[en] The CMS Beam Conditions and Radiation Monitoring System, BRM, will support beam tuning, protect the CMS detector from adverse beam conditions, and measure the accumulated dose close to or inside all sub-detectors. It is composed of different sub-systems measuring either the particle flux near the beam pipe with time resolution between nano- and microseconds or the integrated dose over longer time intervals. This paper presents the Fast Beam Conditions Monitor, BCM1F, which is designed for fast flux monitoring measuring both beam halo and collision products. BCM1F is located inside the CMS pixel detector volume close to the beam-pipe. It uses sCVD diamond sensors and radiation hard front-end electronics, along with an analog optical readout of the signals. The commissioning of the system and its successful operation during the first beams of the LHC are described. (orig.)