Head Office Training

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The main administration training (short: HVA ) was in the GDR beside the main administration German people police , the main administration for the protection of the national economy and the main administration sea police one of the supporting pillars of the ministry of the interior (MdI), which as executive body in October 1949 from the Germans Administration of the Interior was formed. As the cadre forge of the future armed forces of the GDR, the main training administration embodied the military-oriented part of the ministry as the successor to the administration for training. With membership of the MdI and the suggestion of an authority with a police character, the “covert rearmament policy” within the Soviet occupation zone was taken into account in order not to publicly violate the decision on demilitarization of Germany adopted in the summer of 1945 in the Potsdam Agreement .

In order to create barracked police structures, tens of thousands of members of the People's Police were trained in the schools and standby departments of the HVA from autumn 1949 . All specifications regarding the structure, the personnel, the deployment and the training content were determined directly by the Soviet state and party leadership (or indirectly via the Soviet Control Commission ). Officers of the armed forces of the USSR were deployed as observers for advice and simultaneous monitoring, and they were also responsible for allocating ammunition from Soviet stocks and approving practice shooting. For example, training on heavy weapons was only allowed at night or in remote exercise areas, as their possession was not permitted due to the decisions of the Allied Control Council . In order not to endanger the military sovereignty of the USSR over the Soviet Zone, the HVA units were only allowed a limited stock of weapons, which appeared to be sufficient for adequate training. The future leadership personnel also had to complete secret courses in the Soviet Union and were put together in accordance with the safeguarding of the SED leadership claim. In February 1950, almost half of the HVA officers were members of the party, and in 1951 the quota rose to 60 percent.

After the completion of the first phase of armed forces, Moscow gave the SED leadership in early April 1952 the order to create a regular army. The HVA units, now comprising 52,000 men, were then converted into the barracked People's Police on July 1, 1952, in order to grow into an operational force by means of additional personnel and material.

literature

  • Torsten Diedrich ; Rüdiger Wenzke : The camouflaged army - history of the barracked people's police of the GDR 1952–1956 ; Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2003; ISBN 3-86153-242-5
  • Daniel Giese: The SED and its Army - The NVA between politicization and professionalism 1956-1965 ; Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag GmbH, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-486-64585-4