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Giessen (dpa / lhe) - The Giessen administrative court has dismissed the action brought by a former Bundeswehr soldier against his immediate dismissal because of the hoisting of a German flag in Crete.
The court found on Wednesday that this “serious affront” had seriously injured the Bundeswehr's reputation (judgment of April 21, 2021, case number: 5 K 696 / 20.GI).
The decision is not yet final.
According to Bundeswehr investigations, the man and a comrade caused a scandal during an operation in Crete in 2019: In their free time, they exchanged the Greek for the German flag on a flagpole on a rocky plateau.
During the Second World War, the German Wehrmacht occupied the Greek island in the Mediterranean, and numerous civilians were murdered as a result.
Greek authorities arrested and sentenced the soldiers after the incident.
In the same year, the Bundeswehr fired the men because they were said to have seriously violated their "duty to serve faithfully and behave well".
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The court stated that it did not matter whether the plaintiff or, as he said, the other soldier hoisted the flag. His behavior cannot be excused by the fact that he said he was not aware of the history of the Second World War. The hoisting of a German flag on a flagpole on foreign national territory also differs significantly from "setting a flag after hiking a mountain peak or building a sand castle on vacation on the beach".
The plaintiff considered his dismissal to be disproportionate and denies having acted himself.
Raising flags is not a criminal offense as long as it is not a question of prohibited symbols, he argued, among other things.
The court, however, saw the conditions for immediate dismissal fulfilled.
The plaintiff can now apply to the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel for approval of the appeal.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210421-99-297897 / 3