Comrades in arms : military masculinities in East German culture Without question the East German National Peoples Army was a profoundly masculine institution that emphasized traditional ideals of stoicism sacrifice and physical courage. Nonetheless as this innovative study demonstrates depictions of the military in the film and literature of the GDR were far more nuanced and ambivalent. Departing from past studies that have found in such portrayals an unchanging idealized masculinity Comrades in Arms shows how cultural works both before and after reunification place violence physical vulnerability and military theatricality as well as conscripts powerful emotions and desires at the center of soldiers lives and the military institution itself.