The German Armed Forces apologized on Wednesday for the photo of a Wehrmacht uniform with clearly visible swastikas on their official Instagram account.
Amongst others, two iron crosses with swastikas were attached to the uniform, as can be seen in the photo, which appeared in an Instagram story on Tuesday. After the "Bild" newspaper had reported about it, the photo was deleted immediately.
"Unacceptable error"
The posting was more than tasteless. An employee of the editorial office of "BundeswehrInfo", who supervises the Instagram account of the troupe, also titled the picture. "Fashion, too, is an aspect, and military stylistic elements are still in haute couture today," he wrote as a caption.
The ministry responded irritably. Without demand, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's spokesman Christian Thiels reported on Wednesday in the government press conference about an "unacceptable mistake" for which his house had to "apologize" formally.
For his boss Kramp Karrenabauer Thiels struggled to damage limitation. He himself had talked to the employee and rebuked him. Quite defensively, he acknowledged that the incident had damaged the reputation of the Bundeswehr, rightly, the posting to "considerable irritation" worried, also see the Minister so.
However, Thiel's lengthy explanations were not entirely clear how the post came about. According to the Ministry, the editors of the German Armed Forces had taken a photo series in the Military History Museum in Dresden and also photographed the uniform, which is a prop from the Nazi thriller "Valkyrie".
Screenshot of the deleted Instagramposts
Thiels can not explain why the civilian employee inserted the picture with the clearly visible swastikas into the Instagram story and also added a cynical commentary. So it was "an extremely annoying case of thoughtlessness," he said, but a political background in the employee but you could exclude "as things stand".
Accordingly, the employee has expressly apologized. Allegedly, he accidentally put the caption under the image of the Wehrmacht uniform, she was meant for another picture from the story. "One would have had to think about it a minute longer," said Thiels.
Four eyes principle should be introduced
The thoughtlessness surprised, because only two years ago, there had been a heated debate about how the Bundeswehr deals with Wehrmacht voters. Rigoros had decided Ursula von der Leyen in the end to banish all Wehrmacht symbols from barracks, even a picture of old Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in Wehrmacht uniform had to be hung.
The Ministry has now decided to better control the Instagram account of the Ministry, specifically in the future, a "four-eyes principle" will be introduced before the publication of postings.
Whether the excitement disappears with the apology, is not yet in sight. Thus demanded the FDP defense politician Marcus Faber further consequences. "Anyone who is so oblivious to history must not post for our Bundeswehr, instead of losing himself in aircraft carrier fantasies, the minister should take better care of her home," said Faber in the "Bild" newspaper.