Military
Because of East Germany's proximity to the West during the Soviet–American Cold War (1945–91), its four-branch military, the Nationale Volksarmee (National People's Army, NVA) was among the most advanced of the Warsaw Pact; its branches were:
- Army (Landstreitkräfte)
- Navy (Volksmarine – People's Navy)
- Air Force–Air Defence (Luftstreitkräfte/Luftverteidigung)
- GDR Border Troops (Grenztruppen der DDR)
Every man served eighteen months of compulsory military service; for the medically unqualified and the conscientious objector, there were the Baueinheiten construction units, established in 1964 in response to political pressure by the national Protestant Church upon the GDR’s government. The armed forces of the GDR also possessed paramilitary reserve forces, such as the Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse (Combat Groups of the Working Class), and from the Stasi, the Ministry for State Security (Mfs —Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), the “Schild und Schwert der Partei” (Shield and Sword of the Party).
Read more about this topic: East Germany
Famous quotes containing the word military:
“There was somewhat military in his nature, not to be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if he did not feel himself except in opposition. He wanted a fallacy to expose, a blunder to pillory, I may say required a little sense of victory, a roll of the drum, to call his powers into full exercise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
““My ancestors were all famous for military genius.”
My Lady smiled graciously. “It often runs in families,” she remarked: “just as a love for pastry does.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“Personal prudence, even when dictated by quite other than selfish considerations, surely is no special virtue in a military man; while an excessive love of glory, impassioning a less burning impulse, the honest sense of duty, is the first.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)