![]() ![]() In December, members of Citizens of the Reich, a fringe group of conspiracy theorists, were accused of planning a bizarre if potentially violent coup to overthrow the government and install a prince several former Bundeswehr soldiers - and one active member - were among the alleged plotters. In recent years, such cases of extremism have been particularly prevalent among commandos in the German Army’s special forces, the Kommando Spezialkräfte, or K.S.K. The fact that German soldiers have repeatedly been implicated in high-profile cases of right-wing extremism has not helped ease this discomfort. Less so in Germany, where the use of military power often raises uncomfortable associations with the country’s Nazi past. The question is whether they - and a hesitant German society - can follow through on this promise.Īcross much of the world, soldierliness is considered a virtue and fighting for one’s country a natural way to serve it. Now German leaders are vowing to transform the country into a military power capable of taking responsibility for Europe’s security. As a result, Germany is a historic anomaly in the heart of Europe - an economic leviathan but a military minnow. In Germany, skepticism of the merits of military strength has enabled a long post-Cold War process of disarmament. That level of support would have been almost unthinkable before the invasion. ![]() Parliamentarians gave Scholz a standing ovation. The plan, if implemented, would represent the largest absolute jump in German military spending since World War II. Germans must therefore ask, “What capabilities do we need in order to counter this threat?” He announced, among other measures, a 100-billion-euro fund to bolster the German military. ![]() There could be no doubt that Putin wanted to build a Russian empire, Scholz said. The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, told Parliament that the attack marked a Zeitenwende - a historic “turning point” for Europe and Germany. Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, those fears grew more acute. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and then instigated a separatist war in Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, German military planners began to consider the suddenly not-so-far-fetched possibility of a large land war in Europe - one that would require German soldiers to defend European territory. And we don’t have such a world.”Īlthough no one on the base said so explicitly, the threat Meister and her comrades were preparing to counter emanated from Russia. “But you can only be a pacifist if you have this safe, ideal world. “I would say, many of them lean in the direction of being pacifists,” she said. But this is now changing.” Not everyone in her age group wanted to embrace this change, she conceded. “Of course, there were conflicts, like in Kosovo, but we were still relatively young, and we grew up in such a safe, ideal world. “My generation, I always say, is a bit like a generation without war,” Meister told me between exercises. Her short lapse of Konzentration had cost her. She needed 18 hits to meet the goal set by her instructors. In the end, she hit the enemy’s chest 16 times. But this time, she pulled the trigger too fast between shots, resulting in errant fire. Meister had been doing well for a novice. “Now, she’s awake again!” one of the trainers called out with a laugh. Clouds of sunlit dust rose from the mound of sand behind the target. Shock waves reverberated off the walls of the shooting range, and four shells landed in the gravel near her feet. She set her rifle’s sights to just above the sternum of her fictional enemy, having been instructed by Maesmanns to aim higher to account for the gap between the scope and the barrel, and pulled the trigger. Now, as blasts from adjacent firing areas rang out, Meister took a few breaths to steady herself. The closest she had ever come to firing an assault rifle was at a carnival shooting gallery. Meister, who is 34, works in human resources for a tech company near her home in Lower Saxony, where she serves on the local council as a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party. Maesmanns, a former tank commander who is now a sergeant in Germany’s reserves and an electric-guitar teacher by trade, stood with a supportive hand on Meister’s back. “Konzentration,” ordered her instructor, Oliver Maesmanns, articulating each syllable. Dressed in fatigues, helmet and bulletproof vest, she crouched about 20 yards from two human silhouettes, stand-ins for a hypothetical threat to the German homeland. Under a blazing July sun, Anne Katrin Meister prepared to fire a Heckler & Koch G36, the standard rifle of the German military, or Bundeswehr. To hear more audio stories from publications like The New York Times, download Audm for iPhone or Android. ![]()
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