Construction soldier

Before the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, military service in the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) was entirely voluntary, though intensive recruitment drives were mounted by public schools and the Free German Youth, and service was often a prerequisite for future career advancement. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had introduced conscription in 1956, one year after the Bundeswehr was established, to maximise military strength for the potential World War III during the Cold War. The GDR authorities were reluctant to introduce conscription, partly because they feared that it would increase the already large number of citizens legally migrating to West Germany, known as Republikflucht. However, the Berlin Wall's construction led to a rapid drop in emigration from the GDR (now effectively illegal) with the number decreasing from hundreds of thousands per year to only hundreds per year.

On 24 January 1962, East Germany introduced conscription, with all males aged 18 to 60 required to serve 18-months in the National People's Army (NVA). The decision was met by strong resistance from Christian churches in the GDR, who rejected military conscription as there were no alternatives for conscientious objectors who refused armed service on pacifist grounds. When over 1,000 East German men refused mandatory military service and were subsequently arrested in 1962 and 1963, the GDR authorities came under pressure to provide an alternative to armed service. In 1964, Emil Fuchs, a prominent member of the pacifists, managed to negotiate a deal with the East German government allowing conscientious objectors to be able to serve their conscription in non-combat roles, becoming the only Warsaw Pact country to allow this. The National Defense Council of East Germany 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 Baueinheiten were seen as a victory for East German conscientious objectors, but in reality their creation was a planned move by the government to segregate them from regular conscripts, who they feared would be contaminated by pacifist ideas. Additionally, the Bausoldaten provided the GDR with a large source of cheap labor in a country plagued with chronic labor shortages.

The Bausoldaten or "construction soldiers" wore uniforms, lived in barracks under military discipline, and had to serve for the mandatory 18 months like regular soldiers, but were not required to bear arms and received no combat training. They were nicknamed "Spatensoldaten" or "Spati", an abbreviation of the German word for a spade, which was shown on their uniforms. In theory, Bausoldaten were to be used only for civilian construction projects, but they were used to build military installations until 1973 when churches began protesting their usage. Instead, they received relatively "civilian" tasks in military institutions such as repairing tanks and military equipment, gardeners, nurses in military hospitals, or in kitchens. During the later years of the GDR, many construction soldiers also worked in large state-owned companies suffering from labor shortages, for example in the chemical industry or in lignite mines. Though outwardly peaceful in appearance, soldiers in Baueinheiten were obliged to make a promise of loyalty in which they stated that they would "fight against all enemies and obey their superiors unconditionally", though this was replaced by an oath to "increase defence readiness" in the 1980s. The demand for Baueinheiten grew shortly after their founding as workers were needed for labour in construction projects, and in 1966 four more battalions were set up. Prora on the island of Rügen became the largest concentration of Bausoldat, housing over 500 men for the construction of the Mukran ferry port in Sassnitz. In 1968, the demand for Baueinheiten grew rapidly following the GDR government's tacit support for the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, which appalled many young East German men and led to a surge of conscientious objection.

Service in the Baueinheiten, although legal, was deliberately stigmatized, both for ideological reasons and to discourage conscripts from trying to avoid armed service in the "easier" construction units. Originally, the Baueinheiten were stylized as penal military units with names such as Arbeitskompanien ("Labor company") and Arbeitsbataillone ("Labor battalion"), but this styling was dropped when it was considered to be similar to the Strafkompanie of the Nazi concentration camps. The GDR viewed conscientious objectors as potential enemies of the state, and after the completion of mandatory service, former Bausoldaten were actively discriminated against in the state apparatus. A record of service as a construction soldier could lead to the denial of opportunities in employment, career advancement, and the state higher education system. In the 1970s, GDR leaders acknowledged that former construction soldiers were at a disadvantage when they rejoined the civilian sphere. In 1984, General Secretary Erich Honecker and Defence Minister Army General Heinz Hoffmann asserted that Bausoldaten no longer suffered such discrimination; like others who had completed their military service, they were given preference in the university admission process.

In the 1980s, the gradual decline of the GDR led to increasing resistance to mandatory military service, even in the Baueinheiten, from the growing pacifist movement and opposition to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Many serving Bausoldaten belonged to the opposition movement, while the youth in East Germany began to increasingly demand for an alternative civilian service.

On 1 January 1990, the Baueinheiten were dissolved and 1,500 construction soldiers released, while the remaining members were released from the NVA at the beginning of October 1990, days before the GDR's dissolution and German reunification. The dissolution of the Baueinheiten was a deliberate political act under the government Lothar de Maizière, the only non-SED and democratically elected prime minister of the GDR, occurring just over a month after the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989.