The chair of Germany’s parliamentary defense committee, Thomas Röwekamp, has warned that right-wing extremist and sexist incidents involving paratroopers in the western German town of Zweibrücken are undermining the Bundeswehr’s ability to recruit additional soldiers. “These incidents and the reactions to them damage the reputation of the Bundeswehr and its soldiers,” Röwekamp told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Wednesday. “And they undermine the willingness to serve in our armed forces.”
The incidents came to light after female soldiers from the regiment reported them to the Bundestag’s Armed Forces Commissioner. According to the German Army, the allegations involve “sexualized misconduct, extremist behavior, and violations of the Narcotics Act.” By mid-December, investigations had been launched against 55 suspects.
The Bundestag’s defense committee is set to address the incidents at a meeting on Wednesday morning. The Inspector of the Army, Christian Freuding, is expected to comment on the events during the closed-door session. Röwekamp told RND that “the scale and duration of the sexual assaults, right-wing extremism, and drug abuse reveal a failure of internal leadership and of commanders’ duty of care.” He added that fear of personal and professional consequences had clearly reduced the willingness to report such abuses and incidents.
“It is hardly conceivable that these incidents could have gone unnoticed by the unit’s leadership over such a long period or remained without consequences,” the CDU lawmaker said. Beyond criminal and disciplinary proceedings, he stressed the need to ensure that incidents of this kind are reported and sanctioned by superiors. “The facts and allegations known so far go far beyond the misconduct of individual soldiers and reveal serious cultural and systemic shortcomings within the affected unit and its leadership,” Röwekamp emphasized.
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