André E. had only spent a few days with the German army in the Thuringian city of Gotha when he told his supervising officer straight up: "I identify as a National Socialist." Based on his appearance, it wasn't exactly a secret. He sported a tattoo with the motto of the Hitler Youth, "Blut und Ehre" (blood and honor), because, as he said, he has so much admiration for the SS.

André E. was in training for 10 more months, learning how to shoot an assault rifle and throw hand grenades. This all happened 17 years ago, but André E. is not just any neo-Nazi. He is one of the accused in the Munich trial against the right-wing extremist group, the National Socialist Underground, or NSU. The terrorist group stands accused of bombing attacks and 10 murders. Why did the Bundeswehr not stop him?

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen

Failure of military counterintelligence?

The case of Michael L. also continues to plague the Bundeswehr and the Defense Ministry, especially in light of the latest scandal around an extreme right-wing officer who was allegedly planning a terror attack. In 2012, reservist Michael L., then 35, was serving as an officer in Kunduz, Afghanistan. In 2008, he had enquired about becoming a member of the far-right party, the NPD, in the city of Kassel. He was also a member of a nationalist group known as the "Freier Widerstand Kassel" (Free Resistance Kassel). The state of Hesse had classed the organization as a neo-Nazi group. Despite his history, Michael L. made it to Afghanistan, something that Germany's military counterintelligence service, MAD, should have prevented. MAD is supposed to vet all soldiers before they serve in foreign missions. So why did Michael L. slip through?

A long history of image problems

Ever since it was founded in 1955, the German army has struggled with the image of being a haven for right-wing extremists. And it's no wonder. At the end of the 1950s, the army hired 300 officers from the Waffen-SS, Hitler's elite fighting force. More than 12,000 Wehrmacht officers were serving in the Bundeswehr - as well as over 40 Nazi generals. The Bundeswehr was tainted with this "brown legacy" from its inception, and its relationship to the new concept of the "citizen in uniform" was correspondingly ambivalent. Under Defense Minister Franz-Josef Strauß (CSU, 1956 - 62), army barracks were named after Nazi generals; those involved in the resistance attempt to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944, were labeled "traitors"; and questions about war crimes were mostly taboo.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive Von der Leyen under fire Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen wanted to show she's not blind to problems among her own troops. In light of the most recent scandal, she openly criticized army leadership, saying the Bundeswehr had an "attitude problem." But Bundeswehr officials found her comments to be outrageous. Their response to the defense minister's criticism: "Leadership goes from the top down."

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive A fake Syrian refugee The story causing the uproar: Bundeswehr lieutenant Franco A. was allegedly planning a terrorist attack and led a double life, pretending to be a Syrian refugee. He was granted partial asylum status as a war refugee in December 2016. His alleged goal: another attack blamed on a refugee. Bundeswehr officials are said to have known about Franco A.'s right-wing tendencies since 2014, but did nothing.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive Abuse in Bad Reichenhall mountain rangers unit The Bundeswehr is currently investigating 275 cases of suspected right-wing extremism. But they're also dealing with other types of scandals. In March 2017, the public learned about the case of a lance corporal who had suffered months of abuse in a Bavarian mountain rangers unit. The victim reported being threatened and sexually harassed in 2015 and 2016. Prosecutors investigated 14 people.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive Female recruits forced to pole-dance The biggest scandal of von der Leyen's term so far: the horror stories coming out of the Staufer army base in Pfullendorf. In January, it was revealed that superior officers there forced recruits to undress and perform sexually-motivated acts and filmed them. Female recruits were forced to pole dance as part of an "entrance exam." The top Bundeswehr training commander was fired as a result.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive Many cases of right-wing extremism investigated According to a report from Germany's federal parliamentary commissioner for the Bundeswehr, Hans-Peter Bartels, 2016 wasn't a great year for the Bundeswehr, either. There were around 60 incidents related to alleged right-wing extremism or "violations against the bases of Germany's free democratic constitutional structure." Troops shared anti-Semitic images and music or did the Nazi salute.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive Death on board the Gorch Fock The Bundeswehr wasn't immune to scandals before von der Leyen became defense minister in December 2013. One that garnered significant public attention was the death of a 25-year-old recruit on the Navy training vessel Gorch Fock in 2010. The woman fell from the rigging during an exercise. As a consequence, other cadets refused to climb the rigging. Officer training on the ship was suspended.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive The birth of the Bundeswehr Directly after World War II, Germany was not allowed to have an army. The Bundeswehr had its start in West Germany in 1955. After reunification, the Bundeswehr took in 20,000 soldiers from East Germany's armed forces. A big change came in 1999, when the Bundeswehr first participated in an international conflict: the Kosovo War. Before that, they had only gone abroad for peacekeeping missions.

Bundeswehr scandals: Von der Leyen on the defensive No more mandatory service Today the Bundeswehr has roughly 178,200 active soldiers. As of March 2017, 11.4 percent of them are women. Until 2011, men were required to do mandatory military service, the length of which varied between nine and 18 months. Today, the Bundeswehr has to appeal to young people to recruit soldiers. The most recent scandals are making that that more and more difficult. Author: Carla Bleiker



In the 1960s, the "conscientious fulfillment of duty" was still regarded as the highest of all virtues for a soldier. But General Heinz Karst, who was in charge of army training at the time, nevertheless declared that freedom and democracy were "not the last values."

At the same time, there was growing criticism about "excessive parliamentary control" over the young army. In the 1970s, Bundeswehr academies were supposed to help stamp out the last of the old mentality.

But the first generation of young officers rejected reforms and were opposed to Willy Brandt's policy of detente. At the start of the 1980s, Defense Minister Hans Apel (SPD) was met with protests when he said that which could not be denied: "The armed forces were in part enmeshed with National Socialism and its guilt...a regime of injustice like the Third Reich cannot form the basis of tradition."

Too lax on extremism?

And yet, the Bundeswehr remains attractive for right-wing extremists even today. Most of the cases that come to light have to do with what are called propaganda crimes: calls of "Sieg Heil" or swastika graffiti. According to MAD, neo-Nazi sentiment is most prevalent among 18- to 25-year-olds, drawn by the lure of weaponry and the hierarchies within the army. But once identified, neo-Nazis cannot simply be thrown out of the army; courts have to confirm the presence of right-wing extremism.

It's not that there are a lack of clues, rather that they are often discovered when it's too late, or by coincidence. The failure of MAD in connection with the NSU murders suspect raises the prospect that extremist tendencies were noticed, but that other soldiers and supervisors either didn't react, or reacted too mildly.

Bundeswehr soldier recruits performing exercises during basic training

Neo-Nazi network?

As a result of all these "discoveries", Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has canceled her planned trip to the United States. It's an unusual reaction, and indicative of how seriously she is taking the situation. Observers are not ruling out the possibility that there is a neo-Nazi network within the armed forces. Some say that scrapping conscription is to blame. The Bundeswehr is lacking in "normal people," said Michael Wolffsohn, a former historian at the Bundeswehr Academy in Munich. Without conscription, the army has become overrun with extremists, eager to learn how to use weapons, he said.

Conscription was a guarantee that a cross-section of society would be represented in the armed forces, in keeping with the concept of the "citizen in uniform." Chancellor Angela Merkel oversaw the decision to scrap military service in 2011. In contrast, Sweden also did away with conscription, but after seven years of a professional army, it has now reintroduced mandatory military service.