From 1962, conscription was mandatory for all GDR males aged between 18 and 60 requiring an 18-month service, and it was the only Warsaw Pact military to offer non-combat roles to conscientious objectors, known as "construction soldiers" (Bausoldat).

The NVA was formed on 1 March 1956 to succeed the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (Barracked People's Police) and under the influence of the Soviet Army became one of the Warsaw Pact militaries opposing NATO during the Cold War.

[1] The NVA did not see significant combat but participated in the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, deployed military advisors to communist governments in other countries, and manned the Berlin Wall where they were responsible for numerous deaths.

The NVA was dissolved on 2 October 1990 with the GDR before German reunification, and its facilities and equipment were handed over to the Bundeswehr (the armed forces of West Germany), which also absorbed most of its personnel below the rank of non-commissioned officer.

This formation culminated 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.

During the 1980s at various times the NVA had advisors in Algeria, Angola, Ethiopia, Guinea, Iraq, Libya, Mozambique, South Yemen, and Syria.

[12] However, the NVA general staff limited their role to advisory and technical functions, resisting Soviet pressure to commit regular combat formations to African conflicts.

[13] But the East German participation raised Czech ire, and the two divisions were "kept out of sight in the Bohemian forests"[13] and allowed to travel only at night.

In the early 1970s the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) high command assigned to the NVA the wartime mission of capturing West Berlin.

The NVA went into 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 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and, for the last time, in late 1989 as protests swept through the GDR.

During the Peaceful Revolution that led to the downfall of the GDR's communist government, some NVA forces were placed on alert but were never deployed against protesters.

Political control of the armed forces took place through close integration with the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which vetted all officers.

[citation needed] 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.

[22] According to the Parallel History Project on Cooperative Security: the NVA was incorporated in the Warsaw Pact and consisted of army, air force/air defense (Luftstreitkräfte/Luftverteidigung), and the People’s Navy (Volksmarine).

According to a 1973 study, NVA leaders from the late 1950s through the 1960s came 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.

Under the process of "Army of Unity" (Armee der Einheit), NVA facilities and equipment were handed over to the Bundeswehr, the federal defense force of the unified Germany.

Bundeswehr Eastern Command (Bundeswehrkommando Ost) was set up for the control of units or facilities in the territory of former East Germany, and was led by Lieutenant General Jörg Schönbohm.

Much of the materiel was given free of charge to beneficiaries in the new federal states or other departments, to museums, or to friendly nations in the context of military support for developing countries.

This changed in 1964 when, under pressure from the Protestant Church in Germany, the GDR's National Defence Council authorised the formation of Baueinheiten (construction units) for men of draft age who "refuse military service with weapons on the grounds of religious viewpoints or for similar reasons".

The construction soldiers wore uniforms and lived in barracks under military discipline, but were not required to bear arms and received no combat training.

Moreover, conscripts who chose the alternative service option often faced discrimination later in life, including denial of opportunities for higher education.

The highest level of leadership for the NVA was the Ministry for National Defense (Ministerium für Nationale Verteidigung) headquartered in Strausberg near East Berlin.

The desire for a separate "German" and "socialist" military tradition, and the consequent founding of the NVA in 1956, introduced new uniforms which strongly resembled those of the Wehrmacht.

Most uniforms (service, semi-dress, and parade) were stone grey, a brownish-grey colour that was conspicuously different from the grey-green of the People's Police.

Several basic categories of uniforms were worn: The parade uniform for ground forces officers was the semi-dress/walking-out tunic with all authorized orders, awards and decorations attached, breeches and riding boots, steel helmet, white shirt, dark-gray necktie, and a ceremonial dagger worn on the left side and fastened to a silver-gray parade belt.

It consisted of a single-breasted tunic without belt, a silver-gray shirt with dark-gray tie, the service cap, long trousers, and black low-quarter shoes.

The summer field uniform for both officers and enlisted consisted of a jacket and trousers originally in Flachtarnenmuster and then in Strichtarn, a dark-brown (later a forest green) raindrop camouflage pattern on a stone-gray background; a field cap, service cap, or steel helmet; high black boots; and a gray webbing belt with y-strap suspenders.

The winter uniform also included a fur pile cap or a steel helmet, boots, knitted gray gloves, belt, and suspenders.

Women wore uniforms consisting of jackets, skirts or slacks, blouses, caps, boots or pumps, and other appropriate items according to season and occasion.