Germany's military counterintelligence service is probing 391 cases of right-wing extremism, according to the Defense Ministry. An opposition politician called far-right soldiers "ticking time bombs."
In a year plagued by scandal, Germanys' Funke Media Group revealed on Friday that the Bundeswehr's Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) recorded 286 new cases of right-wing extremism in 2017.
The counterintelligence agency had ongoing probes into 275 cases at the beginning of the year, the Funke group of local media outlets reported.
Findings on right-wing extremism in Germany's military – DW's Naomi Conrad
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Funke's media outlets cited the Defense Ministry's response to a parliamentary inquiry in their reports. Neither the ministry nor the Bundeswehr has yet issued a response.
A handful of cases have already been reported in the press this year, including that of Franco A. The army lieutenant was exposed in April for leading a double life as a Syrian refugee and planning a terrorist attack. His plan was to use a fake identity to raise suspicion about migrants in Germany. He and another soldier, identified as Maximilian T., were arrested for planning "grave act of violence against the state." Franco A.'s Master's thesis was reported to have included obvious far-right ideology.
Just a few week's later, investigators uncovered Nazi memorabilia in troop barracks in Donaueschingen, including helmets from the Wehrmacht — the German military under Hitler.
The Bundeswehr was founded in 1955, and many former Wehrmacht soldiers began serving in the new German army.
Ulla Jelpke, a domestic policy spokeswoman of the Left Party, denounced the military's dealing with extremists, told the Funke group, "There can be no pardon for neo-Nazis and Reichsbürger — they ultimately have to be expelled from the military ranks."
Reichsbürger refers to a collection of far-right, nationalist, and often anti-Semitic groups whose main characteristic is the conspiratorial belief that the Federal Republic of Germany does not legally exist because, Reichsbürger maintain, Germany never signed a peace treaty with the Allies following World War II.
"Armed right-wing extremists are "ticking time bombs," Jelpke said. "Even on reasonable suspicion, the persons concerned should no longer have access to weapons until the allegations have been clarified."
Since West Germany's accession to NATO, Berlin has supported numerous operations involving the trans-Atlantic alliance. Since 1990, Germany's Bundeswehr has been deployed on "out of area" missions as well.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Germany's role in NATO
West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission
In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/H. Delic
Keeping the peace in Kosovo
Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V.Xhemaj
Patrolling the Aegean Sea
In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/M.Schreiber
Nearly two decades in Afghanistan
In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Germany withdrew the last of its troops in June 2021 as part of the US-led exit from Afghanistan.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Niedringhaus
German tanks in Lithuania
Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania since 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defense in a generation," according to NATO.
