The revival of German militarism

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The revival of German militarism
18 November 2010

Last week, German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg introduced a new
“combat medal” for the Bundeswehr (armed forces). Press reports have also called
it a “decoration for combatants”. It will be awarded to soldiers who have
“actively participated in combat operations at least once or have faced great
personal danger in acts of terrorist or military violence.” It can be awarded
posthumously.

The new order is symptomatic of the fundamental transformation that the
Bundeswehr has undergone since German unification 20 years ago.

The Bundeswehr was founded in 1955 in the face of massive protests and
opposition. Hitler’s Wehrmacht had been disbanded in 1945 by the victorious
powers after it had laid waste to half of Europe in a war of aggression that
killed millions of people. Following those experiences, broad sections of the
population wanted to have no more to do with war and militarism.

In order to be socially accepted, the Bundeswehr had to be restricted to
defensive duties. It was only to be used for defence against an attack from abroad.

As a conscript army it had a high level of troops, but possessed no nuclear
weapons, aircraft carriers or transport capacity that would enable it to
undertake international operations. It stood on the European front line of the
Cold War, and in the case of a real war would have suffered heavy losses.

War, fighting and killing were therefore not regarded as the purpose of the
Bundeswehr, but rather as things to be avoided. The ideal of the soldier that
was promoted was not that of a combatant, but of a “citizen in uniform”. He was
not presented as the docile receiver of orders, but rather as the politically
responsible individual in uniform. This conception was to pervade the officer
corps as well as the ranks.

All of this has completely changed since German unification. The introduction of
a new medal reflects this change. “For a long time we have heard very little
about the citizen in uniform, but increasingly about combatants for German
interests around the world. And good combat soldiers need not only proper
equipment, but also recognition,” the Frankfurter Rundschau commented.

Shortly after German reunification in 1991, the policy objectives of the
Bundeswehr were redefined in the official defence guidelines. Its duties now
included, in addition to national defence, the “promotion and protection of
worldwide political, economic, military and ecological stability” and the
“maintenance of free world trade and access to strategic raw materials.”

In 1994, the Supreme Court paved the way for worldwide operations by the
Bundeswehr by means of a novel interpretation of the constitution. In 1998, the
newly elected Social Democratic Party-Green Party government gave the OK for the
first international combat mission—in Yugoslavia. Since then, German soldiers
have been deployed to many conflict areas of the world. In Afghanistan alone
there are up to 5,000 German soldiers. After the United States and Britain,
Germany has the third largest contingent of troops in that country.

The current defence minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (Christian Social
Union), has now taken on the task of completing the transformation of the
Bundeswehr from a territorial defence force into an imperialist intervention
force. His planned reforms include downsizing civilian administrative
structures, strengthening the military command and streamlining the army, while
at the same time increasing the number of soldiers that are available for
international operations.

With the suspension of compulsory military service, he has turned the Bundeswehr
into a de facto professional army. Compulsory military service is being
preserved on paper so that it can be immediately revived if, in the event of
war, cannon fodder is required.

Guttenberg is also aggressively advocating the defence of German economic
interests by military means. Until now, politicians had played down this issue,
although it had long been enshrined in the defence policy guidelines.

Federal President Horst Köhler even resigned half a year ago after he was
criticized for remarks in this direction. Guttenberg has publicly defended
Köhler, stressing the “close connection” between “security and German economic
interests”, in line with a classic imperialist foreign policy that does not
shrink from the application of military force.

Guttenberg has been systematically built up by the media as a political star.
This 38-year-old scion of an old Frankish noble family strides onto the
political stage as the representative of a social layer that has played a
devastating role in German history.

Between 1871—the year of the establishment of the Kaiser’s Empire—and 1945—the
year of the defeat of the Third Reich—the German nobility set the tone in
military and foreign policy. Reviewing history texts, one finds almost
exclusively names with links to the aristocracy.

In post-war West Germany, the aristocracy was pushed into the background, but it
remained in place. Guttenberg, whose family goes back to the 12th century, is
well connected. His wife is a great-great-granddaughter of Otto von Bismarck.
His mother, born Countess von Eltz, had a second marriage to the son of Hitler’s
foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Before he went into politics, the
current defence minister devoted himself to the administration of the family’s
wealth, which includes large forests and estates as well as interests in a
private hospital group, and is estimated at €600 million.

The Bundeswehr still has a long way to go before it possesses the clout of
former German armies. With an annual budget of $46 billion, German military
spending is just one twelfth that of the US.

Even in relation to the size of the economy, Germany, which spends 1.3 percent
of its gross domestic product on the military, allocates far less than the US (4
percent), France (2.3 percent) and Britain (2.2 percent). The two latter
countries account for half of Europe’s military spending.

But the new course has been set. It takes only some shocking event to break down
the widespread resistance that until now has stood in the way of a massive
increase in military spending for the re-tasked Bundeswehr.

The revival of German militarism, 65 years after the end of World War II, is a
development of world-political significance. It is inseparable from the deep
crisis of world capitalism. As the financial and economic conflicts between the
great powers worsen, militarism is on the rise everywhere.

The US has long tried to offset its declining economic weight by exploiting its
military superiority. Washington’s economic rivals in Europe and Asia are
responding by upgrading their own military capabilities, and—in the words of
Guttenberg—by emphasizing the “close connection between security and economic
interests.”

The two world wars of the last century arose “inexorably from the contradictions
of international capitalist interests,” as Leon Trotsky noted in 1940. Another
world war is unavoidable if working people do not stop the capitalist warmongers
in time and take up the struggle for the socialist transformation of society.

Peter Schwarz

http://wsws.org/articles/2010/nov2010/pers-n18.shtml

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