Artifact Friday: East German Officer's Uniform

Upon 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 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 of the right breast pocket

has the words, “Fur Den Schutz. Der Arbeiter Und Bauern Macht,” meaning “For the Protection

of Workers and Farmers Power.”