Investigators find Nazi memorabilia in German barracks
May 7, 2017
Investigators have uncovered a display of helmets dating back to the Wehrmacht at a barracks in the town of Donaueschingen. The discovery adds another dark twist to the Bundeswehr's probe into far-right sympathizers.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/F. Florin
Advertisement
German media reported Saturday that investigators probing far-right sympathizers within the Bundeswehr had discovered a room in the Donaueschingen barracks decorated with memorabilia from the Wehrmacht, the Nazi regime's military forces.
The DPA news agency said that a report about the Nazi memorabilia in the German weekly "Spiegel" had been confirmed by a military spokesman. While denouncing the possession of such memorabilia, the spokesman added that the items were not considered "of criminal relevance."
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.
Image: picture alliance/akg-images
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.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Sauer
8 images1 | 8
The barracks in the French town of Illkirch where Franco A. was stationed were at the center of an extremist scandal in 2012, after the German daily "Bild" reported that German soldiers had laid out a four-meter long swastika on the grounds to celebrate their soccer team's victory. Three soldiers were dismissed following the incident. Franco A. was not stationed there at the time.
Ministers decry extremist sympathies
On a visit to the Illkirch barracks on Wednesday, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen stressed that Germany's modern army would not tolerate any veneration for the traditions and customs of Nazi Wehrmacht.
That sentiment was echoed by German Justice Minister Heiko Maas when he tweeted that "whoever glorifies the Wehrmacht has no place at all in the Bundeswehr."
Von der Leyen under fire
The International Auschwitz Committee on Saturday responded to the "Spiegel" report by demanding a debate on the leading culture within the Bundeswehr. "For survivors of the Holocaust, the very thought that within a German army Nazi symbols could again be glorified and Wehrmacht traditions resurrected is ghastly and beyond all bearing," said Christoph Heubner, the executive vice-president of the organization.
The German army said last month that it was investigating 275 suspected cases of right-wing extremism within its ranks. Most of the cases were related to propaganda crimes and racist commentary on the internet. In one instance, a soldier wrote abusive messages to a refugee after asking her whether she was Christian or Muslim.
The scandals have piled pressure on von der Leyen, a close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel , less than five months before the German election. The defense minister drew criticism from an army association after she called out the armed forces for supposed "weak leadership." She later apologized for her criticism of the military but also warned there could be further relevations.
Retired General Harald Kujat told the German weekly newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" that von der Leyen was having a damaging affect on the German military. "The minister's criticism of the military's behavior, leadership and spirit was unacceptable and damaging to the Bundeswehr, while her apology came across as wishy-washy," he said. "The collateral damage of her remarks will have a bearing on the reputation of our forces and the trust placed in our soldiers."
Once Germany's top military officer and chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Gen. Kujat said that von der Leyen had always come across as outsider among Bundeswehr officials and suggested that she was using the German military as a means for advancing her own ambitions.
