Ex-GDR soldiers should help in an emergency. Can that work?

“They should have come up with the idea 35 years earlier,” says Harald Neubauer, once lieutenant colonel, now deputy chairman in the association for the care of the tradition of the National People’s Army and the border troops of the GDR EV

The idea that the Lieutenant Colonel AD means has Union faction vice Sepp Müller right now star brought up: because of the shortage of staff at the Bundeswehr In the event of an emergency, former GDR soldiers can also serve as reservists. “It is time to use the soldiers of the NVA who volunteer to protect our freedom,” said Müller, who himself comes from Saxony-Anhalt. The left-wing politician Dietmar Bartsch had previously pleaded to integrate former NVA soldiers into the Bundeswehr. As a rule, this is usually not possible.

According to its own planning, the Bundeswehr needs around 200,000 operating reservists. In so-called home protection regiments, in the event of crisis and defense, they should ensure that troops are quickly and safely come to their scene and the infrastructure is protected. The Bundeswehr is currently only around 51,000 reservists available.

Of the approximately 170,000 active NVA soldiers, about half were temporarily taken over to reunite, after a closer review, only around 18,000 soldiers were used to be used in the Bundeswehr. All others were retired and not included in the reserve of the Bundeswehr. It is estimated that around 100,000 of them are still under 65 years old.

So can ex-GDR soldiers help to solve the Bundeswehr’s personnel problem?

“We cannot do it at all, that prohibits the law. Classified as ‘served in foreign armed forces’ we were not allowed to become a reservist of the Bundeswehr,” says ex-NVA man New builder. “Presented in foreign armed forces”, the Federal Republic would still look at him and all other former members of the East Army that were not adopted. Surely on the flag of the GDR, they were supposed to secure peace “at the side of the Soviet Army”, now they were considered politically unreliable because of their proximity to the system themselves and were sorted out – a wound that was not healed with everyone 35 years after reunification.

The SPD reacts to the move. The deputy chairwoman of the SPD parliamentary group, Siemtje Möller, told the star: “It is fundamentally good if everyone thinks about how we advance the expansion of the reserve.” However, it recommends that the focus more focused on current and future military service providers. “With joy and tension” she therefore looks forward to the proposals of the ministry to strengthen the reserve, said Möller, who recently was a parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Defense.

In contrast, there was clear criticism of the idea of ​​the Greens. The proposal “reveals how little the Union knows the current challenges at the troops,” said the security spokeswoman for the Greens, Sara Nanni, the star. “The problem is not that you have too few people who want to go into the reserve and therefore you have to look for groups that you could still address, but that the Bundeswehr does not have enough capacities to absorb the many interested parties-served and ungut,” continued the Green politician.

Otherwise, skepticism prevails among experts in Berlin, which the chances of reactivating earlier NVA soldiers concerned. Legally, however, speaking, it can be heard that the unification contract would have to be subsequently changed. It was regulated by law that no one could become a reservist who was not transferred to the Bundeswehr.

In addition, the people in question had no active service for at least 35 years, they had neither trained nor gained knowledge of modern weapons systems. And even if they were only 18 at the end of the GDR, they would now be 53. Since the reservist service ends for everyone at 65, the latest ex-NVA soldiers would not be a particularly long reservist career. It is questionable whether the great effort from training to new defense on the Basic Law is worth potentially very small group at all.

It is even more questionable how many would like to be able to participate in the Bundeswehr after all these years.

An NVA traditional association may not be a completely objective indicator for the mood among tens of thousands of earlier GDR soldiers and ex-defense service providers, you have to ask Neubauer that: Could he imagine becoming a reservist today if he is finally allowed to? “That,” says Lieutenant Colonel AD, “is a completely different question.” In any case, he doesn’t know anyone in his association.