Unterwegs! - V Put' in German | The East German Army March

Witness the precision of an East German military parade. This footage captures the East German military in formation during a display of national strength. The National People's Army served as the primary defense force of the German Democratic Republic. This recording offers a window into the Cold War history of the region, documenting the disciplined marches and heavy machinery that defined their public demonstrations. We focus on the visual record of the era, observing how the state utilized these processions to project order and homeland security. Watching these units move in such a synchronized military formation provides a perspective on the period's rigid structure. Beyond the pageantry, the NVA parade highlights the atmosphere of a divided nation, where forward movement and national pride were central to the state's messaging. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📜 THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG It sounds German. It was born Russian. Most listeners know this melody as "В путь" ("V Put'" - "On the Way!"), a Soviet march by composer Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy and poet Mikhail Dudin, first heard in 1955. It quickly outgrew its origins and travelled far beyond the Soviet Union. It was sung in German, in Chinese, in Korean. The army's own choir In East Germany, the song found its home with the Erich-Weinert-Ensemble. The company began on 15 July 1950 as a folk art ensemble of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei, the barracked police that came before the army. In 1956 it was handed over to the newly formed National People's Army and renamed after the writer Erich Weinert. It was far more than a choir. It had a male chorus, an orchestra, a ballet, soloists and a cabaret, and it was known for its range, from German folk songs to military marches. It toured as far as China and the Soviet Union. A song on both sides of the Wall The melody did not stay in the East. In West Germany, the singer Ivan Rebroff also performed it. One tune was heard on both sides of the Wall, by audiences who were told they had nothing in common. Back to Russian The German version holds one detail few people notice. Its final verses were not sung in German at all. The choir switched to Russian, returning the march to the words it was born with. This recording follows that same path: German first, then the original Russian at the end. 1989 On 7 October 1989, the National People's Army marched along Karl-Marx-Allee in East Berlin to mark the 40th anniversary of the republic. It was the last parade of its kind. Within weeks, the state that staged it had begun to fall. 1991 When Germany reunified, the Erich-Weinert-Ensemble passed to the Bundeswehr, the army of the other Germany. On 30 June 1991, it was disbanded. The columns are gone. The country is gone. The choir is gone. The song is still on its way. A note from us No one on the Aura Vault team is a native German speaker. We have worked carefully from published lyrics, but there may be mistakes in pronunciation or spelling. If you speak German, we would be grateful for your corrections in the comments. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🤖 AI DISCLOSURE This Aura Vault production may use AI-assisted tools for vocals, instruments, visuals, and arrangement, always under human creative direction and final curation. Historical parade footage is included for documentary and educational context. No archival or commercial audio recording was used, and no performer's voice has been cloned or imitated, including that of the Erich-Weinert-Ensemble. Original music: Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy · Original lyrics: Mikhail Dudin · German version as performed by the Erich-Weinert-Ensemble. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 LISTEN TO AURA VAULT Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0H6Rt... Apple Music:   / aura-vault   Full arrangements, no talking, no ads. Follow for new releases. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎬 MORE FROM AURA VAULT ⚔️ Soviet Anthem — Epic Rock:    • THE SOVIET ANTHEM (1977 Epic Rock Version)...   ⚔️ The Sacred War — Epic Rock:    • ⚔️ The Sacred War (Священная Война) — Epic...   🎵 Farewell of Slavianka — Epic Rock:    • Прощание славянки (Farewell of Slavianka) ...   🎵 Katyusha — Epic Rock:    • Katyusha (Катюша) — Most Powerful Epic Ver...   🎵 Kalinka — Epic Rock:    • KALINKA (Калинка) — Epic Rock Version | Th...   🎮 Soviet March — Epic Rock:    • Soviet March (Red Alert 3 Theme) — Most Po...   ▶️ Russian & Soviet Epic Collection:    • 🇷🇺 Russian & Soviet Epic Collection | Aura...   ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ — Aura Vault | Music, History, Respect #Unterwegs #VPut #EastGermany #AuraVault