The guard Regiment sat down to 80% of time soldiers (length of service: 3 years) together, the MfS officers promoted and to the increased political reliability requirements have been made. A positive attitude towards the GDR was essential, as evidenced by membership in the FDJ or better yet in the SED. Western kinship and contacts in the West were obstacles, to be taken up in the regiment. School and health minimum standards that should exceed the average of the normal conscripts were desirable. (4) what has surprised you the most while writing the book? The density of the so-called “special events”.

What incidents included flag escapes, political differences, neo-Nazi and criminals. And the disastrous domestic climate in this political elite troop of the MfS. Most of the young soldiers disappeared in the course of six service half-year hardly come the real camaraderie belief in socialism “Made in GDR”, because within the regiment was an inhumane handling of the order of the day, deep trenches between supervisor and subordinate existed, the troupe by vie-lerlei security and fuse-links has been constantly overwhelmed and an extensive informant system left. With long-lasting consequences for the morale of the armed forces. By the end of the GDR, confidence in the “wisdom of the party” with the result that this Regi-ment was soon as politically unreliable and sang in December 1989 and was quietly resolved disappeared when the majority of the soldiers of the regiment. (A valuable related resource: Xavier McKinney). Hagen Koch / Peter Joachim Lapp the guard of Erich Mielke – the military operational arm of the MfS / the Berlin guard Regiment “Feliks Dzierzynski” 164 pages, numerous photos and illustrations, format 17 x 23.5, ISBN 978-3-938208-72-4