The wreaths lay there first, white chrysanthemums, black, red and gold ribbons.

The two rows of wreaths at the outer end of the Paradeplatz looked almost like a small memorial cemetery, next to the gray cube in which the Bundeswehr memorial is hidden.

The parade formation, which marched at the beginning of the “solemn roll call to mark the end of the deployment of the Bundeswehr,” as it was officially called, then covered the commemorative signs a little.

Johannes Leithäuser

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The memory of the 59 dead, the fallen and unfortunate in the Afghanistan mission had stood at the beginning of this day of remembrance, which, according to Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), should above all be a day of thanks. In the wide rectangle behind the Berlin ministry headquarters, delegations from all associations and agencies that had been involved in the Bundeswehr with Afghanistan in two decades: those who served there; those who looked after them; those who sent soldiers and equipment there - from long-range scouts to tank grenadiers to military chaplains. The corners of the square are marked by two military vehicles, a troop transport of the Dingo type and a Marder armored personnel carrier, both still painted in the ocher-colored desert camouflage patches.that every soldier knows from his time in Afghanistan.

"Open your eyes to you"

"The soldiers in the parade formation have been vaccinated or have recovered, so that distance regulations can be dispensed with," a protocol spokeswoman told the guests over the loudspeaker shortly before the soldiers moved in.

It was the clearest indication of how far away the country in the Hindu Kush had already moved - two and a half months after the last German contingent returned in full, and around five weeks, since then also the risky military airlift used by paratroopers and transport planes to rescue Civilians had been beaten after Kabul came to an end.

In the presence of the Chancellor and all other constitutional organs, the Federal President and the Defense Ministers paid tribute to the soldiers' performance that afternoon. At this moment, politics should take a back seat "and open up our eyes to you," said Kramp-Karrenbauer to the soldiers who took up the position. She pointed to the Great Zapfenstreich, the longest military ceremony and highest military honor available to the Bundeswehr, with which the thanks to the soldiers should end in the evening on the Republic Square in front of the Reichstag building.

For the first time, this honor does not apply to politicians or historical events, but rather serves to “pay tribute to the Afghanistan veterans themselves” and to show that “you can be proud of what you have achieved”.

And Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated: "The Bundeswehr has done its job."

The numbers were mentioned again and again: 76 Bundeswehr contingents were deployed in Afghanistan over the past two decades, German soldiers were in the Hindu Kush for 7,324 days, more than 150,000 German soldiers served there, many of them several times, some went up to 17 times in one of the camps in Kunduz, Kabul or Mazar-i-Sharif.

The minister still wants to analyze

Kramp-Karrenbauer promised that the solemn ceremony at the end of the mission, which shaped the Bundeswehr more than any other foreign mission, would not replace a thorough analysis of the engagement in Afghanistan. It is not the day when "the Afghanistan chapter" will be closed, she said. In the course of her address, however, the minister made it important that the collapse of the order supported by the West in Kabul should not be blamed on the soldiers of the Bundeswehr.

She insisted that the Bundeswehr had “achieved what was possible under the circumstances”.

The Bundeswehr could lay a “military foundation of security” and thus create space for other actors;

she has fulfilled this task.

The Bundeswehr could not manage to build a civil society or accelerate the economic development of a country.

It is therefore wrong to evaluate the military engagement as a proxy for the entire reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, said Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Has the political goal ever been defined clearly enough?

The minister said that the German soldiers also did a good job of training the Afghan armed forces. But an army must "know what it is fighting for". You need support and cohesion, and neither can you "train". She asked many more questions: Has the goal in Afghanistan ever been defined politically clearly enough? Must there be “clearer mandates” and more realistic goals in the future? Steinmeier added further questions: Why did the Afghan government and its armed forces disintegrate in such a short time? What are the lessons to be learned?

The Federal President stated that German foreign and security policy had to become “more honest, smarter and stronger” and that the Bundeswehr had to be a strong army.

Steinmeier told the soldiers that the agreement must apply: "You are obliged to your country - and your country is obliged to you".

But that afternoon and evening in Berlin it was probably not at all easy for the soldiers who stood there.

They stood on the Paradeplatz and in front of the Reichstag in a room of silence, surrounded by invited guests.

The police kept Berlin life away with extensive barriers.