I've read quite a bit how after WWII West German politics and culture created a (largely false) image of a German army that was largely separate from and not implicated in the vast crimes of the Nazis. My understanding is that this was largely a reaction to the Cold War, former officers trying to rehabilitate their image, and a voting public that would rather forget. Many members of the army were granted commutations or amnesty in the 1950's. To what extent did this attitude exist in East Germany at the time? Did DDR officials try to draw a distinction between "normal" Germans and Nazis like people in the West did. If so, what form did this messaging take? Did the Soviets try to push this message or counteract it? Did a similar amnesty take place in the East?
Unfortunately I don't have that much time at the moment, however I've got at least some answers to the questions you've asked.
You're right about the image of the Wehrmacht in Western Germany. The day the war ended, a new myth began. A narrative of an efficient army, that focussed on its military duties, was propagated. The public made up a strict distinction between the Wehrmacht - that fought bravely and according to its oath - and the highly ideological SS - that was held responsible for all crimes that couldn't be trivialized. This narrative however wasn't specific for the discourse in western Germany, since both German states were likewise reluctant to work out the crimes committed. Although there was criminal prosecution in the beginning, from 1950 on both states made exemptions from punishment, trying to reintegrate former Wehrmacht officers into their armies.
The cultural memory was shaped by former officers in east and west, emphasizing how efficient the army fought, strictly distancing it from all atrocities committed. It is important to know, that the public wasn't quite about the war. In fact there were many magazines, memories and movies portraying it. Almost all of them however focussed on the suffering of ordinary German civilians or soldiers, who weren't responsible for any crimes in this narrative and basically were another victim of the regime and its policy. The historian Danyel Jürgen stated, that this tendency was even stronger in eastern Germany, because of its definition of fascism. GDR officials made a strict distinction between the nazi-elite and the ordinary workingclass, that was opposed to the regime, according to them. The soldiers of the Wehrmacht were a part of it, obviously.
One of the most important mediums in spreading this narrative, were movies. Although the eastern German DEFA made films about some of the atrocities (like Sterne from 1959), the Wehrmacht or the responsibility of ordinary civilians weren't issues at this point. In fact the crimes were externalized to the elite of the regime or the SS. The dichotomy I've outlined in the beginning, was therefore equally viral in east and west.