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The government of East Germany had control over a large number of military and paramilitary organisations through various ministries. Chief among these was the Ministry of National Defence. Because of East Germany's proximity to the West during the Cold War (1945–92), its military forces were among the most advanced of the Warsaw Pact ...
After the end of occupation functions in 1954 the group was renamed the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany. The group represented Soviet interests in East Germany during the Cold War. Before changes in Soviet foreign policy during the early 1990s, the group shifted to a more offensive role and in 1989 became the Western Group of Forces.
East Germany's political and economic system reflected its status as a part of the Eastern Bloc of Soviet-allied Communist countries, with the nation ruled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and operating with a command economy for 41 years until 3 October 1990 when East and West Germany were unified with the former being absorbed ...
The Land Forces of the National People's Army [2] (German: Landstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee – LaSK) was the ground-based military branch of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) National People's Army (NPA). The Land Forces Command, located at Geltow, was established on 1 December 1972 as a management body created for the land forces.
Following the German Instrument of Surrender on 8 May 1945, which formally ended the Second World War in Europe, Germany was split into four occupation zones.The French, American, and British zones would eventually merge to become the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany, while the Soviet zone, due to the ensuing Cold War, would eventually become the German Democratic Republic, or East ...
East German uprising of 1953; Part of the Cold War: From top to bottom, left to right: Soviet tanks suppress unarmed civilians on Schützenstrasse in Berlin · in front of the Dimitrov Museum in Leipzig · on Leipziger Strasse in Berlin · Deutsche Bundespost commemorative stamp · Burning building on Potsdamer Platz
When the Soviet Union prepared to occupy Czechoslovakia in 1968, the GDR government committed the 7th Panzer Division and the 11th Motorised Infantry Division to support the intervention (assigned to 20th Guards Army and 1st Guards Tank Army respectively), becoming the first deployment of German troops outside Germany for the first time since ...
In 1952, with the Cold War political confrontation well underway, Joseph Stalin sounded out the Western Powers about the prospect of a united Germany which would be non-aligned (the "Stalin Note"). The West's lack of interest in this proposal helped to cement the Soviet Zone's identity as the GDR for the next four decades.