Patricia M. Schütte-Bestek examines for the first time the development of the Federal Border Guard into the Federal Police from an organizational sociology perspective. Her analysis is based on expert interviews with members of the organization and covers the period from its founding in 1951 to 2012. The central assumption of her work is that the development of organizational legitimacy significantly contributed to the survival of the police organization over its more than 60-year history. The results of the empirical investigation provide insights into three key lines of development that reflect this.