Mission in the East: The Building of an Army in a Democracy in the New German States
Abstract
At midnight on 2 October 1990 the German Democratic Republic (GDR) ceased to exist. The following day the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bundeswehr, took control of the personnel, equipment, and installations of what had been the National People's Army (Nationale Volksarmee or NVA). By any reckoning this was a massive undertaking and one of great historical significance. It was massive because of the sheer amount of equipment, ammunition, and acreage for which the Bundeswehr found itself responsible in the new federal states, and it was historic because soldiers who had faced each other across a deep ideological divide for over thirty years would now be serving together. The six active divisions of the NV A, along with State Security and border forces, had been stationed in some 3,300 installations, and the GDR's military materiel legacy included 2,300 main battle tanks, 7,800 armored vehicles, 2,500 artillery pieces, 100,000 wheeled vehicles, and 300,000 tons of ammunition. 1 Securing, inventorying, and disposing of this materiel was to be a major mission for the Bundeswehr throughout its first years in the new states. Complicating this mission was the almost immediate need to support the liberation of Kuwait through materiel shipments and support of departing U.S.; units, the additional responsibility to assist the Western Group of Soviet Forces in an orderly withdrawal from German territory; and the longer-term requirement to reduce the Bundeswehr's size by almost 30 percent.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA529811
Entities
People
- Mark E. Victorson
Organizations
- Naval War College