The German military has accused drill instructors at the Staufer barracks in Pullendorf of intentionally overexerting new recruits during a training exercise in January, which saw six soldiers break down from exhaustion or injury.

Citing an unpublished report by Bundeswehr State Secretary Peter Tauber, German weekly Spiegel reported on Wednesday that the drill instructors stand accused of seeking to single out weaker recruits during a 15-kilometer marching exercise.

Read more: Bundeswehr admits failures following deadly training march

According to the report, some recruits were already failing to keep up with the rest of the group after just a single kilometer. However, instead of allowing the rest of the runners to take a break, instructors enforced penalty rounds, forcing them run back to their fallen colleagues up to three consecutive times. During the third round, one of the recruits collapsed unconscious and was taken to a hospital. Five other recruits reportedly collapsed from exhaustion.

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."

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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.

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According to Tauber's report, the incident showed that "not only was the methodology in physical education wrong, but it may also have violated the principles of leadership and military duties."

Two of the instructors supervising the run have already been penalized. A sergeant who accompanied the recruits during the exercise has been transferred to another post and remains under investigation. Meanwhile, a lieutenant was fined €2,000 ($2,455) for failing to fulfill his duty by not supervising the training.

Bundeswehr plagued by scandal

The accusations come at a sensitive time for the Staufer barracks, and the Bundeswehr more generally.

In early 2017, German media reported of "sexual-sadist practices" at the military training center in Pfullendorf, after trainers allegedly forced recruits to perform acts that were medically unnecessary and sexually motivated.

Five leading officers were demoted and seven soldiers were handed criminal charges in to order to "allow for a new start" at Staufer, according to the Defense Ministry.

January's incident isn't the only instance of recruits being dangerously overexerted, either. Last summer, a soldier died during a marching exercise at a barracks in Munster, Lower Saxony, after collapsing of heatstroke. That prompted the Defense Ministry to instruct all trainers that the individual's personal integrity should take precedence over all other training targets.

Read more: German military investigating right-wing extremism within its ranks

The Defense Ministry also admitted last year that it was investigating some 400 cases of right-wing extremism within the Bundeswehr's ranks. Only a handful of those cases were reported in the press, including that of Franco A., an army lieutenant who was exposed for leading a double life as a Syrian refugee and planning a terrorist attack.

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dm/ls (dpa, APP)