FOUR GERMAN soldiers serving in Afghanistan were awarded a new medal for bravery in Berlin yesterday, the first such award since the second World War.
A decade after the Bundeswehr’s first military operation, yesterday’s ceremony marks another milestone in postwar rehabilitation of the military in German life.
Acknowledging some public criticism of the new award, Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was an appropriate reflection that the Bundeswehr was no longer a pure defence force but an army deployed around the world.
“There’s too little discussion in Germany about the efforts, pressures and risks faced by soldiers,” she said.
Defence minister Franz Josef Jung called the presentation by the chancellor a “particularly important signal for our soldiers”.
“Through your deployment for justice and freedom you have become an example to your comrades,” said Mr Jung to the four soldiers aged 28 to 33.
The four soldiers honoured yesterday showed “exceptional bravery” in Afghanistan last October, the defence ministry said, after a suicide bomber attack on their vehicle in the northern region of Kundus killed two German soldiers and five Afghan children.
The defence ministry said the soldiers risked their lives to rescue one wounded soldier and stand guard on a second, trapped inside the vehicle.
Germany has over 7,000 soldiers deployed around the world in missions monitored by parliament. The postwar constitution forbids Bundeswehr participation in wars of aggression.
Taking the form of a golden cross, the new “bravery cross” is the first medal of its kind in the history of the Bundeswehr although it bears strong similarities to the Iron Cross.
Established in Prussia in 1813, the Iron Cross achieved notoriety during the Nazi era.
Phased out as a medal in 1957, it remains the symbol of the Bundeswehr.
The return of military honours in Germany has been viewed with scepticism and even anger in some quarters, with the Left Party attacking it as “dangerous . . . propaganda”.
“Rituals glorifying soldiers are being reactivated to cover the political failures of the government,” said Paul Schäfer, Left Party defence spokesperson.
For younger soldiers at the start of their careers in the Bundeswehr, the medal has been greeted with guarded interest.
“We always say that in Germany there is a positive disinterest in the Bundeswehr,” said Tobias Grüell, a student at the Bundeswehr University in Munich.