Nazi tokens at bases lead to order to inspect
Print Edition
THE top brass of the German military has ordered an inspection of all of its barracks after discovering Nazi-era memorabilia at two of them, the defense ministry said yesterday.
“The inspector general of the Bundeswehr (Germany’s armed forces) has ordered an inspection of all of its properties in order to see if any of them contain memorabilia of the Wehrmacht and if so, to remove it,” a ministry spokesman said.
The Wehrmacht was the army which served the Nazi regime.
The move follows a growing scandal over far-right leanings of some within the German military which has shaken the army and the ministry over the past two weeks.
Details emerged in late April following the arrest of a 28-year-old soldier stationed at a Franco-German base near Strasbourg who had expressed far-right extremist views and was plotting an attack disguised as a Syrian refugee.
Following his arrest, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen scrapped a trip to the US and went to his base in Illkirch in northeastern France.
Officials found Wehrmacht memorabilia openly displayed in the common room without any effort to remove it.
The ministry, which has banned such symbols, then discovered other Wehrmacht items at another base in southwestern Germany.
Press reports also referred to another incident at the Illkirch base in 2012 when German soldiers painted a huge swastika on the floor of the base to provoke their French counterparts ahead of a football match between Bayern Munich and Lille.
German combat troops have been stationed there since 2010 as part of the joint Franco-German Brigade.
Von der Leyen demanded her generals show zero tolerance with any extremist tendencies within the ranks.
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