The defense minister, especially in times of war, is a key position in the German cabinet. Even in times of peace, they are responsible for around 80,000 civilian employees and 183,000 soldiers in the Bundeswehr and are responsible for a budget of 50 billion euros, which could be used to buy Deutsche Bank two and a half times over.
Cross-party attempts have been made to outdo each other in the past few decades when it comes to making mistakes. At this point, we called the CDU politician Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer “the black zero of the CDU”, even before her party came to the same conclusion. In the meantime she has left the capital never to be seen again.
Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz let things drift
Her SPD successor, Christine Lambrecht, managed to increase the level of incompetence so that her own power apparatus finally rebelled.
In December, the commander of the 10th Panzer Division, Major General Ruprecht von Butler, sent an incendiary letter to the Ministry of Defense that ended up in Der Spiegel without too many detours.
He reports on deficiencies with unprecedented frequency. Not a single one of the Bundeswehr’s 18 Puma tanks is operational – a total failure.
Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz let things drift. One had the feeling that the army was not important to both heads of government, but rather a nuisance. The Bundeswehr was no longer feared internationally, but ridiculed.
Over an astonishingly long period of time, the unsuitability of the aircraft and the lack of ammunition and underpants were displayed with relish.
You can watch Pistorius grow
The battered reputation of the Bundeswehr was, so to speak, the peace dividend that Germany paid to other countries. Look here, we are peaceful because we cannot fight. We can shoot, but only in our own knees.
At first, Olaf Scholz’s turning point seemed to be just another word from the spindoctors’ designer workshop. The word was big, the sum high – and yet the thing sounded like papier-mâché, i.e. hollow.
Until Boris Pistorius entered the Berlin stage. He met “The Pioneer” three times, first at the office of the then Minister of the Interior in Hanover, later at the Pioneer Capital Studio in Charlottenburg and yesterday morning at PioneerOne. You can literally watch the man grow. These things characterize him:
The sound:
Boris Pistorius does not speak the language of the military, but that of a civilian military leader. He is clear. He can short. He thinks before making a decision. The Pistorius tone is not metallic but is a firm tone which inspires confidence at this post.
Die Ambition:
He doesn’t want to lament the miserable state of the Bundeswehr, which is now his troops, but to change it. In order to achieve this, he does not rely on talk therapy, but on the reorganization of responsibility.
He had no other choice, he says yesterday: “When I came to the Ministry of Defense, I saw an organizational chart that even someone with a lot of administrative experience can’t understand. You just couldn’t understand how decisions were made. I had to change that.”
“Of course we have to deliver weapons”
Investing is – step two – the driving force to transform good intentions into reality. The Chancellor’s 100 billion are not enough for this, say all defense experts, says the Rheinmetall boss and also says Boris Pistorius, who is demanding almost ten billion euros more and a Scala mobile: “If I don’t get any significant increases in the budget in the next few years , from 2026 I may just be able to finance ongoing operations, but I won’t be able to buy anything anymore.”
Its location:
This Secretary of Defense is not a wanderer between worlds. Joe Biden, Olaf Scholz and the NATO Secretary General should all be able to rely on him.
But he will not let Ukraine down either, which is currently visibly struggling to defend the remaining rump state, even at the cost of losing popularity: “Of course we have to deliver weapons: as long as it takes.”
He rejects the immediate halt to arms deliveries in order to then start peace negotiations: “The end of arms deliveries means the end of Ukraine, tomorrow.”
Its limitation:
He lacks the visionary. He is closer to Helmut Schmidt than to Willy Brandt. He doesn’t want to get involved with the thoughts of Emmanuel Macron, who recently spoke of Europe’s strategic sovereignty: “I think everything has been said about Macron’s statements, which the Elysée has now relativized to a certain extent.”
Will he march with America, even on the Taiwan question? “China and the whole Indo-Pacific is the topic of the next 15 years – at least. We’re going to have to pay a lot of attention to that.”
His future:
As Germany’s most popular politician, he has every chance – if he can secure this position – of rising further in the political nomenklatura of the Federal Republic or even of NATO.
Pistorius practices humility
Knowing this, he practices humility. Nothing would be more dangerous than sticking your head out the window after just three months in office.
So he says:
“My big advantage over AKK or Ursula von der Leyen is that I’m not competing to use the BMVG for myself. I don’t have to become anything after that.”
Conclusion:
This Boris Pistorius masters the disciplines of attack, defense and camouflage. Now he only has to deliver what a critical public will insist on: That is why the clever but at the same time demanding sentence of Friedrich Hegel should be written in capital letters over his desk: “The truth of an intention is the deed.”
