That's right, Brotherton Lad, "
Feldwebel" is Sergeant. The ominous "smoking-gun order" allegedly written to finally "prove" (on a number of occasions as it turned out) that there was indeed an official "shoot-to-kill" order was actually inofficially turned out by a "
Feldwebel" in 1973.
Far from being any sort of "company commander" he was, instead, a "
Grenzabschnittsbevollmächtigter". Which, regardless of how you attempt to wiggle it around, accurately translates to: "person authorised to be in charge of a border section". This was at a time (1973) shortly after the
NVA had first been asked to train and deploy special border guards (
GrenzTruppen) to take over from the "
Grenzpolizei" in the GDR.
You'll know far better than me, Broftherton Lad, how responsibilities within NVA and border troops were spread out, changed or altered on the fly as the political situation demanded. I look forward to your future contributions to this thread -
sofern du überhaupt Bock dazu hast, Alter, denn du scheinst dich in letzter Zeit auf der Webseite ziemlich dünne gemacht zu haben.

MsG
PS. Ach Jaisus! I hope Dooky_Boy ain't gonna show up and can me for using German on a thread all about Germany!