Associated PhD project

This PhD project addresses leadership systems underpinned with computers in the Bundeswehr and the National People’s Army (NVA) in the context of the formation and establishment of both armies within the alliance system of NATO and of the Warsaw Pact. Three focal points will be connected with each other in the study. The significance of computers in the network of alliances during the Cold War, the special role of the NVA and the Bundeswehr in the German history of digitalisation, and the transformation of military practices via the heightened use of computers in the operational area. The development from mechanical to digital computer technology will be illuminated on the basis of a systematic analysis underpinned by archival research.