Lecture and Discussion on November 17 in Rostock
The GDR liked to describe itself as a “peace-loving state.” Nevertheless, it supplied military equipment to dictators, liberation movements, and civil war armies in developing countries. During the First Gulf War in the 1980s, it even supplied both sides in the conflict—Iran and Iraq.
The GDR’s Engineering and Technical Foreign Trade (ITA) was the state-run enterprise behind these transactions. The ITA imported and exported weapons and military equipment within the Warsaw Pact and worldwide.
In his book *Arms Dealers in Uniform*, journalist and author Wolfgang Klietz presents the first comprehensive study of the ITA following years of research and will discuss it in a lecture on November 17 at the Rostock Documentation and Memorial Center. The lecture will be followed by a discussion with the author. The event will be moderated by Volker Höffer, historian and director of the Stasi Records Archive in Rostock. Admission is free.
