Military Music 09.11.

2003 BERLIN (OWN REPORT) Following anti-Semitic views of a German Parliamentarian and enthusiastic agreement by a leading military figure the major German political parties are arguing about the ,,democratic reliability"of the German Armed Services. Despite differences the politicians assure each other that the German forces since their reform in 1956 are ,,firmly part of the constitution"and are immune to demagoguery. The ,,regrettable exceptions"are attributed by the Berlin Defence Ministry to ,,isolated individuals"and ,,confused soldiers". The official claims are in crass contradiction to actual developments.

The public attack of the Christian Democrat Party MP Hohmann who picked up the Nazi propaganda picture of the ,,Jewish-Bolshevist"criminal1), had been welcomed by General Guenzel the commander of a German elite brigade. The Berlin Defence Ministry described the General as ,,confused"and suspended him - with full pension rights. Since those events critical elements in the German media have seen this latest scandal as merely part of a ten year long series of similar cases - and yet there is no sign of any fundamental analysis of the political make-up of the Armed Services. As US publications show2)Nazi corps were integrated into the West German NATO army from the beginning and they had been inculcated with experience of the fight against ,,Jewish Bolshevism". This group was able to escape the official processes of post war ,,denazification"after they had been assigned to a special department of the American secret service under OPC (Office for Political Co-ordination) Director Frank Wisner.

Among them was the General Reinhard Gehlen - later chief of the German Foreign Security Services (BND). Together with lower Nazi cadres those protected by the post war US administration planned and organized the new German Armed Services. Since strictly anti communist convictions were a prerequisite for the newly founded military, other models of Nazi ideology could be integrated into the services- like chauvinism and anti-Semitism.

The public treatment of chauvinistic and anti-Semitic behaviour in the German Armed Services has been characterized, since the foundation of the military, by embarrassing debates which ignore historical considerations. This denial of Nazi traditions makes possible a

seemingly untroubled consideration of the past and could explain why the Armed Services could choose the 9th November this year (the 65th anniversary of the Nazi pogrom against the Jews) to take part in a festival of military music in Cologne. 3)

1) ,,We have seen how strong and persistent were the Jews in their active support for the revolutionary movement in Russia and middle European States. (...) Jews were active in large numbers in the leadership of the Revolution as well as in the Tscheka Firing Squads. Therefore one could with some justification describe Jews as a Taetervolk"(a race which perpetrated crimes).

2) Christopher Simpson: Blow Back. New York 1988.

3) 3. Militaermusikfestival in Koeln; www.bundeswehr.de 08.11.2003