Soldiers are human too.
They do not expect miracles from the holder of the authority to command and command.
But they do wish that he would identify with them and devote all his energy to the common task: namely to defend Germany and its allies;
a task, moreover, for which the soldiers pay with their lives in extreme cases.
Lorenz Hemicker
Editor in Politics
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When it comes to his first visit to the troops, Boris Pistorius (SPD) has obviously lived up to the demands of his soldiers.
At the Altengrabow military training area in Saxony-Anhalt, Pistorius was shown on Thursday how soldiers practice combat with small arms and live fire with the Puma infantry fighting vehicle.
Pistorius, who did his military service himself in the 1980s, soon wore a camouflage parka and drove himself in the Puma, which is intended to replace the older Marder infantry fighting vehicle, but can look back on a long series of breakdowns and recently made headlines with a series of failures during target practice.
The damage analysis has shown, however, that the problems did not lie with the construction side of the industry,
“Anyone who still knows the marten will see the differences immediately.
I'll add a personal note: When I came onto the site and drove across the site, I had déjà vu and remembered my own military service 40 years ago," said Pistorius.
"And I'll say it in my own words: I'm glad to be in the squad."
Pistorius is also aware that the armed forces are in a bad state.
And the delivery of 14 Leopard 2 main battle tanks from Bundeswehr stocks officially announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday makes the already difficult situation even more difficult.
Pistorius made it clear that the "conflict of goals" between simultaneous military aid for Ukraine and better equipment for the country's own armed forces could only be resolved together with the armaments industry.
This requires mutual reliability between politics and business.
This requires speed.