Editing East Germany (section)

==== Conscientious objection ====
{{Main|Conscientious objection in East Germany}}

Every man was required to serve eighteen months of [[conscription|compulsory military service]]. For the medically unqualified and [[conscientious objector]]s, there were the {{lang|de|[[Baueinheiten]]}} (construction units) or the {{lang|de|Volkshygienedienst}} (People's Sanitation Service), both established in 1964, two years after the introduction of conscription, in response to political pressure by the national [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] Protestant Church upon the GDR's government. In the 1970s, East German leaders acknowledged that former [[construction soldier]]s and sanitation service soldiers were at a disadvantage when they rejoined the civilian sphere.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}