The Bundeswehr is not only in poor condition materially, but also in some cases not well positioned in terms of personnel.

In addition to the lack of ready-to-use equipment, deficiencies in the basic character and democratic orientation of individuals are also noticeable, according to military commissioner Eva Högl (SPD).

This emerges from the annual report presented by the military commissioner on Tuesday.

At the same time, the former SPD politician acknowledged the high commitment of the Bundeswehr, both in the Covid crisis and in the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley, as well as in detail the military evacuation mission in Kabul.

According to Högl, 2021 was “the year of the Bundeswehr”.

The troops have “impressively demonstrated their willingness and ability to perform”.

The Commissioner for the Armed Forces bases her report on personal impressions and discussions during numerous visits to the Bundeswehr, but also on petitions and complaints that she received.

Regarding the planned special fund for the Bundeswehr, Högl said: "Firstly, the money has to reach the troops and secondly, it has to arrive more quickly."

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Högl warned that the administrative assistance missions in the pandemic should “soon come to an end”, now everyone is needed to do justice to the tasks of national and alliance defense.

The military commissioner reported again for the past year of "completely unacceptable" conditions in the equipment of the soldiers.

They were "very upset" by the reports from women and men in the foreign missions, both in Lithuania and in Mali and Niger.

Högl stated that the troops were "unfortunately a long way away" from the claim to practice the way they had to fight.

In addition, despite some investments, the infrastructure is “partially desolate”.

As the military commissioner stated, this is not due to a lack of money, but to the implementation of the renovation projects, which often drag on for years, even with simple sanitary facilities.

Posing in Wehrmacht uniforms

The report of the military commissioner includes another sharp increase in reported extremist incidents, the number of incidents rose by almost a quarter to 226 cases.

In addition, the military counter-intelligence service reported another increase in the number of right-wing extremism cases processed from 477 in 2020 to 589 last year.

It was particularly noteworthy for the military commissioner that, in addition to the Special Forces Command (KSK), which had already become known, other well-known units such as the Guard Battalion attracted unpleasant attention due to right-wing extremist incidents.

In the formation, which is responsible, among other things, for the honorary protection of the Federal President and Federal Chancellor and organizes the reception of foreign state guests with military honours,

In the ranks of the often publicly visible representatives of the Bundeswehr, people posed in Wehrmacht uniforms and collected Nazi memorabilia.

Disciplinary investigations are ongoing, and several soldiers have been banned from wearing Bundeswehr uniforms.

Such incidents have also repeatedly occurred among units deployed in Lithuania to protect NATO's eastern flank, as Högl reported.

Here, too, statements such as "Judensau", music CDs with titles such as "Sonderzug nach Dachau" or photos of battalion members with black coats and swastika armbands led to disciplinary investigations.

An entire platoon of Panzergrenadiers from Munster in Lower Saxony was sent home, "repatriated," according to Högl.