After World War II, Germany adopted a policy banning the sale of weapons and military equipment to active conflict countries. As righteous as this might sound, the policy still allows arms sales to neighboring states, which can then pass the weapons along to whomever they like.

But now the government in Berlin feels it needs to directly support friendly forces in a dire situation … and is creatively interpreting old policy in order to justify the effort.

Officially, the weapons are country support, which Berlin normally grants to young states in order to help build up military and domestic forces. Therefore, Berlin gave the weapons to the Kurds for free along with civil and medical equipment. The package isn’t a sale, so it avoids the ban.

You can argue all you want about the status of the Kurdish “state.” But those weapons speak a rather clear language themselves. Domestically, this policy breach sparked a controversial discussion about the arms trade in general—and whether the government has the right to act like this.

Country support doesn’t need parliamentary approval like commercial arms deals do—rather, it only needs the approval of the federal security council, which meets independently and in secrecy. So the government made the decision and informed the public about it afterwards.

When public pressure increased, the government referred the issue to a federal constitutional court, which ruled in favor of the parliament’s right to be informed of such deals—but nothing more.

For the first time in its history, Germany has broken its own arms proliferation policy by sending weapons to a war zone. It’s a “good” deed originating in secrecy without public consent … and executed with typical German military precision.

Updated on Nov. 26 to clarify the policy details and court’s involvement.