Requiem for an Army: The Demise of the East German Military

[Kozlov]

Just found this book on googlebooks (thats books scanned in and available online!) while trundling around the interweb.... thought you all might be interested:

http://books.google.com/books?id=SDYhbajYs3cC

"Most Western models suggest that in the face of open threats to the military's core interests, the army would have fought to keep the status quo. Yet the military actually facilitated the introduction of a new democratic polity and in the process dug its own grave. Trained under a Russian-inspired system that minimized the role of the individual, this group was suddenly exposed to the radically different Innere Fuehrung concept that lies at the heart of the Bundeswehr's ethos."

I shall have a read of this in between work!

[ehrentitle]

Thanks. It's considered a book review so not all page scans are shown. This particular book is not always easy to find and can be quite expensive when one is offered for sale. Kevin

[DaveM]

dig deeper

I found Requiem interesting.... as a current events / tv news type coverage of the turbulent period at the end of the 1980's but I found I wanted more... Herspring paints the NVA as compliant in its own destruction... but he really doesn't dig deep enough to explain why...?

[Edward L. Hsiao]

SED Party Membership Required?

Gentlemen,

I recall reading that almost all the officers and NCO's in the NVA were required to have SED party membership. I can't figured out why! I also read that the NVA officer was trained to go along with the general goals as outlined by the party. He was a party soldier in the sense that he accepted the party's general guidelines,not because he was a fanatic communist. I had to admit I'm confused! I don't like anything that is Communist I had to admit.


Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

[Kozlov]

Edward, an awful lot of lies and half truths were written in the West during the period of the Cold War - for obvious reasons.

On this forum we now seek to examine the past and determine the truth... its quite surprising what you find and you don't need to be a Communist sympathiser to see that the black picture painted isn't nearly the truth.

[Kartofelpreußer]

Gentlemen,

I recall reading that almost all the officers and NCO's in the NVA were required to have SED party membership. I can't figured out why! I also read that the NVA officer was trained to go along with the general goals as outlined by the party. He was a party soldier in the sense that he accepted the party's general guidelines,not because he was a fanatic communist. I had to admit I'm confused! I don't like anything that is Communist I had to admit.

They do somewhat delve into this in the book, of course it's because of the ideological needs of the party to appear prominently in leadership positions, whatever the true beliefs of the members themselves. I believe there's a part that discusses how officers were often expected to, for instance, use their day off-- and they didn't get that many-- to do volunteer work for the party. Not to do so would result in damage to the individuals career prospects.

Like in most totalitarian systems, party affiliation is a way to get ahead, and refusing to toe the line means trouble.

"Die Partei, die Partei, die hat immer recht!"

[Kartofelpreußer]

I found Requiem interesting.... as a current events / tv news type coverage of the turbulent period at the end of the 1980's but I found I wanted more... Herspring paints the NVA as compliant in its own destruction... but he really doesn't dig deep enough to explain why...?

The impression I got is that they really didn't have much of an alternative choice.

[KevinH]

I read this book and used a lot from it in my major project paper my final year of college last year. I would HIGHLY recommend it as it is the best book I have found on this period. It's true Herspring does lay out the series of events leading to and following the demise of the NVA quite well but doesn't get into the deep personal testimonials and social data that would be necessary to begin to explain why things happened. I couldn't find a single book that did such a thing actually. There are next to no biographies and books dealing with the transition on a truly personal level save a couple, and they aren't really relevant. Nothing that I could find examined the difference in feelings between career soldiers and conscripts as the army fell apart (they seem to have been polar opposites) nor have there been any books since the fall of the wall that look at trends of unemployment with regard to those career soldiers who were left out. This is really a shame. I guess it really hasn't been long since this all happened but anyway western scholars don't really seem to care. This to me is an even greater shame.

[KevinH]

The impression I got is that they really didn't have much of an alternative choice.

I would agree. No one wanted a violent armed uprising. Once events began sliding, they couldn't be stopped.

I recall reading that almost all the officers and NCO's in the NVA were required to have SED party membership. I can't figured out why! I also read that the NVA officer was trained to go along with the general goals as outlined by the party. He was a party soldier in the sense that he accepted the party's general guidelines,not because he was a fanatic communist. I had to admit I'm confused! I don't like anything that is Communist I had to admit.

It's not that surprising if you step back and take a look at everyone's overall goals. Leadership wanted to be sure that the military would act to keep them in power and they saw obligatory party membership as a way of ensuring military command was compliant. Officers and career NCO's simply wanted to advance in their careers. They didn't have to be fanatics to join. While the system certainly had it's evils, it wasn't all bad. It made it possible for many to make a pretty decent living.

[ehrentitle]

... nor have there been any books since the fall of the wall that look at trends of unemployment with regard to those career soldiers who were left out.

There is a book on this topic published just this year. It's called Fallen Elites; The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany by Andrew Bickford an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia who is also a Berlin veteran.

It's a book that examines the feelings of former NVA officers. I've had the less expensive paperback book for several months and have read about 1/3 of it since it's an academic book and not that pleasurable to read. There is some good stuff burred in it, but to get to it one has to slog through a good bit of uninspiring academic jargon.

[SanderMan]

There is a book on this topic published just this year. It's called Fallen Elites; The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany by Andrew Bickford an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia who is also a Berlin veteran.

It's a book that examines the feelings of former NVA officers. I've had the less expensive paperback book for several months and have read about 1/3 of it since it's an academic book and not that pleasurable to read. There is some good stuff burred in it, but to get to it one has to slog through a good bit of uninspiring academic jargon.

Perhaps we could have our resident scholar Iannima translate some of the academic babble for us

[Johnny R]

I was in the American Army and involved with NATO Allied command in the 80's. The general assumption was the the East German Army would only fight if the Warsaw Pact forces were winning and then only fight well against non-German units. In the 90s I dated a former DDR officer and she also indicated that one of major points of concern for the NVA was what would happen if they had to fight directly against the BW and in West Germany. The Soviets were equally concerned based on what we understood then.

[Kozlov]

The impression I got is that they really didn't have much of an alternative choice.

Well, the events of 1953 seemed to hang heavy over everyone and without the benefit of historical hindsight, who would have guessed that Gorbie's promise would have come true and that the Soviets were truly going to let things go down whatever path...

I think pretty much everyone on both sides of the wall were shocked to see the whole thing peacefully collapse and not either turn into a Soviet armed clamp down or a civil war within each nation.

[KevinH]

Fallen Elites; The Military Other in Post-Unification Germany by Andrew Bickford.

I'll have to pick that up!

I've always wanted to write a book about this for those of us out there who are not immune to academic jargon.

[Kartofelpreußer]

I'll have to pick that up!

I've always wanted to write a book about this for those of us out there who are not immune to academic jargon.

Awesome... get Bickford's book, cherry pick his source material, conduct your own interviews, and drum something up. I'll be first in line for a copy.