Horst Skerra

Skerra at a meeting of the GDR State Council in Berlin on May 16, 1969

Horst Skerra (born September 1, 1930 in Kulsen ; now Poland ) is a former German officer ( NVA ). He was lieutenant general and the last chief of the land forces of the NVA .

Life

The son of a farm laborer attended elementary school. Because of the war , he could not learn a trade and worked as a farm worker himself. Towards the end of the war he was used as an anti-aircraft helper . From 1945 to 1948 he was a tractor driver in the Kaliningrad region of the USSR .

After moving to the Soviet occupation zone , he worked in the Geiseltal open- cast lignite mine until 1949 . He joined the FDJ and was the FDJ youth representative in the departmental trade union management (AGL) of the brown coal works (BKW) Müelte II. The FDJ delegated him in 1949 to the German People's Police (DVP). On his 19th birthday, Skerra joined the armed organs (DVP) and was a student at the VP School in Naumburg. After his training, he was appointed VP Commissioner in 1950 and was employed as a platoon leader and training manager in the VP office in Kochstedt. In 1951 Skerra became a member of the SED . From 1951 to 1952 he was an officer auditor at the VP School in Kochstedt. From 1952 to 1956 he attended the Frunze Military Academy in the Soviet Union and was awarded the academy's gold medal.

After his return he became a member of the NVA and served from 1956 to 1960 as an officer and head of a subdivision in the Operational Administration in the Ministry of National Defense (MfNV). From 1961 to 1964 he was Lieutenant Colonel Deputy Chief of the Main Staff and Chief of the Operational Administration in the MfNV. As such, he was involved in the planning and implementation of the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 . From 1964 to 1966 he graduated from the General Staff Academy of the USSR with distinction and was honored with the academy's gold medal for his outstanding academic achievements. Subsequently, Skerra became the commander of the 1st Mot.-Schützen-Division (1st MSD) Potsdam .

He was appointed major general on March 1, 1967 by the Chairman of the National Defense Council , Walter Ulbricht . From 1969 to 1973 Skerra was Deputy Chief of Military District III ( Leipzig ) and Chief of Staff. After his renewed service in the main staff of the NVA from 1973 to 1976, he was head of Military District III from 1976 to 1982 (successor to Lieutenant General Heinz Handke ). During this time he was promoted to lieutenant general on October 7, 1977 by the chairman of the National Defense Council, Erich Honecker . From November 1982 to December 1989, Skerra served as Deputy Chief of Land Forces and Chief of Staff in Land Forces Command . He became Chief of the Land Forces on January 1, 1990 and retired on September 30, 1990.

Skerra lives in Schwielowsee .

Awards

• 1964 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze and 1976 in silver
• 1968 Medal of the Brotherhood of Arms in silver
• 1974 battle request "For services to people and fatherland"
• 1981 Honorary Degree of Honored Member of the National People's Army
• 1984 Order Banner of Labor Level I
• 1984 and 1986 Friedrich Engels Prize
• Scharnhorst Order

literature

• Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn 1982, ISBN 3-8012-0081-7 , p. 303.
• Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke : The generals and admirals of the NVA. A biographical manual. 4th edition. Ch. Links, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-86153-209-3 .
• Andreas Herbst :  Skerra, Horst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz Hoffmann at the 10th SED party congress on Skerra in Neues Deutschland , April 13, 1981, p. 8.
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland , July 6, 1966, p. 1.
3. ↑ ISOR congratulates all jubilarians . In: ISORaktuell . No. 9/2005 , September 2005, p. 3 ( isor-sozialverein.de [PDF; 121 kB ; accessed on December 27, 2015] Congratulations on your 75th birthday).