Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment - Recruitment and Training

Recruitment and Training

Guard regiment in the military service was completed as WED (alternative military service). The term of service for conscripts was three years. Was convened in contrast to the army in April and September / October, a month earlier.

For military service in the guard regiment were exclusively recruits from a particularly politically reliable force families moved in, with an express wish of the conscripts only in some cases played a role. Basically, any recruits have already been selected by the appropriate MfS county and district offices and then the convening authority (district military command) mentioned as possible contenders for the guard regiment in Berlin. The recruits took place in the majority of cases no preliminary, but they were relevant to the Stasi-circuit or district office ordered, where all subjects were tested for their political reliability, and to them a three-year military service was proposed. This selection for "Three-year" always had its beginnings in the military district headquarters of the districts which had the leading survey of all vintages to be recovered within the GDR. Against the elitist preselected by the Stasi could not defend or county. Military district denied. The Stasi inspected in principle, all conscripts who had agreed to a three-year military service, and selected out of this stock its recruits. The guard regiment no reservists were deployed, which means that soldiers who had completed their service in the WR was recovered is usually not returned to the WR.

Many conscripts in Adlershof traditionally decorated the fence of the building next door to them (DFF; German TV broadcasting) with the locks from their lockers when they were dismissed. These locks were removed every year.