Tentara Rakyat Nasional Jerman

Tentara Rakyat Nasional Jerman (TRNJ)
Nationale Volksarmee (NVA)
Lambang NVA
Bendera Tentara Rakyat Nasional Jerman
Slogan	Für den Schutz der Arbeiter-und-Bauern-Macht (Untuk Keamanan Para Pekerja, Petani, dan Kekuatan Negara)
Didirikan	1 Maret 1956
Dibubarkan	2 Oktober 1990
Angkatan	Angkatan Darat Angkatan Laut Angkatan Udara Penjaga Perbatasan
Markas besar	Strausberg, Berlin Timur
Kepemimpinan
Head of State	Lihat Daftar Wilhelm Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Willi Stoph, Erich Honecker, Egon Krenz, Manfred Gerlach, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl
Minister of Defence	Lihat Daftar Willi Stoph, Heinz Hoffmann, Heinz Kessler, Theodor Hoffmann, Rainer Eppelmann
Army General	Lihat Daftar Willi Stoph, Heinz Hoffmann, Erich Mielke, Friedrich Dickel, Heinz Kessler
Penambahan usia militer/tahun	(175,300 (1987))

Tentara Rakyat Nasional Jerman atau dalam bahasa jerman : Nationale Volksarmee disingkat NVA, adalah nama angkatan bersenjata milik Jerman Timur.

TRNJ didirikan tahun 1956 dan dihapuskan tahun 1990. TRNJ ini sebenarnya tak pernah terlibat di dalam konflik bersenjata secara langsung, namun pada saat Pendudukan Uni Soviet ke Cekoslowakia berencana untuk dilibatkan namun pada menit-menit terakhir pelaksanaan Operasi Danube dibatalkan dengan alasan tak jelas dari Uni Soviet. Beberapa laporan juga merujuk kepada petinggi-petinggi TRNJ yang mana ada beredar kabar banyak membantu revolusi komunis di wilayah Afrika dan Timur Tengah pada era Perang Dingin.

Sejarah

Artikel utama: Landstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee

Parade Prajurit TRNJ pada perayaan ulang tahun ke-40 lahirnya negara Republik Demokratik Jerman di Berlin

The National People’s Army was created on March 1 1956, six months after the formation of the West German Bundeswehr, from the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (Barracked People's Police). It was preceded by years of preparation during which former Wehrmacht officers and communist veterans of the Spanish Civil War helped organize and train paramilitary units of the People's Police. With its German appearance—including uniforms and ceremonies patterned after older German military traditions—the doctrine and structure of the NVA were strongly influenced by the Soviet Armed Forces.

During its first year, about 27 percent of the NVA's officer corps had formerly served in the Wehrmacht. Of the 82 highest command positions, 61 were held by ex-Wehrmacht officers; however, very few of them had served in high ranks. The military knowledge and combat experience of these veterans were indispensable in the NVA's early years, although by the 1960s most of these World War II veterans had been retired. The West German Bundeswehr similarly relied on Wehrmacht veterans who initially comprised the majority of its commissioned ranks.

In its first six years, the NVA was an all-volunteer force. West Germany, in contrast, re-introduced universal military service in 1956. Conscription was finally introduced in 1962, and the NVA's strength was increased to approximately 170,000 troops.

Like the communist parties of other socialist states, the SED assured control by appointing loyal party members to top positions and organizing intensive political education for all ranks. The proportion of SED members in the officer corps rose steadily after the early 1960s, eventually reaching almost 95 percent of the officer corps.

The NVA described itself as the "instrument of power of the working class". According to its doctrine, the NVA protected peace and secured the achievements of socialism by maintaining a convincing deterrent to imperialist aggression. The NVA's motto, inscribed on its flag, was "For the Protection of the Workers' and Farmers' Power."

The NVA never took part in full-scale combat, although it participated in a support role in the suppression of the Prague Spring of 1968 and NVA officers often served as combat advisers in Africa. When the Soviet Union prepared to occupy Czechoslovakia, the GDR government originally planned to use the 7th Panzer Division and the 11th Motorized Infantry Division to support the intervention, but fear of international reaction to the deployment of German troops outside Germany for the first time since the Second World War caused second thoughts. Instead, the NVA provided logistical help when Soviet troops advanced into Czechoslovakia and stood at the border ready to intervene in the event that the Soviet Army could not quell the uprising.

During the 1970s, and increasingly in the 1980s, the NVA achieved new standards of mobilization times and combat readiness (Gefechtsbereitschaft). The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) submarine-based missiles were seen as its most potent weapon and the hardest to defend against. Ultimately, 85 per cent of all NVA units were on constant alert and trained to depart within 25 to 30 minutes from their bases to designated areas about five to seven kilometers apart. Mobilization of reserves would have been completed within two days. These unprecedented levels of combat readiness were considered the major asset of GDR military deterrence but have never been proven to be accurate. These preparedness levels placed a huge strain on military professionals and conscripts alike.

Berkas:Stamps of Germany (DDR) 1981, MiNr 2580.jpg

A stamp celebrating 25 years of the NVA. In the background is a memorial commemorating those who perished in the former Nazi Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp.

In the early 1970s the NVA was assigned the wartime mission of capturing West Berlin by the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany high command. The NVA plan for the operation was designated 'Operation Centre' and called for some 32,000 troops in two divisions, accompanied by the GSFG's 6th Guards Separate Motor Rifle Brigade. The plan was regularly updated until 1988, when a less ambitious plan that simply aimed at containing Berlin was substituted.

In the autumn of 1981, the NVA stood ready to intervene in Poland in support of a possible Soviet invasion, but the declaration of martial law in Poland averted the crisis.

The NVA was in a state of heightened combat readiness on several occasions, including the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the 1968 Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia, and, for the last time, in late 1989 as protests swept through the country.

Ideology

The NVA was a professional volunteer army until 1962, when conscription was introduced. The armed forces were controlled by the National Defense Council, but the mobile forces were under the Warsaw Pact Unified Command. Political control of the armed forces was through close integration with the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which vetted all the officers. Popular support for the military establishment was bolstered by military training provided by the school system and through the growing militarization of society. From a Leninist perspective, the NVA stood as a symbol of Soviet-East German solidarity and became the model Communist institution—ideological, hierarchical, and disciplined. The NVA synthesized Communist and Germanic symbolism, naming its officers' academy after Karl Marx's coauthor Friedrich Engels, and its highest medal after Prussian General Gerhard von Scharnhorst.

During the popular demonstrations that led to the downfall of the GDR's hardline Communist leadership, some NVA forces were placed on alert but were never deployed against protestors. At the same time, the Soviet government ordered its troops in the GDR to remain in barracks. After the forced retirement of SED and state leader Erich Honecker and other conservatives from the ruling Politburo at the height of the crisis in October 1989, the new SED leadership never considered the possibility of using armed force against the Peaceful Revolution.

Composition

The manpower of the NVA consisted of some 85,000 soldiers in 1962, climbed to 127,000 by 1967, and remained essentially steady through 1970. In 1987, at the peak of its power, the NVA numbered 175,300 troops. Approximately 50% of this number were career soldiers, while the others were short-term conscripts.

According to a 1973 study, NVA leaders from the late 1950s through the 1960s were drawn predominantly from working-class backgrounds, with few from middle class or professional families and no representatives of the aristocracy present in the upper echelons. Excepting specialized military or political instruction, most NVA leaders reported primary school as their highest level of formal education.

Post-unification

Tatra-813

The NVA was disbanded in 1990. Its facilities and equipment were handed over to the Bundeswehr. Most facilities were closed, and equipment was either sold or given to other countries. Most of the NVA's 36,000 officers and NCOs were let go, including all officers above the rank of lieutenant colonel. Only 3,200 were retained by the Bundeswehr after a demotion of one rank. In addition, all female soldiers and all soldiers over the age of 55 were also discharged.

Until March 1, 2005, time served in the NVA was listed as time “served in a foreign military”. Service in the NVA did not count for points towards federal pensions in the unified Germany. Retired NVA soldiers and officers received only minimal pensions after unification: a thirty-year veteran would receive a pension smaller than a graduate student stipend. After the reform, service in the NVA is known as “served outside of the Bundeswehr”.

Many former NVA officers feel bitter about their treatment after unification. While receiving only minimal pensions, few have been able to find jobs except as laborers or security guards. Former NVA officers are not permitted to append their NVA rank to their name as a professional title; no such prohibition applies to rank attained in the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS during the Nazi era.

One of the few former NVA facilities not closed was its Storkow base near Berlin, which housed the NVA's camouflage and deception center. This became the Bundeswehr Unit for Camouflage and Deception.