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Defendant in court (on January 22nd): explosives and ammunition buried
Photo: Sebastian Willnow / dpa
The chief of the now disbanded 2nd Company of the Special Forces Command (KSK) looks a little uncomfortable.
The KSK, an elite unit of the Bundeswehr, usually operates in secret.
It is rather unusual for a former company boss to have to answer questions in public.
The 45-year-old lieutenant colonel didn't say too many words in front of the Leipzig regional court on Friday.
One of his subordinates, Philipp Sch., 46 years old, is sitting in the dock.
In May 2020, investigators found several earth depots in his garden in Collm, northern Saxony.
The sergeant major had buried a Kalashnikov, around 6,000 rounds of ammunition and two kilograms of explosives.
The police also found the remains of a bazooka, training grenades, a silencer, detonators and Nazi devotional items.
The find wasn't the first scandal.
In April 2017, right-wing music was said to have been played at a farewell party for the previous company boss, pigs' heads were thrown and the Hitler salute was shown.
In June 2017, the now summoned witness took over as the new chief of the 2nd company until it was finally disbanded in summer 2020.
Ammunition shortages?
"We often had to struggle with that"
Philipp Sch.
was primarily responsible for training the soldiers in the company and was one of the lieutenant colonel's closest collaborators.
Together they thought about how certain scenarios such as a hostage rescue including helicopter use and house-to-house fighting could be practiced, says the witness.
Philipp Sch.
I specifically planned and carried out the exercises.
Philipp Sch.
had declared his ammunition depot in the garden with shortages at the KSK.
He had cut ammunition in order to use it again for training when the opportunity arose.
The court asks his boss about his experience with ammunition shortages.
"We often had to struggle with that," he says.
In situations like this, did the accused ever say that he still had ammunition somewhere?
"Is not known to me."
Where did Philipp Sch.
the Kalashnikov?
The Bundeswehr does not use such a weapon.
The court asks for hiding places in the basement under the company building.
'Have you ever been in the basement?
Were there dark corners?
Was there a Kalashnikov with 30 cartridges lying around in a sock? ”The investigators had such a sock with ammunition next to the Kalashnikov in Sch.
found.
He never saw a Kalashnikov in the cellar, says the witness.
But he didn't look into every box either.
The presiding judge Jens Kaden asks about special incidents with the accused.
The witness reports an incident during a meeting.
Sch.
once imitated the speech of Adolf Hitler.
"I didn't think that was correct."
"Clarified".
When asked by the defense, he later said that he thought it was a joke.
"And that's why I said it wasn't funny anymore."
"A kind of warrior ethos"
The judge confronts him with the statement of a fellow officer that there had been "difficulties with a certain political direction" in the 2nd Company.
"A kind of warrior ethos" developed, which some "drifted in the right direction."
What can the witness say about this?
"I can't answer that like that," he says.
A soldier is definitely a warrior.
The court becomes more specific.
Did the Wehrmacht or the Waffen SS serve as a model, for example to motivate soldiers for missions abroad?
"I can not confirm this."
“What was going on in you when you learned that Mr. Sch.
buried certain things in his garden? ”asks Judge Kaden.
“I was deeply disappointed.
I never expected that in my life.
No way."
Before that, the court had other comrades from Philipp Sch.
questioned.
A sergeant major, 44, was friends with the defendant.
He describes its political orientation as "normal".
The court also asked these witnesses where the Kalashnikov could have come from.
It asks about missions in Afghanistan.
Assuming a KSK soldier was given a weapon there: "Was it possible to bring a weapon to Germany?" All weapons would be packed in boxes before departure and the contents would be checked.
"I can't imagine that it wouldn't have been noticed."
Ammunition broken off during exercise?
And how did the defendant get all the ammunition?
Or as the judge put it: “How's all that stuff about Mr. Sch.
came?"
During a day's exercise, quantities "in the six-figure range" would be fired, says another officer who is responsible for weapons management.
The soldiers would be instructed that they had to return unused ammunition after an exercise.
Such are the rules.
The so-called leader of the exercise is responsible.
The defendant was such a leader in target practice for years.
"Doesn't anyone control how much a soldier shoots during a combat exercise?" "That is not possible," says the witness.
Nobody runs after the soldiers and collects the casings.
"Is it possible that a supervisor can branch off ammunition during a target practice?" Asks the prosecutor.
The witness is silent for a long time.
Then he says: "If you stick to the rules, that can't actually happen."
Another KSK member has become clearer.
The court reads the minutes of his testimony to the police.
"We shoot more in one night than the police in a year." Diverting ammunition is entirely possible.
"That is no problem for any KSK member."
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