In the Ministry of Defense, new evidence of blatant grievances in the “Command Special Forces” (KSK) for great excitement. According to SPIEGEL information, a KSK captain made a dramatic call for help directly to the minister in early June Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) and its State Secretary.
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In the twelve-page letter, the soldier described that right-wing extremist tendencies were tolerated within the KSK, some were knowingly covered up, and members were told not to report any occurrences.
The captain’s letter hit the Ministry like a bomb. The soldier writes on the first page that references to right-wing extremists within the 1,000-strong KSK are “perceived internally, but collectively ignored or even tolerated for different motives”. The strict leadership of prospective KSK fighters in training would teach them rigorous obedience, “which command soldiers in training had already compared to that of the Waffen SS”.
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The KSK had recently made headlines because of extreme right-wing activities. A member of the elite force had recently been arrested after an arms store was discovered in his garden. Kramp-Karrenbauer subsequently had a task force has been set upthat the KSK should examine closely.
Radio identification with reference to Hitler salute
In his letter, the soldier now asks the minister to act immediately and to draw the subject to her. The grievances could only be “dealt with by a complete external investigation and subsequent reforming”, so he asked Kramp-Karrenbauer “in this way to take action”. A swamp that cannot be dried up has developed within the KSK, which is “more profound and structural than is currently known in the ministry”. In any case, the leadership of the KSK is “apparently overwhelmed” with a strict clarification.
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The soldier, who has served in the KSK since 2018, describes in detail several examples of the culture of looking away in the elite unit when it comes to extreme right-wing tendencies. So one of his trainers made no secret of his “aggressively national-conservative attitude”. His command center always used the code “Y-88” as a “call sign”, which the soldiers use to identify themselves in radio communications. The recruits perceived the clear allusion to the Hitler salute, but no one said anything for fear of reprisals.
In the case of the trainer Daniel K., the author of the letter describes how far KSK executives could go without having to fear the consequences. K. had already been noticed as a captain in 2007 because he described a comrade from the critical group of soldiers “Darmstadt Signal” in a letter as “enemy inside” and threatened that he would not only be observed. Rather, “officers of a new generation” would act at some point. The KSK fighter’s letter ended with the sentence: “Long live holy Germany.”
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