”Udviklingen i Østtyskland er dramatisk!” Forsvarschefen general J. Lyngs arkiv 1985-1996.

Resumé

The objective of this article is to describe the private archive belonging to ret. Danish General Jørgen Lyng (b. 1934). He served as deputy Chief of Sta. from December 1985 – October 1989 and as Chief of Defense from November 1989 – March 1996. The archive consists of more than 70.000 pages and an unpublished 621 pages biography. It o.ers a unique view into the day-to-day business of running the Danish defense during the unsettling days when the Cold War came to an end and NATO and the Danish defense had to find its feet in a new world order. The Danish defense was then one of the largest “firms” in Denmark, and the General’s archive tells the story of how the Danish defense command worked to fullfill the wishes from the Danish politicians – who wanted to cut the size of the Danish defense -, while at the same time fighting to maintain as many capabilities as possible – so that the army, navy and air force could still defend Denmark and the eastern part of the Baltic. The archive has now been transferred from the Royal Danish Defence College to the Danish National Archives, where researchers working with modern Danish or European military history can now apply for access to this trove of new information.