The first tanks of the East German armed forces in the immediate post-war era became the Soviet T 34/76 and T 34/85. These vehicles came from Red Army wartime production and were soon supplemented by post-war Polish production vehicles. During its service in the armed forces of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) the T 34/85 was modernised to German T 34/85m standards. Additionally several German-designed T 34-based armoured recovery vehicles and specialised vehicles were introduced. Alongside these served SU 85 and SU 100 self-propelled guns.

This publication comprehensively describes the various production batches of the T 34 in the DDR, the modernisation efforts, the variants and last but not least the story of the T 34-equipped units of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) and Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) of the DDR.