Military attachés of the German Democratic Republic

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Military attachés have been among the foreign representatives of states since the century before last. They are the contact person for military-political and military matters in the respective accreditation state and collect or procure military-relevant information there. The military attachés of the GDR should not bring in any information that was not legally available and under no circumstances should act beyond what was permitted by the Vienna Convention .

history

In 1957 the nomenclature of the leading cadres of the Ministry of National Defense of the German Democratic Republic was adopted, in which the military attachés were defined as a particularly important and prominent group of people not only within the National People's Army, but also within the state and party leadership.

The award of the rank of "military attaché" was then regulated in 1961 by a decree of the State Council , according to which the selection, confirmation and dismissal of the military attachés had to be done by the National Defense Council of the GDR .
See list of military attachés of the German Democratic Republic .

On July 1, 1990, the Minister for Disarmament and Defense of the GDR , Rainer Eppelmann , issued a new attaché order that changed the designation of the military attachés to "Disarmament and Defense Attaché". In the same year, all military diplomatic missions of the GDR were taken over by the military attachés of the Federal Republic of Germany (insofar as they were present in the countries concerned) and the rest were dissolved.

Training of military attachés and their assistants

The training to become a military attaché began about 18 months before the posting abroad and took place in the early years of the NVA on the basis of the order 14/56 of the Minister for National Defense from 1956. Contents included:

  • Basics of diplomatic protocol and military diplomatic service,
  • International law, foreign policy and international policy, military and security policy of NATO member states,
  • Language training in Russian and optionally in English , French and Spanish ,
  • Geography.

After the military diplomatic service abroad was integrated into the Enlightenment Administration of the Ministry of National Defense in 1974 , the requirements for training were specified:

Use of the military attachés

The foreign assignments were usually planned two years in advance. The head of the Enlightenment Administration submitted the operational proposals, including detailed résumés, to the Chief of Staff of the National People's Army and Secretary of the National Defense Council, who approved them. Officers who had finished their mission abroad were mostly in management positions in the Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of National Defense used

Military attachés from the German Democratic Republic were deployed

See also

literature

  • Walter Richter: The Military Intelligence Service of the National People's Army of the GDR and its control by the Ministry for State Security. The story of a German secret service. European University Writings Volume 439, 2nd revised. Ed., Frankfurt am Main 2004. ISBN 3-631-52020-4
  • Bodo Wegmann: The NVA's military intelligence. The central organization of the military reconnaissance of the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic . 2nd Edition. Köster, Berlin 2006. ISBN 3-89574-580-4

Web links