The red-green Senate in Hamburg is planning a celebration for the 69th birthday of the Bundeswehr, in addition to the Veterans Day in June 2025. Is this a good idea?
It’s not that the armed forces are not visible in public: Bundeswehr Day in Hamburg on June 8, 2024 Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa
Yes, but there should be no obligation. Coercion and jubilation would be out of place. They would contradict the intentions of the red-green coalition in Hamburg and would not be appropriate for the subject. Because what matters are respect and appreciation. It is about ensuring that the Bundeswehr is not a foreign body in society.
With the Veterans Day, the Bundestag symbolically followed the turning point identified by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. It has made it clear what should have long been in the public consciousness: that we cannot do without a strong Bundeswehr and that the profession of a soldier has a special character.
When you hear „veterans,“ you think of cruel battles, maimed bodies, and traumatized individuals. That is terrifying. The very old think of bombing nights and fathers who never returned home, the middle-aged think of the apocalyptic atmosphere during the peace movement. All of this now comes back with force. Society must confront this and readjust its relationship with the army.
The soldier puts his head on the line, even if he has to expect that it may cost him his life. Bundeswehr soldiers – and women soldiers – must be willing to risk their lives to defend our liberal-democratic society. This should be appreciated. Anyone who says it’s not worth it should ask themselves why we get so worked up about racism, sexism, anti-discrimination, violence against women and children, and gender equality. If all of that is worthless, then we can also do without the Bundeswehr.
Of course, civil resistance is also possible. But the prerequisites for this are even less developed than the Bundeswehr as it stands today.
So, if we want someone to be willing to serve in the armed forces, then that someone should not be applauded, but also not be looked at in shock.
To create a bit more closeness between the population and their armed forces, it is surely a good thing to celebrate the Bundeswehr’s birthday in Hamburg. It is a bit strange to start with the 69th founding day. But the new threat from Russia may also create a special urgency here.
With the birthday celebration, Red-Green explicitly wants to promote a broad definition of the term veteran: Everyone who serves or has served in the armed forces should feel addressed. Because celebrating the Bundeswehr’s birthday is about taking the armed forces out of the dirty corner and also about strengthening defense readiness. This is a good idea. Gernot Knödler
No
The proposal by the SPD and Greens for the next citizenship meeting in Hamburg is eerie. It is unfortunate that the Bundestag also passed a „Veterans Day“ at the end of April, with the votes of the once pacifist Greens, which should honor all people who have served from June 15, 2025 onwards. In Hamburg, Red-Green wants to „send a signal“ and already this year on November 12, hold a grand celebration on the occasion of the 69th anniversary of the Bundeswehr’s founding.
„We do not want to wait until 2025“ to honor this, says SPD parliamentary leader Dirk Kienscherf. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine „painfully showed“ that we need a well-equipped Bundeswehr, adds the Green Sina Imhof. In their proposal, Red-Green praises the Bundeswehr’s assistance in disasters such as the Hamburger Sturmflut in 1962, which is deeply rooted in the collective memory.
The city is now called upon to support the Hamburg State Command of the army in its celebration and to participate in it. The State Command usually celebrates the day with a service in St. Michael’s Church. The celebration will be „a bit bigger“ this year, according to a spokesperson.
Even the Veterans Day is unnecessary. Why should we suddenly tell Bundeswehr soldiers that we think what they do is great? Civilian service volunteers have also made valuable contributions. But this double whammy in celebrating raises suspicions. Is this being done to promote conscription and readiness for war?
But we do not need military public festivals, we need cool heads to think about how this war in Ukraine can be ended. We need an open discourse in which proposals like those of SPD politician Rolf Mützenich to freeze the war are heard and not just Sarah Wagenknecht mentioning negotiations.
Especially with the Greens, it is incomprehensible how extensively they have departed from their once critical stance on militarism. And by referring to the 1962 flood, they are leading people astray. Yes, the Bundeswehr helps with floods. But to rescue people from houses with a dinghy, you do not have to first learn how a rifle works. And the flood of 1962 has been remembered countless times.
In the city’s collective memory are also the terrible bombing raids during the Hamburg firestorm of 1943, to which the population was defenseless. The generation that experienced this and demanded „Never again war“ from their own experience and warned of the danger of nuclear war is dying out. However, the necessity of an active peace policy remains. We should not celebrate. We should discuss soberly. Kaija Kutter
