00:20Dear friends, welcome to this recap about the last video on the Bundeswehr and the
00:29NVA. First of all, a very heartfelt thank you. The video has broken a five-year record so far in
00:40terms of comments. Not in terms of viewership numbers, those are mixed, but the comments. They are, of course, intense.
00:53We have the usual handful of loudmouths in the comments who just want to spout their crap. I left some
01:01of them in and deleted some of them.
01:03Then I have three or four, both from the east and the west, who would still be happy to shoot
01:11today. They'd love to start shooting at each other first thing tomorrow morning.
01:16I left them in as well to show you what kind of idiots still exist. And then, of course, there
01:24are also a lot of reflective people on both sides who are very grateful.
01:29The fact that nothing happened, except that people stood facing each other, armed to the teeth.
01:37But nothing happened.
01:39And, of course, there were still some who thought they had to remind me of the oath I took in
01:461967, when I said in the video that,
01:50In the event of an attack and a possible encounter with NVA troops, I thought it would make more sense
01:58to ally with them.
02:00But I'd rather remind those people of the oath, which, among other things, also says the following,
02:07And the rights and freedom of the German people.
02:11Thank you very much.
02:13The German people, as far as I'm concerned, have not yet been limited to the territory of the Federal Republic.
02:21Oh, of course, that would have been a purely hypothetical or theoretical question.
02:29But if it had come to that...
02:31Then we certainly would not have fought against our own army.
02:35There must have been some misunderstanding.
02:40And then, of course, there were also the very, very many disappointed people,
02:45who, as soldiers, had imagined things very differently.
02:50With the reunification.
02:52And now, in their comments, they also pointed to the white paper of 1994 back then, under Minister Stoltenberg,
03:04which supposedly stated that a joint army had been planned.
03:09First of all, once again today, I want to point out, be careful with what you read.
03:17For example, I found something from 2017 when the NVA officers joined the Bundeswehr.
03:26Deutschlandfunk.
03:27A journalist, who has since had a great career, wrote that there were over 100,000 tanks and armored vehicles
03:38there.
03:44And as long as such nonsense is being spread by journalists, and that's not the only example,
03:51it runs like a common thread, even when it comes to the Bundeswehr, through the German press,
03:58who just copies some lousy agency reports or share their own twisted opinions.
04:06And that sticks with the audience.
04:10But I found something else, and I don't want to withhold it from you.
04:16Namely, what I mentioned.
04:18From the Ministry.
04:20German Reunification from the Perspective of the Career Soldiers of the National People's Army.
04:27After reading this, now declassified, confidential document,
04:33of course it doesn't surprise me that if there was ever any intention to integrate larger parts of the NVA
04:42into the Bundeswehr,
04:44this was handled very cautiously.
04:48Then, in the end, it was dropped.
04:51The core question was whether the NVA could continue to exist on the path to German unification,
04:59and how the NVA could be integrated into a unified Germany.
05:07And now, the NVA cadres, career non-commissioned officers and warrant officers,
05:15and officers have been questioned.
05:18And they came up with some rather odd statements.
05:24I want to limit myself to just a few, but I have to quote them for you,
05:30otherwise someone will come and say,
05:32you forgot a comma.
05:34It's all meant to be quite simple.
05:36The proposal from Foreign Minister Genscher,
05:39NATO expansion up to the Elbe.
05:41But all German National Armed Forces that are not under NATO command, up to the Oder,
05:49cannot be accepted out of consideration for the security interests of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact.
05:56It comes from the GDR cadre NVA, officers and non-commissioned officers.
06:03Since every state in Europe would be granted the right to safeguard its security interests,
06:10the GDR must also be given the opportunity to contribute its military personnel and materiel to a united Germany.
06:19However, in this case, the defense burdens of the GDR would have to be significantly lower than those of the
06:26Federal Republic.
06:29Then there's also the fact that it would bring ideal conditions,
06:34intact armed forces, armed forces structures,
06:37personnel trained according to requirements,
06:39and operational combat equipment and weaponry.
06:42And now comes the important part.
06:44We have to take into account the historically justified mistrust of the Warsaw Pact states towards Germany,
06:51especially towards strong German armed forces.
06:54Ideally, this is best achieved by preserving the NVA's traditional ties to the Soviet armed forces.
07:02Those are, of course, real bombshells.
07:06Just let that sink in for a moment.
07:08The German officers in the GDR, or actually all NVA career personnel,
07:16relatively soon after reunification, which officially only happened on the 3rd October 1990.
07:23So during or in the course of reunification.
07:28But I think they really messed up a lot with that.
07:31There's more.
07:33The following opinions have emerged among career personnel, among others.
07:38A confederation of both German states while maintaining their respective military commitments and membership in both military alliances.
07:50A united Germany, even as a federal state, could not be a member of two different military alliances.
07:58NATO up to the Elbe, Warsaw Pact up to the NVA, or in between, the territory of today's GDR completely
08:08demilitarized under allied control of the four victorious powers.
08:12And the Soviet troops would remain in the GDR, but their numbers would have to be aligned with the strength
08:21of the U.S. troops in the Federal Republic.
08:26Yes, of course everyone can form their own opinion about that.
08:31It seems that, at least in parts of the GDR, there was a fairly definite desire for the NVA to
08:40continue as a relatively independent contingent.
08:44That means, just like the armies of Germany before the First World War, Prussian army, Bavarian, Saxon, Württemberg, and there
08:55was also a Hessian army.
08:57A Grand Ducal Hessian one.
08:59And, uh, that was probably also somewhat the intention of the GDR NVA cadres.
09:07Uh, it says here, the idea that the GDR must contribute to overall German security policy is, in a way,
09:22elevated to a legal claim.
09:24In this context, it is stressed quite confidently that one could hardly that the good conditions the NVA would bring,
09:32such as intact structures, trained personnel, and readiness for deployment, could be dispensed with in the course of the unification
09:42process.
09:43The commentator comments,
09:45However, the actual state of the NVA at present hardly justifies such a self-assessment.
09:52Finally,
09:55And with that, I want to conclude this topic.
10:03This survey was evaluated as showing that the professional cadres of the NVA were still stuck in socialist ways of
10:14thinking.
10:16This is supported by references to the special consideration of Soviet security interests, the possible temporary presence of Soviet troops
10:25in Germany, the continued traditional ties between the NVA and the Soviet army, and so on, and so on.
10:36If that actually happened, and in fact, this information was passed on to all Bundeswehr and NATO offices, you can
10:47imagine.
10:48So there are two lists, densely printed with addresses, if that really had such an influence on shaping opinions during
10:58the process of reunification.
11:01From the fall of the Berlin Wall to October 3rd, the first election in 1990, the first all-German election.
11:10So I'm not surprised that in the West, they moved away from integrating larger NVA troop units one-to-one.
11:20Maybe also due to pressure from the Allies, because what you read there, it did make some people feel a
11:32bit uneasy, and that's why I ask you to just think about whether that could have been a reason as
11:40well.
11:41And not to just say that the West simply didn't want to, that it just wanted to take over the
11:48colony like it did everything else and then play the ruler.
11:51I keep getting these kinds of comments as well.
11:54Please think about it, and take to heart the words I have read to you.
12:00I think the NVA cadres made a big mistake there.
12:05They didn't have to ingratiate themselves.
12:08But maybe it would have been better to argue in somewhat more democratic terms.
12:15Lastly, I would like to talk about something regarding that, which many also complain about, that the NVA and the
12:26reunification are barely mentioned in school textbooks, or even in class.
12:32I can reassure you about that.
12:35The Bundeswehr is mentioned just as little, probably even less.
12:39But it's important that what needs to be passed on, is passed on.
12:47It also needs to be passed on.
12:50And it can only be passed on, not by half-baked journalists or professors, but it has to be done
12:57by the soldier, whether the soldier was in the NVA or the Bundeswehr.
13:02That means for me, dear grandfathers, you who were soldiers in the two German armies, just write something down, or
13:13speak into the phone and record it.
13:16Or make a drawing of your time in service and leave something personal about that time during the Cold War.
13:26To your descendants, to the grandchildren's generation, who are always the first to ask questions, as we all know.
13:35The sons forget it, and the daughters always regret not asking more.
13:41But then the grandchildren come and want to know, and we have to do this for the grandchildren, we old
13:47soldiers.
13:50Both male and female. Let's not forget that about her today.
13:54I don't think about the others. I have nothing to do with them.
13:58With the third kind.
14:01With that in mind, let's get to work.
14:06Write down what was important to you, what you liked, what wasn't okay.
14:13Write your deep thoughts, place them in an envelope, and note how your grandchild would find it.
14:18And someday, they will be grateful to you.
14:22I am grateful to everyone who just listened to me.
14:27Thank you to everyone who follows my channel.
14:29I will soon. Thank you.
14:33Many thanks.
14:35I want to show gratitude to my followers.
14:37But that will be a new video that will be coming your way soon.
14:44I wish you all the best.
Comments