German army in purge of Nazi memorabilia
A MURAL of soldiers in full Nazi regalia found at a military barracks has been painted over as part of a crackdown on far-right memorabilia within the German army.
It is one of more than 40 pieces of Nazi-era memorabilia being removed from military bases across the country.
The exact location of the mural is jealously guarded by the defence ministry, together with the full list of 41 items of Nazi memorabilia found by its inspectors.
Other examples include photographs of fighter aircraft adorned with swastikas, and a commemorative coin, struck recently by a logistics battalion, which carried the image of a Nazi-era Wehrmacht soldier, according to details leaked to Bild newspaper.
A soldier’s model aircraft was even confiscated after he painted it in the colours of the Condor Legion, a Nazi Luftwaffe unit which served in the Spanish Civil War and carried out the air raids that left Guernica in ruins.
The clean-out is part of a wider purge ordered after a far-right terror cell was discovered within the army. Two soldiers are under arrest on suspicion of planning to carry out a “false flag” terror attack and blame it on Muslim refugees.
When Ursula von der Leyen, the defence minister, visited the barracks where the arrested men were stationed she was horrified to find Nazi memorabilia openly on display, including a G36 assault rifle engraved with a swastika and posters with SS runes.
Ms von der Leyen has called for the military to dissociate itself more clearly from the Nazi era, and for the names of to be removed Second World War figures from barracks.
“The armed forces have to make it clear, both internally and to the outside world, that they are not a continuation of the Nazi Wehrmacht,” she said.
Commanders have ordered Nazi memorabilia found anywhere on military property to be removed. This included a 1940 photograph of former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Nazi uniform, which was removed from display at the military university in Hamburg that bears his name.
Ms von der Leyen has come under heavy criticism after she blamed “weak leadership” in the armed forces for the far-right terror plot. This week she said the purpose of the clear-out was solely to draw a line and sensitise soldiers to the issue, and not to cast blame.
The fact so much memorabilia was found shows “you can’t blame the troops for what is a general attitude problem” said Lars Klingbeil, an MP from Angela Merkel’s coalition partner, the Social Democrats.
Military intelligence is investigating suspicions of a wider far-right network at an armed forces university in Munich, according to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. Four students are under investigation over suspected links to the two soldiers arrested over the “false flag” plot, one of whom posed as a Syrian refugee for more than a year.