Temporary NCO

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Shoulder of a sergeant of the border troops

A non-commissioned officer (official abbreviation: UaZ ) in the National People's Army (NVA) was a conscript who, instead of one and a half years of basic military service, performed three years of military service as a non-commissioned officer . In the naval assignments of the People's Navy , the service time was four years. Temporary NCO service was nominally voluntary, but young men as students or apprentices were exposed to considerable pressure to become UaZ members. The means of pressure was mostly access to higher educational qualifications, be it the Abitur at EOS or vocational training with a high school diploma , or access to university studies. Most of the temporary non-commissioned officers were trained for six months in a non-commissioned officers' school and then served in the troops for two and a half years. In troop service, UaZ could achieve the rank of sergeant- major, if the respective position gave that.

Unlike longer serving non-commissioned officers in the Reichswehr and Wehrmacht and to Portepeeunteroffizieren in the Bundeswehr many officers on time in the NVA had no managerial responsibilities, but were used as military-technical specialists without Imputed such. B. as a driver of a tank or armored personnel carrier . With very few exceptions, the personnel in technical applications such as in the aviation engineering service consisted only of non-commissioned officers and professional soldiers. Most of the temporary non-commissioned officers in the NVA were, however, used as group leaders , and in the event of a shortage of personnel also on officer posts. In everyday troop life, this leadership position was opposed by the fact that UaZ were often treated structurally and by superiors like "better soldiers": they were barracked just like the soldiers in the basic military service, and were subject to the same high attendance requirements even on weekends, on the grounds that they were " ready for action ". which resulted in too little vacation and going out. Accordingly, there was also the EK movement under UaZ with its unofficial hierarchy of the number of days still to be served, many UaZ occupied a "precarious intermediate position" between professional soldiers and those doing basic military service.

However, temporary non-commissioned officers were allowed to go out until they started work the next morning, and for soldiers in basic military service usually only until midnight. The vacation entitlement of NCOs was also higher than that of soldiers in the basic military service, and increased with each year of service. The remuneration of the non-commissioned officers on time was also significantly higher than that of the soldiers. While soldiers (or private) received 150 Marks (or 180 Marks) a month in the 1980s  , non-commissioned officers received temporary salaries of 800 to 850 Marks in 1988, which consisted of remuneration for their rank and remuneration for their position .

Between 1962 and 1989 around 400,000 men served in the armed forces of the GDR as temporary NCOs, until 1973 also as temporary soldiers / NCOs. With an active stock of between 20,000 and 40,000 men, the UaZ formed the bulk of the NVA's corps of non-commissioned officers. With the military reform in the NVA in 1989/90, the period of service of the UaZ was shortened from three to two years; when the NVA was transferred to the Bundeswehr on October 3, 1990, only a few UaZ were serving. The Bundeswehr took over 11,200 NCOs from the former NVA as temporary soldiers for two years (SaZ2). The former professional NCOs and ensigns of the NVA mainly contribute to this number . Of these 11,200 regular soldiers, the Bundeswehr ultimately took on 7,600 as professional soldiers.

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  1. ↑ Christian Th. Müller: A thousand days with the "Ashes": NCOs in the NVA . Ch. Links, Berlin 2003, pp. 366-367.
  2. ↑ Christian Th. Müller: A thousand days with the "Ashes": NCOs in the NVA . Ch.links, Berlin 2003, p. 210.
  3. ↑ Federal Ministry of Defense (ed.): Army of the Unit 1990–2000 . Bonn 2000, p. 15.