After the failure of the of the 1923 Munich putsch, when a Nazi attempt to seize power in Bavaria was defeated by the Police - not the army, Hitler realised that unrestricted control of the Police would be an essential element in the foundation of the Nazi state.

After the rise of the NSDAP party to power in 1933, a concerted effort by Hitler was carried out to have many trusted lieutenants nominated to senior positions in the various semi-independent provincial Police forces. In January 1934, steps were taken to amalgamate these various Police forces into the first German National Police Force, officially called the Deutsche Polizei. This resulted in the Police uniforms adapting the German eagle and Nazi swastika into the various uniforms.

In 1936 Heinrich Himmler was appointed chief of the German Police and began the merger of the SS and the German Police into a single, national protection force. These plans were halted with the outbreak of war in 1939 as man power was taken by the Wehrmacht.

The Police were organised into two separate branches:

1)… Security Police – Police members wore civilian clothing.

2)… Order Police – uniformed Police, of which the Water Protection Police (Wasserschutzpolizei) were included.

In 1943 the Schutzpolizei numbered around 200,00 men.

There were various divisions of the uniformed Police including :

            Schutzpolizei des Gemeinden – Police operating within their local town.

            Kaserniete-Schutzpolizei – barracked & motorised police for emergencies & civil unrest.

           Gendarmerie – rural Police for low population areas.

           Motorisierte Gendarmarie - rural roads and autobahn Police.

           Verkehrspolitzei – Municipal Police (large cities)

          Wasserschutzpolizei - Ports and Harbours

At a later date the Bahnschutz (Railway Protection), Postschutz (Postal Protection) and Werkschutz (Industrial complex Protection) came under the control of the SS along with all uniformed Police..

Most of the above organisations carried bayonets and swords rather than dress daggers.

The Wassershutzpolizei (Water Protection Police) wore naval uniform with Police insignia and worked closely with marine and port authorisises. This division of the Police was the only one to be issued with a dress dagger.

The dress dagger was authorised for wear on 20^th April 1938 and based upon the Type 2 Naval Dagger with the exceptions of the following items.

1)… "Flaming Ball" pommel.

2)… Dark blue leather bound grip with gilt metal Police eagle.

The Hanger was a dual strap black velvet with dark blue gilt edged wire facings.

The Portapee was 42 cm long, coloured gold with blue flecks.

The scabbard, crossguard and blade were based upon the Naval dagger.

Due to the low number of Water Protection officers in service, numbers of this dagger are low, a few hundred rather than thousands. As such its price reflects its rarity.

The dagger was removed from wear in April 1939 when it was replaced by the Police sword that emphasized the Wasserschutzpolizei's attachment to Himmler’s forces.