Civil protection refers to all measures and structures aimed at protecting and providing for the population in crisis and disaster situations. This includes prevention, emergency response, and post-disaster recovery. It encompasses disaster management and civil defense.

Responsibilities for civil defense and disaster management are established by the Basic Law. According to this, the federal government is responsible for civil defense, which exclusively covers threats in the event of a defense situation.

Disaster management in peacetime, i.e., protection against everyday hazards, is, however, the responsibility of the states and municipalities. The state of Rhineland-Palatinate has delegated this task to the counties and independent cities as a mandatory duty of local self-government.

However, for personnel, technical, and financial reasons, it would not be practical for the federal government and the states to maintain separate emergency response systems to address disaster situations that, while having different causes, have similar effects.

There is therefore close cooperation between the federal government and the states, such that peacetime civil protection also performs tasks to protect the population in the event of a defense emergency. Conversely, the supplementary resources for civil protection funded by the federal government are also available to the states for everyday hazard prevention.