The leader of the FDP parliamentary group in Baden-Württemberg, Hans-Ulrich Rülke, has once again been asked by representatives of the governing parties, the Greens and the CDU, to apologize for his statement that Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) is employing a “State Secretary-Volkssturm”.
On Friday, State Secretaries Wilfried Klenk and Julian Würtenberger (both CDU) described the statement as "disrespectful".
"Establishing the connection between our people and the Volkssturm as a formation of the National Socialist reign of terror - Adolf Hitler's last contest - is insulting," says the letter that the FAZ has received.
Rudiger Soldt
Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.
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A few days ago, Parliament President Muhterem Aras (Greens) Rülke had also asked to apologize and return to a “proper culture of debate”, especially since the Presidium of the State Parliament had agreed not to use terms from the National Socialist era. Rülke had justified his choice of words with reference to the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789; he had spoken in the state parliament on July 14th.
The Freiburg historian Jörn Leonhard and expert on the French Revolution considers this explanation to be absurd and historically incorrect: “Historically, the term Volkssturm is clearly burdened by the use of the National Socialists.
In 1943/44 they tried to tie in with the Prussian land storm of 1813 against Napoleonic France, for example with the persistence film Kolberg.
The Prussian concept of mobilization going beyond the regular armed forces was in turn based on the French idea of
levée en masse
that had been developed in the Revolutionary Wars since 1792, "said Leonhard of the FAZ. Terms have their own history, he has doubts that the appointment of state secretaries with the historically charged term" Volkssturm "can be appropriately criticized.