The Bundeswehr has accused drill instructors at a barracks in southern Germany of intentionally overexerting new recruits. Six recruits broke down during a running exercise in January, including one who was hospitalized.
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The German military has accused drill instructors at the Staufer barracks in Pullendorf of intentionally overexerting new recruits during a training exercise in January, which saw six soldiers break down from exhaustion or injury.
Citing an unpublished report by Bundeswehr State Secretary Peter Tauber, German weekly Spiegel reported on Wednesday that the drill instructors stand accused of seeking to single out weaker recruits during a 15-kilometer marching exercise.
According to the report, some recruits were already failing to keep up with the rest of the group after just a single kilometer. However, instead of allowing the rest of the runners to take a break, instructors enforced penalty rounds, forcing them run back to their fallen colleagues up to three consecutive times. During the third round, one of the recruits collapsed unconscious and was taken to a hospital. Five other recruits reportedly collapsed from exhaustion.
Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive
For German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, 2017 has so far been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year. She's had to weather numerous Bundeswehr scandals and is under fire for not supporting her own troops.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
Von der Leyen under fire
Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen wanted to show she's not blind to problems among her own troops. In light of the most recent scandal, she openly criticized army leadership, saying the Bundeswehr had an "attitude problem." But Bundeswehr officials found her comments to be outrageous. Their response to the defense minister's criticism: "Leadership goes from the top down."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/G. Fischer
A fake Syrian refugee
The story causing the uproar: Bundeswehr lieutenant Franco A. was allegedly planning a terrorist attack and led a double life, pretending to be a Syrian refugee. He was granted partial asylum status as a war refugee in December 2016. His alleged goal: another attack blamed on a refugee. Bundeswehr officials are said to have known about Franco A.'s right-wing tendencies since 2014, but did nothing.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Rumpenhorst
Abuse in Bad Reichenhall mountain rangers unit
The Bundeswehr is currently investigating 275 cases of suspected right-wing extremism. But they're also dealing with other types of scandals. In March 2017, the public learned about the case of a lance corporal who had suffered months of abuse in a Bavarian mountain rangers unit. The victim reported being threatened and sexually harassed in 2015 and 2016. Prosecutors investigated 14 people.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Hoppe
Female recruits forced to pole-dance
The biggest scandal of von der Leyen's term so far: the horror stories coming out of the Staufer army base in Pfullendorf. In January, it was revealed that superior officers there forced recruits to undress and perform sexually-motivated acts and filmed them. Female recruits were forced to pole dance as part of an "entrance exam." The top Bundeswehr training commander was fired as a result.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Warnack
Many cases of right-wing extremism investigated
According to a report from Germany's federal parliamentary commissioner for the Bundeswehr, Hans-Peter Bartels, 2016 wasn't a great year for the Bundeswehr, either. There were around 60 incidents related to alleged right-wing extremism or "violations against the bases of Germany's free democratic constitutional structure." Troops shared anti-Semitic images and music or did the Nazi salute.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
Death on board the Gorch Fock
The Bundeswehr wasn't immune to scandals before von der Leyen became defense minister in December 2013. One that garnered significant public attention was the death of a 25-year-old recruit on the Navy training vessel Gorch Fock in 2010. The woman fell from the rigging during an exercise. As a consequence, other cadets refused to climb the rigging. Officer training on the ship was suspended.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Rehder
The birth of the Bundeswehr
Directly after World War II, Germany was not allowed to have an army. The Bundeswehr had its start in West Germany in 1955. After reunification, the Bundeswehr took in 20,000 soldiers from East Germany's armed forces. A big change came in 1999, when the Bundeswehr first participated in an international conflict: the Kosovo War. Before that, they had only gone abroad for peacekeeping missions.
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No more mandatory service
Today the Bundeswehr has roughly 178,200 active soldiers. As of March 2017, 11.4 percent of them are women. Until 2011, men were required to do mandatory military service, the length of which varied between nine and 18 months. Today, the Bundeswehr has to appeal to young people to recruit soldiers. The most recent scandals are making that that more and more difficult.
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According to Tauber's report, the incident showed that "not only was the methodology in physical education wrong, but it may also have violated the principles of leadership and military duties."
Two of the instructors supervising the run have already been penalized. A sergeant who accompanied the recruits during the exercise has been transferred to another post and remains under investigation. Meanwhile, a lieutenant was fined €2,000 ($2,455) for failing to fulfill his duty by not supervising the training.
Bundeswehr plagued by scandal
The accusations come at a sensitive time for the Staufer barracks, and the Bundeswehr more generally.
In early 2017, German media reported of "sexual-sadist practices" at the military training center in Pfullendorf, after trainers allegedly forced recruits to perform acts that were medically unnecessary and sexually motivated.
Five leading officers were demoted and seven soldiers were handed criminal charges in to order to "allow for a new start" at Staufer, according to the Defense Ministry.
January's incident isn't the only instance of recruits being dangerously overexerted, either. Last summer, a soldier died during a marching exercise at a barracks in Munster, Lower Saxony, after collapsing of heatstroke. That prompted the Defense Ministry to instruct all trainers that the individual's personal integrity should take precedence over all other training targets.
The Defense Ministry also admitted last year that it was investigating some 400 cases of right-wing extremism within the Bundeswehr's ranks. Only a handful of those cases were reported in the press, including that of Franco A., an army lieutenant who was exposed for leading a double life as a Syrian refugee and planning a terrorist attack.
