Germany: Covid out front, remilitarisation behind the scenes

12/01/2022 · Colin Meier

Since the end of November, even before the new German government was definitively formed, one post was already known to the German press ^{[1], [2]}: the chairmanship of the newly created crisis committee.

This committee will henceforth bring together the federal and regional levels, and will be chaired by a soldier, Bundeswehr (German army) general Carsten Breuer. He will be responsible for coordinating the logistics behind the vaccination campaign. And although this post has only just been created, from the outset it will have privileged offices located directly within the Chancellery, thus allowing better “access” to political decision-makers ^[3].

According to the association Information Militarisierung e.V. (IMI – “information militarisation”), C. Breuer has, from 2018 until today, headed the Territoriale Aufgaben command (territorial affairs), which broadly covers the domestic missions, i.e. on national territory, of the German army, such as army intervention in the event of natural disasters.

According to IMI, this is not the first time a soldier has been chosen for a civilian post in the fight against a disease. Back in 2009 (H1N1) and 2014 (Ebola), Germany had called on the services of the general staff in the person of the surgeon general Hans-Ulrich Holtherm. He is, moreover, still active behind the scenes today, heading the department for public health, health security and sustainability at the Federal Ministry of Health, created only at the end of February 2020. Nor is it the first time that C. Breuer himself has been tasked with fighting the spread of a disease.

Wider missions to come

This could, as IMI concludes, be part of a large army communication campaign to polish its image with the population and get it to accept the remilitarisation of civil society. We can therefore expect a wider spectrum of military missions on national soil, going beyond the interventions currently permitted by the constitution: in the case of administrative assistance (where the army has only executive and not decision-making power), natural disasters, a state of emergency (e.g. in the event of attacks, and even then not always) or defence.

Administrative assistance (easier to obtain, but more limited in its powers) and calling in the army in the other cases are moreover mutually exclusive under the definition of “deployment”. Deployment would then give the army more extensive powers at home, but to prevent the criteria being circumvented, several conditions must be met. These conditions describe, in short, a threat to democratic institutions. For the army to be able to intervene, there would have to be a threat, in Germany or in one of its Länder, to the integrity of human and fundamental rights, the sovereignty of the people, the separation of powers, the independence of the judiciary, the legality of administrative acts or the ability of the police to uphold the law on the territory.

The irony is that several of these principles are currently being threatened precisely by those who could call on the army in the event of a threat!

Extension of the Army's role

The hypothesis of an extension of the army's role within German society through communication strategies is not new and is rather well documented ^{, , , ,}. Moreover, up to 12,000 soldiers are currently mobilised to provide “administrative assistance” in the context of the “pandemic”, notably in vaccination centres ^. Of course, members of the governing coalition jumped at the opportunity to demand, as a result, mandatory vaccination for the army.

But it does not stop there. One of the projects under way, which would massively increase the army's influence, is, according to IMI, the Territorial Hub. It is a digital network enabling the coordination and exchange of confidential data between various rescue and emergency services (fire brigades, police, emergency doctors, etc.), the German army and other armed forces stationed in Germany. This would call into question the federal principle, under which, in the event of a disaster, it is the Länder that have the necessary powers, and it would definitively anchor the Bundeswehr in civilian disaster relief, and even in civil society in general.

The new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has moreover just announced, as if by chance, an increase in the Defence budget.

By Colin Meier, independent citizen journalist and Germany correspondent for BAM!

^{https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/bundeswehr-general-soll-corona-krisenstab-leiten-a-f6fac51b-90ad-4645-b605-bef45726618a}

^{https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/breuer-general-corona-krisenstab-101.html}

^{https://www.imi-online.de/2021/12/03/impfkampagne-mit-general/}

^{https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/109585/BMG-beruft-Bundeswehrgeneral-als-Leiter-der-Abteilung-Gesundheitsschutz}

^{https://www.baks.bund.de/de/arbeitspapiere/2015/inlandseinsaetze-der-bundeswehr-brauchen-wir-eine-verfassungsaenderung}

^{https://bam.news/articles/allemagne-banqueroute-morale-de-la-justice/}

^{https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=78599}

^{https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=77021}

^{https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=76179}

^{https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=76084}