TRANSMITTAL OF REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-02771R000100300027-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 1998
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: April 8, 1959
• Content Type: MF

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1959
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MILITARISM IN EAST GERMANY
April 1959
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 MILITARISM IN EAST GERMANY
East Germany today has surpa..3sed the militarism of the
Hitler regime. The DDR military machine, officially created in
January 1956, has in reality existed since 1948, operating under
the fiction that it was a police rorce.
Despite this pretense during its first eight years, the
resemblance of the DDR Army to Hitler's Wehrmacht is reflected
in such striking similarities as organization and command struc-
ture, para-military formations, marching discipline, parades and
personnel. From,the beginning, the East German regime has relied
heavily for personnel on former Wehrmacht officers and has pub-
licly solicited the support of ex-Nazis.
The most significant similarity is the indoctrination and
military training of youth from the age of six. The military
idols of the past have.been resurrected and held up to the young
people for glorification as symbols of a new German nationalism.
Moreover, the East German regime has undertaken a systematic ap-
peal to German patriotism aimed at fostering a resurgent and ag-
gressive nationalism.
In view of these facts, Communist propaganda alleging a re-
vival of militarism in West Germany is sheer hypocrisy, designed
as a smokescreen to divert attention from the militaristic
machine which the Communists themselves have created and nurtured
to control the East German state.
Growth of Militarism
The. Swastika has given way to Red Star, Mein Kam f to Das
Kapital and Wehrmacht to Nationale Volksarmee, but militar-
ism which characterized Hitler's Third Reich prevails today in
greater strength in Ulbricht's East Germany. Uniforms and the
other trappings of a militaristic society are becoming increas-
ingly familiar sights in every city and town in the German Demo-
cratic. Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik - DDR).
This is due not only to the existence of the National Peo-
ple's Army (Nationale Volksarmee - NVA), for regular army per-
sonnel constitute no more than one-half of the DDR's total mili-
tary forces. Other contingents, although military in character,
masquerade under the label of police, such as Border, Transport
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and Alert Police. To these must be added the ubiquitous Secur-
ity Police (Staatssicherheitdienst), thousands of whom are or-
ganized into para-military formations.
The DDR's resemblance to Hitler's militaristic Reich is
heightened by the existence of other para-military formations.
Just as the Nazi Party had its Storm Troopers, the East German
Communist Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei - SED) has its
uniformed armed troops, the Kampfgruppen (Fighting Groups -
sometimes called armed workers' militia), which are organized
along military lines and are to be found in every factory, co-
operative, enterprise and institution in the DDR.
One of the most frightening aspects of East German mili-
tarism is the systematic indoctrination of youth from the age of
6. Children aged 6 through 10 are inducted into the Young Pio-
neers (Junge Pioniere), in which they learn the rudiments of
marching and saluting, and are inculcated with militaristic ideas.
At 10 they graduate into the Thaelmann Pioneers (Thaelmann-
Pioniere), in which their indoctrination and training con inues
for the next four years.,
The parent organization of both these pioneer groups is the
Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend -.FDJ), which enrolls
all youths over 14 years of age. An official arm of the SED, the
FDJ, with three million members, who wear blue uniforms, continues
on a more intensive and advanced basis the military training its
members have earlier received in the pioneer groups. The FDJ
consequently serves as one of the primary sources for recruits
for the various DDR military services.
Even more militaristic than the FDJ is the Society for Sport
and Technology (Gesellschaft fuer Sport and Technik - GST). Or-
ganized on 7 August 1952 within the framework of the Ministry of
Interior but transferred to the control of the Ministry of De-
fense in March 1956, the GST has the avowed mission of carrying
out pre-military training of both boys and girls aged 14 to 24--
training which is on a scale far exceeding that of the old Hitler
Youth, which served as a model for both the FDJ and GST.
Recruited from the ranks of the FDJ, the GST members, who
wear the blue uniform of the FDJ, are organized along military
lines into "hundreds," platoons and squads. Training is carried
out by GST functionaries who are reserve members of the various
military services and includes firing practice, gliding and para-
chuting, radio instruction, and map reading. All GDR schools, in
fact, have been ordered to devote at least one hour a day to mili-
tary education, including compulsory firing practice for all boys
and girls over 12 and jumping from parachute towers for older
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children. In the spring of 1958, it is estimated that the GST
had about 625;000 members, of whom at least 160,000 were active.
The GST, even more than the FDJ, is designed to provide a
steady and already partly trained source of recruits for DDR
military components. Those members who reach the age of 24
(GST''s upper. age limit) without having been inducted.into one
of the regular military services are expected to pass into the,
ranks of the Kampfgruppen, whose lower age limit is 25.
Due to this hierarchical system of pre-military training
organizations and to the fact that the Communist dictatorship
can decree the career which every East German should follow, the
regime has no need for a system of conscription. However, since
volunteers are deemed more reliable and tractable than unwilling
recruits, the DDR regime has undertaken a systematic appeal to
German patriotism aimed at fostering aggressive nationalism.
As part of this appeal, they have been glorifying the old
German military heroes, just as the Soviets, for similar reasons,
have glorified Czarist military heroes such as Nevsky, Kutuzov,
Suvarov, etc. For example, Egbert von Frankenburg, once comman-
der of Hitler's "Edelweiss" Bomber Formation and today a DDR
radio commentator, declared in a broadcast of 21 January 1956
that the NVA must act in the "tradition established by the heroes
of the armed popular uprisings, knowing that Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau, Blucher and,Schill fought for the liberation of the
Fatherland, as did the armed formations of the German Lander
".
5rovinceg in 1848
The changes which were introduced at the time of the crea-
tion of the NVA were further steps in the regime's campaign to
increase the prestige of the military services. The former
"police" personnel, in their Russian-type olive-green tunics, were
hated by the populace, who regarded them as ersatz Russians. Now
that the army has reacquired a typical German appearance and ser-
vice has been made attractive by high rates of pay and traditional
military privileges, soldiers again command respect and officers
and noncommissioned officers are becoming a new elite. The regime
has even designated 1 March as a national holiday, Day of the
National People's Army, when the military services are glorified
by parades and speeches.
The NVA today is strikingly reminiscent of the Wehrmacht
under Hitler. It is not only similar in appearance--it wears the
familiar field-gray uniform and Jack-boots, the traditional regi-
mental parade emblems, proficiency badges and other insignia--but
it also has the same unmistakable marching discipline. The "goose-
step" has been introduced, and the old German Army marches and even
songs of Hitler's SS troops are again heard.
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The NVA's resemblance to the Wehrmacht, however, is due to
more than just the regime's efforts to recreate a militaristic
society. The original military units organized at Soviet orders
in 1948 were composed primarily of ex-Nazis and former members
of the Wehrmacht. According to Robert Bialek, the first Inspec-
tor General of the DDR army (then called People's Police), who
fled to the West in 1953, the 20,000 men who comprised the first
two divisions to be organized were drafted from Russian prisoner-
of-war camps and were, to a large extent, former members of SA
(Storm Trooper) anO. SS (Elite Guard) battalions.
The first '.olice commandant (and now Commanding General of
the NVA's A7r,,-, Corps North) was Lt. Gen.'Hermann Rentsch of the
Wehrmacht, ,.no had as his Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Vincenz Mueller,
deputy -,omander of the German IV Army when it capitulated in
19411, Mueller continued to serve as -Chief of Staff of the DDR
under all of its various names, until he was relieved in
.,,arch 1958. Initially, all of his immediate subordinates were
also former Wehrmacht generals, for example, Martin' Lattmann,
.Otto Ko1?fes, Arno von Lenski, Wulz and Freytag.
By 1956, 17 former Wehrmacht officers held general rank in
the DDR Army. Of these, five had held the same rank in Hitler's
Wehrmacht. Of the 65 colonels in the DDR military establishment,
45 had been in the Wehrmacht as had more than one-third of the
1,500 staff officers holding lesser ranks.
The Communists have been quite frank about their use of for-
mer Nazis. For example, on 26 March 1952, the Berlin Taglische
Rundschau, then the official organ of the Soviet Control Commis-
sion, quoted Gen. Mueller to the effect that "Today former members
of the Nazi Party and former professional soldiers and'officers
occupy ;esponsible positions in all branches of ZE-ast Germa7 eco-
nomic, political, and cultural life." Three months later in June
the East German regime issued an open letter which invited all
former Nazi officers to join the "new" military organization (the
Garrisoned People's Police). The DDR Parliament followed this
up in October.by enacting a special law restoring full citizenship
rights to all former Nazis.
. The Communists have justified this courtship of Nazis on the
grounds that they had "broken with their past." Neues Deutsch-
land, official SED organ,, made this point on 25 March 1-95-7-with
the claim that these men had proved their patriotism by honest
work. "German workers," the paper said, "Judge the former officer,
insofar as he was not a war criminal, not by his past but by what
he is doing today for the peace and unity of Germany."
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The above facts make it clear that Communist propaganda
alleging a revival of militarism in West Germany is actually a
smokescreen designed to divert attention from the militaristic
atmosphere which pervades all levels of DDR societ . On 18
January 1956, when the DDR Parliament (Volkskammer) enacted a
law officially creating a Ministry of Defense and the NVA to
counter the threat of the alleged West German militarism, the
Bonn Government had no more.than 1,500 men under arms. In con-
trast, the DDR armed forces, then already numbering more than
.110,000, had been in existence since 1948, although they had been
euphemistically termed "police." Significantly, the law creating
the NVA was presented to the DDR Parliament by Willi Stoph, SED
Politburo member and now Minister of.Defense, while wearing the
three-star uniform of a colonel general. He could not then have
been a general if a DDR Army had not already been in existence.
Growth of DDR Military' Forces
The groundwork for the creation of a DDR military establish-
ment was laid in 1947 when the Soviets created in Berlin a Special
Administration for Internal Affairs, with the mission of control-
ling all Soviet Zone police. The Four Occupying Powers had agreed
in 1945 that only provincial police organizations would be per-
mitted;_but.since this interfered with Soviet plans to rearm East
Germany under the cover of police activities, the Soviets had no
scruples in violating the agreement.
The formation of a zonal police--People's Police (Volks-
polizei - VP)--was officially announced in December 194 . Al-
though used for propaganda reasons, the term "police" was not
entirely inappropriate, for East Germany was--and still is--a
"police state" in the fullest sense. It may also be recalled
that the famous Herman Goering Regiment was composed primarily
of police and that one SS division rejoiced in the name Polizei-
division.
The initial VP personnel, including 500 officers, were re-
cruited from POW camps in Russia. Almost immediately military-
type Alert Units (Bereitschaften) were formed within the framework.
of the VP. By early 1949, these military units numbered 40,000.
In 1949 the VP was placed under a so-called Administration
for Schooling (Verwaltung fuer Schulung). In October, with the
creation of the DR regime, a disguised general staff was created
within the DDR Ministry of Interior under. the innocuous sounding
title of Main Administration for Training (Hauptverwaltung fuer
Ausbildung - HVA).
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The Alert Units, then having a total-strength of 51,000 men
.and already equipped with such heavy military weapons as tanks
and cannon, were organized as skeleton Soviet-type mechanized
regiments, each with three combat infantry units, an artillery
unit, and the usual supporting components and administrative head-
quarters. There were 24 of these Alert Units, each with 371 of-
ficers and 1,432 NCO's and enlisted men, as well as specialist
units such as signals and engineers. There was also a system of
military training schools, including ones for "political indoc-
trination and culture," infantry, artillery, engineers, signals,
armor, and senior officers.
The People's Police made their first public-appearance as
a military service in a parade held on 28 May 1950 in connection
with a meeting of the Freie Deutsche Jugend. At that point, the
traditional German Army handbooks were already being used for
training purposes. The men were garbed in Nazi uniforms, only
slightly altered and dyed black, with SS-type black boots and a
red necktie.
Although the regime was keeping up the pretense of the VP's
being only a police force, Neues Deutschland, on 24 July 1950,
quoted VP Inspector Thiele as boasting to an SED Party Congress
that the police "are true friends of the Soviet Union and ready
in the event of aggression to fight against aggressors and in
support of the Soviet Union in bringing about peace." Clearly,
only a military force could expect to be of any help in real
fighting.
In August; 1952, the police forces were once again reorganized.
The VP now became the Garrisoned People's Police (Kasernierte
Volkspolizei - KVP). The Alert Units, too, were given an even
more unmistakable military character by being transformed into di-
visional cadres of 2,500-3,500 men each, capable of easy expansion
into Soviet-type mechanized divisions of 8,000. Lt. Gen. Heinz
Hoffmann, Commander of the KVP-Ground (a naval force had been
created in mid-1950 and an embryonic airforce in March 1951),
openly boasted that "we are not policemen, we are soldiers." In
October police rank designations were discarded in favor of tra-
ditional military terminology, and a new Soviet-type olive-green
uniform was introduced.
Following the June 1953 uprising,. during which considerable
numbers of police evinced sympathy for the people, the KVP was
reorganized. Hoffmann now became Commander of all military forces
--KVP-Ground, KVP-Sea and KVP-Air--as well as Deputy Minister of
Interior, with a view to assuring tighter discipline and greater
political reliability. At that time, ground forces numbered
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100,000, the 1iaval forces 8,700 and the air forces about 6,500.
The fact that the ground forces were equipped with Stalin and
T-34 tanks and artillery as large as 152 mm. gun-howitzers re-
veals how truly military the KVP really was, despite its alleged
police character.
The army continued under the name KVP until 18 January 1956,
when the DDR Parliament enacted. the law officially establishing
the present NVA and a Ministry of Defense. The actual result
was merely a change of nomenclature and, shortly thereafter, a
return to the traditional German Army uniform.
It should be noted that the NI;'A actually constitutes only
about one-half of the DDR's total military forces. Other compo-
nents have been developed along with the VP-KVP-NVA, so that there
are now approximately 38,000 Frontier Police, 8,500 Transport
Police, and 25,' 000 to 28,000 Alert Police, all of whom are sol-
diers. Today the DDR has a total military establishment more
than twice as large as that of West Germany; while in proportion
to population (DDR with 17 million and West Germany with 53
million), the DDR force is six times as large. These figures,
moreover, do not take into account the thousands of East German
pares-military security police and the even larger numbers of
armed workers' militia (Kampfgruip~n) .
Military Components of the DDR
A. National People's Army (N.itionale Volksarmee)
The direct successor of the People's Police Alert Units
(Volkspolizei Bereitschaften) and the Garrisoned People's Police
(Kasernierte Volkspolizei , the NVA was formerly established on
18 January 195 to increase the defense capabilities and to as-
sure the safety of the DDR." The 1958 DDR budget provided 980
million East marks for the "establishment" of the NVA, but at
least 30 billion East marks had been expended between 19+8 and
1955 on the VP and KVP.
The Ministry of National Defense, located in the former KVP
headquarters in Strausberg, east of Berlin, is the supreme command
for the entire NVA, including the Air Force and Navy. Responsi-
bility for the political reliability and training of the NVA is
shared with the SED Central Committee. The Ministry, however, con-
troll'the armaments industry and, since 1 March 1956, the GST,
which carries out pre-military training of youth. Since the Minis-
try was established, the Defense Minister has been Will Stoph, a
member'of the SED Politburo, who holds the rank of Colonel General.
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The strength of the NVA is approximately 110,000, of whom
11,000 are in the Air Force and 10,000 in the Navy. There are
also 80,000 reserves, of whom approximately 20,000 serve in the
Ministry and as cadres at military training schools. Operational
command lies with Lt. Gen. Heinz Hoffmann, who acts throu h a
Chief' of Staff (Lt. Gen. Vincenz Mueller until March 1958 and
the commanders of the individual (land, air, sea) services. Army
headquarters, like the Defense Ministry, is located in Strausberg
and directly controls troops of divisional strength.
For operational purposes the Army is divided into Army Corps
North (officially Military District V) and Army Corps South (Mili-
tary District III). Military Districts I, II and IV centered res-
pectively in Rostock, Magdeburg and Frankfurt/Oder have not yet
been activated and have no troops attached to them.
Army Corps North, with headquarters at Neubrandenburg (for-.
merly at Pasewalk) is composed of the 6th motorized Rifle Division
at Prenzlau, the 8th motorized Rifle Division at Schwerin, and the
9th Tank (i.e., Panzer) Division at Eggesin. Army Corps South,
with headquarters at Leipzig, includes the 4th motorized Rifle
Division at Erfurt, the 11th motorized Rifle Division at Halle, and
the 7th Tank Division at Dresden. Directly under Army headquarters
are the 1st motorized Rifle Div ision'at Potsdam, the Guard Regiment,
and five other regiments.
Armaments include modern cannon and howitzers up to 152 mm.,
anti-aircraft guns up to 100 mm., mortars up to 120 mm.; alto-
gether the NVA has about 1,500 cannon, 900 mortars, and 450 as-
sault guns. Mechanized equipment includes at least 1,000 medium
and heavy tanks and about 600 armored cars.
The NVA has taken over the military school system established
under the VP and KVP. Today, these include officer schools for
the different services,'a Military Academy at Dresden, a Cadet
School at Naumburg, a Military Medical School at Griefswald, and
a Political Officers School at Berlin-Treptow.
The Air Force Command has its headquarters in Cottbus. Com-
mandedby Maj. Gen. Heinz Kessler, it comprises the 1st Air Divi-
sion at Cottbus, the 2nd Division at Drewitz (near Cottbus), the
3rd Air Division at Bautzen, and the 4th Air Division. at Preschen.
The Air Force has about 350 YAK-18 and YAK-11 training planes and
about 350 MIG jets. It has its own training schools and Installa-
tions. An Anti-Aircraft Division, organized in.1957, is under a
separate Air Defense Command.
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Naval headquarters is in Rostock and is commanded by Vice
Admiral Waldemar Verner. It comprises one Coast Guard Division,
two Mine-laying and Mine-sweeping Divisions, a Salvage and Rescue
Command, a Pioneer Unit, and various other components. Training
facilities include a Naval Officers' School, an NCO School, an
Engineer Officers' School, and an Intelligence Officers' School.
The Navy has more than 120 naval craft, including three destroyers,
40 speedboats and a number of minesweepers and small submarines.
During 1959 the Soviet Union is scheduled to deliver three more
destroyers and a number of submarines.
B. Frontier Police ('Grenzpolizei)
A garrisoned military-type organization charged with guard-
ing the frontier areas of the DDR, the Frontier Police were first
organized within the framework of the Ministry of Interior. In
May 1952 it was shifted to the Jurisdiction of the State Secre-
tariat for State Security (Staat;ssekretariat fuer Staatssicherhelt
- SfS), only to be returned to t;he Interior Ministry on 27 June
1953. In April 1955 it once again was returned to the SfS (which
became the Ministry for State Srcur.i.ty--MfS--in November 1955).
Since 15 February 1957 it has again been under Interior Ministry
jurisdiction.
The Grenzpolizei (GP) is the iole agency for the guarding
and control of the state frontiers and of the Outer Berlin Ring.
Until November 1957, when the task was transferred to the Office
for Customs and Merchandise Control (Amt fuer Zoll and Kontrolle
des Warenverkehrs), the GP was also charged with control of people
and merchandise moving across DDR borders.
Commanded by Maj. Gen. Ludwig, the GP has its headquarters
at Paetz, near Koenigswusterhausen. Its 38,000 men--there are
also an additional 8,000 "auxiliary" frontier guards--wear olive-
brown Soviet-style uniforms and have military, rather than police,
rank designations.
The GP troops are organized into 29 motorized regiments
(Bereitschaften), which are equipped with medium arms. These
regiments; in turn, are organized Into seven brigades, with three
to five regiments in each brigade. .Since the beginning of 1958,
the GP has also had a number of Independent battalions each com-
posed of three companies of heavy artillery and one company of
tanks.
The GP operates some coast guard and speed boats on the Baltic.
Other special units include a training regiment at Ludwigsfelde
and some so-called Enlightenment Groups (Aufklarungsgruppen), which
are used for political surveillance and secret assignments..
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The GP has its own training installations, which include
an officers' training school at Sonderhausen and a political
officers' school at Gross Glienicke.
C. Transport Police (Transportpolizei)
Charged with the security of railway stations., yards and
cars, the Transport Police (Trapos) were first organized in Janu-
ary 1953 as a branch of the Security Police. Since February 1957,
however, the Trapos, like the Frontier Police, have been control-
led by the Ministry of Interior.
Despite the nature of their duties, the Trapos are organized
along military lines and are, in fact, essentially infantry troops.
The 30 April 1957 issue of the. official Fahrt Frei openly empha-
sized their military training.
Commanded by Chief Inspector'Otto Auerswald, the 8,500 Trapos
wear a dark blue uniform and are organized territorially into
eight sections corresponding to the eight DDR railway directorates.
D. Alert Police (Bereitschaftspolizei)
Constituting the garrisoned troops of the present regular
police organization (Main Administration of the German People's
Police -- Hauptverwaltung Deutsche Volkspolizei), these Alert
Police are not to be confused with the original Alert Units
(Bereitschaften) of the People's Police. The present Alert Police
has been developed since the end of 1951E from the Watch Units
(Wachverb9nden) of the SfS. Called Internal Troops (Innere Truppen)
from 19`54 until 1 October 1956, the Alert Police was rannsferred,
along with the Frontier and Transport Police, from the MfS to the
Ministry of Interior on 15 February 1957.
The Alert Police are designed for use in suppressing upris-
ings, and its members are therefore carefully selected for their
loyalty to the SED. They receive military training according to
Soviet methods, and wear the same gray-green uniform of the regu-
lar police. The commanding officer is Maj. Gen. Winkelmann, with
headquarters at Koenigswusterhausen.
The 25,000 to 28,000 men in the Alert Police are organized
into some 18 motorized units, which are stationed in the main
cities and towns, as well as several modern motorized infantry
regiments, each with one tank company per-battalion and one field
artillery battery.
The Alert Police has a training regiment at Potsdam, an
officers' school at Halberstadt, and various other training centers.
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E. Combat Groups (Kampfgruppen)
The Kampfgruppen are para-military units, roughly equiva-
lent to the Storm Trooper goon squads of Nazi Germany. Controlled
directly by the.SED, with weapons provided by the People's Police,
they are to be found throughcat the DDR in factories, coopera-
tives, schools, institutions of all kinds and, especially, Peo-
ple's Owned Enterprises (VoLkseigene Betriebe - VEB) installations.
Since the Kampfgruppen are designed primarily to assist the
SED maintain its control over the country, the SED exercises a
close-political leadership and surveillance through the Security
Department (Abteilun Sicherheit) or its Central Committee. How-
ever, since the Kampfgruppen must cooperate with the regular po-
lice in carrying out their mission, . operational command has,
since the beginning of 1958, been vested in a Kampfgruppen Section
(Abteilung Kampfgruppen) of the Police Administration.
Composed of men between the ages of 25 and 55, with men over
55 forming a reserve, the Kampfgruppen are organized along mili-
tary lines into "hundreds, platcons and squads.' Leadership and
training are provided by group ccnmanders trained in special
schools.. Members, wear a grey-b1tL3 uniform and are equipped with
light weapons (e.g., sub-machine(?uns). The Kampfgruppen have an
estimated strength of 300,000 of whom perhaps one-half are active.
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