On the National People's Army of the GDR. A story of friendship and betrayal. National People's Army of the GDR - Volksarmee der DDR Defeat without firing a shot

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

An old photo already: November 1989, the Berlin Wall, literally saddled with thousands of jubilant crowds. Sad and confused faces are only in a group of people in the foreground - the border guards of the GDR. Until recently, formidable to enemies and rightly aware of themselves as the elite of the country, they suddenly turned into superfluous extras at this holiday. But this was not the worst thing for them ...

“Somehow I accidentally ended up in the house of a former captain of the National People's Army (NPA) of the GDR. He graduated from our higher military school, a good programmer, but for three years he has been toiling without a job. And around the neck is a family: a wife, two children.

From him for the first time I heard what I was destined to hear 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”, he did not cooperate with the Stasi, and yet he lost everything.”

These are lines from the book of Colonel Mikhail Boltunov "ZGV: Bitter Road Home".

The problem, however, is much deeper: having left the soldiers and officers of the army created by us to the mercy of fate, have we betrayed ourselves? And was it possible to keep the NPA, albeit under a different name and with a changed organizational structure, but as a faithful 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 backdrop of NATO's eastward expansion and the spread of US military and political influence in the post-Soviet space.

Disappointment and humiliation

So, in 1990, the unification of Germany took place, which caused euphoria on the part of both West and East Germans. It's done! A great nation regained its unity, the much hated Berlin Wall collapsed at last. However, as is often the case, unbridled joy was replaced by bitter disappointment. Of course, not for all residents of Germany, no. Most of them, as opinion polls show, do not regret the unification of the country.

The disappointment affected mainly a certain part of the inhabitants of the GDR that had sunk into oblivion. Pretty quickly they realized: what happened in essence was the Anschluss - the absorption of their homeland by the western neighbor.

The officer and non-commissioned officer corps of the former NNA suffered the most from this. It did not become an integral part of the Bundeswehr, but was simply dissolved. Most of the former servicemen of the GDR, including generals and colonels, were fired. At the same time, they were not credited for service in the NNA for either military or civilian seniority. Those who were lucky enough to put on the uniform of recent opponents were demoted in rank.

GDR paratroopers on exercises

As a result, East German officers were forced to stand for hours in lines at the labor exchange and roam around in search of work - often low-paid and unskilled.

And worse than that. In his book, Mikhail Boltunov cites 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 soldiers 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 betrayed by both its own and the Soviet leadership.

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

However, many will consider the latter statement disputable and will note the irreversibility and even spontaneity of the process of unification of the two Germanys. But the point is not that the FRG and the GDR were bound 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 opportunities to maintain its military-political presence in Germany, preventing the expansion of NATO to the east? To answer these questions, we need to make a short historical digression.

In 1949, a new republic appeared on the map - the GDR. It was created as a response to education in the American, British and French occupation zones of the FRG. It is interesting that Joseph Stalin did not seek to create the GDR, taking the initiative to unify 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 the FRG, Vladimir Semenov, “cannot be considered only a political opponent of Russia. He had an irrational hatred of 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 navy of the GDR became the most combat-ready along with the Soviet in the Warsaw Pact.

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

The traditional German discipline and love for military affairs, the strong military traditions of the Prussian officers, the rich combat experience of previous generations, multiplied by 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 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, came true in the NNA.

The strength of the GDR army was in the combat training of its personnel, because the number of the NPA has always remained relatively low: in 1987 it had 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 on secondary sectors of the front - in Austria and Denmark. In turn, the NNA was given more serious tasks: to fight in the main direction - against the troops operating from the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany, where the first echelon of NATO ground forces, that is, the Bundeswehr itself, was deployed, 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. The commander of the 3rd Army of the Western Group of Forces in the GDR and later the deputy chief of staff of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, General Valentin Varennikov, wrote in his memoirs: “The National People's Army of the GDR actually grew before my eyes in 10–15 years from zero to a formidable modern army equipped with everything 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 80s. It remained to give a signal - and everything would have rushed. Everything is ready, the shells are in the tanks, it remains to shove them into the barrel - and forward. Everything would have been burned, everything would have been destroyed there. Military installations, I mean - not cities. I often met with NATO Military Committee Chairman Klaus Naumann. He once asks me: “I saw the plans of the GDR army that you claimed. Why didn't you attack?" We tried to collect these plans, but someone hid them, 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 have always expected you to be the first to start.” That's how it was explained to them. We can’t say that we were the first to start.”

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 the personnel, the NPA also stood at a high level: by the mid-80s, 95 percent of the officer corps in its ranks had a higher or secondary specialized education, about 30 percent of the officers graduated from military academies, 35 percent - higher military schools.

In a word, at the end of the 80s, the GDR army was ready for any test, 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 and tear 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 firing a 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 of an enthusiastic nature. In addition, at the end of the 80s, a mass exodus of citizens of the GDR to the FRG began. Gorbachev made it clear to his East German counterpart that Soviet aid to the GDR directly depended on Berlin's reforms.

What happened next 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 troops equipped with 12,000 tanks and armored vehicles, which became an unconditional geopolitical and geostrategic defeat and accelerated the entry of yesterday's allies of the USSR under the Warsaw Pact into NATO.

Demonstration performances with the special forces of the GDR

But all these are dry lines about relatively recent past events, behind which is the drama of thousands of NPA officers and their families. With sadness in their eyes and pain in their hearts, they looked at the last parade of Russian troops on August 31, 1994 in Berlin. Betrayed, humiliated, useless, 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 promised not to leave the GDR to its fate. Did the Soviet leader have grounds for such statements? On the one hand, it would seem not. As we have already noted, in the late 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 that would allow Germany to be reunited on an equal footing. Declarative statements not supported by practical steps do not count in this case.

But there is another side of the coin. According to Boltunov, neither France nor Great Britain considered the issue of German reunification to be urgent. This is understandable: in Paris they were afraid of a strong and united Germany, which had crushed the military power of France twice in less than a century. 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 the 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 the four states for post-war Germany.

Against this background, the desire of London to develop cultural and economic ties with the GDR in the second half of the 80s does not seem accidental, and when it became obvious that the unification of Germany was inevitable, the British leadership proposed extending this process for 10-15 years.

And perhaps most importantly, in the matter of containing the processes aimed at the unification of Germany, the British leadership counted on the support of Moscow and Paris. And even more than that: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl himself did not initially initiate the absorption of his 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 to realize the idea once proposed by Stalin: the creation of a united, but neutral and non-NATO Germany.

The preservation of even a limited contingent of Soviet, American, British and French troops on the territory of a united Germany would become a guarantor of German neutrality, and the armed forces of the FRG created on an equal basis would not allow the spread of pro-Western sentiments in the army and would not turn former NPA officers into outcasts.

personality factor

All this was quite realizable in practice and met the foreign policy interests of both London and Paris, and Moscow and Berlin. So why did Gorbachev and his entourage, who had the opportunity to rely on the support of France and England in the defense of the GDR, did not do this and easily went for the absorption of their eastern neighbor by West Germany, ultimately changing the balance of power in Europe in favor of NATO?

From the point of view of Boltunov, the personality factor played a decisive role in this case: “... Events took an unplanned turn after the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, at which E. A. Shevardnadze ( Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR. – Auth.) went in direct violation of Gorbachev's directive.

One thing is the reunification of two independent German states, the other is the Anschluss, that is, the absorption of the GDR by the Federal Republic. It is one thing to overcome the split in Germany as a cardinal step towards eliminating the split in Europe. Another is the transfer of the leading edge of the split of the continent from the Elbe to the Oder or further to the east.

Shevardnadze gave a very simple explanation for his behavior - I learned this from an aide to the president ( USSR. – Auth.) Anatoly Chernyaev: “Gensher asked for it so much. And Genscher is a good man.”

Perhaps this explanation oversimplifies the picture associated with the unification of the country, but it is obvious that such a rapid absorption of the GDR by West Germany is a direct consequence of the short-sightedness and weakness of the Soviet political leadership, which, based on the logic of its decisions, is more focused on the positive image of the USSR in the Western world, rather than on the interests of their own state.

Ultimately, the collapse of both the GDR and the socialist camp as a whole, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union, provides a vivid example of the fact that the determining factor in history is not some objective processes, but the role of the individual. This is undeniably evidenced by the entire past of mankind.

After all, there were no socio-economic prerequisites for entering the historical arena of the ancient Macedonians, if not for the outstanding personal qualities of the kings Philip and Alexander.

The French would never have brought most of Europe to their knees had Napoleon not been their emperor. And there would have been no October coup in Russia, the most shameful in the history of the country of the Brest Peace, just as the Bolsheviks would not have won the Civil War, if not for the personality of Vladimir Lenin.

All these are just the most striking examples, indisputably testifying to the determining role of the individual in history.

There is no doubt that nothing like the events of the early 1990s could have happened in Eastern Europe if Yuri Andropov had been at the head of the Soviet Union. A man with a strong will, in the field of foreign policy, he invariably proceeded from the geopolitical interests of the country, and they demanded the maintenance of a military presence in Central Europe and the comprehensive strengthening of the combat power of the NPA, regardless of the attitude of the Americans and their allies to this.

The scale of Gorbachev's personality, as, indeed, of his inner circle, objectively did not correspond to the complex of the most complex domestic and foreign policy problems that the Soviet Union faced.

The same can be said about Egon Krenz, who replaced Honecker as SED General Secretary and was not a strong and strong-willed person. This is the opinion of General Markus Wolff, who headed the foreign intelligence of the GDR, about Krenz.

One of the characteristics of weak politicians is inconsistency in following the chosen course. So it happened with Gorbachev: in December 1989, at the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, he unequivocally declared that the Soviet Union would not leave the GDR to its fate. A year later, the Kremlin allowed West Germany to carry out the Anschluss of its eastern neighbor.

Kohl also felt the political weakness of the Soviet leadership during his visit to Moscow in February 1990, since it was after that that he began to more energetically pursue a course towards the reunification of Germany and, most importantly, began to insist on maintaining its membership in NATO.

And as a result: in modern Germany, the number of American troops exceeds 50,000 soldiers and officers stationed, including on the territory of the former GDR, and the NATO military machine is deployed near Russian borders. And in the event of a military conflict, the well-trained and trained officers of the former NPA will no longer be able to help us. And they probably don't want to...

As for England and France, their fears about the unification of Germany were not in vain: the latter quickly took a leading position in the European Union, strengthened its strategic and economic position in Central and Eastern Europe, gradually ousting British capital from there.

Exactly sixty years ago, on January 18, 1956, a decision was made 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 that the first military units of the GDR took the oath in 1956, in reality, the NPA can be counted 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 combat-ready armies of post-war Europe. Among the socialist countries, it was the second after the Soviet Army in terms of the level 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. The Soviet Union in the post-war years pursued a much more peaceful policy than its Western opponents. Therefore, for a long time the USSR sought 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 Governments of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA, held July 17 - August 2, 1945 in Potsdam, Germany was forbidden to have 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 verge of armed confrontation, which actually gave grounds for violating the agreements that were reached in the process of defeating Nazi Germany. By 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was established 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, which 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 German government announced the creation of the Bundeswehr. Thus began the history of the West German army and the history of the practically undisguised confrontation between the "two Germanys" 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 commonwealth of the Russian and German armies, which in the past fought more with each other than cooperated. Do not forget that the high combat capability of the NPA was due to the fact that Prussia and Saxony, the lands from which the main part of the German officers came from, were part of the GDR. It turns out that it was the NNA, and not the Bundeswehr, that inherited the historical traditions of the German armies to a greater extent, but this experience was put at the service of the military cooperation between the GDR and the Soviet Union.

Barracks People's Police - the forerunner 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 was created as part of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, as well as two main departments - the Main Directorate of the Air Police and the Main Directorate of the Marine 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 was created, which was an analogue of the internal troops of the Soviet Union. Naturally, the KNP could not conduct military operations against modern armies and was called upon to perform purely police functions - to fight sabotage and bandit groups, disperse riots, and protect public order. This was confirmed by the decision of the 2nd Party Conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The Barracks People's Police was subordinated to the Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Shtof, and the chief of the CNP 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 were recruited from among volunteers who signed a contract for a period of at least three years. In May 1952, the Union of Free German Youth took 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 previously independent Naval People's Police and the People's Air 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 the KNP Aeroclubs. It 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 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 on a military model continued, in particular, the General Headquarters of the Barracks People's Police of the GDR was created, which was headed by Lieutenant General Vinzenz Müller, a former general of the Wehrmacht. Also, the Territorial Administration "North" headed by Major General Herman Rentsch and the Territorial Administration "South" headed by Major General Fritz Jone were also created. Each territorial administration was subordinate to three operational detachments, and the General Staff was subordinate to a mechanized operational detachment, which was 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 tankers SM-2); 3) three motorized infantry companies (on trucks); 4) fire support company (field artillery platoon with three ZIS-3 guns; anti-tank artillery platoon with three 45 mm or 57 mm anti-tank guns; mortar platoon with three 82 mm mortars); 5) headquarters company (communications platoon, sapper platoon, chemical platoon, reconnaissance platoon, transport platoon, supply platoon, control department, medical department). Military ranks were established in the Barracks People's Police and a military uniform was introduced that differed from the uniform of the People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR (if the people's police officers wore a dark blue uniform, then the barracks police received a more "military" uniform of protective color). 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 officer, 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 a desire to join the National People's Army and continue serving there. Moreover, in fact, it was within the Barracks People's Police that the "skeleton" of the NPA was created - land, air and sea units, and the command staff of the Barracks People's Police, including top commanders, almost completely transferred to the NPA. The employees who remained in the Barracks People's Police continued to perform the functions of protecting public order and combating crime, that is, they retained the functionality of the internal troops.

"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 Willy Shtof (1914-1999), in 1952-1955. served as Minister of the Interior. A communist with pre-war experience, Willy Stof joined the German Communist Party at the age of 17. Being an underground worker, he, nevertheless, could not avoid service 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, participated in battles on the territory of the USSR, was injured, 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 underwent 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 occupy administrative positions in the zone of Soviet occupation. Willi Stof, who had not previously held prominent positions in the German communist movement, 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 Economic Policy Department 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, as Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Shtof received the military rank of Colonel General. Taking into account the experience of leading the power ministry, in 1956 it was decided to appoint Willy Shtof to the post of Minister of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic. In 1959, he received the next military rank of General of the Army. 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, also moved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR.

Heinz Hoffmann (1910-1985) can be called the second "founding father" of the National People's Army of the GDR, besides Willi Stoff. Coming from a working-class family, Hoffmann joined the Communist Youth League of Germany at the age of sixteen, and at the age of twenty he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany. In 1935, underground worker Heinz Hoffmann was forced to leave Germany and flee to the USSR. Here he was selected for education - first political at the International Lenin School in Moscow, and then military. November 1936 to February 1837 Hoffmann took special courses in Ryazan at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze. After completing the courses, he received the rank of lieutenant and already on March 17, 1937, he was sent to Spain, where at that time the Civil War was going on between the Republicans and the Francoists. Lieutenant Hoffman was appointed to the post of instructor in handling 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 he 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 officer in the Spaso-Zavodsky prisoner-of-war camp in 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 Communist Party of Germany in Skhodnya.

After returning to East Germany in January 1946, 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 Department of the Interior, and from April 1950 to June 1952, Heinz Hoffmann served as head of the Main Directorate for Combat Training of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. On July 1, 1952, he was appointed head of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR and Deputy Minister of the Interior 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 course of study 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, also Chief of the General Staff of the National People's Army of the GDR. Subsequently, on July 14, 1960, Colonel-General Heinz Hoffmann replaced Willi 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 for twenty-five years.

Chief of the General Staff of the NNA from 1967 to 1985. remained Colonel General (since 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 escape the call to the Wehrmacht. As an assistant machine gunner, he was sent to the Eastern Front and already on July 15, 1941, he 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 engaged in propaganda activities among prisoners of war and wrote appeals to the soldiers of the active Wehrmacht armies. In 1943-1945. He 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 (since 1953 - head of the Flying Clubs 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 head of the People's Air 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 NNA Air Force. October 1, 1959 he was awarded the military rank of lieutenant general. Kessler held this post for 11 years - until his appointment as chief of the General Staff of the NNA. 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 remained in this post until 1989. After the collapse of Germany, on September 16, 1993, a Berlin court sentenced Heinz Kessler to seven half years in prison.

Under the leadership of Willy Shtof, 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 turned into the most combat-ready after the Soviet armed forces among the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries. Everyone who was related to the service in Eastern Europe in the 1960s-1980s noted a significantly higher level of training, and most importantly, the morale of the NPA military personnel compared to their counterparts from the armies of other socialist states. Although initially many Wehrmacht officers and even generals, who were the only military specialists in the country at that time, were recruited into the National People's Army of the GDR, the officer corps of the NNA still differed significantly 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 possible to quickly train new officer cadres, up to 90% of whom were 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 NPA that had to directly engage in hostilities with the Bundeswehr formations and, together with units of the Soviet Army, ensure the advance into the territory of West Germany. It is no coincidence that NATO considered the NPA as one of the key and very dangerous adversaries. Hatred for the National People's Army of the GDR subsequently affected the attitude towards its former generals and officers already in united Germany.

The most combat-ready army in Eastern Europe

The German Democratic Republic was divided into two military regions - 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 artillery brigade of central subordination. Each military district included 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 chemical protection battalion. 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 protection battalion, 1 medical battalion, 1 reconnaissance battalion, 1 missile department. The missile brigade included 2-3 missile departments, 1 engineering company, 1 logistics company, 1 meteorological battery, 1 repair company. The artillery brigade included 4 artillery departments, 1 repair company and 1 material support company. The NPA Air Force included 2 air divisions, each of which included 2-4 strike squadrons, 1 anti-aircraft missile brigade, 2 anti-aircraft missile regiments, 3-4 radio engineering battalions.

The history of the Navy of the GDR began in 1952, when units of the Naval People's Police were created as part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. In 1956, the ships and personnel of the Naval People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR entered the National People's Army, and until 1960 they 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 sailor, from 1937 he served in the Wehrmacht, but almost immediately, in 1941, he was captured by the Soviets, where he remained until 1947. In captivity, he joined the National Committee of Free Germany. After returning from captivity, he worked as secretary of the rector of the Karl Marx Higher Party School, then joined the naval police, where he was appointed chief of staff of the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. October 1, 1952 he received the rank of rear admiral, from 1955 to 1956. served as commander of the Naval People's Police. After the establishment 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 positions in the naval command, was responsible for the combat training of personnel, then for equipment and weapons, and retired in 1975 from the post of deputy fleet commander for logistics. 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, replaced Felix Scheffler as commander of the GDR Navy. From 1952 to 1955 Ferner served as commander of the Naval People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR, which was transformed into the Main Directorate of the Naval Police. From January 1, 1957 to July 31, 1959, he commanded the Navy of the GDR, after which, from 1959 to 1978. served as head 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 rank 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, Eim returned to post-war Germany and quickly made a party career. In 1950, he began serving in the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR - first as a communications officer, and then as deputy chief of staff and head of the organizational department. In 1958-1959. Wilhelm Eim was in charge of the logistics service of the GDR Navy. On August 1, 1959, he was appointed to the post of commander of the East German Navy, but from 1961 to 1963. studied at the Naval Academy in the USSR. Upon his return from the Soviet Union, Rear Admiral Heinz Norkirchen, acting commander, again gave way to Wilhelm Eim. Aim served as commander until 1987.

In 1960, a new name was adopted - the People's Navy. The Navy of the GDR 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 of large ships for operations 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 People's Navy of the GDR. The GDR had a fairly strong naval aviation, equipped with airplanes and helicopters. The people's navy was supposed to solve, first of all, the tasks of defending the country's coast, combating enemy submarines and mines, landing tactical assault forces, and supporting ground forces on the coast. The personnel of the Volksmarine consisted of approximately 16,000 military personnel. 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 Navy of the GDR was located in Rostock. The following structural units of the Navy were subordinate to him: 1) the flotilla in Peenemünde, 2) the flotilla in Rostock - Warnemünde, 3) the flotilla in Dransk, 4) the Naval School. Karl Liebknecht in Stralsund, 5) Naval School. Walter Steffens in Stralsund, 6) Waldemar Werner Coastal Missile Regiment in Gelbenzand, 7) Kurt Barthel Naval Combat Helicopter Squadron in Parowa, 8) Paul Wiszorek Naval Aviation Squadron in Laga, 9) Johann Vesolek Signal Regiment 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 completed by hiring 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 for military service was introduced in the GDR five years later than in the capitalist FRG (there the army switched from contract to conscription in 1957). The number of NPA was also inferior to the Bundeswehr - by 1990, 175,000 people were serving in the ranks of the NPA. The defense of the GDR was compensated by the presence on the territory of the country of a huge contingent of Soviet troops - the ZGV / GSVG (Western Group of Forces / Group of Soviet Forces in Germany). The training of the officers of the NPA was carried out at the Friedrich Engels Military Academy, the Wilhelm Pieck Higher Military-Political School, specialized military educational institutions of the armed forces. An interesting system of military ranks was introduced in the National People's Army of the GDR, partly duplicating the old Wehrmacht ranks, but partly containing obvious borrowings from the military rank system of the Soviet Union. The hierarchy of military ranks in the GDR looked like this (analogues 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 assigned in practice; 2) General of the Army (Admiral of the Fleet) - in the ground forces the rank was awarded to senior 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 (Frigate Captain); 8) Major (Corvette captain); 9) Captain (Lieutenant Captain); 10) Oberleutnant (Oberlieutenant zur See); 11) Lieutenant (Lieutenant zur See); 12) Unter-lieutenant (Unter-lieutenant zur See); III. Fenrichs (similar to Russian ensigns): 13) Ober-Staff-Fenrich (Ober-Stabs-Fenrich); 14) Headquarters Fenrich (Staff Fenrich); 15) Ober-fenrich (Ober-fenrich); 16) Fenrich (Fenrich); IV Sergeants: 17) Staff Sergeant Major (Staff Obermeister); 18) Ober-sergeant major (Ober-meister); 19) Feldwebel (Meister); 20) Unter sergeant major (Obermat); 21) Non-commissioned officer (Mat); V. Soldiers / sailors: 22) Headquarters corporal (Headquarters sailor); 23) Corporal (Ober-sailor); 24) Soldier (Sailor). Each branch of the military also had its own specific color in the edging of shoulder straps. For generals of all branches of the military, it was scarlet, motorized infantry units - white, artillery, missile troops and air defense units - brick, armored troops - pink, landing troops - orange, signal troops - yellow, military construction troops - olive, engineering troops, chemical troops, topographic and motor transport services - black, rear units, military justice and medicine - dark green; air force (aviation) - light blue, anti-aircraft missile forces of the air force - light gray, navy - blue, border service - green.

The sad fate of the NPA and its military personnel

With good reason, the German Democratic Republic can be called the most faithful ally of the USSR in Eastern Europe. The National People's Army of the GDR remained the most combat-ready after the Soviet army of the Warsaw Pact until the end of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the fate of both the GDR and its armies turned out badly. East Germany ceased to exist as a result of the policy of "unification of Germany" and the corresponding actions of the Soviet side. In fact, the GDR was simply given to the Federal Republic of Germany. The last Minister of National Defense of the GDR was Admiral Theodor Hofmann (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 entered the service as a sailor in the Naval People's Police of the GDR. In 1952-1955, he studied at the Officer School of the Naval People's Police in Stralsund, after which he was assigned to the post of combat training officer in the 7th Flotilla of the GDR Navy, then served as a 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 in the Volksmarine: Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the 6th Flotilla, Commander of the 6th Flotilla, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy for Operations, Deputy Commander of the Navy and Chief of Combat Training. From 1985 to 1987 Rear Admiral Hofmann served as Chief of Staff of the Navy of the GDR, and in 1987-1989. - Commander of the Navy of the GDR and Deputy Minister of Defense of the GDR. In 1987, Hoffmann was awarded the military rank of vice admiral, in 1989, with the appointment to the post of Minister of National Defense of the GDR - admiral. After the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR was abolished on April 18, 1990 and replaced by the Ministry of Defense and Disarmament, which was headed by the democratic politician Rainer Eppelmann, Admiral Hofmann until September 1990 served as Assistant Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the National People's Army of the GDR . After the dissolution of the NPA, he was dismissed from military service.

The Ministry of Defense and Disarmament was created after in the GDR, under pressure from the Soviet Union, where Mikhail Gorbachev had long been in power, reforms began that also affected the military sphere. On March 18, 1990, the Minister of Defense and Disarmament was appointed - it was 47-year-old Rainer Eppelman, 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 spiritual 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 into 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 German authorities feared that the generals and officers of the NPA were maintaining communist sentiments, so a decision was made to actually disband the National People's Army of the GDR. Only privates and non-commissioned officers of military service were sent to serve in the Bundeswehr. Regular military personnel were much less fortunate. All generals, admirals, officers, Fenrikhs and non-commissioned officers of the cadre were dismissed from military service. The total number of dismissed - 23155 officers and 22549 non-commissioned officers. Almost none of them managed to be reinstated in the service in the Bundeswehr, the vast majority were simply dismissed - and military service was not counted by them either in the length of service of the military, or even in the length of civil service. Only 2.7% of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA were able to continue serving in the Bundeswehr (mostly 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 - Germany 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 experience, were forced to look for low-paid and low-skilled work. 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. With regard to military equipment, the vast majority was either disposed of or sold to third countries. Thus, combat boats and ships of the 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 Germany, and Bundeswehr units are now taking part in armed conflicts around the world - ostensibly as peacekeeping forces, but in reality - protecting US interests.

Currently, many former servicemen of the National People's Army of the GDR are members of public veteran organizations engaged in protecting the rights of former officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA, as well as the 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. What we need is not military dependence on the United States, but our own responsibility for the world,” the appeal says. Under the appeal, among the first are the signatures of the last ministers of national defense of the GDR - General of the Army Heinz Kessler and Admiral Theodor Hoffmann.

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The traditional German insignia "Schuetzenschnur" ("Rifle Cord"), which existed in the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht, was adopted without any significant changes when establishing uniforms, insignia and distinction for the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic (NNA GDR). By order of the Minister of National Defense of June 22, 1957 No. 49/57, service badges, specialty badges and a "shooting cord" were introduced into the NNA of the GDR for the ground forces for excellent shooting from light small arms, artillery shooting and tank gun shooting, for the Navy for excellent shooting from light small arms and for torpedo shooting.

In total, four degrees of the cord were established. The "rifle cord" in the NNA of the GDR was assigned to soldiers (sailors), non-commissioned officers (maats), cadets of non-commissioned officers and officer schools - for excellent assimilation of the combat and political training program, for keeping weapons in good condition and its competent operation, subject to the fulfillment of the standards of shooting exercises.

A cord 35 cm long was made of silver aluminum braid, worn on the right side of the chest, one end was attached to the shoulder strap, and the other was fastened to the top button of an open jacket or the second button of a closed tunic. On sailor uniforms, the second end of the cord was fastened at the lower edge of the chest neckline.

At the end of the cord near the shoulder strap, for all degrees, a silver badge 50 mm high and 45 mm wide was attached. The following images were placed in a wreath of oak leaves: for shooting from small arms - two crossed rifles; for artillery shooting - a shell with a flame coming out of it; for firing from tank guns - a tank moving from left to right. The cord of the first degree did not have any additional details, subsequent degrees were indicated by the addition of a silver braided "acorn" to the lower end of the cord, one for each degree.

From 1957 to 1960, military personnel were awarded the "Rifle Cord" for excellent shooting from light small arms of four degrees. At the same time, awards were made for artillery shooting and firing from tank guns with a cord of only two degrees.

For the Navy, the Rifle Cord had its own characteristics - it was made of a dark blue thread and a golden badge 50 mm high and 45 mm wide was attached to it with the following images: for shooting from small arms - two crossed rifles in a wreath of oak leaves; for torpedo firing - a torpedo directed from right to left in a wreath of oak leaves. To distinguish degrees - an "acorn" of a blue thread. An option was proposed - a silver badge with a torpedo, but his approval did not follow.

"Preliminary rules for wearing the uniform of the NNA of the GDR" DV 10/5, published in 1957, provided for the personnel of the Navy a golden badge on the cord for artillery fire - a projectile with a flame coming out of it, but this badge was not introduced. Between 1957 and 1960 sailors were awarded for small arms fire and torpedo fire in two degrees.

According to the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs of April 1, 1959 No. 12/59, "Rifle Cords" for excellent shooting from light small arms, artillery shooting and shooting from tank guns were also established for personnel, cadets of non-commissioned officers and officer schools of the border police, police readiness (military police units that were in the barracks) and the Berlin People's Police readiness: - for shooting from light small arms of four degrees; - for shooting from small arms for the maritime border police of two degrees; - for artillery shooting of two degrees; - for firing from tank guns of two degrees. The cord was made of a combined silver-green braid (10 parts silver - 2 parts green), and for the maritime border police from a dark blue and green thread (10 parts dark blue - 2 parts green). The signs corresponded to those for the NNA and the Navy.

By order of the Minister of National Defense of November 1, 1960 No. 63/60, from December 1, 1960, changes were made to the procedure for presenting the cord. According to this order, soldiers (sailors), non-commissioned officers (maats), cadets of non-commissioned officers and officer schools of all branches of the armed forces received only the "Rifle Cord" for shooting from light small arms of three degrees. The first degree is a cord without additional details, for the second and third degrees - one and two "acorns", respectively. Thus, in the NNA of the GDR, a silver cord with the same sign remained, and in the Navy - dark blue with a golden sign.

In pursuance of the directive of the Minister of National Defense of September 24, 1982 No. 02/82 on the development of socialist competition, "Shooting Cords" were established for excellent shooting from tank guns, for shooting from BMP turret weapons, for artillery shooting and firing of anti-tank missiles, as well as for shooting from light small arms of four degrees, which were intended for soldiers, non-commissioned officers, cadets of non-commissioned officer schools, Fenrich (ensign) schools and officer schools. The first degree - a cord without additional details, to designate each subsequent degree, an "acorn" was attached to the cord. The newly installed cords matched the 1960 pattern.

By order of the Minister of National Defense of June 19, 1985, which came into force on December 1, 1985, a modified "shooting cord" was approved in the NNA of the GDR. The cord for the personnel of the ground forces, the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces, as well as the border troops, was made of a silvery aluminum thread with a sign of the same color; for the personnel of the Navy, the border brigade "Kuste" ("Coast") and the company of boats of the border troops - from a dark blue thread with a golden sign. The sign is 51 mm high and 46 mm wide. On the sign of the cord for shooting from light small arms for the ground forces, the Air Force and the Air Defense Forces, the Navy - two crossed rifles in a wreath of oak leaves. The border troops, the "Kueste" ("Coast") brigade and the company of boats of the border troops have a wreath of oak leaves, in which a Kalashnikov assault rifle against the background of the border post. For excellent artillery shooting and anti-tank missiles - a wreath of oak leaves, in which a missile is superimposed on two crossed barrels of old cannons. Badges for firing from tank guns and BMP turret weapons are of the same type - in a wreath of oak leaves, a tank and an infantry fighting vehicle driving from right to left.

Shooting cords of all types, without any changes, existed until the unification of the GDR with the FRG, otherwise until the reunification of Germany.

References:

"Visier" No. 12, 1983

"Militarische Abzeichen der DDR", 1988

Exactly sixty years ago, on January 18, 1956, a decision was made 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 took the oath, in fact, the history of the NPA can be counted 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 combat-ready armies of post-war Europe. Among the socialist countries, it was the second after the Soviet Army in terms of the level 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. The Soviet Union in the post-war years pursued a much more peaceful policy than its Western opponents. Therefore, for a long time the USSR sought 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, held July 17 - August 2, 1945 in Potsdam, Germany was forbidden to have 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 verge of armed confrontation, which actually gave grounds for violating the agreements that were reached in the process of defeating Nazi Germany. By 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was established 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, which 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 German government announced the creation of the Bundeswehr. Thus began the history of the West German army and the history of the practically undisguised confrontation between the "two Germanys" 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 commonwealth of the Russian and German armies, which in the past fought more with each other than cooperated. Do not forget that the high combat capability of the NNA was due to the fact that Prussia and Saxony, the lands from which the bulk of the German officers had long since come from, became part of the GDR. It turns out that it was the NNA, and not the Bundeswehr, that inherited the historical traditions of the German armies to a greater extent, but this experience was put at the service of the military cooperation between the GDR and the Soviet Union.
Barracks People's Police - the forerunner 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 was created as part of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, as well as two main departments - the Main Directorate of the Air Police and the Main Directorate of the Marine 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 was created, which was an analogue of the internal troops of the Soviet Union. Naturally, the KNP could not conduct military operations against modern armies and was called upon to perform purely police functions - to fight sabotage and bandit groups, disperse riots, and protect public order. This was confirmed by the decision of the 2nd Party Conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The Barracks People's Police was subordinated to the Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Shtof, and the chief of the CNP 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 were recruited from among volunteers who signed a contract for a period of at least three years. In May 1952, the Union of Free German Youth took 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 previously independent Naval People's Police and the People's Air 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 the KNP Aeroclubs. It 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 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 on a military model continued, in particular, the General Headquarters of the Barracks People's Police of the GDR was created, which was headed by Lieutenant General Vinzenz Müller, a former general of the Wehrmacht. Also, the Territorial Administration "North" headed by Major General Herman Rentsch and the Territorial Administration "South" headed by Major General Fritz Jone were also created. Each territorial administration was subordinate to three operational detachments, and the General Staff was subordinate to a mechanized operational detachment, which was 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 tankers SM-2); 3) three motorized infantry companies (on trucks); 4) fire support company (field artillery platoon with three ZIS-3 guns; anti-tank artillery platoon with three 45 mm or 57 mm anti-tank guns; mortar platoon with three 82 mm mortars); 5) headquarters company (communications platoon, sapper platoon, chemical platoon, reconnaissance platoon, transport platoon, supply platoon, control department, medical department). Military ranks were established in the Barracks People's Police and a military uniform was introduced that differed from the uniform of the People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR (if the people's police officers wore a dark blue uniform, then the barracks police received a more "military" uniform of protective color). 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 officer, 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 a desire to join the National People's Army and continue serving there. Moreover, in fact, it was within the Barracks People's Police that the "skeleton" of the NPA was created - land, air and sea units, and the command staff of the Barracks People's Police, including top commanders, almost completely transferred to the NPA. The employees who remained in the Barracks People's Police continued to perform the functions of protecting public order and combating crime, that is, they retained the functionality of the internal troops.
"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 Willy Shtof (1914-1999), in 1952-1955. served as Minister of the Interior. A communist with pre-war experience, Willy Stof joined the German Communist Party at the age of 17. Being an underground worker, he, nevertheless, could not avoid service 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, participated in battles on the territory of the USSR, was injured, 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 underwent 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 occupy administrative positions in the zone of Soviet occupation. Willi Stof, who had not previously held prominent positions in the German communist movement, 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 Economic Policy Department 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, as Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Shtof received the military rank of Colonel General. Taking into account the experience of leading the power ministry, in 1956 it was decided to appoint Willy Shtof to the post of Minister of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic. In 1959, he received the next military rank of General of the Army. 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, also moved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR.
Heinz Hoffmann (1910-1985) can be called the second "founding father" of the National People's Army of the GDR, besides Willi Stoff. Coming from a working-class family, Hoffmann joined the Communist Youth League of Germany at the age of sixteen, and at the age of twenty he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany. In 1935, underground worker Heinz Hoffmann was forced to leave Germany and flee to the USSR. Here he was selected for education - first political at the International Lenin School in Moscow, and then military. November 1936 to February 1837 Hoffmann took special courses in Ryazan at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze. After completing the courses, he received the rank of lieutenant and already on March 17, 1937, he was sent to Spain, where at that time the Civil War was going on between the Republicans and the Francoists. Lieutenant Hoffman was appointed to the post of instructor in the handling of Soviet weapons 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 he 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 officer in the Spaso-Zavodsky prisoner-of-war camp in 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 Communist Party of Germany in Skhodnya.
After returning to East Germany in January 1946, 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 Department of the Interior, and from April 1950 to June 1952, Heinz Hoffmann served as head of the Main Directorate for Combat Training of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. On July 1, 1952, he was appointed head of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR and Deputy Minister of the Interior 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 course of study 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, also Chief of the General Staff of the National People's Army of the GDR. Subsequently, on July 14, 1960, Colonel-General Heinz Hoffmann replaced Willi 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 for twenty-five years.
Chief of the General Staff of the NNA from 1967 to 1985. remained Colonel General (since 1985 - Army General) 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 escape the call to the Wehrmacht. As an assistant machine gunner, he was sent to the Eastern Front and already on July 15, 1941, he 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 engaged in propaganda activities among prisoners of war and wrote appeals to the soldiers of the active Wehrmacht armies. In 1943-1945. He 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 (since 1953 - head of the Flying Clubs 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 head of the People's Air 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 NNA Air Force. October 1, 1959 he was awarded the military rank of lieutenant general. Kessler held this post for 11 years - until his appointment as 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 remained in this post until 1989. After the collapse of Germany, on September 16, 1993, a Berlin court sentenced Heinz Kessler to seven half years in prison.
Under the leadership of Willy Shtof, 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 turned into the most combat-ready after the Soviet armed forces among the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries. Everyone who was involved in the service in Eastern Europe in the 1960s-1980s noted a significantly higher level of training, and most importantly, the morale of the NPA military personnel compared to their counterparts from the armies of other socialist states. Although initially many Wehrmacht officers and even generals, who were the only military specialists in the country at that time, were recruited into the National People's Army of the GDR, the officer corps of the NNA still differed significantly 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 possible to quickly train new officer cadres, up to 90% of whom were 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 NPA that had to directly engage in hostilities with the Bundeswehr formations and, together with units of the Soviet Army, ensure the advance into the territory of West Germany. It is no coincidence that NATO considered the NPA as one of the key and very dangerous adversaries. Hatred for the National People's Army of the GDR subsequently affected the attitude towards its former generals and officers already in united Germany.
The most combat-ready army in Eastern Europe
The German Democratic Republic was divided into two military regions - 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 artillery brigade of central subordination. Each military district included 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 chemical protection battalion. 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 protection battalion, 1 medical battalion, 1 reconnaissance battalion, 1 missile department. The missile brigade included 2-3 missile departments, 1 engineering company, 1 logistics company, 1 meteorological battery, 1 repair company. The artillery brigade included 4 artillery departments, 1 repair company and 1 material support company. The NPA Air Force included 2 air divisions, each of which included 2-4 strike squadrons, 1 anti-aircraft missile brigade, 2 anti-aircraft missile regiments, 3-4 radio engineering battalions.

The history of the Navy of the GDR began in 1952, when units of the Naval People's Police were created as part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. In 1956, the ships and personnel of the Naval People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR entered the National People's Army, and until 1960 they 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 sailor, from 1937 he served in the Wehrmacht, but almost immediately, in 1941, he was captured by the Soviets, where he remained until 1947. In captivity, he joined the National Committee of Free Germany. After returning from captivity, he worked as secretary of the rector of the Karl Marx Higher Party School, then joined the naval police, where he was appointed chief of staff of the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. October 1, 1952 he received the rank of rear admiral, from 1955 to 1956. served as commander of the Naval People's Police. After the establishment 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 positions in the naval command, was responsible for the combat training of personnel, then for equipment and weapons, and retired in 1975 from the post of deputy fleet commander for logistics. 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, replaced Felix Scheffler as commander of the GDR Navy. From 1952 to 1955 Ferner served as commander of the Naval People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR, which was transformed into the Main Directorate of the Naval Police. From January 1, 1957 to July 31, 1959, he commanded the Navy of the GDR, after which, from 1959 to 1978. served as head 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 rank 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, Eim returned to post-war Germany and quickly made a party career. In 1950, he began serving in the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR - first as a communications officer, and then as deputy chief of staff and head of the organizational department. In 1958-1959. Wilhelm Eim was in charge of the logistics service of the GDR Navy. On August 1, 1959, he was appointed to the post of commander of the East German Navy, but from 1961 to 1963. studied at the Naval Academy in the USSR. Upon his return from the Soviet Union, Rear Admiral Heinz Norkirchen, acting commander, again gave way to Wilhelm Eim. Aim served as commander until 1987.
In 1960, a new name was adopted - the People's Navy. The Navy of the GDR 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 of large ships for operations 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 People's Navy of the GDR. The GDR had a fairly strong naval aviation, equipped with airplanes and helicopters. The people's navy was supposed to solve, first of all, the tasks of defending the country's coast, combating enemy submarines and mines, landing tactical assault forces, and supporting ground forces on the coast. The personnel of the Volksmarine consisted of approximately 16,000 military personnel. 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 Navy of the GDR was located in Rostock. The following structural units of the Navy were subordinate to him: 1) the flotilla in Peenemünde, 2) the flotilla in Rostock - Warnemünde, 3) the flotilla in Dransk, 4) the Naval School. Karl Liebknecht in Stralsund, 5) Naval School. Walter Steffens in Stralsund, 6) Waldemar Werner Coastal Missile Regiment in Gelbenzand, 7) Kurt Barthel Naval Combat Helicopter Squadron in Parowa, 8) Paul Wiszorek Naval Aviation Squadron in Laga, 9) Johann Vesolek Signal Regiment 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 completed by hiring 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 for military service was introduced in the GDR five years later than in the capitalist FRG (there the army switched from contract to conscription in 1957). The number of NPA was also inferior to the Bundeswehr - by 1990, 175,000 people were serving in the ranks of the NPA. The defense of the GDR was compensated by the presence on the territory of the country of a huge contingent of Soviet troops - ZGV / GSVG (Western Group of Forces / Group of Soviet Forces in Germany). The training of the officers of the NPA was carried out at the Friedrich Engels Military Academy, the Wilhelm Pieck Higher Military-Political School, specialized military educational institutions of the armed forces. An interesting system of military ranks was introduced in the National People's Army of the GDR, partly duplicating the old Wehrmacht ranks, but partly containing obvious borrowings from the military rank system of the Soviet Union. The hierarchy of military ranks in the GDR looked like this (analogues of ranks in the Volksmarine - the People's Navy are given in brackets): I. Generals (admirals): 1) Marshal of the GDR - the title was never assigned in practice; 2) General of the Army (Admiral of the Fleet) - in the ground forces the rank was awarded to senior 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 (Frigate Captain); 8) Major (Corvette captain); 9) Captain (Lieutenant Captain); 10) Oberleutnant (Oberlieutenant zur See); 11) Lieutenant (Lieutenant zur See); 12) Unter-lieutenant (Unter-lieutenant zur See); III. Fenrichs (similar to Russian ensigns): 13) Ober-Staff-Fenrich (Ober-Stabs-Fenrich); 14) Headquarters Fenrich (Staff Fenrich); 15) Ober-fenrich (Ober-fenrich); 16) Fenrich (Fenrich); IV Sergeants: 17) Staff Sergeant Major (Staff Obermeister); 18) Ober-sergeant major (Ober-meister); 19) Feldwebel (Meister); 20) Unter sergeant major (Obermat); 21) Non-commissioned officer (Mat); V. Soldiers / sailors: 22) Headquarters corporal (Headquarters sailor); 23) Corporal (Ober-sailor); 24) Soldier (Sailor). Each branch of the military also had its own specific color in the edging of shoulder straps. For generals of all branches of the military, it was scarlet, motorized infantry units - white, artillery, missile troops and air defense units - brick, armored troops - pink, landing troops - orange, signal troops - yellow, military construction troops - olive, engineering troops, chemical troops, topographical and motor transport services - black, rear units, military justice and medicine - dark green; air force (aviation) - blue, anti-aircraft missile forces of the air force - light gray, navy - blue, border service - green.

The sad fate of the NPA and its military personnel
With good reason, the German Democratic Republic can be called the most faithful ally of the USSR in Eastern Europe. The National People's Army of the GDR remained the most combat-ready after the Soviet army of the Warsaw Pact until the end of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the fate of both the GDR and its armies turned out badly. East Germany ceased to exist as a result of the policy of "unification of Germany" and the corresponding actions of the Soviet side. In fact, the GDR was simply given to the Federal Republic of Germany. The last Minister of National Defense of the GDR was Admiral Theodor Hofmann (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 entered the service as a sailor in the Naval People's Police of the GDR. In 1952-1955 he studied at the Officer School of the Naval People's Police in Stralsund, after which he was assigned to the post of combat training officer in the 7th Flotilla of the GDR Navy, then served as a torpedo boat commander, studied at the Naval Academy in the USSR. After returning from the Soviet Union, he held a number of command positions in the Volksmarine: Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the 6th Flotilla, Commander of the 6th Flotilla, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy for Operations, Deputy Commander of the Navy and Chief of Combat Training. From 1985 to 1987 Rear Admiral Hofmann served as Chief of Staff of the Navy of the GDR, and in 1987-1989. - Commander of the Navy of the GDR and Deputy Minister of Defense of the GDR. In 1987, Hoffmann was awarded the military rank of vice admiral, in 1989, with the appointment to the post of Minister of National Defense of the GDR - admiral. After the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR was abolished on April 18, 1990 and replaced by the Ministry of Defense and Disarmament, which was headed by the democratic politician Rainer Eppelmann, Admiral Hofmann until September 1990 served as Assistant Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the National People's Army of the GDR . After the dissolution of the NPA, he was dismissed from military service.
The Ministry of Defense and Disarmament was created after in the GDR, under pressure from the Soviet Union, where Mikhail Gorbachev had long been in power, reforms began that also affected the military sphere. On March 18, 1990, the Minister of Defense and Disarmament was appointed - he became the 47-year-old Rainer Eppelman, a dissident and pastor in one of the evangelical parishes of 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 spiritual 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 into 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 German authorities feared that the generals and officers of the NPA were maintaining communist sentiments, so a decision was made to actually disband the National People's Army of the GDR. Only privates and non-commissioned officers of military service were sent to serve in the Bundeswehr. Regular military personnel were much less fortunate. All generals, admirals, officers, Fenrikhs and non-commissioned officers of the cadre were dismissed from military service. The total number of dismissed - 23155 officers and 22549 non-commissioned officers. Almost none of them managed to be reinstated in the service in the Bundeswehr, the vast majority were simply dismissed - and military service was not counted by them either in the length of service in the military, or even in the length of civil service. Only 2.7% of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA were able to continue serving in the Bundeswehr (mostly 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 - Germany refused to recognize the military ranks of the NNA.
Veterans of the National People's Army of the GDR, left without pensions and without taking into account military experience, were forced to look for low-paid and low-skilled work. 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. With regard to military equipment, the vast majority was either disposed of or sold to third countries. Thus, combat boats and ships of the 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 Germany, and Bundeswehr units are now taking part in armed conflicts around the world - ostensibly as peacekeeping forces, but in reality - protecting US interests.
Currently, many former servicemen of the National People's Army of the GDR are members of public veteran organizations engaged in protecting the rights of former officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA, as well as the 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 the world, ”the appeal says. Under the appeal, among the first are the signatures of the last ministers of national defense of the GDR - General of the Army Heinz Kessler and Admiral Theodor Hoffmann.
Author Ilya Polonsky

Exactly sixty years ago, on January 18, 1956, a decision was made 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 that the first military units of the GDR took the oath in 1956, in reality, the NPA can be counted 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 combat-ready armies of post-war Europe. Among the socialist countries, it was the second after the Soviet Army in terms of the level 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. The Soviet Union in the post-war years pursued a much more peaceful policy than its Western opponents. Therefore, for a long time the USSR sought 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 Governments of Great Britain, the USSR and the USA, held July 17 - August 2, 1945 in Potsdam, Germany was forbidden to have 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 verge of armed confrontation, which actually gave grounds for violating the agreements that were reached in the process of defeating Nazi Germany. By 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was established 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, which 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 German government announced the creation of the Bundeswehr. Thus began the history of the West German army and the history of the practically undisguised confrontation between the "two Germanys" 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 commonwealth of the Russian and German armies, which in the past fought more with each other than cooperated. Do not forget that the high combat capability of the NPA was due to the fact that Prussia and Saxony, the lands from which the main part of the German officers came from, were part of the GDR. It turns out that it was the NNA, and not the Bundeswehr, that inherited the historical traditions of the German armies to a greater extent, but this experience was put at the service of the military cooperation between the GDR and the Soviet Union.

Barracks People's Police - the forerunner 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 was created as part of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, as well as two main departments - the Main Directorate of the Air Police and the Main Directorate of the Marine 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 was created, which was an analogue of the internal troops of the Soviet Union. Naturally, the KNP could not conduct military operations against modern armies and was called upon to perform purely police functions - to fight sabotage and bandit groups, disperse riots, and protect public order. This was confirmed by the decision of the 2nd Party Conference of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The Barracks People's Police was subordinated to the Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Shtof, and the chief of the CNP 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 were recruited from among volunteers who signed a contract for a period of at least three years. In May 1952, the Union of Free German Youth took 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 previously independent Naval People's Police and the People's Air 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 the KNP Aeroclubs. It 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 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 on a military model continued, in particular, the General Headquarters of the Barracks People's Police of the GDR was created, which was headed by Lieutenant General Vinzenz Müller, a former general of the Wehrmacht. Also, the Territorial Administration "North" headed by Major General Herman Rentsch and the Territorial Administration "South" headed by Major General Fritz Jone were also created. Each territorial administration was subordinate to three operational detachments, and the General Staff was subordinate to a mechanized operational detachment, which was 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 tankers SM-2); 3) three motorized infantry companies (on trucks); 4) fire support company (field artillery platoon with three ZIS-3 guns; anti-tank artillery platoon with three 45 mm or 57 mm anti-tank guns; mortar platoon with three 82 mm mortars); 5) headquarters company (communications platoon, sapper platoon, chemical platoon, reconnaissance platoon, transport platoon, supply platoon, control department, medical department). Military ranks were established in the Barracks People's Police and a military uniform was introduced that differed from the uniform of the People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR (if the people's police officers wore a dark blue uniform, then the barracks police received a more "military" uniform of protective color). 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 officer, 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 a desire to join the National People's Army and continue serving there. Moreover, in fact, it was within the Barracks People's Police that the "skeleton" of the NPA was created - land, air and sea units, and the command staff of the Barracks People's Police, including top commanders, almost completely transferred to the NPA. The employees who remained in the Barracks People's Police continued to perform the functions of protecting public order and combating crime, that is, they retained the functionality of the internal troops.

"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 Willy Shtof (1914-1999), in 1952-1955. served as Minister of the Interior. A communist with pre-war experience, Willy Stof joined the German Communist Party at the age of 17. Being an underground worker, he, nevertheless, could not avoid service 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, participated in battles on the territory of the USSR, was injured, 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 underwent 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 occupy administrative positions in the zone of Soviet occupation. Willi Stof, who had not previously held prominent positions in the German communist movement, 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 Economic Policy Department 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, as Minister of the Interior of the GDR, Willy Shtof received the military rank of Colonel General. Taking into account the experience of leading the power ministry, in 1956 it was decided to appoint Willy Shtof to the post of Minister of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic. In 1959, he received the next military rank of General of the Army. 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, also moved from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR.

Heinz Hoffmann (1910-1985) can be called the second "founding father" of the National People's Army of the GDR, besides Willi Stoff. Coming from a working-class family, Hoffmann joined the Communist Youth League of Germany at the age of sixteen, and at the age of twenty he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany. In 1935, underground worker Heinz Hoffmann was forced to leave Germany and flee to the USSR. Here he was selected for education - first political at the International Lenin School in Moscow, and then military. November 1936 to February 1837 Hoffmann took special courses in Ryazan at the Military Academy. M.V. Frunze. After completing the courses, he received the rank of lieutenant and already on March 17, 1937, he was sent to Spain, where at that time the Civil War was going on between the Republicans and the Francoists. Lieutenant Hoffman was appointed to the post of instructor in handling 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 he 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 officer in the Spaso-Zavodsky prisoner-of-war camp in 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 Communist Party of Germany in Skhodnya.

After returning to East Germany in January 1946, 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 Department of the Interior, and from April 1950 to June 1952, Heinz Hoffmann served as head of the Main Directorate for Combat Training of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. On July 1, 1952, he was appointed head of the Barracks People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR and Deputy Minister of the Interior 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 course of study 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, also Chief of the General Staff of the National People's Army of the GDR. Subsequently, on July 14, 1960, Colonel-General Heinz Hoffmann replaced Willi 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 for twenty-five years.

Chief of the General Staff of the NNA from 1967 to 1985. remained Colonel General (since 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 escape the call to the Wehrmacht. As an assistant machine gunner, he was sent to the Eastern Front and already on July 15, 1941, he 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 engaged in propaganda activities among prisoners of war and wrote appeals to the soldiers of the active Wehrmacht armies. In 1943-1945. He 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 (since 1953 - head of the Flying Clubs 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 head of the People's Air 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 NNA Air Force. October 1, 1959 he was awarded the military rank of lieutenant general. Kessler held this post for 11 years - until his appointment as chief of the General Staff of the NNA. 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 remained in this post until 1989. After the collapse of Germany, on September 16, 1993, a Berlin court sentenced Heinz Kessler to seven half years in prison.

Under the leadership of Willy Shtof, 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 turned into the most combat-ready after the Soviet armed forces among the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries. Everyone who was related to the service in Eastern Europe in the 1960s-1980s noted a significantly higher level of training, and most importantly, the morale of the NPA military personnel compared to their counterparts from the armies of other socialist states. Although initially many Wehrmacht officers and even generals, who were the only military specialists in the country at that time, were recruited into the National People's Army of the GDR, the officer corps of the NNA still differed significantly 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 possible to quickly train new officer cadres, up to 90% of whom were 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 NPA that had to directly engage in hostilities with the Bundeswehr formations and, together with units of the Soviet Army, ensure the advance into the territory of West Germany. It is no coincidence that NATO considered the NPA as one of the key and very dangerous adversaries. Hatred for the National People's Army of the GDR subsequently affected the attitude towards its former generals and officers already in united Germany.

The most combat-ready army in Eastern Europe

The German Democratic Republic was divided into two military regions - 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 artillery brigade of central subordination. Each military district included 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 chemical protection battalion. 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 protection battalion, 1 medical battalion, 1 reconnaissance battalion, 1 missile department. The missile brigade included 2-3 missile departments, 1 engineering company, 1 logistics company, 1 meteorological battery, 1 repair company. The artillery brigade included 4 artillery departments, 1 repair company and 1 material support company. The NPA Air Force included 2 air divisions, each of which included 2-4 strike squadrons, 1 anti-aircraft missile brigade, 2 anti-aircraft missile regiments, 3-4 radio engineering battalions.

The history of the Navy of the GDR began in 1952, when units of the Naval People's Police were created as part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. In 1956, the ships and personnel of the Naval People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR entered the National People's Army, and until 1960 they 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 sailor, from 1937 he served in the Wehrmacht, but almost immediately, in 1941, he was captured by the Soviets, where he remained until 1947. In captivity, he joined the National Committee of Free Germany. After returning from captivity, he worked as secretary of the rector of the Karl Marx Higher Party School, then joined the naval police, where he was appointed chief of staff of the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR. October 1, 1952 he received the rank of rear admiral, from 1955 to 1956. served as commander of the Naval People's Police. After the establishment 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 positions in the naval command, was responsible for the combat training of personnel, then for equipment and weapons, and retired in 1975 from the post of deputy fleet commander for logistics. 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, replaced Felix Scheffler as commander of the GDR Navy. From 1952 to 1955 Ferner served as commander of the Naval People's Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR, which was transformed into the Main Directorate of the Naval Police. From January 1, 1957 to July 31, 1959, he commanded the Navy of the GDR, after which, from 1959 to 1978. served as head 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 rank 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, Eim returned to post-war Germany and quickly made a party career. In 1950, he began serving in the Main Directorate of the Naval Police of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the GDR - first as a communications officer, and then as deputy chief of staff and head of the organizational department. In 1958-1959. Wilhelm Eim was in charge of the logistics service of the GDR Navy. On August 1, 1959, he was appointed to the post of commander of the East German Navy, but from 1961 to 1963. studied at the Naval Academy in the USSR. Upon his return from the Soviet Union, Rear Admiral Heinz Norkirchen, acting commander, again gave way to Wilhelm Eim. Aim served as commander until 1987.

In 1960, a new name was adopted - the People's Navy. The Navy of the GDR 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 of large ships for operations 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 People's Navy of the GDR. The GDR had a fairly strong naval aviation, equipped with airplanes and helicopters. The people's navy was supposed to solve, first of all, the tasks of defending the country's coast, combating enemy submarines and mines, landing tactical assault forces, and supporting ground forces on the coast. The personnel of the Volksmarine consisted of approximately 16,000 military personnel. 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 Navy of the GDR was located in Rostock. The following structural units of the Navy were subordinate to him: 1) the flotilla in Peenemünde, 2) the flotilla in Rostock - Warnemünde, 3) the flotilla in Dransk, 4) the Naval School. Karl Liebknecht in Stralsund, 5) Naval School. Walter Steffens in Stralsund, 6) Waldemar Werner Coastal Missile Regiment in Gelbenzand, 7) Kurt Barthel Naval Combat Helicopter Squadron in Parowa, 8) Paul Wiszorek Naval Aviation Squadron in Laga, 9) Johann Vesolek Signal Regiment 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 completed by hiring 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 for military service was introduced in the GDR five years later than in the capitalist FRG (there the army switched from contract to conscription in 1957). The number of NPA was also inferior to the Bundeswehr - by 1990, 175,000 people were serving in the ranks of the NPA. The defense of the GDR was compensated by the presence on the territory of the country of a huge contingent of Soviet troops - the ZGV / GSVG (Western Group of Forces / Group of Soviet Forces in Germany). The training of the officers of the NPA was carried out at the Friedrich Engels Military Academy, the Wilhelm Pieck Higher Military-Political School, specialized military educational institutions of the armed forces. An interesting system of military ranks was introduced in the National People's Army of the GDR, partly duplicating the old Wehrmacht ranks, but partly containing obvious borrowings from the military rank system of the Soviet Union. The hierarchy of military ranks in the GDR looked like this (analogues 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 assigned in practice; 2) General of the Army (Admiral of the Fleet) - in the ground forces the rank was awarded to senior 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 (Frigate Captain); 8) Major (Corvette captain); 9) Captain (Lieutenant Captain); 10) Oberleutnant (Oberlieutenant zur See); 11) Lieutenant (Lieutenant zur See); 12) Unter-lieutenant (Unter-lieutenant zur See); III. Fenrichs (similar to Russian ensigns): 13) Ober-Staff-Fenrich (Ober-Stabs-Fenrich); 14) Headquarters Fenrich (Staff Fenrich); 15) Ober-fenrich (Ober-fenrich); 16) Fenrich (Fenrich); IV Sergeants: 17) Staff Sergeant Major (Staff Obermeister); 18) Ober-sergeant major (Ober-meister); 19) Feldwebel (Meister); 20) Unter sergeant major (Obermat); 21) Non-commissioned officer (Mat); V. Soldiers / sailors: 22) Headquarters corporal (Headquarters sailor); 23) Corporal (Ober-sailor); 24) Soldier (Sailor). Each branch of the military also had its own specific color in the edging of shoulder straps. For generals of all branches of the military, it was scarlet, motorized infantry units - white, artillery, missile troops and air defense units - brick, armored troops - pink, landing troops - orange, signal troops - yellow, military construction troops - olive, engineering troops, chemical troops, topographic and motor transport services - black, rear units, military justice and medicine - dark green; air force (aviation) - light blue, anti-aircraft missile forces of the air force - light gray, navy - blue, border service - green.

The sad fate of the NPA and its military personnel

With good reason, the German Democratic Republic can be called the most faithful ally of the USSR in Eastern Europe. The National People's Army of the GDR remained the most combat-ready after the Soviet army of the Warsaw Pact until the end of the 1980s. Unfortunately, the fate of both the GDR and its armies turned out badly. East Germany ceased to exist as a result of the policy of "unification of Germany" and the corresponding actions of the Soviet side. In fact, the GDR was simply given to the Federal Republic of Germany. The last Minister of National Defense of the GDR was Admiral Theodor Hofmann (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 entered the service as a sailor in the Naval People's Police of the GDR. In 1952-1955, he studied at the Officer School of the Naval People's Police in Stralsund, after which he was assigned to the post of combat training officer in the 7th Flotilla of the GDR Navy, then served as a 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 in the Volksmarine: Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff of the 6th Flotilla, Commander of the 6th Flotilla, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy for Operations, Deputy Commander of the Navy and Chief of Combat Training. From 1985 to 1987 Rear Admiral Hofmann served as Chief of Staff of the Navy of the GDR, and in 1987-1989. - Commander of the Navy of the GDR and Deputy Minister of Defense of the GDR. In 1987, Hoffmann was awarded the military rank of vice admiral, in 1989, with the appointment to the post of Minister of National Defense of the GDR - admiral. After the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR was abolished on April 18, 1990 and replaced by the Ministry of Defense and Disarmament, which was headed by the democratic politician Rainer Eppelmann, Admiral Hofmann until September 1990 served as Assistant Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the National People's Army of the GDR . After the dissolution of the NPA, he was dismissed from military service.

The Ministry of Defense and Disarmament was created after in the GDR, under pressure from the Soviet Union, where Mikhail Gorbachev had long been in power, reforms began that also affected the military sphere. On March 18, 1990, the Minister of Defense and Disarmament was appointed - it was 47-year-old Rainer Eppelman, 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 spiritual 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 into 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 German authorities feared that the generals and officers of the NPA were maintaining communist sentiments, so a decision was made to actually disband the National People's Army of the GDR. Only privates and non-commissioned officers of military service were sent to serve in the Bundeswehr. Regular military personnel were much less fortunate. All generals, admirals, officers, Fenrikhs and non-commissioned officers of the cadre were dismissed from military service. The total number of dismissed - 23155 officers and 22549 non-commissioned officers. Almost none of them managed to be reinstated in the service in the Bundeswehr, the vast majority were simply dismissed - and military service was not counted by them either in the length of service of the military, or even in the length of civil service. Only 2.7% of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA were able to continue serving in the Bundeswehr (mostly 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 - Germany 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 experience, were forced to look for low-paid and low-skilled work. 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. With regard to military equipment, the vast majority was either disposed of or sold to third countries. Thus, combat boats and ships of the 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 Germany, and Bundeswehr units are now taking part in armed conflicts around the world - ostensibly as peacekeeping forces, but in reality - protecting US interests.

Currently, many former servicemen of the National People's Army of the GDR are members of public veteran organizations engaged in protecting the rights of former officers and non-commissioned officers of the NPA, as well as the 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. What we need is not military dependence on the United States, but our own responsibility for the world,” the appeal says. Under the appeal, among the first are the signatures of the last ministers of national defense of the GDR - General of the Army Heinz Kessler and Admiral Theodor Hoffmann.

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