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Each army has a mission assigned by a class.  The Bundeswehr has one; and the NVA [GDR's army] had one.  In these times, on the one hand, publications of "singular cases of fascist criminal offenses" in the Bundeswehr increase, and, on the other hand, the existence of classes is vehemently denied.  It is thus important to recall what we once accepted as generally true.  Our class mission was to take care that war and fascism could never again emanate from Germany.

The NVA's founding took place according to the "Law for the creation of the NVA and the Department of National Defense."  Its public law basis were the amendments to Articles 5 and 112 of the Constitution of the GDR of October 7, 1949; they were passed by the Volkskammer [parliament] on September 26, 1955.  Certainly, nobody then passed these laws lightheartedly—solely the FRG's remilitarization, its integration into NATO, and the establishment of the Bundeswehr necessitated these steps.

We put the decisions of the Potsdam Agreement into action.  The traditions of war, fascism, and militarism were made short work of.  As well as nazi and war criminals.  The trials themselves were so short that German imperialism today accuses our former judges ad prosecutors of distorting the law; German imperialism drags them to its courts and sentences them!

At 18 ½ years I was drafted.  In Eggesin [Mecklenburg-Vorpommern], I took my oath of enlistment—to the flag of the GDR.  I swore to do everything to the best of my ability to shield off any attack on my home country and fulfill my assigned class mission—otherwise the harsh punishment of the working class might be imposed upon me.  I can't remember whether I was then aware of the significance of this oath.  In any case, I got aware of it during the days of annexation.  In the staff of the 8th motorized riflemen's division I experienced the discussion about the new military doctrine of the Warsaw Treaty.  In case of an attack, we then only wanted to push back the aggressor to his own territory, not eliminate him anymore.  Imperialism had the right to live on.  A policy that many of the senior officers were not able to understand completely.

When we attested the ability of being peaceful to German imperialism in 1987, I wasn't in the army anymore.  Military politics is class politics —and not party politics!  We had said good-bye to this important principle.

Look at the army's tradition and see for yourself which spirit's offspring it is.  You can clearly recognize the tradition by looking, for example, at the barracks' names.  The barracks I was stationed at were all named after German resistance fighters and victims of fascism:  Fiete Schulz, Hans and Sophie Scholl, Carl von Ossietzky.  You can also recognize the tradition by looking at the leading cadres' careers.  The former Minister of National Defense, army general Heinz Hoffmann, fought against fascism from 1933 to 1945—with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, with the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.

Today we observe that our protective wall was antifascist; today perjury is a matter not only to those who took the oath, but it is also a matter to the formerly working population itself.  No classes and no class politics?  Tell that to the unemployed workers of the eliminated combines, or to the former LPG [agricultural cooperative] farmers.  The class of Siemens, Krupp, and Deutsche Bank is delighted, since it draws a large portion of its strength from our weakness!

One wants to make us believe that the first rearrangement of borders in postwar Europe was unbloody and non-violent.  Not enough violence done to the workers and farmers through the elimination of their workplaces.  Not enough violence done and death brought to the Kurdish people by Germany's arms trade with Turkey.  Weapons of our NVA that we gave away.  Weapons that we gave away into the hands of German imperialism—despite having known better.  No, all that is not yet enough.  German imperialism, that we had sworn to stop, again marches on the Balkans.

War always returns to Germany.  Also the one that already started.  Of course, it hasn't yet broken out.  But it will undoubtedly break out if we don't prevent it at home and show German imperialism and its army their limits and boundaries.  Should we neglect this again it will be very difficult to credibly assure later that we hadn't known anything of all this.  In that case, the punishment of all countries' working populations should be imposed upon us with all possible harshness!

Hammelburg is a nice town at the Franconian river Saale, with a baroque castle and with German tradition.  Hammelburg is the Bundeswehr's biggest camp to train German troops for foreign operations.  Close to Hammelburg is a village called "Bonnland".  Its inhabitants were already expelled in 1938 so that the fascist German Wehrmacht [Nazi Germany's army] could practice murder and elimination in house-to-house fighting. (cf. Soldat und Technik, 6/1997)

Today the German military in Hammelburg also practices fighting the "enemy" that "acts from the population's ranks."  A couple of videos document how German soldiers are being trained for their foreign operations:  execute, torture, rape.  Added is the Hitler greeting.  This is exactly the sort of craftsmanship that no one knows better than German soldiers, who proved their knowledge practically in two world wars.  The videos' scripts were written by officers and non-commissioned officers of the Bundeswehr.  In an inquiry report, the Defense Commissioner of the Bundeswehr, Marienfeld (Christian Social Union, CSU) states that a superior staff member "encouraged" the soldiers to stage the scenario of murder.  This superior sergeant got a formal appreciation of the company's commander and two days of privileged leave—for the "richness of ideas" involved into the staging of such a scenario during the training period. (cf. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10/10/1997)  The officers enjoyed the videos a lot; the videos were the prime program in the barracks' TV rooms.

This German tradition is stood up to.

While many people are horrified by such intrigues, the Bundeswehr welcomed to Hammelburg's barracks more than one hundred fascist Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS [Nazi armed forces for special operations, "Schutzstaffel"] owners of the "Knight's Cross", an honor that Hitler had personally bestowed upon them.  The Bundeswehr itself hosted the event, providing accomodation and meals. (cf. Frankfurter Rundschau, 10/18/1997)

If German nature should not "cure" the world for a third time we must not meet these processes with inactivity.  Does it make sense, however, to join the military as an anti-militaristic activist?  Which opportunities are there?  Were there only defeats or successes too?  If you're interested come to our political event!

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