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Casualties of Unification? Understanding The Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2005 Casualties of Unification?: Understanding the Various Interpretations of the Dissolution of the Nationale Volksarmee and the Integration of Its Members into the Bundeswehr Roy R. Weidanz Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES CASUALTIES OF UNIFICATION? UNDERSTANDING THE VARIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE NATIONALE VOLKSARMEE AND THE INTEGRATION OF ITS MEMBERS INTO THE BUNDESWEHR By ROY R. WEIDANZ A Thesis submitted to the Program in Russian and East European Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts Degree Awarded: Spring Semester, 2005 Copyright © 2005 Roy R. Weidanz All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Roy R. Weidanz defended on March 29, 2005. ____________________________________ Nathan Stoltzfus Professor Directing Thesis ____________________________________ Ljubisa S. Adamovich Committee Member ____________________________________ James P. Jones Committee Member Approved: _____________________________________________________ Ljubisa S. Adamovich, Chair, Russian and East European Studies _____________________________________________________ David Rasmussen, Dean, College of Social Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii Dedicated to my parents, Anna-Maria and Theodore Weidanz Jr., in the hopes that my accomplishments will serve as a feeble substitute for the many times I did not show appropriate appreciation for all of the unconditional love, care, and support they continuously gave to me. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank a number of people without whom this project would have neither been possible nor as successful. First, there is Ralph Malzahn, a former NVA officer who is now a Major in the Bundeswehr. I first met him in 2001 on an official visit to the armor school of the Bundeswehr to which he was assigned. During an evening get-together (and after a few beers), Ralph told me his experiences of the military aspect of German unification, and it was, foremost, his candor and emotional portrayal of the events that sparked my interest in the topic. Major Malzahn also introduced me to the various individuals I had the privilege of interviewing for my project. I would like to sincerely thank each and every one of them for the time they gave me. They are, in alphabetical order: Staatssekretär a. D. Werner Ablaß, Major Hans Apitzsch, Hauptfeldwebel Thomas Fiss, Major Roland Mattern, Mr. Oliver Wahren, and Oberstleutnant (OTL) Klaus Werren. I would also like to extend my gratitude to a few other individuals who provided me with their personal account of the events: OTL a.D. Herbert Becker of the Landesverband Ost des Deutschen BundeswehrVerband, OTL Wolfgang Dobrig from the BMVg Pressestab, and Major Bröckermann, Dr. Oberst Heinemann and Dr. Rüdiger Wenzke from the Militärgeschichtliche Forschungsamt. Furthermore, I would be remiss if I did not thank OTL Thorsten Alme, OTL Jens Konrad and OTL Chris Remshagen. These three Bundeswehr officers provided me with answers to many of my questions on Bundeswehr-related information, and I can only hope that our friendship did not suffer from the bombardment of e-mails and telephone calls to which I subjected them. Next, I would like to thank my Major Professor, Dr. Nathan Stoltzfus, whose guidance, suggestions, and editing over this long process have been extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. His encouragement to produce something worth publishing may have cost me a lot of midnight oil, but it spurned me to produce something that I hope will someday become an iv academic contribution to a topic that deserves much more research than currently exists. I would also like to thank my committee member, Dr. James P. Jones, for his support and the best instruction that I have, to date, received on general WWII history. This gratitude is also extended to my other committee member and the Department Chair of Russian and East European Studies, Dr. Ljubisa S. Adamovich, for providing me the opportunity to study at FSU and engaging me in many in-depth conversations on interesting and relevant topics. Finally, I need to acknowledge the unfailing support I received from my family, especially my wife Anja. Her patience and the understanding that she demonstrated in regards to my many responses of "just one more week" or "I will take care of it later" was a true illustration that behind the success of many men there often stands a great woman. To Anja, her son Elija and our son Lionel, I promise that the light at the end of the tunnel will bring about more of my time being devoted to my precious family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ ix Abstract .................................................................................................................................. x 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 2. INTERPRETATIONS ....................................................................................................... 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 8 Primary Sources ......................................................................................................... 9 Secondary Sources ..................................................................................................... 27 Personalizing Interpretations ..................................................................................... 54 3. THE FATE OF THE NVA WITH A FOCUS ON NUMBERS ........................................ 68 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 68 From Reform to Retreat ............................................................................................. 69 From Dissolution to Final Integration ........................................................................ 76 The Interpretation of Numbers ................................................................................... 84 Personalizing Numbers .............................................................................................. 91 4. FACTORS THAT INFLUENCED THE FATE OF THE NUMBERS ............................. 95 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 95 The International Environment .................................................................................. 96 The Internal Environment .......................................................................................... 109 Factors specific to the NVA ....................................................................................... 114 The Impact and Final Outcome determined by the Competing Factors .................... 122 5. EPILOGUE ........................................................................................................................ 127 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 127 Open Issues ................................................................................................................ 128 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 133 NOTES ................................................................................................................................... 138 vi SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 154 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................................................................................. 159 vii LIST OF FIGURES 1. Initial Integration of NVA Personnel into the Bundeswehr ............................................... 78 2. Overall Integration of NVA Personnel into the Bundeswehr ............................................ 83 viii LIST OF TABLES 1. Gauck-Behörde Inquiries and Results ............................................................................... 81 2. Summary of NVA Equipment ........................................................................................... 116 3. A Comparison between the Bundeswehr and the NVA ..................................................... 120 ix ABSTRACT “And as the anthem of the still-existing GDR was played, the national anthem, which I did not like, a sense of melancholy arose in me. It was a feeling that I did not expect. After all, 40 years are not so easily erased”. The above statement is a reflection by Werner E. Ablaß from his book Zapfenstreich: von der NVA zur Bundeswehr, and provides a good example of the complicated emotional aspect of German unification. In the book, Mr. Ablaß states that the complexity of those times can also be seen in the change that he himself under went when his originally negative opinion of the East German armed
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