Under communism, western pornography was banned, but the East German army's 160-man film unit had a secret 12-person amateur circle that made 12 erotic films before the fall of communism in 1989. The TV documentary showed original film clips of nude subalterns kissing, and female army privates in helmets posing partially nude on parade.
A former sound technician and actor in the sex film circle — who now works in Germany’s army media department — said in an interview that the unit was set up in 1982. The movies were shot on 16mm film in a military hospital that was used as a studio. Most of the women who starred in the films were civilian employees of the army.
"We asked them whether they wanted a role, and nearly all of them said yes immediately," the technician said.
"All of the films were made in secret, but partly with the permission of senior officers. All the bosses came to these showings — either because they were just inquisitive or simply out of pure lust."
Some films made jokes about the shortcomings of the communist state. One scene depicted a man waiting to be seen by a female doctor. She enters and orders the man to strip to the waist. The man says, "I am your mechanic," whereupon the doctor immediately unbuttons her white coat and offers the patient sex because she is so grateful to have found somebody who can repair her car.
The clips also showed bawdy shots of a female army private in a helmet at a parade ground responding to the command "Breasts out!"
The scenes are markedly different from the atmosphere of public prudery that prevailed in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Although nudism and public nude swimming were tolerated, the regime banned West German sex films. Visitors who tried to bring in erotic magazines from the West would have the publications confiscated by border guards, and were sometimes refused entry to the country.
