Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht has resigned after prolonged criticism – she is not the first to leave the Bendlerblock early.Image: dpa / Michael Kappeler
Germany
01/17/2023, 07:5001/17/2023, 08:01
After months of persistent criticism, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) has pulled the ripcord. She no longer wants to, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) asked for her dismissal. The reason that Lambrecht gives for the step:
“The months-long media focus on my person hardly allows factual reporting and discussion about the soldiers, the Bundeswehr and security policy decisions in the interests of the citizens of Germany.”
Instead of her, however, the work of the soldiers should be in the foreground, she thinks. So the ex-minister has drawn consequences – to protect the troops, to protect herself and the coalition and her party.
After Green Minister Anne Spiegel, Christine Lambrecht is the second member of the cabinet to be dismissed by Chancellor Scholz.Image: AP / Markus Schreiber
But the social democrat is not the first to give up her position in the Bendlerblock, the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense, prematurely – and then possibly disappear into oblivion. Rather, the Department of Defense is a kind of ejection seat. At least that’s what it seems.
But from the beginning: What happened to Lambrecht’s predecessors?
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The Federal Republic had a total of eight defense ministers in this millennium – and especially in the Merkel years (2005-2021) not all of them stuck to the regular four years of a legislative period. The work was also limited. One of the reasons why the Bundestag had to release a 100 billion special fund was the desolate state of the army.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Eberhard Zorn, Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, on the day of national mourning.Image: imago images / Christian Spicker
There was, for example, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU), Lambrecht’s predecessor. She took over the post from Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) in 2019 when she switched to European politics. Kramp-Karrenbauer took over the shop in a tense situation.
Von der Leyen (2013-2019) had accused the troupe of an attitude problem. In reaction to the unmasking of the terrorist Franco A., the defense minister at the time had problems within the armed forces addressed. And this general suspicion alienated the soldiers from the Bendlerblock.
So Kramp-Karrenbauer took over a wasp nest. And then stabbed himself. Again Bundeswehr Association criticized, the CDU woman was one thing above all: unpredictable. Nevertheless, the association makes it clear that Kramp-Karrenbauer would have set the right topics. The greatest merit: Kramp-Karrenbauer made the Bundeswehr visible again.
After her time as Minister of Defense, Kramp-Karrenbauer turned her back on federal politics. After the botched Federal election 2021 she voluntarily gave up her mandate to a younger politician. Ursula von der Leyen, on the other hand, left for Brussels in the middle of the legislative period. She was elected President of the European Commission there.
The tone makes the music – but politics doesn’t affect it
In addition to the alienation, von der Leyen has tackled the financing of the troupe in particular. the Expenditure on the defense budget rose by almost a third under the CDU woman. And her commitment to security policy at European level did not harm her, not least when she was elected President of the Commission.
Ursula von der Leyen was the first woman to head the Defense Ministry.Image: dpa pool / Michael Kappeler
Leyen’s predecessor, Thomas de Maizière (CDU, 2011-2013), had also messed with the troops. Although he does not place the soldiers under general suspicion, he publicly accused them of craving too much for recognition. That didn’t go over well. The troops therefore accused the minister of not standing behind them. After just two years, de Maizière, during whose term conscription was suspended, moved to the head of the Ministry of the Interior.
de Maizière’s predecessor landed less gently. After only two years in the post of defense minister, the CSU politician Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg was first exposed and then fired. He had copied his doctoral thesis. It was the plagiarism scandal that cost him a ministerial post and a seat in the Bundestag. However, the cheating minister is not completely out of it, the CSU man has been advising the EU Commission since 2011.
Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg was Minister of Defense for two years.Image: imago stock&people / Sammy Minkoff
But not without first “destroying” the Bundeswehr. At least that’s how the former CDU Defense Minister Volker Rühe (1992-1998) puts it. In an interview with the “daily mirror“explained the ex-minister in 2019, the CSU I have a lot of work to do in terms of the Bundeswehr. Zu Guttenberg saved too much money instead of investing it in the troops. At the same time, although he prepared the end of conscription, he had not given any thought to how future personnel would be assigned to the troops, was the devastating verdict.
Zu Guttenberg’s predecessor also stumbled, but not because of the intellectual property of others, but because of his own dishonesty. Franz Josef Jung (CDU, 2005-2009) was Minister of Defense for four years – so far, so normal. After the 2009 election, he became head of the Department of Labor. 33 days later he had to resign. The reason: He concealed the excesses of a disaster during the Bundeswehr mission in Afghanistan.
Specifically, it was about Air raid at Kunduzin which numerous civilians died in addition to the Taliban at the hands of the German Bundeswehr. At the time, Jung was accused of not informing parliament and the public fully and too late about the killing of civilians.
So Lambrecht joins the list of politicians who stumbled across the position at the head of the Bundeswehr. It remains to be seen how things will continue for the SPD woman. It is clear, however, that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is now under pressure – because right now, when war is raging in Europe, the focus is on the Ministry of Defense. Since it would be desirable if the Lambrecht successor is not thrown from the seat.
On New Year’s Eve, emergency and rescue services in Berlin and other cities were massively attacked. In some cases, the police had to be deployed to protect firefighters from attacks while they were putting out fires. Representatives of the police and fire brigade were dismayed and uncomprehending about the extent of the violence.
