Tuesday, April 06, 2021
Controversial Bundeswehr program
As of today, young recruits protect their homeland
Today the first recruits are starting the new voluntary service in the Bundeswehr Homeland Security. The Federal Minister of Defense is pleased about the keen interest. Meanwhile, it is not just the name of the initiative that has been criticized by the opposition and associations.
The Bundeswehr started its new military service in homeland security today with 325 volunteers. The voluntary service should give young people the opportunity “to work for Germany in a very flexible way,” said Federal Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Starting this Tuesday, the service providers will initially undergo a seven-month training course near their home and should then be available to the reserve.
A total of 1,000 volunteers will start their service in homeland security this year, as the minister said. She was pleased that the number of interested parties had significantly exceeded the number of vacancies: This shows the willingness of young people to serve in the country. According to the Bundeswehr, there were 9,000 applicants for the program. The offer is aimed primarily at young people who are interested in the Bundeswehr, but who do not want to be “so tight” with it, said Kramp-Karrenbauer. According to the Bundeswehr, one sixth of new service providers is female.
According to the ministry, the greatest differences to traditional voluntary military service are the “home-based planning in reservist service” after training and the renouncement of foreign assignments. The volunteers first go through a normal basic training, which is then followed by a three-month special training in homeland security – the main focus is on property protection. The training also includes areas such as medical services and fire protection.
Reclaim the term “home” from rights?
Kramp-Karrenbauer rejected criticism of the name of the new service. The term “homeland security” was chosen deliberately, she said. It was a “mistake” to simply leave the term home, which is close to our hearts, to the right in this country, who also abuse it, she said. “It is time we brought this concept back into the democratic center, that we recaptured it.”
The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Defense Ministry, Peter Tauber, emphasized that there was “a military need for this voluntary service”. The Bundeswehr needed a “supplementary structure in the reserve”. The offer should appeal to young people who otherwise could not be won over to the Bundeswehr. “The willingness to get involved in our country is very high,” said Tauber.
Applicants would be checked for possible extremist attitudes, said the Deputy Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Markus Laubenthal. The Bundeswehr wanted to “know who we were dealing with,” said the general. Before this “general screening”, the volunteers could not begin training on the weapon.
Criticism of the new program
The motto of the new service is “Your year for Germany”. It takes place as a pilot project of the armed forces base and is initially set for one year. Then it should be decided in which form the project will be continued. According to the ministry, the offer is intended for the time before the start of studies and training, during a career change or during a chosen professional break.
Criticism of the new service came from the FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. “What we need are young men and women who are ready to go into action and who are ready to be trained in such a way that our freedom is protected in peace,” said the Liberal on NDR Info. “That is not enough with such a social year.”
Welfare associations are also critical of the new program: “The Bundeswehr should simply call it what it is. It’s a kind of taster course for the Bundeswehr,” said Caritas President Peter Neher to the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation. Voluntary service is the prerogative of civil society and not of the state. “And that’s why it is important to strengthen the existing voluntary services such as the voluntary social year, the voluntary ecological year or the federal voluntary service.”
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