Lieutenant General Alfons Mais is not a man of loud tones.

Since the new minister took office, the inspector of the army has put up with the fact that Christine Lambrecht (SPD) initially ignored the interests of the land forces.

He had tried in vain to make appointments to explain his ideas and acute needs.

Instead of going to the army, Lambrecht initially preferred to travel to the armed forces base, then to the navy and then to the air force.

It was only at the beginning of February, two months after starting service, that there was a short inaugural visit to the army in Munster.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Worse still, the SPD politician had already taken the pending reform of the army structure, laid down in the key issues paper by her predecessor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) and the Inspector General Eberhard Zorn, off the table.

Instead, a working group led by her confidante, State Secretary Margaretha Sudhof, should draw up an "inventory" in the coming months.

According to the company, military expertise is not required.

On the contrary.

Lambrecht reinforced her team of civilian social democrats.

That was not good news for the interests of the army.

And certainly not for General Mais.

Because his troops are in bad shape from his point of view.

All plans to improve operational readiness have had limited success so far.

Since Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) announced a "trend reversal" in all areas of the Bundeswehr - finances, equipment, personnel - after the annexation of Crimea, it has not been possible to recruit even a single brigade, an association of 5000 soldiers, to fully equip.

What even Estonia, with its 1.3 million inhabitants, can do, Germany has not been able to do in seven years.

Other goals for the rehabilitation of the armed forces were also missed.

The creation of a war-ready division, the goal for 2027, is a long way off.

"It's your conscience you have to live with"

When the few hundred German soldiers in Lithuania were augmented by 350 men last week, Lambrecht saw it as an almost heroic tour de force, which was accompanied by ministerial media noise.

But what she and the press office celebrated as a "clear signal of credible deterrence" is considered a sign of failure in the army: 350 reinforcements to impress Putin and his army?

Former Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer wrote on the morning of the Russian attack on Ukraine: "I am so angry with us because we have failed historically." Nothing had been prepared that would have really deterred Putin.

General Mais, in turn, experienced at the Munich Security Conference last weekend how great the disappointment and anger of the Ukrainian delegation, but also of the Western partners, is at the lack of military support from Germany.

Mais was sitting at a "Ukraine dinner" with about 80 senior military officials, European foreign ministers, US senators and members of parliament when the Ukrainian foreign minister asked the room bitterly: "5000 helmets, is that your contribution to European security?"

And then: "It's your conscience that you have to live with." Mais didn't say anything about it, but the accusation hit him visibly.

When he found out on Thursday morning that Russia was attacking, Mais surprisingly vented his frustration and wrote on the social network Linkedin: "In my 41st year of peacetime service, I would not have believed that I would have to experience another war.

And the Bundeswehr, the army that I am allowed to lead, is more or less blank.

The policy options we can offer in support of the alliance are extremely limited.”

Dismissed for misleading statements

That was clearer than almost any statement by a senior Bundeswehr officer in recent years.

And Mais went on, also self-critically: “We all saw it coming and were not able to get through with our arguments, to draw the conclusions from the Crimean annexation and to implement them.

That doesn't feel good!

I'm pissed!" If it is not possible to reposition itself now, the constitutional mandate and Germany's alliance obligations will not be implemented with any prospect of success.

In the Ministry, of course, one did not like to hear such things.

But most recently, Lambrecht had already dismissed the marine inspector and had not yet named a successor.

She couldn't immediately depose the next chief of a branch of the armed forces.

In addition, unlike the "radical Roman Catholic Christian" and Vice Admiral Kay-Achim Schönbach, Mais did not attract attention with confused speeches, but with a realism that must shame politicians.

Lambrecht therefore preferred to remain silent for the time being.

In the meantime, she had to hurry to cobble what the unit lacked from Bundeswehr stocks to the Panzergrenadierbrigade 37.

Because NATO has put the "Freistaat Sachsen" brigade on increased alert as part of its rapid deployment forces.

Now the grenadiers and their armored personnel carriers have to be ready to go within a week and have to borrow material from other units beforehand.

The absolutely necessary associated anti-aircraft defense, including to defend against drones, will have to be borrowed from other countries, probably from the Czech Republic.

A separate procurement, which has been going on for years, has not been successful.