Gerhard Rehwald

Gerhard Rehwald (born June 28, 1929 in Zuckmantel ) is a German military medic and former lieutenant general of the National People's Army (NVA) of the German Democratic Republic . From 1966 to 1987 he headed the NVA's medical service and was then President of the German Red Cross of the GDR from 1987 to 1989 .

Life

Gerhard Rehwald in 1929 the son of a carpenter in the Sudetenland Zuckmantel born and after the end of World War II and his expulsion in the Soviet Occupation Zone from 1948 intern at the district office of the district Freiberg . In 1948 he became a member of the SED and the FDJ , and worked in 1948/49 as an employee of the FDJ district committee in Freiberg and in 1949/50 of the FDJ regional association of Saxony .

On March 23, 1950 he joined the German People's Police (VP) and was initially FDJ secretary in the VP agency in Gera . He attained 1952 on the Workers 'and Peasants' Faculty , the High School and was in the same year in the kasernierte volkspolizei taken. From 1952 to 1959 he studied in Leningrad at the Military Medical Academy SM Kirov , a study of medicine . During this time he became a member of the newly founded NVA in 1956. After completing his studies, he initially worked as a regimental doctor in the NVA, before moving to the medical administration of the Ministry of National Defense (MfNV) in 1961 . At the Humboldt University of Berlin took place in 1962, the Promotion A . After various posts as a department head, he became head of the medical administration of the MfNV and thus head of the medical service of the NVA in 1966. On February 26, 1971, he was appointed major general by the chairman of the GDR's National Defense Council , Walter Ulbricht , and was promoted to lieutenant general on October 5, 1978 by Ulbricht's successor, Erich Honecker .

At the end of April 1987, Rehwald resigned from active service in the NVA in order to take over the office of President of the German Red Cross of the GDR as Siegfried Akkermann's successor . During the political change in the GDR , he resigned from this position in November 1989. From April to December 1990 Christoph Brückner acted as his successor as the last president of the DRK of the GDR.

Awards

• 1968 Hufeland Medal
• 1975 Friedrich Engels Prize
• 1989 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold

Works (selection)

• Soviet military doctors. Friends and brothers in arms. Berlin 1983 (as co-editor)
• Internal military medicine. Series: Handbook for Military Medicine. Volume 2. Berlin 1985
• Field surgery. Series: Handbook for Military Medicine. Volume 1. Berlin 1986

literature

• Rehwald, Gerhard (born 1929). In: Clemens Heitmann : Protect and Help? Air defense and civil defense in the GDR from 1955 to 1989/90. Series: Military history of the GDR. Volume 12. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86-153400-2 , p. 467
• Rehwald, Gerhard. In: Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke: The generals and admirals of the NVA: A biographical manual. Fifth edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-86-153438-X , p. 162
• Rehwald, Gerhard. In: Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla. KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 693.