Exactly sixty years ago, on January 18, 1956, it was decided to create the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic (NNA GDR). Although March 1 was officially celebrated as the Day of the National People's Army, since it was on this day in 1956 that the first military units of the GDR were sworn in, in reality the NPA can be counted precisely from January 18, when the People's Chamber of the GDR adopted the Law on the National People's Army of the GDR. Having existed for 34 years, until the unification of Germany in 1990, the National People's Army of the GDR went down in history as one of the most efficient armies in post-war Europe. Among the socialist countries, it was the second after the Soviet Army in terms of training and was considered the most reliable among the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries.

Actually, the history of the National People's Army of the GDR began after West Germany began to form its own armed forces. In the postwar years, the Soviet Union pursued a much more peaceful policy than its Western opponents. Therefore, for a long time, the USSR tried to comply with the agreements and was in no hurry to arm East Germany. As you know, according to the decision of the Conference of the Heads of Government of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA, which took place on July 17 - August 2, 1945 in Potsdam, Germany was prohibited from having its own armed forces. But after the end of World War II, relations between yesterday's allies - the USSR on the one hand, the United States and Great Britain on the other, began to deteriorate rapidly and soon turned into extremely tense. The capitalist countries and the socialist camp found themselves on the brink of armed confrontation, which actually gave rise to the violation of the agreements that were reached in the process of the victory over Nazi Germany. By 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was created on the territory of the American, British and French zones of occupation, and the German Democratic Republic on the territory of the Soviet zone of occupation. The first to militarize "their" part of Germany - the FRG - were Great Britain, the USA and France.

In 1954, the Paris agreements were concluded, the secret part of which provided for the creation of West Germany's own armed forces. Despite the protests of the West German population, who saw the growth of revanchist and militaristic sentiments in the reconstruction of the country's armed forces and feared a new war, on November 12, 1955, the FRG government announced the creation of the Bundeswehr. Thus began the history of the West German army and the history of the almost undisguised confrontation between the "two Germanies" in the field of defense and armaments. After the decision to create the Bundeswehr, the Soviet Union had no choice but to "give the green light" to the formation of its own army and the German Democratic Republic. The history of the National People's Army of the GDR has become a unique example of a strong military cooperation between the Russian and German armies, which in the past fought with each other rather than cooperated. Do not forget that the high combat effectiveness of the NPA was explained by the entry into the GDR of Prussia and Saxony - the lands from which the bulk of the German officers had long originated. It turns out that it was the NNA, and not the Bundeswehr, who largely inherited the historical traditions of the German armies, but this experience was put at the service of military cooperation between the GDR and the Soviet Union.

Barracks People's Police - the predecessor of the NPA

It should be noted that in fact the creation of armed units, service in which was based on military discipline, began in the GDR even earlier. In 1950, the People's Police were created as part of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, as well as two main directorates - the Main Directorate of the Air Police and the Main Directorate of the Naval Police. In 1952, on the basis of the Main Directorate of Combat Training of the People's Police of the GDR, the Barracks People's Police were created, which was an analogue of the internal troops of the Soviet Union. Naturally, the KNP could not conduct hostilities against modern armies and was called upon to perform purely police functions - to fight sabotage and bandit groups, disperse riots, and maintain public order. This was confirmed by the decision of the 2nd party conference of the Socialist United Party of Germany. The Barracks People's Police were subordinate to the Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Stof, and the chief of the KNP was directly in charge of the Barracks People's Police. Lieutenant General Heinz Hoffmann was appointed to this post. The personnel of the Barracks People's Police was recruited from among volunteers who entered into a contract for a period of at least three years. In May 1952, the Free German Youth Union took over the patronage of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR, which contributed to a more active influx of volunteers into the ranks of the barracks police and improved the state of the rear infrastructure of this service. In August 1952, the formerly independent Maritime People's Police and the Air People's Police became part of the Barracks People's Police of the GDR. The People's Air Police in September 1953 was transformed into the Directorate of Aeroclubs of the KNP. She had two airfields Kamenz and Bautzen, training aircraft Yak-18 and Yak-11. The Maritime People's Police had patrol boats and small minesweepers.

In the summer of 1953, it was the Barracks People's Police, along with the Soviet troops, that played one of the main roles in suppressing the mass riots organized by the American-British agents. After that, the internal structure of the Barracks People's Police of the GDR was strengthened and its military component was strengthened. Further reorganization of the KNP continued on a military basis, in particular, the General Headquarters of the Barracks People's Police of the GDR was created, headed by Lieutenant General Vincenz Müller, a former general of the Wehrmacht. The Territorial Administration “North”, headed by Major General Hermann Rentsch, and the Territorial Administration “South”, headed by Major General Fritz Jone, were also created. Each territorial directorate was subordinate to three operational detachments, and a mechanized operational detachment was subordinate to the General Staff, armed with even 40 armored vehicles, including T-34 tanks. The operational detachments of the Barracks People's Police were reinforced motorized infantry battalions with up to 1,800 personnel. The structure of the operational detachment included: 1) the headquarters of the operational detachment; 2) a mechanized company on armored vehicles BA-64 and SM-1 and motorcycles (the same company was armed with armored water cannon SM-2); 3) three motorized infantry companies (on trucks); 4) a fire support company (a field artillery platoon with three ZIS-3 guns; an anti-tank artillery platoon with three 45 mm or 57 mm anti-tank guns; a mortar platoon with three 82 mm mortars); 5) headquarters company (communications platoon, sapper platoon, chemical platoon, reconnaissance platoon, transport platoon, supply platoon, command department, medical department). In the Barracks People's Police, military ranks were established and a military uniform was introduced, which differed from the uniform of the People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR (if the employees of the People's Police wore dark blue uniforms, then the employees of the barracks police received a more "militarized" uniform of a khaki). The military ranks in the Barracks People's Police were established as follows: 1) soldier, 2) corporal, 3) non-commissioned officer, 4) headquarters non-commissioned officer, 5) sergeant major, 6) chief sergeant-major, 7) non-commissioned lieutenant, 8) lieutenant, 9) chief lieutenant, 10) captain, 11) major, 12) lieutenant colonel, 13) colonel, 14) major general, 15) lieutenant general. When the decision was made to create the National People's Army of the GDR, thousands of employees of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR expressed their desire to join the National People's Army and continue their service there. Moreover, in fact, it was within the Barracks People's Police that the "skeleton" of the NPA was created - land, air and naval units, and the command staff of the Barracks People's Police, including senior commanders, almost completely became part of the NPA. The employees who remained in the Barracks People's Police continued to perform the functions of protecting public order, fighting crime, that is, they retained the functionality of the internal troops.

The founding fathers of the GDR army

On March 1, 1956, the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR began its work. It was headed by Colonel General Willie Stoff (1914-1999), in 1952-1955. who served as Minister of Internal Affairs. A pre-war communist, Willy Stohoff joined the German Communist Party at the age of 17. As an underground member, he, nevertheless, could not avoid serving in the Wehrmacht in 1935-1937. served in an artillery regiment. Then he was demobilized and worked as an engineer. During the Second World War, Willy Shtof was again called up for military service, took part in battles on the territory of the USSR, was wounded, and was awarded the Iron Cross for his valor. He went through the entire war and was taken prisoner in 1945. While in a Soviet prisoner of war camp, he completed a special training course at an anti-fascist prisoner of war school. The Soviet command prepared future cadres from among the prisoners of war to take up administrative positions in the zone of Soviet occupation. Willy Stof, who had not previously held prominent positions in the communist movement in Germany, made a dizzying career in the post-war years. After his release from captivity, he was appointed head of the industrial and construction department, then headed the Department of Economic Policy of the SED apparatus. In 1950-1952. Willy Stof served as Director of the Economic Department of the Council of Ministers of the GDR, and then was appointed Minister of the Interior of the GDR. Since 1950, he was also a member of the Central Committee of the SED - and this despite his young age - thirty-five years. In 1955, when he was the Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Stof was promoted to the military rank of Colonel General. Taking into account the experience of leading the power ministry, in 1956 it was decided to appoint Willy Stof as the Minister of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic. In 1959 he received the next military rank of General of the Army. From the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he moved to the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR and Lieutenant General Heinz Hoffmann, who served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs as head of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR.

Heinz Hoffmann (1910-1985) can be called the second "founding father" of the National People's Army of the GDR, besides Willy Stof. Coming from a working-class family, Hoffmann joined the German Communist Youth League at the age of sixteen, and at the age of twenty became a member of the German Communist Party. In 1935, the underground worker Heinz Hoffmann was forced to leave Germany and flee to the USSR. Here he was selected for education - first a political one at the International Leninist School in Moscow, and then a military one. From November 1936 to February 1837 Hoffman took special courses in Ryazan at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze. After completing the courses, he received the rank of lieutenant and on March 17, 1937, he was sent to Spain, where at that time there was a Civil War between the Republicans and the Francoists. Lieutenant Hoffman was assigned to the position of instructor in the treatment of Soviet in the training battalion of the 11th International Brigade. On May 27, 1937, he was appointed military commissar of the Hans Beimler battalion in the same 11th International Brigade, and on July 7, took command of the battalion. The next day, Hoffmann was wounded in the face, and on July 24, in the legs and stomach. In June 1938, Hoffmann, who had previously been treated in hospitals in Barcelona, ​​was taken out of Spain - first to France and then to the USSR. After the outbreak of the war, he worked as an interpreter in prisoner of war camps, then became the chief political instructor at the Spaso-Zavod prisoner of war camp on the territory of the Kazakh SSR. April 1942 to April 1945 Hoffmann served as a political instructor and teacher at the Central Anti-Fascist School. From April to December 1945, he was an instructor and then head of the 12th Party School of the German Communist Party in Skhodnya.

After returning in January 1946 to the territory of East Germany, Hoffmann worked in various positions in the apparatus of the SED. On July 1, 1949, with the rank of Inspector General, he became vice-president of the German Directorate of the Interior, and from April 1950 to June 1952, Heinz Hoffmann served as head of the Main Combat Training Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. On July 1, 1952, he was appointed Chief of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the country. For obvious reasons, Heinz Hoffmann was chosen when he was included in the leadership of the emerging Ministry of National Defense of the GDR in 1956. This was also facilitated by the fact that from December 1955 to November 1957. Hoffman completed a training course at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. Returning to his homeland, on December 1, 1957, Hoffmann was appointed first deputy minister of national defense of the GDR, and on March 1, 1958, he was also appointed chief of the General Staff of the National People's Army of the GDR. Subsequently, on July 14, 1960, Colonel General Heinz Hoffmann replaced Willy Stof as Minister of National Defense of the GDR. General of the Army (since 1961) Heinz Hoffmann headed the military department of the German Democratic Republic until his death in 1985 - twenty-five years.

Chief of the General Staff of the NPA from 1967 to 1985. remained Colonel General (from 1985 - General of the Army) Heinz Kessler (born 1920). Coming from a family of communist workers, Kessler in his youth took part in the activities of the youth organization of the Communist Party of Germany, however, like the vast majority of his peers, he did not avoid being drafted into the Wehrmacht. As an assistant machine gunner, he was sent to the Eastern Front and already on July 15, 1941 defected to the side of the Red Army. In 1941-1945. Kessler was in Soviet captivity. At the end of 1941, he entered the courses of the Anti-Fascist School, then was engaged in propaganda activities among prisoners of war and wrote appeals to the soldiers of the active armies of the Wehrmacht. In 1943-1945. was a member of the National Committee "Free Germany". After being released from captivity and returning to Germany, Kessler in 1946, at the age of 26, became a member of the Central Committee of the SED and in 1946-1948. headed the organization of the Free German Youth in Berlin. In 1950, he was appointed head of the Main Directorate of the Air Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR with the rank of inspector general and remained in this post until 1952, when he was appointed head of the Air People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR (from 1953 - the head of the Aeroclub Directorate of the Barracks People's Police Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR). The rank of Major General Kessler was awarded in 1952 - with the appointment to the post of Chief of the Air People's Police. From September 1955 to August 1956, he studied at the Air Force Military Academy in Moscow. After completing his studies, Kessler returned to Germany and on September 1, 1956, was appointed Deputy Minister of National Defense of the GDR - Commander of the NVA Air Force. On October 1, 1959, he was awarded the military rank of Lieutenant General. Kessler held this post for 11 years - until he was appointed Chief of the General Staff of the NPA. On December 3, 1985, after the unexpected death of Army General Karl-Heinz Hoffmann, Colonel General Heinz Kessler was appointed Minister of National Defense of the GDR and held this post until 1989. After the collapse of Germany, on September 16, 1993, a Berlin court sentenced Heinz Kessler to seven s half years in prison.

Under the leadership of Willy Stof, Heinz Hoffmann, other generals and officers, with the most active participation of the Soviet military command, the construction and development of the National People's Army of the GDR began, which quickly enough turned into the most combat-ready armed forces among the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries after the Soviet ones. Everyone who was involved in serving on the territory of Eastern Europe in the 1960s - 1980s noted a significantly higher level of training, and most importantly, the fighting spirit of the NPA servicemen in comparison with their colleagues from the armies of other socialist states. Although initially many officers and even generals of the Wehrmacht, who were the only military specialists in the country at that time, were involved in the National People's Army of the GDR, the officer corps of the NPA was still significantly different from the officer corps of the Bundeswehr. Former Nazi generals were not so numerous in its composition and, most importantly, were not in key positions. A system of military education was created, thanks to which it was quite quickly possible to train new officer cadres, up to 90% of whom came from workers and peasant families.

In the event of an armed confrontation between the "Soviet bloc" and Western countries, the National People's Army of the GDR was assigned an important and difficult task. It was the NNA that was to directly engage in hostilities with the formations of the Bundeswehr and, together with units of the Soviet Army, ensure the advance into the territory of West Germany. It is no coincidence that NATO viewed the NPA as one of the key and very dangerous adversaries. Hatred of the National People's Army of the GDR subsequently affected the attitude towards its former generals and officers already in the united Germany.

The most efficient army in Eastern Europe

The German Democratic Republic was divided into two military districts - the Southern Military District (MB-III), headquartered in Leipzig, and the Northern Military District (MB-V), headquartered in Neubrandenburg. In addition, the National People's Army of the GDR included one centrally subordinate artillery brigade. Each military district consisted of two motorized divisions, one armored division and one missile brigade. The motorized division of the NNA of the GDR included in its composition: 3 motorized regiments, 1 armored regiment, 1 artillery regiment, 1 anti-aircraft missile regiment, 1 missile department, 1 engineer battalion, 1 material support battalion, 1 sanitary battalion, 1 battalion of chemical protection. The armored division included 3 armored regiments, 1 motorized regiment, 1 artillery regiment, 1 anti-aircraft missile regiment, 1 engineer battalion, 1 material support battalion, 1 chemical defense battalion, 1 sanitary battalion, 1 reconnaissance battalion, 1 missile department. The rocket brigade included 2-3 rocket departments, 1 engineering company, 1 material support company, 1 meteorological battery, 1 repair company. The artillery brigade included 4 artillery divisions, 1 repair company and 1 material support company. The air force of the NNA included 2 air divisions, each of which consisted of 2-4 shock squadrons, 1 anti-aircraft missile brigade, 2 anti-aircraft missile regiments, 3-4 radio technical battalions.

The history of the GDR navy began in 1952, when units of the People's Maritime Police were created as part of the GDR Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1956, the ships and personnel of the Maritime People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR entered the created National People's Army and until 1960 were called the Naval Forces of the GDR. Rear Admiral Felix Scheffler (1915-1986) became the first commander of the GDR Navy. A former merchant seaman, from 1937 he served in the Wehrmacht, but almost immediately, in 1941, was captured by the Soviet Union, where he remained until 1947. In captivity, he joined the Free Germany National Committee. After returning from captivity, he worked as secretary of the rector of the Karl Marx Higher Party School, then entered the service of the naval police, where he was appointed chief of staff of the Main Directorate of the Marine Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. On October 1, 1952, he was promoted to Rear Admiral, from 1955 to 1956. served as commander of the Maritime People's Police. After the creation of the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR on March 1, 1956, he moved to the post of commander of the GDR Navy and held this post until December 31, 1956. Later he held a number of important posts in the naval command, was responsible for combat training of personnel, then - for equipment and weapons, and retired in 1975 from the post of deputy fleet commander for logistics. Felix Schaeffler was replaced by Vice Admiral Waldemar Ferner (1914-1982), a former underground communist who left Nazi Germany in 1935, and after returning to the GDR, headed the Main Directorate of the Naval Police. From 1952 to 1955 Ferner served as commander of the Maritime People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR, into which the Main Directorate of the Naval Police was transformed. From January 1, 1957 to July 31, 1959, he commanded the GDR Navy, after which from 1959 to 1978. served as chief of the Main Political Directorate of the National People's Army of the GDR. In 1961, it was Waldemar Ferner who was the first in the GDR to be awarded the title of admiral - the highest rank of the country's naval forces. The longest serving commander of the People's Navy of the GDR (as the GDR Navy was called since 1960) was Rear Admiral (then Vice Admiral and Admiral) Wilhelm Eim (1918-2009). A former prisoner of war who sided with the USSR, Aim returned to post-war Germany and quickly made a party career. In 1950 he began service in the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR - first as a liaison officer, and then as deputy chief of staff and head of the organizational department. In 1958-1959 Wilhelm Eim was in charge of the rear service of the GDR Navy. On August 1, 1959, he was appointed commander of the GDR Navy, but from 1961 to 1963. studied at the Naval Academy in the USSR. Upon his return from the Soviet Union, the acting commander Rear Admiral Heinz Norkirchen again gave way to Wilhelm Eim. Aim held the post of commander until 1987.

In 1960, a new name was adopted - the People's Navy. The GDR navy became the most combat-ready after the Soviet naval forces of the Warsaw Pact countries. They were created taking into account the complex Baltic hydrography - after all, the only sea to which the GDR had access was the Baltic Sea. The low suitability for operations of large ships led to the predominance of high-speed torpedo and missile boats, anti-submarine boats, small missile ships, anti-submarine and anti-mine ships, and landing ships in the GDR People's Navy. The GDR had a fairly strong naval aviation, equipped with aircraft and helicopters. The People's Navy was to solve, first of all, the tasks of defending the country's coastline, fighting enemy submarines and mines, landing tactical assault forces, and supporting ground forces on the coast. The Volksmarine numbered approximately 16,000 troops. The GDR navy was armed with 110 combat and 69 auxiliary ships and vessels, 24 naval aviation helicopters (16 Mi-8 and 8 Mi-14), 20 Su-17 fighter-bombers. The command of the GDR Navy was located in Rostock. The following structural units of the Navy were subordinate to him: 1) a flotilla in Peenemünde, 2) a flotilla in Rostock - Warnemünde, 3) a flotilla in Dransk, 4) a naval school. Karl Liebknecht in Stralsund, 5) naval school. Walter Steffens in Stralsund, 6) the coastal missile regiment "Waldemar Werner" in Gelbenzand, 7) the naval squadron of combat helicopters "Kurt Barthel" in Parov, 8) the naval aviation squadron "Paul Viszorek" in Lag, 9) Vesol signal regiment "Johan" in Böhlendorf, 10) a communications and flight support battalion in Lag, 11) a number of other units and service units.

Until 1962, the National People's Army of the GDR was recruited through the recruitment of volunteers, the contract was concluded for a period of three years. Thus, for six years the NPA remained the only professional army among the armies of the socialist countries. It is noteworthy that conscription was introduced in the GDR five years later than in the capitalist FRG (where the army switched from contract to conscription in 1957). The number of the NPA was also inferior to the Bundeswehr - by 1990, 175,000 people served in the ranks of the NPA. The defense of the GDR was compensated by the presence on the country's territory of a huge contingent of Soviet troops - ZGV / GSVG (Western Group of Forces / Group of Soviet Forces in Germany). The training of the NPA officers was carried out at the Friedrich Engels Military Academy, the Wilhelm Pick Higher Military-Political School, and specialized military educational institutions of the combat arms. In the National People's Army of the GDR, an interesting system of military ranks was introduced, partially duplicating the old ranks of the Wehrmacht, but partially containing explicit borrowings from the system of military ranks of the Soviet Union. The hierarchy of military ranks in the GDR looked like this (the analogs of ranks in the "Volksmarine" - the People's Navy are given in brackets): I. Generals (admirals): 1) Marshal of the GDR - the rank was never awarded in practice; 2) General of the Army (Admiral of the Fleet) - in the ground forces, the rank was assigned to top officials, in the navy the rank was never awarded due to the small number of Volksmarine; 3) Colonel General (Admiral); 4) Lieutenant General (Vice Admiral); 5) Major General (Rear Admiral); II. Officers: 6) Colonel (Captain zur See); 7) Lieutenant Colonel (Fregaten-Captain); 8) Major (Corvette Captain); 9) Captain (Lieutenant Commander); 10) Ober-lieutenant (Ober-lieutenant zur See); 11) Lieutenant (Lieutenant zur See); 12) Non-commissioned lieutenant (Non-commissioned lieutenant zur See); III. Fenrichs (similar to Russian ensigns): 13) Ober-staff-fenrich (Ober-staff-fenrich); 14) Shtabs-Fenrich (Shtabs-Fenrich); 15) Ober-Fenrich (Ober-Fenrich); 16) Fenrich (Fenrich); IV Sergeants: 17) Staff Feldwebel (Staff Obermeister); 18) Ober-Feldwebel (Ober-Meister); 19) Feldwebel (Meister); 20) Unter-sergeant-major (Obermat); 21) Non-commissioned officer (checkmate); V. Soldiers / sailors: 22) Chief corporal (Chief sailor); 23) Corporal (Ober-sailor); 24) Soldier (Sailor). Each branch of the army also had its own specific color in the edging of shoulder straps. For generals of all types of troops, it was scarlet, motorized infantry units were white, artillery, rocket troops and air defense units were brick, armored troops were pink, airborne troops were orange, signal troops were yellow, military construction troops were olive, engineering troops, chemical troops, topographic and road transport services - black, rear units, military justice and medicine - dark green; air force (aviation) - blue, air defense missile forces - light gray, navy - blue, border guard - green.

The sad fate of the NNA and its military personnel

The German Democratic Republic, with good reason, can be called the most loyal ally of the USSR in Eastern Europe. The National People's Army of the GDR remained the most efficient after the Soviet army of the Warsaw Pact countries until the end of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the fate of both the GDR and its armies did not develop well. East Germany ceased to exist as a result of the policy of "German unification" and the corresponding actions of the Soviet side. In fact, the GDR was simply ceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. The last Minister of National Defense of the GDR was Admiral Theodor Hoffmann (born 1935). He already belongs to the new generation of officers of the GDR, who received military education in the military educational institutions of the republic. On May 12, 1952, Hoffmann joined the Maritime People's Police of the GDR as a sailor. In 1952-1955 he studied at the Officer School of the Maritime People's Police in Stralsund, after which he was assigned to the position of a combat training officer in the 7th flotilla of the GDR Navy, then served as the commander of a torpedo boat, studied at the Naval Academy in the USSR. After returning from the Soviet Union, he held a number of command positions at Volksmarine: deputy commander and chief of staff of the 6th flotilla, commander of the 6th flotilla, deputy chief of the navy staff for operational work, deputy naval commander and chief for combat training. 1985 to 1987 Rear Admiral Hoffmann served as Chief of Staff of the GDR Navy, and in 1987-1989. - Commander of the GDR Navy and Deputy Minister of Defense of the GDR. In 1987, Hoffmann was promoted to the military rank of Vice Admiral, in 1989, with the appointment of the Minister of National Defense of the GDR - Admiral. After the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR was abolished on April 18, 1990 and was replaced by the Ministry of Defense and Disarmament, headed by the democratic politician Rainer Eppelmann, Admiral Hoffmann served as Assistant Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the National People's Army of the GDR until September 1990 ... After the dissolution of the NPA, he was dismissed from military service.

The Ministry of Defense and Disarmament was created after reforms began in the GDR, under pressure from the Soviet Union, where Mikhail Gorbachev had been in power for a long time, which also affected the military sphere. On March 18, 1990, the Minister of Defense and Disarmament was appointed - 47-year-old Rainer Eppelmann, a dissident and pastor in one of the evangelical parishes in Berlin. In his youth, Eppelman served 8 months in prison for refusing to serve in the National People's Army of the GDR, then received a religious education and from 1975 to 1990. served as a pastor. In 1990, he became chairman of the Democratic Breakthrough party and in this capacity was elected to the People's Chamber of the GDR and was also appointed Minister of Defense and Disarmament.

On October 3, 1990, a historic event took place - the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were reunited. However, in fact, this was not a reunification, but simply the inclusion of the territories of the GDR in the FRG, with the destruction of the administrative system that existed in the socialist period and its own armed forces. The National People's Army of the GDR, despite the high level of training, was not included in the Bundeswehr. The FRG authorities feared that the generals and officers of the NPA retain communist sentiments, so a decision was made to de facto disband the National People's Army of the GDR. Only privates and non-commissioned officers of conscript service were sent to serve in the Bundeswehr. Professional soldiers were much less fortunate. All generals, admirals, officers, fenrichs and non-commissioned officers of the regular staff were dismissed from military service. The total number of dismissed is 23,155 officers and 22,549 non-commissioned officers. Almost none of them managed to recover their service in the Bundeswehr, the overwhelming majority were simply dismissed - and military service did not count towards them either in military service, or even in civil service. Only 2.7% of officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA were able to continue serving in the Bundeswehr (mainly, they were technical specialists capable of servicing Soviet equipment, which after the reunification of Germany went to the FRG), but they received ranks lower than those they wore in the National People's Army - the FRG refused to recognize the military ranks of the NPA.

Veterans of the National People's Army of the GDR, left without pensions and without taking into account military service, were forced to look for low-paid and low-skilled jobs. The right-wing parties of the FRG also opposed their right to wear the military uniform of the National People's Army - the armed forces of the "totalitarian state", as the GDR is estimated in modern Germany. As for military equipment, the overwhelming majority was either disposed of or sold to third countries. Thus, combat boats and ships "Volksmarine" were sold to Indonesia and Poland, some were transferred to Latvia, Estonia, Tunisia, Malta, Guinea-Bissau. The reunification of Germany did not lead to its demilitarization. Until now, American troops are stationed on the territory of the FRG, and the Bundeswehr units are now taking part in armed conflicts around the world - ostensibly as a peacekeeping force, but in reality - protecting the interests of the United States.

Currently, many former soldiers of the National People's Army of the GDR are part of public veteran organizations that protect the rights of former officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA, as well as fight against discrediting and denigrating the history of the GDR and the National People's Army. In the spring of 2015, in honor of the seventieth anniversary of the Great Victory, over 100 generals, admirals and senior officers of the National People's Army of the GDR signed a letter - an appeal "Soldiers for Peace", in which they warned Western countries against the policy of escalating conflicts in the modern world and confrontation with Russia ... “We do not need military agitation against Russia, but mutual understanding and peaceful coexistence. We do not need military dependence on the United States, but our own responsibility for peace, ”the appeal says. The appeal was among the first to be signed by the last ministers of national defense of the GDR - General of the Army Heinz Kessler and Admiral Theodor Hoffmann.

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Hello dear.

Yesterday we had an introduction on a new topic: well, today, let's start with specific examples.
And let's talk about the path and not very numerous, but one of the most combat-ready armies of the whole world in those years - about the GDR Volksarmey, she is the National People's Army (NPA) of the German Democratic Republic
The Volksarmee was created in 1956 from 0, and literally in 10-15 years it became a very formidable force.
It consisted of ground forces, air force and air defense forces, navy and border troops.

The country's defense issues were decided by the National Defense Council, subordinate to the People's Chamber and the State Council of the GDR.
The Armed Forces were led by the Minister of National Defense.

General of the Army Heinz Hoffmann 1960-1985 Minister of National Defense of the GDR

There was the main headquarters of the NPA and the headquarters of the branches of the armed forces. The supreme body is the Main Political Directorate of the NPA. When creating the NPA, the experience of building the Armed Forces of the USSR and other socialist countries was used.
NPA is recruited in accordance with the Law on the introduction of universal military service (January 24, 1962) and on the principle of voluntariness. Draft age - 18 years, duration of service - 18 months

The training of officers is carried out in the higher officers' schools and in the Military. academy named after F. Engels.
As I said above, the army of the GDR was not the most numerous. As of 1987, the Ground Forces of the GDR NPA numbered 120,000 troops.

The number of the Air Force is about 58,000 people.

The number of the personnel of the Navy is about 18 thousand people.

The border guards of the GDR were very numerous - up to 47,000 people.

The territory of East Germany was divided into two military districts - MB-III (South, headquarters in Leipzig) and MB-V (North, headquarters in Neubrandenburg) and one artillery brigade, which was not part of any of the military districts, in each of which there were two motorized rifle divisions (motorisierte Schützendivision, MSD), one armored division (Panzerdivision, PD) and one missile brigade (Raketenbrigade, RBr).

Each armored division consisted of 3 armored regiments (Panzerregiment), one artillery regiment (Artillerieregiment), 1 motorized rifle regiment (Mot.-Schützenregiment), 1 anti-aircraft missile regiment (Fla-Raketen-Regiment), 1 engineer battalion (Pionier 1bataillon) logistics battalion (Bataillon materieller Sicherstellung), 1 chemical defense battalion (Bataillon chemischer Abwehr), 1 sanitary battalion (Sanitätsbataillon), 1 reconnaissance battalion (Aufklärungsbataillon), 1 missile division (Raketenabteilung).
The main tank of the GDR army was the T-55, which made up about 80% of the park. The remaining 20% ​​fell on the T-72b slingshot and T-72G, mainly Polish or Czechoslovakian production. The share of new tanks increased steadily.

Each motorized rifle division consisted of 3 motorized regiments (Mot.-Schützenregiment), 1 armored regiment (Panzerregiment), 1 artillery regiment (Artillerieregiment), 1 anti-aircraft missile regiment (Fla-Raketenregiment), 1 missile division (Raketenabteilung), 1 engineer battalion (Pionierbataillon), 1 logistics battalion (Bataillon materieller Sicherstellung), 1 sanitary battalion (Sanitätsbataillon), 1 chemical defense battalion (Bataillon chemischer Abwehr), 1 material support battalion (Bataillon materieller Sicherstellung).


Each missile brigade consisted of 2-3 missile departments (Raketenabteilung), 1 engineering company (Pionierkompanie), 1 material support company (Kompanie materieller Sicherstellung), 1 meteorological battery (meteorologische Batterie), 1 repair company (Instandsetzungskompanie).


The artillery brigade consisted of 4 divisions (Abteilung), 1 repair company (Instandsetzungskompanie), 1 material support company (Kompanie materieller Sicherstellung).

The Air Force (Luftstreitkräfte) consisted of 2 divisions (Luftverteidigungsdivision), each of which consisted of 2-4 shock squadrons (Jagdfliegergeschwader), 1 anti-aircraft missile brigade (Fla-Raketenbrigade), 2 anti-aircraft missile regiments (Fla-Raketenbrigade) , 3-4 radio technical battalions (Funktechnisches Bataillon). There were also modern aircraft of the MiG-29 type.


The Air Force also included one of the most legendary and effective units of the Volksarmee - the 40th airborne battalion of the NNA "Willie Sanger" (German - 40. "Willi Sanger Fallschirmjager Bataillon). The soldiers of this unit took part in almost all foreign conflicts with the participation of the Soviet military bloc - in particular, in Syria and Ethiopia. There is also a legend that the special forces of the airborne units of the NPA, as part of a limited contingent of Soviet troops, participated in military operations in Afghanistan.

The navy (Volksmarine) was very good, and most importantly modern. It included 110 warships of various classes and 69 auxiliary vessels.


The naval aviation consisted of 24 helicopters (16 - of the Mi-8 type and 8 - of the Mi-14 type), as well as 20 Su-17 fighter-bombers. The basis of the fleet is three patrol ships (SKR) of the Rostock type (Project 1159) and 16 small anti-submarine ships (MPK) of the Parchim type, Project 133.1

In total, the Volksarme had 6 divisions (11 when mobilized)
1719 tanks (2798 during mobilization, in peacetime on conservation)
2792 infantry fighting vehicles (4999 during mobilization, in peacetime on conservation)
887 artillery pieces over 100mm
(1746 during mobilization, in peacetime on conservation)
394 combat aircraft

64 combat helicopters

According to the Warsaw Pact, in the event of hostilities, the following NPA divisions were attached to the armies of the Western Group of Forces:
19 Motorized Rifle Division of the NNA - the second Guards Tank Army.
17th Motorized Rifle NNA - Eighth Guards Army.
6 Motorized Rifle NVA - Western Front reserve.


It's funny that despite the military doctrine, which was formulated as "a denial of all the traditions of the Prussian-German military", there were many borrowings from the 2nd and 3rd Reichs in insignia, titles and uniforms. Let's just say - a compilation from the insignia of the Wehrmacht and the Soviet Army. So the insignia of gefreighters moved from sleeves to shoulder straps and became similar to the sergeant's stripes of the Soviet Army. The insignia of the non-commissioned officers remained completely Wehrmacht. The officer's and general's shoulder straps remained the same as in the Wehrmacht, but the number of stars on them began to correspond to the Soviet system.

The highest rank of the Volksarmee was called Marshal of the GDR, but in fact no one was awarded this title.
There were also some differences in the form. For example, the Tale-Harz helmet, which was developed for the Wehrmacht, but did not have time to accept. Or the GDR version of the AK-47 called MPi-K (we remembered about it here here.

Among the former Wehrmacht officers who stood at the origins of the creation of the National People's Army of the GDR, General Vincenz Müller occupies a special place. During World War II, he headed the operations department at the headquarters of Army Group C, which took part in the final phase of the breakthrough of the Maginot Line. Later, as chief of staff of the 17th Army, Müller fought in Ukraine and the North Caucasus. The lieutenant general spent his last battle at the beginning of the summer of 1944 near Minsk as the commander of the 4th Army, after which he was forced to surrender to the advancing units of the Red Army.
Until 1948, Vincenz Müller was in Soviet captivity, where he radically changed his political views, becoming a consistent anti-fascist. In 1952 he returned to military activity, taking an active part in the creation of a professional army of the GDR.
Occupying the highest posts in the structure of the NPA, Müller kept in touch with his former comrades in arms who served in Bavaria. It is known that the general several times secretly met with the Minister of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany Fritz Schaeffer, trying to help improve relations between the two Germany. In 1958, Mueller fell into disgrace and was dismissed.
In March 1956, Willy Stof began his work as head of the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR, having received the rank of colonel general a year earlier. Shtof had been in the ranks of the German Communist Party since 1931, but he could not avoid serving in the Wehrmacht. Since 1941, he fought on the Eastern Front, was wounded and awarded the Iron Cross. The war ended for him only in 1945 with being taken prisoner, where he began fruitful cooperation with the Soviet authorities.
Hans von Wich devoted the entire war to aviation, leading various air forces. He was captured by the Soviet Union in Carlsbad on the last day of the war. Like most of the German military, he returned to his homeland only in 1948, where he was immediately accepted into the border guard of the eastern zone of occupation as head of the supply department. Later he held a similar post in the Barracks People's Police of the GDR.
Another interesting figure in the former leadership of the Wehrmacht is Colonel Wilhelm Adam, who at the last stage of the Battle of Stalingrad was part of the headquarters of Paulus's 6th Army. After surrender he was in Suzdal, Krasnogorka and Voikovo. He took an active part in the activities of the pro-Soviet "Union of German Officers".
After returning to Germany, Adam worked in educational and financial structures. One of the first was involved in the construction of the armed forces of the GDR. First, he was appointed head of the department of management of educational institutions, then he headed the Higher Officers' School in Dresden. Until the death of Paulus, Adam maintained friendly relations with him. He rose to the rank of Major General of the NNA.
Colonel Rudolf Bamler is an artilleryman. During the war, he served as chief of staff of various armies. He was captured during the Belarusian offensive operation near Mogilev, immediately disowned his Nazi past and began to closely cooperate with the Soviet state security agencies.
Upon returning to Germany, he taught at military educational institutions, and later took the post of chief inspector of the Barracks Militia. Health problems forced him to find a calmer place of work - he became the head of a military technical school in Erfurt. Bamler often made accusatory speeches against the leadership of the FRG. Rumor has it that since 1959 he has held an unofficial post in the East German intelligence "Stasi".
Arno von Lenski, along with Vincenz Müller, was another Wehrmacht general who was entrusted with the construction of the NPA. He finished World War II at Stalingrad with the rank of Lieutenant General. Just like Paulus, he was held in Krasnogorsk, Suzdal, Voikovo, participated in the activities of anti-fascist organizations.
In the GDR, on the recommendation of Marshal Chuikov, Lenski resumed his military career in the structures of the NPA. His responsibilities included the formation and development of the tank forces of the East German state. Soon the general fell into disgrace: he was accused of unreliability, criticized for neglect of discipline. Since the late 1950s, the East German and Soviet authorities have decided to gradually dismiss former Wehrmacht officers from service.

In 1990, the new united Germany inherited the rich and completely unnecessary weapon dowry of the former GDR. The zealous Germans rolled up their sleeves and began to rake the goods.

Dowry and final sale

On October 3, 1990, the GDR ceased to exist, and with it its army - one of the most combat-ready and well-armed among the Warsaw Pact countries. New Germany inherited a huge and completely unnecessary weapons legacy from the troops dispersed to their homes. Germany received more than 2,500 tanks, 6,600 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, 2,500 artillery pieces (including self-propelled ones), about 180 helicopters, almost 400 aircraft and 69 warships. All this was crowned with one and a half million units of firearms and 300 thousand tons of ammunition.

This entire arsenal has been divided into three categories.

The first, rather small, got what the Bundeswehr was going to use personally - for example, MiG-29 fighters or Tu-154 passenger planes. The second category is what the Germans wanted to try and, possibly, keep for themselves or attach to some border guards or foresters. This included Mi-24 and Mi-8 helicopters, as well as part of tracked and naval equipment. In the third, most numerous category, they determined what was required to get rid of.

Among the reasons are technical obsolescence, non-compliance with NATO standards and the need to purchase spare parts from foreign countries.

There was one more, not particularly advertised fact: the more GDR weapons remain, the more GDR men themselves will remain in the army - which no one wanted.

While the Germans were engaged in accounting and control, some very irritated people, brandishing contracts, knocked on the door impatiently. It turned out that just before the curtain, on October 1-2, 1990, the GDR members signed a variety of weapons contracts at bargain prices, and buyers are asking where the goods are!

The Poles expected 11 MiG-29 aircraft with air-to-air missiles, 2,700 anti-tank missiles for the Fagot complexes and much more. The Hungarians did not lag behind, claiming that they had bought 200 T-72 tanks, 130 thousand anti-tank mines and a whole list of three sheets.

MiG-29 at the Preshen airfield, August 1990

Future NATO allies were asked to wait a bit, because multilingual businessmen with much more fantastic documents took the lead.

For example, the American company Ci-C International claimed that it owned three small missile ships of Project 151, 12 missile boats of Project 205, several dozen MiG-21 and MiG-23 aircraft, as well as (hold on to the chair!) 1200 tanks T-55, 200 T-72 and 170 multiple launch rocket systems. From behind their shoulders, representatives of the Panamanian Beige-MA waved papers, asking where their 32 Mi-24 helicopters, one hundred T-72 tanks and tens of thousands of firearms were. Representatives of half a dozen more firms with more modest demands, mainly in the field of firearms and ammunition, tried to squeeze behind them.

Most of the contracts were eventually invalidated. But, for example, one minesweeper sold to a certain company MAWIA still sailed extremely illegally - already to African Guinea.

Desert Storm and Helping Friends

For a number of reasons, the FRG refused to participate in Operation Desert Storm, but offered the participants financial and logistical assistance - after all, thanks to the GDR reserves, it cost them nothing. The Germans sent more than 1,500 pieces of equipment for logistic services and many supplies such as tents, flasks, blankets and more to the Middle East.

But the main requests were about the opportunity to look at the Soviet high-tech, which had never before fallen into the hands of NATO.

It was primarily about combat aircraft and their weapons, anti-aircraft missile and anti-tank systems, as well as naval innovations. Of the local German curiosities, everyone was interested in anti-tank and anti-personnel mines.

Many of these transmissions were not recorded as a sale and purchase, but were carried out within the framework of military-technical cooperation and the transfer of material for training.

East German MiG-23

The hits were MiG-23 and Su-22 aircraft with air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles, anti-ship missiles of the P-15 family, SET-40 anti-submarine torpedoes and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems.

The most active was the United States, which acted on the principle of "wrap just two at a time." They received, among other things, 14 MiG-23 aircraft, two Su-22, one MiG-29, three Mi-24 helicopters, 86 T-72 tanks, 19 BMP-1 and 15 BMP-2, 17 MT-LB (multipurpose light armored transporter), as well as three batteries of the Osa air defense missile system with ammunition. A large part of this technique was intended to arm the OPFOR (Opposing Force) units, which portray the "bad guys" in the exercises.

The Americans even stole a small missile ship of Project 1241 for testing. The East Germans called it "Rudolf Egelhofer", after the unification it briefly ended up in the West German fleet, where it was renamed "Hiddensee". Six months later, he was sent to the United States - now he can be seen at the Battleship Cove Maritime Museum in Massachusetts.

Former "Rudolph Egelhofer" - now "Hiddensee" - at the Maritime Museum of Massachusetts

Not everyone got what they wanted. Israel, which had warm, albeit not cloudless, relations in the field of military cooperation with the FRG, tried - like the United States - to ask for everything at once. The Germans, however, were more careful not wanting too much noise in the Middle East. Israel was denied a lot of things, but it received some in the form of separate elements, and not as a whole complex. So, the Israelis were given the radar from the MiG-29 - but not the whole plane; missiles from air defense systems - but without control cabins, and so on.

Surprisingly, communications, radio intelligence and electronic warfare systems do not appear in any open documents. Either everyone believed that there was nothing to see, or they were transmitted through secret channels.

Big bazaar

It was decided, if possible, to sell the bulk of the weapons at a large discount, or even give them away for free - as assistance. The storage and disposal of all this wealth still cost a pretty penny.

One of the first to come to ask the price of the Scandinavians, who have long professed the principle of "we would have something cheaper" in military spending.

The Finns, who had an impressive Soviet arsenal, bought a wide front: 97 T-72, 72 Gvozdika self-propelled guns, 36 RM-70 (Czech versions of the Grad), 140 BMP-1, 218 D-30 howitzers and 166 M-46 cannons ...

GDR T-72

The Swedes also reached out for their share. Surprisingly looking at the penny prices and not really bargaining, they bought more than 800 (!) MT-LB and 400 BMP-1. About a quarter of them were bought for spare parts, but the rest, having undergone modernization in Poland and the Czech Republic, went to serve in the troops.

The Poles and Hungarians have also gotten better, but point-wise and high-tech. The Hungarians received three MiG-23 aircraft, two dozen Czech L-39 training aircraft and six Mi-24 helicopters. The Poles took the small missile ships contracted back in the GDR, and also received two Su-22 and MiG-23 each. A little later, they raked in 18 Mi-24s for free. And the Poles received the main gift in 2004 - in the form of 14 free MiG-29s with four hundred missiles in addition.

Unexpectedly, the Greeks became the main visitors of the German military second-hand.

One of the poorest NATO countries rowed good with both hands. Among the received were three batteries of the "Osa" air defense system with 900 missiles, 11,500 missiles for the anti-tank missile system "Fagot", five hundred BMP-1, 120 "Shilka" air defense systems and 156 "grads" with a 200 thousandth stock of missiles! Most of the Germans gave away free of charge as part of the military assistance program, but some of the deliveries still fell through - the Greeks did not have the money to pay for the transportation.

The Greeks made the right decision - "Wasp" still serves them faithfully

The Turks, after a proper bargaining, took three hundred BTR-60s, and then focused on light weapons, buying out five thousand RPG-7s with 200 thousand shells, 300 thousand Kalashnikov assault rifles and 2500 machine guns with 83 million rounds.

But most impressive was the deal with Indonesia.

The GDR's fleet was small and built for specific missions in the coastal regions of the Baltic Sea. Germany did not expect a crowd of clients, but the complete lack of interest also surprised them. Indonesia helped out. The country of many islands wanted to get more ships "at a low price", and the Germans were only happy to get rid of the burden. The Indonesians took all 16 small anti-submarine ships of project 133.1, a dozen tank landing ships, two supply vessels and nine minesweepers. The deal turned out to be so unusual that only the lazy was not looking for a corruption component in it.

Indonesian corvette "Chut Nyak Din" - former "Lubs" - in 1994

Germany gave ships for a ridiculous amount of 14 million US dollars - however, the Indonesians had to pay another 300 million for the repair and demilitarization of ships at German shipyards. Their reverse remilitarization after distillation was supposed to cost another 300 million, plus 120 million was required for the modernization of the shipyards and 180 for the construction of a new basing point. Surprisingly, at German shipyards, they kept forgetting to remove most of the high-tech weapon systems from ships, but then in Indonesia, judging by the documents, they were installed in a second round.

It is noteworthy that the second major buyer of marine equipment (three minesweepers, a rescue vessel, a supply vessel and a tug) was Uruguay, just as far from the Baltic Sea.

New Markets

Thanks to the legacy of the GDR, for the entire first half of the 90s, Germany was one of the three world arms suppliers. However, then the intensity subsided and the former USSR countries and Eastern European neighbors began to actively trade in this segment. In addition, the main consumers were countries from a list that would never have been officially approved by the German government.

The unsold was just quietly cut.

The great sale of the name of the GDR - in addition to the fact that many countries got hold of technology almost for free - had another side. Germany has managed to enter many new markets. And soon she was able to offer newer toys there - and much more expensive.

We have betrayed the GDR

After the unification of Germany, hundreds of GDR officers were left to fend for themselves.

An old photograph: November 1989, the Berlin Wall, literally saddled by a crowd of thousands of people. Only a group of people in the foreground - the border guards of the GDR - have sad and bewildered faces. Until recently, menacing to enemies and rightly aware of themselves as the country's elite, they suddenly turned into extra extras on this holiday. But even this was not the most terrible thing for them ...


“Somehow I happened to be in the house of the former captain of the National People's Army (NPA) of the GDR. He graduated from our higher military school, a good level programmer, but for three years now he has been toiling without work. And on the neck is a family: a wife, two children.

For the first time, I heard from him what I was destined to listen to many times.
- You betrayed us ... - the former captain will say. He will say calmly, without strain, gathering his will into a fist.
No, he was not a "political commissar", did not cooperate with the "Stasi" and nevertheless lost everything. "

These are lines from the book of Colonel Mikhail Boltunov "ZGV: The Bitter Road Home".
And then the author turns to himself and to all of us: “So it is. Have we betrayed the GDR, NNA, this captain? Or is it just the emotions of an offended person? "

The problem, however, is much deeper: having abandoned the soldiers and officers of our own army to the mercy of fate, did we not thereby betray ourselves? And was it possible to keep the NNA, albeit under a different name and with a changed organizational structure, but as a loyal ally of Moscow?

Let's try to figure it out, of course, as far as possible, within the framework of a short article, especially since these issues have not lost their relevance to this day, especially against the background of NATO's eastward expansion and the spread of the US military-political influence in the post-Soviet space.

Disappointment and humiliation

So, in 1990, the unification of Germany took place, causing euphoria on the part of both West and East Germans. It is finished! The great nation has regained unity, the so hated Berlin Wall has finally come down. However, as is often the case, unbridled joy was replaced by bitter disappointment. Of course, not for all people in Germany, no. Most of them, as shown by opinion polls, do not regret the unification of the country.

Disappointment mainly affected some of the inhabitants of the GDR, which had sunk into oblivion. Quite quickly, they realized that what had actually happened was the Anschluss - the absorption of their homeland by their western neighbor.

The officer and non-commissioned officer corps of the former NPA suffered the most from this. It did not become an integral part of the Bundeswehr, but was simply disbanded. Most of the former military personnel of the GDR, including generals and colonels, were dismissed. At the same time, service in the NNA was not credited to them either for military or civilian work experience. Those who were lucky enough to wear the uniform of recent opponents were demoted.

Paratroopers of the GDR on exercises

As a result, East German officers were forced to stand for hours in queues at the labor exchange and scamper in search of work - often low-paid and unskilled.
And worse than that. In his book, Mikhail Boltunov quotes the words of the last Minister of Defense of the GDR, Admiral Theodor Hoffmann: “With the unification of Germany, the NPA was disbanded.

Many professional military personnel have been discriminated against ”.
Discrimination, in other words, humiliation. And it could not be otherwise, for the well-known Latin proverb says: "Woe to the vanquished!" And doubly woe if the army was not crushed in battle, but simply loyal to both its own and Soviet leadership.

General Matvey Burlakov, former commander-in-chief of the Western Group of Forces, spoke directly about this in an interview: "Gorbachev and others betrayed the Union." And did not this betrayal begin with the betrayal of his loyal allies, who, among other things, ensured the geopolitical security of the USSR in the western direction?

However, many will consider the last statement controversial and will note the irreversibility and even spontaneity of the process of unification of the two Germanies. But the point is not that the FRG and the GDR inevitably had to unite, but how this could happen. And the absorption of the eastern neighbor by West Germany was far from the only way.

What was the alternative that would allow the NPA officer corps to take a worthy position in the new Germany and remain loyal to the USSR? And what is more important for us: did the Soviet Union have real capabilities to maintain its military-political presence in Germany, preventing NATO from expanding to the east?

To answer these questions, we need to take a short historical excursion.
In 1949, a new republic appeared on the map - the GDR. It was created in response to education in the American, British and French occupation zones of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is interesting that Joseph Stalin did not strive to create the GDR, having come forward with the initiative for the unification of Germany, but on condition that it did not join NATO.

However, the former allies refused. Proposals for the construction of the Berlin Wall came to Stalin at the end of the 40s, but the Soviet leader abandoned this idea, considering it discrediting the USSR in the eyes of the world community.

Remembering the history of the birth of the GDR, one should also take into account the personality of the first chancellor of the West German state, Konrad Adenauer, who, according to the former Soviet ambassador to Germany, Vladimir Semyonov, “cannot be considered only a political enemy of Russia. He had an irrational hatred for the Russians. "

The birth and formation of the NPA

Under these conditions and with the direct participation of the USSR, on January 18, 1956, the NPA was created, which quickly turned into a powerful force. In turn, the GDR navy became the most combat-ready along with the Soviet in the Warsaw Pact.

This is not an exaggeration, for the GDR included the Prussian and Saxon lands, which once represented the most belligerent German states with strong armies. This is especially true, of course, for the Prussians. It was the Prussians and Saxons who formed the basis of the officer corps, first of the German Empire, then the Reichswehr, then the Wehrmacht and, finally, the NPA.

The traditional German discipline and love of military affairs, the strong military traditions of the Prussian officers, the rich combat experience of previous generations, multiplied by the advanced military equipment and the achievements of Soviet military thought, made the GDR army an invincible force in Europe.

It is noteworthy that in some way the NPA embodied the dreams of the most far-sighted German and Russian statesmen at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, who dreamed of a military alliance between the Russian and German empires.


The strength of the GDR army was in the combat training of its personnel, because the number of NPA always remained relatively low: in 1987, it numbered 120 thousand soldiers and officers in its ranks, yielding, say, to the Polish People's Army - the second largest army after the Soviet one in the Warsaw Pact ...

However, in the event of a military conflict with NATO, the Poles had to fight in secondary sectors of the front - in Austria and Denmark. In turn, the NPA was given more serious tasks: to fight in the main direction - against troops operating from the territory of the FRG, where the first echelon of NATO ground forces was deployed, that is, the Bundeswehr itself, as well as the most combat-ready divisions of the Americans, British and French.

The Soviet leadership trusted the German brothers in arms. And not in vain. General Valentin Varennikov, commander of the 3rd WGV Army in the GDR and later Deputy Chief of Staff of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, General Valentin Varennikov, wrote in his memoirs: necessary and capable of acting no worse than the Soviet troops. "

This point of view is essentially confirmed by Matvey Burlakov: “The peak of the Cold War was in the early 1980s. It remained to give a signal - and everything would rush. Everything is ready, the shells are in the tanks, it remains to shove in the barrel - and forward. They would have burned everything, they would have destroyed everything there. Military facilities, I mean, are not cities.

I often met with the chairman of the NATO military committee, Klaus Naumann. He once asks me: “I saw the plans of the GDR army, which you approved. Why didn't you start the offensive? " We tried to collect these plans, but someone hid them and made copies. And Naumann agreed with our calculation that we should be in the English Channel within a week.

I say: “We are not aggressors, why are we going to attack you? We always expected you to be the first to start. " So they explained it. We cannot say that we should have started first ”.
Note: Naumann saw the plans of the GDR army, whose tanks were among the first to reach the English Channel and, according to him, no one could effectively interfere with them.

From the point of view of the intellectual training of personnel, the NPA also stood at a high level: by the mid-1980s, 95 percent of its officer corps had a higher or specialized secondary education, about 30 percent of officers graduated from military academies, 35 percent from higher military schools.


In a word, at the end of the 80s, the GDR army was ready for any tests, but the country was not. Unfortunately, the combat power of the armed forces could not compensate for the socio-economic problems that the GDR faced by the beginning of the last quarter of the 20th century. Erich Honecker, who headed the country in 1971, was guided by the Soviet model of building socialism, which significantly distinguished him from many leaders of other Eastern European countries.

Honecker's key goal in the socio-economic sphere is to improve the well-being of the people, in particular, through the development of housing construction and an increase in pensions.

Alas, good undertakings in this area have led to a decrease in investment in the development of production and the renewal of outdated equipment, the wear of which was 50 percent in industry and 65 percent in agriculture. In general, the East German economy, like the Soviet one, developed along an extensive path.

Defeat without a single shot

The coming of Mikhail Gorbachev to power in 1985 complicated relations between the two countries - Honecker, being a conservative, reacted negatively to perestroika. And this is against the background of the fact that in the GDR the attitude towards Gorbachev as the initiator of reforms was enthusiastic. In addition, at the end of the 80s, a massive departure of citizens of the GDR to the FRG began.

Gorbachev made it clear to his East German counterpart that Soviet aid to the GDR is directly dependent on Berlin's reforms.
The rest is well known: in 1989, Honecker was removed from all posts, a year later West Germany absorbed the GDR, and a year later the Soviet Union ceased to exist.

The Russian leadership hastened to withdraw from Germany almost half a million grouping, equipped with 12 thousand tanks and armored vehicles, which became an unconditional geopolitical and geostrategic defeat and hastened the entry of yesterday's allies of the USSR in the Warsaw Pact into NATO.


Demonstration performances with the GDR special forces

But all these are dry lines about relatively recent events, followed by the drama of thousands of NPA officers and their families. With sadness in their eyes and pain in their hearts, they watched the last parade of Russian troops on August 31, 1994 in Berlin. Loyal, humiliated, useless to anyone, they witnessed the departure of the once allied army, which lost the Cold War with them without a single shot.

And after all, just five years earlier, Gorbachev had promised not to leave the GDR to its fate. Did the Soviet leader have any grounds for such statements? On the one hand, it would seem not. As we have already noted, at the end of the 1980s, the flow of refugees from the GDR to the FRG increased. After the removal of Honecker, the leadership of the GDR showed neither the will nor the determination to preserve the country and take truly effective measures for this, which would allow Germany to be reunited on an equal footing.

Declarative statements that are not supported by practical steps do not count in this case.
But there is also another side of the coin. According to Boltunov, neither France nor Great Britain considered the issue of German reunification urgent.

This is understandable: in Paris they feared a strong and united Germany, which in less than a century had twice crushed the military might of France. And of course, it was not in the geopolitical interests of the Fifth Republic to see a united and strong Germany at its borders.

In turn, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher adhered to a political line aimed at maintaining a balance of power between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, as well as observing the terms of the Final Act in Helsinki, the rights and responsibilities of four states for post-war Germany.

Against this background, London's desire to develop cultural and economic ties with the GDR in the second half of the 1980s does not seem accidental, and when it became obvious that the unification of Germany was inevitable, the British leadership proposed to extend this process for 10-15 years.
And perhaps most importantly: in curbing the processes aimed at uniting Germany, the British leadership counted on the support of Moscow and Paris.

And even more than that: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl himself was not initially the initiator of the absorption of its eastern neighbor by West Germany, but advocated the creation of a confederation, putting forward a ten-point program to implement his idea.

Thus, in 1990, the Kremlin and Berlin had every chance of realizing the idea once proposed by Stalin: the creation of a unified, but neutral and non-NATO member of Germany.

- "Militärgeschichte", Ausg. 3/2012

In March 1980, the cover of Der Spiegel looked like a photograph of four GDR soldiers, fitted under a Wehrmacht-style armband with the caption: Honecker Afrika Korps. The Hamburg Magazine reported on 2,720 military advisers from the GDR involved, including 1,000 in Angola alone, 600 in Mozambique, 400 in Libya and 300 in Ethiopia. Prior to this, the bright wording had already been encountered in other newspapers. The Hamburg weekly Die Zeit had a headline as early as May 1978: Hoffmann's Afrikaans Corps; then Bayernkurier followed in June 1978 with Honecker's Red Africa Corps. And in November 1979, in the New York Times, Americans read about the East German African Corps.

Almost all newspapers were ready to publish a sensation about the military from the GDR in Africa: Le Figaro, published in Paris in August 1978, reported that more than 2,000 soldiers from the GDR were sent to Ethiopia, coming under the command of Soviet generals. The West Berlin "Tagesspiegel" published in December 1978, with reference to the Bavarian Prime Minister Franz-Josef Strauss, that in Angola alone there are 5,000 "soldiers of the GDR army", primarily "elite units such as the airborne assault force". 2,000 of them were "currently engaged in the offensive." In February, Tagesspiegel announced the redeployment of an East German airborne regiment from Ethiopia to Angola.

Die Welt in February 1980 spoke of the total number of "military experts from the GDR" in Africa: "about 30,000." In December 1979, the leader of the opposition CDU / CSU faction in the German Bundestag, Rainer Barzel, proclaimed in the Welt am Sonntag: "Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt no longer has the right to remain silent about the GDR blood trail." The popular 1977 film Wild Geese - starring famous actors Roger Moore, Richard Burton and Hardy Krueger - also features a scene set on African soil where a National People's Army (NPA) officer, easily identifiable by uniform cap. In the attacked camp, along with local African and Cuban soldiers, two GDR officers also flash. So were the armed forces of the GDR actually involved in Africa?

African requests

Many times African governments have asked East Berlin to send NPA troops. First of all, they asked for military advisers, instructors and military pilots. For example, Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda and his Defense Minister Gray Zulu asked to send NPA to their country, in 1979-1980. Specifically, the NVA pilots in their vehicles were supposed to defend Zambian airspace. GDR Defense Minister Heinz Hoffmann refused immediately, with the wording "not feasible." In 1980, on a second try, the Zambian president asked for military advisers. Negotiations with Hoffmann "have not yet led to any decision," Kaunda wrote to SED General Secretary Erich Honecker after receiving nothing from the GDR Minister of Defense. Similarly, in 1979, the leader of the Zapu (Rhodesian) liberation movement ZAPU, Joshua Nkomo, while visiting the GDR, expressed a desire to see NPA officers in ZAPU camps in Zambia. Army General Hoffmann again refused to send military personnel, this time as "politically impractical." The isolated cases of Zambia and Zimbabwe's refusal to send advisers, instructors and pilots reflected the general course of the GDR armed forces towards passivity. The GDR leadership acted cautiously: in general, it was restrained and skeptical about requests and inquiries regarding the sending of military personnel to third world countries. In East Berlin and Strausberg (the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense), it was not without reason that they saw a danger in drawing their soldiers into conflicts and wars on the African continent. Direct participation in hostilities could probably have far-reaching political and military consequences. East Berlin attached importance to the international reputation of the GDR and did not want to give rise to negative publications in the Western press. Thus, the use of the army abroad posed innumerable risks for the GDR. The GDR and its armed forces did not engage in such adventures - with the exception of a few exceptions described below.

In individual, strictly limited cases, NPA were nevertheless present in Africa: already in 1964, two officers of this army were sent to Zanzibar to advise the then people's republic on the development of its armed forces. Also, until 1970, 15 officers and non-commissioned officers Volksmarine (GDR Navy) were sent to Zanzibar as advisers. Individual, mostly limited to a few weeks, missions of advisers and "specialists" were carried out, for example, to Angola. The dispatch of officers and pilots of transport aircraft to Mozambique and Ethiopia was carried out in large volumes.

Military advisers and transport pilots in Mozambique

Mozambique was one of the main recipients of military aid to the GDR. For more than thirty years, wars have raged in a country in southern Africa, both with an external enemy and civilians. The new state, after gaining independence in 1975, was forced to repulse the attacks of the armed opposition in a long and bloody war. At the same time, the conflict between East and West also spread to southern Africa. The ruling (to this day) FRELIMO party positioned the country as socialist, armed rebels from RENAMO were supported by South Africa and the United States. Already during the long struggle for independence against the Portuguese colonial authorities, the GDR supported the still weak FRELIMO with weapons and equipment. In December 1984, opposition partisans, among other foreigners, killed eight civilian specialists from the GDR. The East Germans were agricultural specialists, captured on their way to the state farm where they were supposed to work.

In response to this, in 1985, the NPA sent several groups of senior officers to the country, and even two generals, to serve as advisers to the general staff, commands, headquarters and formations. The task of the officers, who were in the country for about six months, was primarily to improve the security of more than 700 specialists from the GDR. Along with this, they were supposed to improve the fighting qualities of the armed forces of Mozambique. Since the end of 1985, three NPA officers have been permanently present in the country as advisers. In this regard, there was also the use of transport aircraft of the GDR Air Force from 1986 to 1990. The machines, based in the capital, Maputo, provided the needs of specialists from the GDR working in the country and had to, when the situation aggravated, begin their evacuation. In addition to the officers involved in the territory, the Mozambican government in 1985-1986. repeatedly appealed to the GDR, expressing the need for instructors and "mentors" of the NNA. In June 1986, General of the Army Kessler, Hoffman's successor as Minister of Defense, informed Honecker and Egon Krenz (Central Committee secretary and member of the SED Politburo - approx. Transl.) That he also refused such participation: he appreciated the work of the "mentors" on the spot as “inappropriate” for “political reasons”. Prior to this, in January 1986, Krenz rejected the deployment of NPA instructors in Mozambique as “inappropriate”. Apart from the stationing of transport pilots and the work of advisers, references to other NNA applications in Mozambique could not be found in the extensive database of sources.

Operations in Ethiopia

After the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1974, a series of wars began in Ethiopia. In February 1977, together with Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam, young military men came to power, striving to radically reverse the previous domestic political situation with its feudal relations, and in foreign policy focused on Moscow, Havana and East Berlin. Mengistu's board is hardly stable; he fought wars against neighboring Somalia, as well as against separatists in the north. Mengistu sent dramatic requests for military assistance to the ambassadors of the USSR, South Yemen, Cuba and the GDR: "The people of Ethiopia feel isolated and abandoned, comrade," he wrote literally in a telegram to Honecker in August 1977. The appeals from Addis Ababa and Havana did not go unnoticed: already in October 1977, about 150 Soviet officers, including four generals, were here as instructors and advisers. In September 1977, the first 200 Cubans were involved on the side of the Ethiopians; from December 1977, Havana increased its grouping. Now it numbered from 16 to 18 thousand people. The GDR sent weapons and equipment - but not soldiers. If NPA units were in Ethiopia, then General Hoffmann, during his visit to the country in May 1979, probably should have met with them and mentioned this visit in one of the reports. The fundamentally skeptical position of the NPA command and the rejection of military operations in the same way extended to Ethiopia, which was shaken by the war. The danger of the military presence being drawn into local conflicts, and ultimately into war, was high. However, NNA transport aircraft came to Ethiopia and were used.

Between 1984 and 1988 first four, and then another, were deployed in the Horn of Africa. To cope with the consequences of a catastrophic drought, in October 1984, Addis Ababa sent urgent requests for assistance to various countries. Since November of this year, the GDR has dispatched the first two aircraft of the NNA military transport aviation, as well as the civil airline Interflug, to provide international air traffic. At this stage, 41 people were involved, including 22 officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA and 19 employees of Interflug. Secrecy had priority. The involvement of the NPA in the planes and crews had to be hidden. The order unambiguously ordered to prepare the vehicles in the "version for civil aviation", dismantle the recognition equipment, and supply the Air Force personnel with civilian service passports. Two An-26s were repainted overnight and provided with civilian identification marks. Even on the dishes and technical equipment of the crew, the identification marks of the NNA were painted over. The staff did not have any uniforms. Witnesses claim that the NNA signs were evaporated even from underwear: nothing should have indicated that they belonged to the armed forces of the GDR. The reason for the strict secrecy was rooted not so much in the possible danger of a business trip to Ethiopia, as in the usual practice of the GDR in resolving military issues.

Almost simultaneously with the planes of the GDR, three C-160 Transalls of the Bundeswehr Air Force also flew to Efijupia - quite officially and without camouflage. They were also based at Assab airfield, later at Hole Dawa, and were used just like NNA vehicles. Thus, an unusual German-German joint operation took place.

From their base in Assab, An-26 first weeks flew mainly to Asmara, Aksum and Mekela. In the following months - mainly in Addis Ababa, Hole Dawa, Godi and Cabri Daehar. Flights over various territories in Ethiopia complicated the ongoing wars, including civil ones. The aggravation of the global conflict between the West and the East also played a role. Assab base and some of the flight sites were located in the territory of a particularly fiercely fought Eritrea. The planes carried food, medicine and clothing. The operation continued until October 1985, with GDR aircraft also participating in the controversial Ethiopian forced resettlement operations.

At the request of the Ethiopian government, the NVA transport aircraft returned in April 1986, now as an "operational unit of the NVA GDR". The personnel this time was also presented openly as members of the GDR Air Force. Two An-26s were deployed in the capital, Addis Ababa. The third transport aircraft operation began in June 1987. One Antonov was again stationed at the Addis Ababa airport. As in the case of the operation in Mozambique at the same time, he was tasked with providing services and supplies for specialists and medical teams from the GDR. In addition, in 1987-88. a limited number of NVA officers were deployed as a security group at the GDR's deployed hospital in Metem.

Despite the support of the GDR, Cuba and other socialist countries, Ethiopian government forces operated in Eritrea from early 1988 until the collapse of the country. Mengistu's regime was under immediate threat. On several occasions he received urgent aid from the GDR. Honecker personally decided in 1988 and again in 1989 to make large deliveries of weapons, including tanks. These actions of the GDR could neither delay nor prevent the decline of Mengistu. He was overthrown in 1991. Eritrea gained independence in 1993. And some internal documents of the GDR already in 1977 characterized Ethiopia Mengistu as a “bottomless barrel”.

Targeted misinformation?

Reports of East German military operations in Africa echoed even in the internal documents of the Federal Government of the FRG. For example, in September 1978, Department 210 of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to a report from the planning headquarters, which put the military presence of Cuba and the GDR in Africa one step, objected: "In the policy of intervention, the actions of the GDR lag far behind the massive military activity of Cuba." The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in South Africa, in its messages to Bonn, designated the reports of the military presence of the GDR in Angola in November 1978 as what they obviously were: "rumors."

The question of the origin of these misleading messages remains open. The links given by the then articles were sent to "security experts" or "Western analysts." Much says that it was in the interests of the Republic of South Africa. The reports of thousands of GDR soldiers on their borders brought tangible benefits to the Pretoria government: it was undoubtedly very interested in presenting the struggle in southern Africa as part of the conflict between West and East, and positioning itself as a close ally of the West. South Africa - due to racial segregation and the violent suppression of the colored majority ("apartheid") - was under increasing pressure from Western Europe and the Federal Republic of Germany. Thus, from the South African point of view, it seems quite reasonable to activate the old image of the enemy - the GDR in Germany. Der Spiegel's 1980 observation that South African intelligence agencies may well have launched disinformation seems correct when viewed from the future. As a rule, the press readily picks up and publishes such reports, even if the sources are covered in obscurity. After intensive research in the archives, today there is only one conclusion: "Honecker's African corps" existed only in the minds of journalists, some politicians and special services.