Artifact Friday: East German Officer's Uniform

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At the end of World War II, Germany was divided in half. West Germany became subject to the big players of the Allied powers: France, the UK, and the United States. East Germany, however, became a puppet of the Soviet Union and a symbol of the Iron Curtain draped across Europe.

Germany was seen as a stage where capitalism and communism would compete directly. Great efforts were made by the two sides of the Cold War to demonstrate the superiority of their ideology through aspects such as industry or agriculture. Given the tension of the world from 1947 to 1991, however, nothing was more important to a nation than military might.

In 1956, the Soviet Union established the National People’s Army (NVA). The NVA was the new military of East Germany and was built up using communist veterans of the Spanish Civil War and former Wehrmacht officers with communist loyalties. The NVA proved to be merely for show as they never saw full-scale combat. At most, NVA troops helped to suppress anti-communist uprisings in neighboring nations such as the Prague Spring of 1968. Eager to utilize the combat experience of Wehrmacht veterans, the Soviets often used them as military advisors in Africa as the Cold War created trouble across the continent.

In October of 1990, the NVA was dissolved and, shortly after, the Berlin Wall that they had once guarded was torn down, marking the end of the Cold War and communist Germany.

In our collection is a uniform that once belonged to an NVA officer. The uniform, of course, draws inspiration from those of Red Army officers. The uniqueness of the uniform comes from its various pins, patches, and metals. Over the right breast pocket and on the left arm is the symbol of East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party. It depicts a compass to represent the scientists and intellectuals and a hammer for the workers. A metal on the right breast pocket has the words, “Fur Den Schutz. Der Arbeiter Und Bauern Macht,” meaning “For the Protection of Workers and Farmers Power.”