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The call echoed in many German cities: "No blood for oil!", Demonstrators chanted in Berlin as well as in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart in mid-January 1991. The federal government hastened to make it clear that the Federal Republic was indeed the allies in the implementation I support UN Resolution 678, but I do not use military resources myself.
But that was at most half the story.
Because Helmut Kohl (CDU) actually relied primarily on "checkbook diplomacy": Instead of sending soldiers from the Bundeswehr to fight against Saddam Hussein's regime, the newly reunified Germany paid a total of around DM 16.9 billion, which was almost seven percent of the federal budget of 1989 corresponded, i.e. around 24 billion euros converted to today's value.
Demonstration against a war on the Gulf on January 12, 1991 in Frankfurt
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
But there was also a plethora of support missions in the Near and Middle East in 1990/91, from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.
"In 1990/91 several thousand soldiers were deployed in the context of alliance defense, humanitarian aid and logistical support", summarizes the historian Christian Jentzsch from the Center for Military History and Social Science of the Bundeswehr in Potsdam in the current issue of the magazine "Militärgeschichte".
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After the occupation of Kuwait by Iraqi troops on August 2, 1990, the United States, with the backing of the United Nations, began its "Desert Shield" operation, which was intended to deter Saddam Hussein from an attack on Saudi Arabia, which was feared at the time.
The federal government allowed the unrestricted use of the US bases in Germany.
On August 16, 1990, a minesweeping association of the German Navy left for the eastern Mediterranean
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
Because military use outside the NATO area seemed constitutionally impossible at that time (that only changed after a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1994), Defense Minister Gerhard Stoltenberg set armed forces on the march towards the eastern Mediterranean.
On August 16, five mine attackers and supply ships left Wilhelmshaven.
They were supposed to replace ships of the US Navy, which took on other tasks in the context of "Desert Shield".
At the same time, surveillance flights from NATO long-range reconnaissance aircraft of the type E-3A Awacs were already running over Turkey and the eastern Mediterranean.
German specialists were also among the crews on these multinational flights - they concentrated on protecting the NATO area against possible attacks on Iraq.
Air Force alpha jet fighter-bomber in Erhac on January 23, 1991
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
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On New Year's Day 1991 the first foreign deployment of the Bundeswehr began, which could possibly lead to violence beyond pure self-protection (which was and is always allowed): 18 light fighter-bombers of the Alpha Jet type from Jabo-Geschwader 43 in Oldenburg were relocated from January 4th to Erhac in Turkey.
They should also take over the defense tasks of the fighter planes of other NATO nations that would go to war.
On the night of January 16-17, 1991, the crucial phase of the Gulf War began.
Within a few hours, the US-led coalition forces gained unrestricted control of the air.
Iraq responded by firing ancient Scud missiles and their extended range variants - pure terrorist weapons that could never hit a target in a controlled manner.
A NATO Awacs reconnaissance aircraft takes off - German specialists on board
Source: picture-alliance / dpa / dpaweb
Above all, Israel had Saddam attacked with such missiles in order to provoke a counter-attack by the Jewish state, which would have led to the breakup of the coalition between the anti-Semitic Arab states and the USA.
In order to prevent Israel from intervening, the US Army quickly dispatched available anti-aircraft missiles of the latest Patriot type - and the gap that this left in the protection of NATO partner Turkey was filled with German systems.
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The Bundeswehr provided two half-squadrons with the older Hawk missiles and eight Roland air defense systems.
However, following Turkey's inquiry on January 18, the political decision was not made until January 29, 1991, and so the associations involved did not report their readiness for action in eastern Turkey until February 22.
View of the Hawk anti-aircraft missile in January 1991
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
A Bundeswehr soldier at the fire control center of a Roland missile system
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
Because in 1991 the Bundeswehr did not have its own capacity for long-range air transport;
they were not needed in the Cold War.
A Soviet wide-body aircraft was chartered, but this machine was not allowed to fly to Turkey on Moscow's instructions: "So the already immensely burdened US Air Force had to help out," writes Jentzsch.
The Bundeswehr also supported the allies in Germany.
Bundeswehr helicopters were ready to transport wounded Allied soldiers - up to a thousand a day.
The same number of beds were kept vacant in Bundeswehr hospitals.
Fortunately, they were hardly needed, because the coalition forces "only" counted 500 wounded, most of whom were treated either on site or in the US military hospital in Landstuhl near Kaiserslautern with its 150 permanent beds.
Kurdish refugees storm towards a Bundeswehr helicopter
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
After the ceasefire on February 28 and the de facto surrender of Iraq on March 5, 1991, the importance of Bundeswehr units increased significantly.
By July 20, 1991, ships of the German Navy cleared exactly 101 Iraqi mines in the Persian Gulf.
At the same time, the Air Force provided humanitarian aid to Kurds in need.
In the "Airlift of Humanity" up to three Transall planes flew a total of 1900 tons of relief supplies to Northern Iran and Turkey every day.
Because Austria refused to allow the German transporters to fly over despite their humanitarian mission, they flew over Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria.
In addition, German pioneers built refugee shelters for 5,000 people and a field hospital in northern Iran.
In total, medical teams of the Bundeswehr cared for around 23,600 mostly civilian patients.
Finally, Bundeswehr associations provided logistical support for the weapons inspectors of the United Nations, who until 1996 supervised the dismantling of Iraq's armaments capacities.
Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher with soldiers from a German armed forces unit in northeast Iraq during the construction of a refugee camp
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
"Thousands of soldiers in the Bundeswehr made an important contribution to German foreign and security policy in the context of the Gulf crisis and the Gulf War," said Christian Jentzsch.
But it was also clear: the next time the international community was deployed, Germany would no longer be able to stay out of combat operations.
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