,,We only know one thing..."

,,... when Germany is in need"

The Bundeswehr Leadership Academy is amongst the institutions which maintain contacts with suspected right-extremist organisations. This summer its commander gave a talk to the ,,State and Economic Political Association", an organisation which has been banned from official contact with the army for two years because of ,,an overlap of personnel with extreme right organisations". Among the former chairmen of the ,,Association"is a supporter of the British Holocaust denier, David Irving for whom he designed a commemorative volume. This man himself was in the Bundeswehr - as Brigadier General. He is known for his complaints against ,,allied re-education".

,,... to fight and to conquer..."

In the middle Nineties a well-known right extremist gave a lecture in the Bundeswehr Leadership Academy on German nationalist propaganda in Russian Kaliningrad: ,,a theme which would make a democratically minded officer's hair stand on end", according to retired Lieutenant Colonel Helmuth Priess. Priess is prominent among a group of critical soldiers who are said to have close connections with German government circles. ¹⁾In spite of this closeness, the retired Lieutenant Colonel reproaches those responsible in Berlin that they are ignoring an alarming development. ,,They deny that this stench exists in officer corps of the Bundeswehr". His criticism shows that even military experts close to the government have cause for concern because their suspicions appear not to penetrate as far as Berlin.

,,... and to die"

To this day, traditional characteristics of the Nazi army are cherished in the Bundeswehr which was formed in the Fifties with the help of former Wehrmacht soldiers. Many barracks still bear the names of Nazi commanders who took leading parts in the aggressive wars and extermination campaigns of the German Reich. A hymn of Hitler's parachutists is retained as a living propaganda element from the Nazi occupants. The song ( ,,Red is the sun") was composed in 1940 and now used again in the foreign operations of today's Bundeswehr: ,,We only know one thing, If Germany is in need, to fight and to conquer and to die."

*Brown was the colour of Nazi Party uniforms

1) Amongst others, the anti-militarist Social Democrat MP. Gernot Erler (Freiburg) belongs to the group ,,Darmstaedter Signal". Immediately after his party came to power, he changed into one of the most forceful advocates of Berlin's world-wide military expansion.

2) Above all the (Nazi) German parachute forces are famed for their aggressive operation against Crete.

See also earlier article Military Music

Sources:
,,Es gibt braunen Mief im Fuehrungscorps"; Jungle World 12.11.2003
Neue Aufgaben? Rechte Vereinigung SWG ist in der Fuehrungsakademie der Bundeswehr wieder willkommen, obwohl der Verfassungsschutz vor Jahren warnte; die tageszeitung Nord-Ausgabe 14.11.2003