The top generals were there, as were military historians and social scientists. The defense minister sat in the front row.

But as officials with the German Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr, gathered at the Center for Military History and Social Sciences in Potsdam to grapple with the German military's relationship with its past, the discussion turned frequently to those who weren't present — the troops themselves.

The Bundeswehr is overhauling its traditions decree, a uniquely German document that identifies the acceptable sources of military heritage in a country where the past is divisive, especially as it relates to the armed forces. It's a challenging act that involves balancing the political needs of the moment with a rank and file that is developing more emotional ties to their own identity as they deploy overseas.

"Everyone in this room has studied this topic quite intensively," Bundeswehr Brigadier General Kai Rohrschneider, the current chief of staff for US Army Europe, told the gathered academics. "For the troops it's a lot more difficult."

A growing rift

The debate itself points to the growing rift between German society and its military. After a series of scandals hit the Bundeswehr this spring, most notably the discovery of a right-wing extremist officer posing as an asylum-seeker, political pressure was high to rein in what some saw as a military disconnected from the society it served.

The German defense minister wants barracks named after WWII figures renamed

Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen broadly condemned the Bundeswehr leadership, which responded by searching barracks for further signs of extremism. Von der Leyen suggested she might rename barracks and warships named after Nazi-era soldiers or commanders, including the famed Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

A backlash quickly followed. Current and former military officers criticized von der Leyen's blanket condemnation. Younger officers voiced their displeasure. The critics were soon joined by public and media commentary questioning the slash-and-burn approach to the past.

Former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in army uniform

The confusing boundaries of the debate were embodied in the May removal of a photographic portrait of Helmut Schmidt, the former German chancellor, from the Hamburg university that bears his name.

The portrait showed a young Schmidt in his Nazi-era Wehrmacht uniform [The German army in World War II]. Yet as defense minister, Schmidt was key in preserving some of the most progressive reforms built into the Bundeswehr.

Von der Leyen announced around the same time her plan to have the traditions decree refashioned for the third time in Bundeswehr history.

Looking back — but how far back?

The Potsdam discussion was structured to split German military history around the year 1933, when the Nazis rose to power.

Speakers focused on one side of the divide looked to Prussian military reformers of the 19th Century as positive role models. Others pointed to the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt against Hitler carried out by a conspiracy of his own officers. Still others pointed to the very creation of the Bundeswehr in 1955 — the first democratically controlled military in German history — as worthy of celebration in its own right.

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



"The Bundeswehr has a very specific, unique experience never before seen in German history," Stig Förster of the University of Bern emphasized.

Debate soon pivoted to whether the focus on role models ignored a lack of historical knowledge among troops. Michael Epkenhans, a social scientist with the host Center for Military History and Social Sciences, said the debate over naming barracks missed this larger point.

"Sharpening historical awareness is what this is about," Epkenhans said.

Tradition versus history

Yet there's a sharp distinction between history and tradition, as the Bundeswehr's founders noted from the beginning and as Brigadier General Rohrschneider pointed out again.

"It's not about the historical individuals, themselves," he said of the recent controversies. "Soldiers feel that the process of the discussion on barracks naming is an external attack on 60 years of Bundeswehr history."

Researchers frequently returned to the broader problem of the soldier-society divide in Germany. A Bundeswehr created in 1955 as a conscription-based Cold War force is now a smaller army of professionals deploying to Afghanistan and Mali. With soldiers more often at risk, they're becoming more vocal about questions of identity.

While society may hope to define tradition as something that binds the military closer to its own mainstream political spectrum, Rohrschneider said, soldiers are looking for role models of warriors and examples of success on the battlefield.

Increased deployments and the risks involved are reshaping German soldiers' sense of identity

Society as the audience

The target of past tradition decrees has always been the German public, however. The first decree, finished in 1965, was spurred by concerns over how the new Bundeswehr would interact with its own Wehrmacht past and Wehrmacht veterans groups then in society.

The 1982 version followed an eruption of protests against the public visibility of the military in ceremonies like oath swearings. The decree published that year encouraged the Bundeswehr to find inspiration in its own history and its basis in the German constitution.

The discussion this week was the third of four meetings around the latest overhaul; the final is scheduled for early November. The process from there remains unclear.

Past decrees have needed considerable time to finish. The recent election means the makeup and priorities of the next government remain unclear, meanwhile.

Participants agreed the new decree needed to address the post-Cold War reality faced by the Bundeswehr, one that raised new ethical questions from the likelihood of soldiers facing more combat.

"Aside from the fact there are so many historians here, we're not actually talking about the past," Rohrschneider said. "We're talking about the future, and what the Bundeswehr should be."