Archive footage of Soviet troops withdrawing from post-Wall Germany

Nov 08 2014

Anna Levicheva

RBTH

A detachment of Soviet troops was established in Germany after the victory of the Soviet Union and the Allies in World War II, Soviet troops were based in the country right up until German reunification in 1990.

The detachment consisted of troops from the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts and the 1st Ukrainian Front. The number of occupying Soviet troops ranged from 2.9 million in 1949 to 500,000 in the late 1980s.

The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 8, 1989, marked the start of the unification of East and West Germany. Following German reunification in 1990, the presence of Soviet troops in united Germany was designated as temporary. Soviet troops were to be systematically withdrawn by 1994. The main body of troops was withdrawn in 1992-1993, but the military commands stationed on German soil were only finally disbanded in 2002.

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