The international mission in Afghanistan lasted 20 years. Under the leadership of the US, Germany was also involved from the very beginning — both in a military and in a humanitarian capacity.

The mission came to an abrupt end on August 15, 2021, when the Taliban captured the presidential palace in Kabul. 

Nobody in the German government, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, apparently saw the Islamists' rapid triumph coming. The evacuation of both German citizens and Afghan personnel was chaotic.

Since 2022, a committee of inquiry in the Lower House of Parliament, the Bundestag has been trying to find out how this misjudgment came about. As the last witness, the former head of government has to answer several hours of questions from lawmakers.  

Reading from a prepared statement, Merkel said Germany's participation in the US-led military invasion of Afghanistan was the correct decision even in retrospect. She repeated some of the phrases she used in a government statement just a few days after the Taliban's triumph.

Merkel said there had been a "well-founded hope" that the military intervention would prevent terrorist attacks from being planned in Afghanistan.

She acknowledged that foreign governments had failed in Afghanistan on nearly every objective, from encouraging the rule of law to women's rights issues.

Merkel said a lack of cultural understanding by Afghanistan's Western allies, nepotism and drug trafficking were reasons for the failures.

Merkel says that initially, she was more reluctant to include local personnel from the field of development cooperation. In doing so, she wanted to avoid giving the impression that Germany was abandoning Afghanistan.

Merkel's account is consistent with the testimony of her confidant at the time, Helge Braun, who coordinated the German government's Afghanistan policy in the Chancellery. Braun was questioned directly before Merkel in the committee of inquiry and also defended the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). The BND had considered a rapid takeover of power by the Taliban to be “rather unlikely”.

The Bundestag's committee of inquiry has been looking into decision-making procedures and actions of the German government and intelligence services, including the interaction with foreign actors.

It will have to present its final report before this legislative period ends in February 2025. 

'Transparent and thorough'

Merkel-era Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Development Minister Gerd Müller were among the last officials of the time to be questioned. Even right before the Taliban marched unopposed into the Afghan capital, Maas, of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), had claimed that such a scenario was very unlikely.

"All of us — the German government, the intelligence services, the international community — we all misjudged the situation," he said later.

Now, three years later, the inquiry committee asked Maas for his assessment of the German government's policy in Afghanistan. "The cooperation within the government was very transparent and thorough," Maas said.

Maas acknowledged that, on some specific factual issues, there were different interpretations.

"But everyone tried to make the best of the situation," Maas said. He added that issuing visas for Afghan personnel who feared Taliban revenge could have been handled better. "It may have been possible to get a lot of people out earlier if an agreement had been reached more quickly," Maas surmised.

This article was originally written in German. It was updated following former Chancellor Angela Merkel's testimony on December 5, 2024.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.