(UNTITLED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-01617A006100040018-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 4, 2005
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: December 8, 1949
• Content Type: SUMMARY

Approved For Release 2005/04/12 r.GiA-RDP78-01617A006100040018-8' DEC J49
2 4(65 TOP S%J rL
ECRET 11.61
25X1
EUROPE
25X1 C
1. GERMANY: East German Army reportedly being formed
e
e
German Soviet-licensed press, contending that German
rearmament in the western zones is an accomplished
fact, is setting the stage for decisive developments in
establi"shing a "People's Army"-.Ior Eastern Germany:
25X1 C fficial announcement of the
'
"
TOP
RE
9LI/4
reports that: (a) whereas the paramilitary Bereitschaften
(Alert Police) prior to August 1949 maintained a semblance
of police character, all pretense has now been dropped;
(b) a recent reorganization has, in effect, placed control
of the Bereitschaften and its training schools beyond the
jurisdiction of German governmental authorities; and (c)
the Bereitschaften has been deprived of its police char-
acter and is now in the chain of command of the Soviet
occupation army in East Germany.
(CIA Comment: Although there is no conclusive
evidence available that the USSR and German Communist
officials are creating or arming a military force of Eastern
Germans, CIA believes that a force is being trained which
will develop military capabilities exceeding those envisaged
for German police in occupation agreements, CIA further
believes that: (a) the immediate purpose of the Bereitschaften
is to serve as a paramilitary apparatus to discourage or
suppress violent opposition to continued Communist control;
and (b) it is entirely possible that the organization may be
cannot be put off
s Army
indefinitely in view of the accumulating evidence of the
existence of such a force and, in support of this belief,
used eventually as a cadre for an East German Army.)
Approved For Release 2005/04/12 : CIA-RDP '8-01617A006100040018-8