Great video, but I'm afraid the aircraft pictured @14:52 is a Mig-21 and not a Mig-29.

I was a German linguist and eavesdropper for the USAF in West Germany in the early 1980s. I remember the NVA had six divisions (two tank and four motorized rifle) and six air wings (two with MiG-23s and four with MiG-21s) at that time. I used to be able to list them all, of course. Here's a quick fact: The East German pilots and air traffic controllers communicated in Russian at that time. My fellow linguists and I weren't told this until we had completed the 8 months of intensive language training to learn German. But the pilots couldn't speak Russian any better than we could, so all we had to learn were Russian numbers and a few dozen nouns and verbs. If something got complicated, they switched to German.

Highly underrated channel, instant click on every new episode

A friend of mine was training to be a helicopter pilot in the East German military when reunification occurred. As Bundeswehr aircraft were significantly more advanced than any he had trained on, he was immediately made redundant when the forces merged. Overnight, his dream job evaporated. Fortunately, he eventually landed on his feet. But it was a rough transition.

The primary reason why the NVA returned to the "German-style" uniforms, marching drill, and tradition, was because the SPD wanted to create the belief that the NVA, and thus the DDR, was the true inheritors of the German identity. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr, adopted US-style uniforms and severely "de-Prussianized" their drill and tradition.

A little known fact is that NVA did saw some significant combat when they helped the Nicaragua Sandinista revolution. I had a neighbor that was part of the Nicaraguan Revolutionary Army and had nothing but great memories of fighting in the deep Nicaraguanjungle alongside NVA soldiers

Ah finally, your channel is about DDR and it's an obligatory to discuss about its military, positive and negative aspects of it, much like the previous topics. I love your channel because it is detailed & included German language sources.

I remember from Swedish television, a competitive guy who was very eager to outdo his older brother who had served with an elite unit. He had been selected to join this unit as well and he was very happy when he received the paper that said so. Then the wall came down and things become not so clear. Unfortunate for him, this unit dissolved and he had to show up at bundeswehr. They had no idea what to do with these people. So he couldn’t join any kind of elite unit and was very disappointed when he was interviewed. I felt sorry for him

The mention of the MiG-29 fighter aircraft was illustrated with a photo of the much earlier MiG-21, an unrelated aircraft

I ve been kiving in berlin about 2 years now, I have the hobbby of going to every town and city around berlin, in some of those you can still see a lot of the DDR hints (sometimes flags from peoples balconies). Your channel is a great reference to boost the experience the life at the other side of the wall. My congrats!

These videos are the best! Thank you for the diligent research and excellent presentation.

my grandfather served as an officer in the west german airforce and was tasked to liquidate equipment depots in the east after reunification. He told me that many if not most of the vehicles in storage had barely driven 100 kilometers yet they were in such a sorry state that most of them broke down on their way to the scrapyard. He said that he was always afraid of the east german forces overrunning west Germany. After actually seeing their equipment he said that such an operation would have ended in inevitable failure.

Great video! The GDR really fascinates me as it seemed to mysterious during the Cold War.

Great video. I’ve always been interested in the history of East Germany; the NVA, politics, and Stasi in particular. That being said, it would be great you do videos about the following topics: Corps Colors and Ranks of the NVA, Grenztruppen, and Stasi. Government Buildings of the GDR (Schloss Schönhausen, the Staatsratsgebäude, Majakowskiring, etc). Banknotes of East Germany (in particular the story of the 200 DDM and 500 DDM banknotes). Keep up the good work and Danke Schön for your videos.

Always appreciate your content.

Love the content and the initiative of this channel! Only nagging correction: the plane you show at 14:51 is a MIG 21, not a MIG 29

A fascinating, well researched glimpse into a forgotten and hidden part of recent history. You cannot learn from the past by hiding, and forgetting it. Thank you very much for posting this.

A friend of mine was part of a programme in the early nineties. She trained former NVA officers how to work in shipping and logistics. The NVA dismantling and integration into the Bundeswehr (and society at large) is such a fascinating subject. Especially in terms of the oversized officer corp.

An extremely interesting video. Well researched.

According to memoirs of various Soviet Army's officers worked with their East German collegues, the NVA was the most ready for combat and the most motivated amongst all the Warsaw pact's members' national armed forces. Btw, do you know, who from former Wehrmacht generals took part in establishing of the NVA and served there? I know about four of them: 3 Maj. Gen:s - Arno von Lenski (interestingly he was a member of the Volksgerichtshof in 1941), Hans Wulz (the last former Wehrmacht general resigned from the NVA) and Otto Korfess - and Lt. Gen. Vincenz Mueller (two last were Knight's Cross' holders).

Another excellent episode! Every time one of these drops I can be sure I’ll be impressed. I spent a great deal of time studying the NVA for my job in the USAF in West Berlin (88-93) and this was a great overview of the East German Army. I learned a lot about the drawdown from this video. Thanks! I would love our host to someday do a deep dive into the NVA Construction Units (Baueinheiten), where East Germany’s conscientious objectors were compelled to do a type of military service, building things and other non-combatant roles. I bet the stories about it are fascinating. I’ve always been intrigued by the people who rebelled against the state and how they did it. A friend I made from East Berlin after The Wall fell told me about this unit and said he planned on joining it when it was his time to serve.

The former East German Mig 29's painted in their new Luftwaffe colors were quite a sight to see.

Zoals gewoonlijk weer een erg interessante video. Doet me denken aan mijn jongere jaren. Als kind pendelden we al als Nederlands-Tsjechisch gezin vaak naar het Oostblok, maar reizen door de DDR was voor ons een te groot risico. Pas begin 1990 konden wij voor het eerst door voormalig DDR reizen. Wat een verschil met tegenwoordig als we via Magdeburg naar Praag reizen. Begin jaren 90 volbracht ik ook mijn dienstplicht in Seedorf. Toen was alles nog gericht op de Russische doctrine, want er was eigenlijk geen alternatief tijdens de opleiding. We hebben het Russisch materieel en organisatie nog uit het hoofd moeten leren, ondanks eigenlijk al achterhaald.

Excellent video. Absolutely fascinating

On a family trip, we drove through the DDR at the very end, June 1990. I recall in the town square of Wittenburg, people were selling surplus NVA uniforms and regalia. I should've bought some! The border guards were still checking the trunk of our rental car and luggage. They were nice, though. One showed us a picture of his wife and kid, and we exchanged addresses (we were from California), and became pen pals!

Fascinating and excellent. Thank you for your work and producing these fantastic videos.

Excellent precise & concise coverage as always.

Great report, thank you very much.

Fantastic episode. Thank you for uploading.

Subscribed. Very interesting and well delivered video, I'm looking forward to learning more about the GDR

I continue to be fascinated by your offerings about the DDR. thank you!

Hope you've seen the channel ITN Archive has uploaded a whole bunch of East German content from the wall coming down!

Another great video, thanks

Greatly informative video as always. Well done. The stubble looks good too!

Thanks for another amazing and well done video. Please keep them coming.

Your channel is really interesting, many thanks for this and the other videos too.

I highly appreciate your enthousiasm and effort for making those videos. Please do 'Jugendwerkhof' youth prisons and cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn next please !

I was watching old NVA parades and I found it interesting that they were still mainly using WW2 era soviet armaments by the 1960s

I'm glad I found this channel! Very interesting!

Very informative video, thanks for sharing. Cheers

Excellent!

I recently started following your channel and Its already one of my favourites! Keep up the good work!

Geweldige aflevering weer man. Enorm bedankt weer!

Very well summarized. I was stationed in Peenemünde in '89. We were given orders to shoot to stop demonstrations among the troops. For me this was the reason to end my service. In March '90 I was free, but without a destination. Finding your way around the new democracy was not easy. But a soldier fights. In '93 I resumed my service in the Bundeswehr

I find myself hopelessly fascinated by your videos, thank you. Your final comment, regarding reunification, and describing it as a take over rather than a merger. If this final period is included in the scope of your channel, it would be great to see from your perspective.

how did you create the intro sound? It is really epic, I love it!

The MIG that you illustrated was a MIG 21 not a MIG 29.

Excellent videos. I haven’t been back to Berlin since 1988. So much has changed.

Excellent video-as usual.

It's a pleasure listening to you. :) Thanks from Lübeck.

Another good and balanced video. We can see you have done your reading before publishing. One interesting detail is how most of the GDR navy ships got sold to Indonesia. No surprise they had a problem to do a trip that Dutch ships did for centuries without much problems. Another two former GDR navy ships were bought by Malta and sunk near the coast. They serve now as an attraction for divers.

Interesting video again! It is also interesting that in the atmosphere of "international disarmament" in the early 90's it was Finland who bought loads of weapons such as tanks etc military equipment from East Germany with a very good price - cargo ships went from Germany to Finland for almost three years. Well, Finland also bought a large number of Leopard tanks from the western (unified Germany by then) side to keep things in balance.

Looked to be a Mig-21. Great video, very informative. Danke.

Excellent video as always! I can add a few facts from my own perspective. As you rightly point out, the normal conscription period was 18 months. However, if you wanted to study at university, a 'voluntary' sign-up for 3 years was very much expected. It nearly ended up that way for me as well, but a new scheme introduced in 1987 saved me. At that time the GDR was desperate for new graduates in electronics and information technology related fields. For this reason, I was selected as one of first people to serve only 9 months in order get to university quickly. I was in a special unit with other '9-month' people and made life-long friends there. Also, because most of us were in the same situation, there was less bullying. I was in a mortar artillery unit and most of our equipment was Soviet stock from the 1940's and 50's - not sure if we would have been able to repel any attack with that🤭 The most useful thing we did during my 9 month service was to help in flooding defence on the river Elbe around Easter 1988, like filling sandbags and reinforcing dikes.

I would like to add that it was not possible to refuse military service in the GDR, which is why my father, who was a pacifist for religious reasons, became a construction soldier (Bausoldat). This possibility of conscientious objection was unique for socialist countries. But the decision not to do military service was hard-won for Christians and pacifists. The state regarded them as shirkers, enemies of the state and members of the opposition. They had to reckon with special harassment during and after their service as a construction soldier.

Thank you always for the reference list

Fantastic channel studying am often overlooked aspect of the cold war. The internal workings of the Warsaw Pact member countries (aside from the USSR) are not something that you can easily get a lot of reliable information on in English. Thank you very much for this and keep up the great work.

There was a German comedy film called ”NVA” from 2005 which I haven’t seen, only the trailer. One I saw was ”Goodbye Lenin” which was very enjoyable, so much that I bought it on DVD. The film ”The Death of Stalin” is absolutely hilarious. I ordered it on DVD but it hasn’t been delivered yet

Fun facts about the NVA: Those "Conscientious Objectors" troops were called "Bau Soldat" (work troops) and were absolutely treated like dirt. They wore special shoulderboards with a small shovel emblem on them. Supposedly they spent their entire 18 month long service essentially with no leave or permission to leave base and worked almost constantly at the dirtiest jobs the Army had. Another less grim thing: the NVA soldiers had a saying that they'd "kept the uniforms but gotten rid of the Generals" as a dig at the west for the high percentage of ex-Wehrmacht generals in the BW.

The presence of NVA troops in East Berlin (i.e. the 4-Power occupied city) was, I understand, a breach of the terms of the 4-Power agreement as neither East nor West Germany could have military in occupied Berlin. Nothing was done about it, but as I understand it, at the Allied Checkpoints between the 3 Allied zones and East Berlin, the Americans only interacted with the Soviet soldiers.

What a Great Video highly researched

Excellent video!

Informative video very good thanks.

Berlin Notes Grenztruppen (the most unreliable military in the Warsaw Pact) I don’t recall posting a comment here on this issue. My apologies if this is redundant. I served under President Reagan as a Senior NCO in the US Army, stationed in the occupied city of West Berlin from 1981 to 1984. Membership in NATO was formed from western allies voluntarily; France was excluded because they chose not to join at that time. Membership in Warsaw Pact was formed, and enforced by Soviet forces, in countries they invaded (rescued from Nazism) during World War II. Any country that tried to leave the Warsaw Pact because of freedom movements (East Germany (DDR) / Hungary / Czechoslovakia) faced violent suppression by the Soviet forces. The members of the Warsaw Pact were not the comrades as the PR often claim. It appeared similar events would happen in Poland during the 1980’s. I was attached to the Military Intelligence (MI) Detachment as an interrogator tasked with interviewing defectors (Border Guard / Military) and refugees (civilians) from all of the various Pact countries. They were fleeing similar oppression with many vivid stories of their own. We had an almost constant flow during my time there. During those years we met with four Grenztruppen who had escaped to defect: 1. One private swam the river 2. Another showed up at a local nightclub, also soaking wet. 3. An NCO and private escaped together. They had tied up a third member of the patrol. 4. Others did not make it to us. All three soldiers were sent westward and did well in the West. A few days later, the NCO ran back across the border to the DDR and disappeared. The NCO did go back to East Germany! He was probably a plant sent to scope out our activities and personnel involved in escapes. Anybody could go visit the DDR through Checkpoint Charlie. This is why we were asked not to go there because our visit might be a lot longer than desired! There was a UK celebration in Berlin during my time there: I think one of the Queen’s reign tattoos. The British unit stationed there for their one year assignment was 1st Battalion/ Grenadier Guards. It was a large celebration with massed bands and the Royal Horse Artillery firing their cannon. Afterwards the UK troops went to visit the DDR in full bearskins and dress uniforms. I wonder what the DDR checkpoint guards thought; Is this the invasion? Regards

Ich ware einem US grenze soldat im Deutchland 83 bis 86 im dienst,dann bist 2000 als “civilian”. Meine Deutcher schwiegersohn kommt aus Dresden. Die wohnen weniger als einem kilometer von meine alte barake. 😊 der welt ist komisch.

Excellent explanation 👍

Great overview of the NVA. The best book that I've read on the subject is Thomas Forster's "The East German Army: Second in the Warsaw Pact."

Excellent. Thank You

Also a lot of NVA equipment wound up in conflicts in Africa (Congo, Sudan) etc.

Interessting video. Thank you. ☮

I spent two years in the US 11th Cavalry patrolling the German Interzonal Boundary between Bayern and Thüringen (81-83). Ive been fascinated with the NVA ever since. This was a very thorough summary, well-done! I can remember reading that the Prussian military tradition finally died in 1990 with the dissolution of the NVA. Would you agree?

Also interesting are the paramilitary Combat Groups of the Working Class or KdA: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Groups_of_the_Working_Class

Outstanding video, as usual! Three thoughts: 1. The Soviets sat inside critical nodes of the command structure of the NVA, in which role they were the only ones able to transmit major command decisions. This prevented the ability of the NVA to act independently 2. The other group inside the command structure was the Stasi, in addition to the political officers ("Politoffiziere"). Our regiment was commanded by a colonel from the military side, "assisted" by a colonel from the Stasi (called the "V2000" for unknown reasons), and a political department. It mirrored the Soviet Army's triumvirate of military commander, commissar, and KBG rep 3. I don't recall the NVA having much respect from the population, even after the winter of 1978. Conscription into the NVA was anticipated with dread by many, equivalent to a prison sentence.

excellent film!

Ahhh... the NVA, one of the few armies in the history of mankind to capitulate to their enemies without a single shot being fired. Good stuff.

Thank you for this video! It's interesting that you have mentioned more unknown parts of NVA history. Also, do your stats on NVA personnel include kampfgruppen der arbeiterklasse personnel? I reckon it was a big force that had to fight alongside the NVA if conflict happened And as I asked under some previous video, will there be a video about them sometime in the future? It's such an unusual organisation for current time

Love your videos however there are a couple of points which need clarification. In your introduction it appears that you’ve implied that the Police units of the 1940-50s were unique to the DDR it’s worth pointing out that the W German Bundesgrenzschutz BGS was formed in the 1940s and was to all intents and purposes a militia army numbering around 10000 men when formed and 16000 by 1956. The uniform issue is an interesting point. They were designed to look ‘German’ and hark back to WW1 and Prussian history. This was so that the new Army would be better accepted by the DDR population as ‘theirs’ rather than a Soviet clone. Again if you look at videos of the Bundes Grenzschutz in the 1950s there uniform is a direct clone of Wehrmacht kit right down to the coal scuttle helmets. You briefly mentioned the option for uniformed but not weapon carrying service for conscripted DDR men. They were known as Bausoldat and It’s worth pointing out the DDR was the only Warsaw Pakt country where any kind of conscientious objection was possible. Becoming a Bausoldat was very difficult and meant giving up on any chance for higher education. I love your videos and look forward to more

18 month for an 18 YO must seem like a lifetime.

Another good and related topic could be the Kampfgruppen der Arbeitsklasse.

An analysis of the Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik is highly expected.

I wish to learn as much as possible about this subject for some reason.

Great video. Tak trzymać :) Greets from Poland!

The Luftstreitkräfte MiG29 FULCRUM you've pictured, that's a MiG21 FISHBED (probably a FISHBED-N). Interesting video though all told & one wonders whether the lessons from merging the NVA into the Bundeswehr were forgotten by the time it came to Iraq and dealing with the winding down of its Army.... Going back though, to the Air Force, the Luftwaffe made sparing use of the ex-DDR fleet except for the MiG29's (iirc they were sent to Wittmund - but someone else may well be able to correct that if that's an error) & then fitted out with a fairly broad update, served for years & then got passed to Poland and now, I'm almost certain, are with the Ukrainians. Thus, ex-Soviet built aircraft, in the service of the GDR, ended up, within NATO and now fighting jets built by the Soviets over Eastern Europe. How the World turns eh? I don't know how much of the Luftstreitkräfte fleet survived the scrap-man - I mean, all the Sukhoi Su-17/22 FITTER aircraft got Luftwaffe markings, but never flew operationally with them (same goes for the MiG21s etc.), it was merely an administrative exercise for disposal - but I'd have loved to have seen one of everything saved for posterity. There is though, I can report, at the Weston-super-Mare Helicopter Museum (for those who don't know, W-S-M is in Somerset and Westland tested at the airfield), has in its collection, a DDR Mil-24 HIND-D assault-helicopter & yes, one can see why the Mujahedeen called them "The Devil's Chariot" over Afghanistan in the 1980s (Soviet and Afghan ones, not DDR ones of course). Its fascinating though, imho, that unlike the Czech's with Aero and the Poles with their LIM & PZL designs, the DDR using technology recovered from the RLM, never built - as far as I know - even their own jet training planes & their one go at a jet airliner for Interflug failed (which would have been a highly successful development & I'd have been interested to see how the Soviets coped with having a competitor for overseas orders!). I mean, even the Yugoslavs built some, for the Era, advanced jet aircraft like the Soko Galeb (I think that translates as "Seagull"). But again, very interesting video & also, more generally, very interesting content overall.

My father was by the German Border Gard (Bundesgrenzschutz) from 1954 -1961. Later from 1961 - 1992 Customer Last rang was seargent first class (Zollhauptsekretär).

The state of constant readiness perhaps deserves a separate video. Conscription soldiers were pretty much locked in in the first year and their time also included "political education", especially for people that wanted to study. The constant readiness also meant that in case of an inner-german conflict, the NVA would have likely overrun the west german Bundeswehr who had a much more relaxed system and approx a week reaction time to match the readiness levels of the NVA.

Thank you, good and neutral video as always. Showcasing the prior militarization of the other part is especially helpful. Sometimes I just think - maybe it was better to strike somewhen in the 70s when our alliance was at its best and the West dealt with the oil crisis. But no, our executives chose to sell oil to the enemy. Always being second, always waiting, always in a defensive posture. Even today some remnants of this defensive policy remains.

Good stuff 👍

I've heard it was no fun to be a draftee in the NVA. The quality of the uniform was appalling, very scratchy - up to the point of being unwearable. Most of the time they were bored out of their skull. For the "Bausoldaten" the conditions were even worse.

Thanks!

great stuff

Had an east german T72, battery powered. DDR was very good talking about toys

Interestingly, both German nations in their early years from 1949 to 1955 had no army but a (more or less secretly) militarized border patrol police. When the Federal Republic of Germany (aka Western Germany) joined NATO and established the Bundeswehr (armed forces), its Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Security police) went back to patrolling borders only, but the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (aka Eastern Germany) integrated their border police into the army and made it a dedicated army unit which seemed to have been a particularly smooth transition.

That was interesting. You mentioned a special pacifist unit was created which enabled conscientious objectors to avoid military service. That is an interesting topic too. They suffered some abuse at the hands of their commanding officers, but then, so did the regular NVA soldiers. By the way, I just came back from a trip to California. I had hoped to visit the "Die Wende" museum in Culver City, a suburb of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, they were closed during the month of April for spring cleaning. They have a homepage which I can recommend and are open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The museum is a very rare opportunity for Americans to see objects from and displays about the former GDR. From the looks of the homepage, it shouldn't be missed!

14:51 that’s a MIG 21 i’m sure there’s a story behind that mixup

At 14:51 that looks like perhaps a MiG-21. It is definitely not a MiG-29

Would be nice to hear more about the events that caused tension between east en west. For example during the NATO exercise Checkmate, two pilots lost their orientation under bad weather conditions and ended up in GDR airspace, where they were chased by dozens of MiGs. American traffic control in West Berlin guided them safely to Tegel airport. The incident grew into a problem for BRD defence minister Strauss.

The higher percentage of officer redundancies is also down to the assignment of duties - many Warsaw pact forces had junior officers performing tasks carried out by NCO's in Nato.

Basically the Bundeswehr and NVA were the East/West German equivalents of the Japan Self Defense Force. On paper it's was a militarised police force for self defense but an actual military organisation in practice.

I was sent twice to West-Germany in the mid 1980s when I was serving in the USAF. At that time i never thought that the cold war will never end. Five years latter, It did. I think of myself as well as others the we are Cold War Veterans and part of Cold War History. The nice part about it , The west won not firing a shot. Very good video you did , Thank you from a Cold War Veteran.👍🪖

I had East German relatives in the officer ranks of the NVA, who I only got to meet end of 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. I had the impression these guys were far better informed than their west German counterparts, of which I personally knew a few. They openly said that reunification was now in the air, that at a time when everyone else thought this an utter political impossibility. I also had the impression that NVA soldiers were far more motivated than their opposite numbers in the West German Bundeswehr. The West German Bundeswehr was known for its heavy drinking and dossing around among the lower ranks. I don't know how true this is, but I did personally know recruits who told me this.