Die vergessene Armee

The Forgotten Army

The documentary looks at the fate and lives of former soldiers of the National People's Army (NVA) of the GDR. After the German reunification, around 11.000 former GDR soldiers were transferred to the Bundeswehr (Army of the Federal Republic). The considerably larger part of the NVA, far more than 200,000 soldiers, Stasi officers and frontier guards, lost their jobs practically overnight. The film pursues the question what became of these people that in the GDR almost all completely conformed to the system. How do they deal with their past in the German-German history and in today's society? It becomes obvious that some of these ex-soldiers and special forces have never quite found their place in reunified Germany. As a result they are clinging to old ideals of the GDR and uphold traditions and lost values in dedicated comrades associations.