DDR - NVA Parade, 1963

[Fritz]

Practice for a parade of the NVA, 1963

 

[Kenny Andrew]

Not very much has changed in the sixties, from a distance these guys could easily be Wehrmacht, I bet a few of the officers and senior NCO's were. Paul do you know if NVA WW2 veterans were allowed to wear their versions of WW2 awards such as the West German Bundeswehr, who could wear 1957 awards? I can't recall ever coming across any East German versions of wartime awards?

[Fritz]

Absolutely not. There were absolutely no decorations allowed for W2 or any other war - the only decorations were for "Antifaschistische Widerstandskämpfer". It was former Wehrmacht personnel which had formed the original NVA in 1956, on the orders of Moskow, but only under very close scrutiny by the Russians. From the very beginning till the very end, the Russians had their say in every decision. The DDR was not the sovereign state it appeared to be. On the other hand, the BRD was also not a sovereign state - present day Germany is also not a sovereign state, and probably never will be again.

Everything was dependant on the decisions made in Moskow. The NVA and the Bundeswehr had no atomic weapons, these were exclusively in the hands of the Allies. Anything at all remembering the past, such as WW2 symobols, were absolutely tabu, there were no 1957 versions of anything. The Polit Büro in Berlin decided what was historically relevant and what not, and Moskow was closely consulted. Apart from that, all aspects of everyday life were under official observation and control at all times. It was comparable with the George Orwell novel "1984". Even Honnecker had a Stasi-Record from A-Z, drawn up by Erich Mielcke, who was one of the most dangerous men of his time.

As for WW2 it was taught officially as the "Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union against Fascism", and the 9th May was "Tag der Befreiung vom Faschismus und Militarismus". The only official war memorial in the DDR was set up in the former NEUE WACHE in Unter den Linden - and was known as the "Mahnmal für die Opfer des Faschismus und Militarismus", with frequent parades there, especially on the 9th May every year. There were also cult ceremonies at the former KZ Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, which were glorified. Remembered were mainly the "Der Antifaschistische Widerstand" (antifaschist resistance), rather than Jews and other groups.

If it were ever discovered that any "Genosse" ever had a "Nazi-Past", then that was the End of him. This had happened in several examples, a trial would take place in public, and the sentence was always a death sentence. It was not till 1985 or 1987 that the death penalty was offiially abolished in the DDR, although at the borders, "Grenzverletzer" could still be shot on sight, right up till 1989.

 

Pictures attached will give an impression of the Neue Wache in Berlin under the different systems since it was built in 1816. Each change of government has been a strong change of Ideology, as well as the flag, which was very much stessed under the last system, which was anti-Imperial and anti-nazi and more "Internationale" than German, which was in keeping with the communist ideology.

The fifth picture is the interior as it is today, taken around 2007, with the statue by Käthe Kollwitz as the central point. I think the communist aera has left the most traces and had the greatest influence on the present. The leading politicians of today were brought up in that system.

[leon21]

I prefer the photo's of the interior of the mid 1930's to honour the fallen of the Great War.

[Fritz]

Yes, indeed. But that's how a change of system and ideology changes everything.