Enlarge image
Bundeswehr soldiers on one of the last withdrawal flights from Afghanistan
Photo: Torsten Kraatz / dpa
The Bundeswehr has completed its mission in Afghanistan after 20 years. On Tuesday evening, several transport planes flew the last 250 German soldiers from Camp Marmal in northern Afghanistan to Tbilisi in Georgia. From there the soldiers are supposed to fly on to Germany. The US also took part in the Bundeswehr's withdrawal operation with its huge C17 military aircraft as a gesture of solidarity between the NATO partners.
On the very last machine from Afghanistan, a gray A400M of the Luftwaffe, the last German commander, Brigadier General Ansgar Meyer, and the 20 or so elite fighters of the Special Forces Command (KSK) flew out at around 10 p.m., Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to join them Securing the withdrawal to Afghanistan. For safety reasons, the military machines were on the move with the transponders switched off for the last step of the trigger.
One of the Bundeswehr's longest and most loss-making missions abroad ends with the last flights. In 2001, Germany moved to Afghanistan out of solidarity with the USA. The USA invaded Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks of September 11th because it was assumed that the Taliban ruling there provided protection for the planners of the 9/11 attacks in the Hindu Kush. Top terrorist Osama bin Laden, however, could not be grasped; he was later tracked down and killed in Pakistan.
In the years after 2001, the hastily planned US intervention turned into a large-scale NATO stabilization mission (ISAF) and later a training mission for the Afghan security forces under the name of "Resolute Support".
At the height of the mission, the Bundeswehr was active with 1,300 soldiers in Afghanistan.
In addition to the central camp in Mazar-i-Sharif, there were outposts in Kunduz and Faizabad.
Afghanistan has forever shaped the Bundeswehr
In the past few weeks, the Bundeswehr had cleared the entire Camp Marmal in a hurry for the withdrawal and prepared it for the complete handover to the Afghan army. In the last phase, the staff around Commander Meyer had withdrawn in the former command center of the KSK, a separate construction site, which was also called "The Castle". From there the final steps of the withdrawal were coordinated.
For the Bundeswehr, the Afghanistan mission was the most loss-making operation in its history. 59 German soldiers died in Afghanistan, 35 were killed in combat or attacks. Afghanistan was the second longest foreign deployment for the Bundeswehr after the Kosovo mission, which began in 1999. For a long time, however, the federal government avoided saying that a war was raging in the Hindu Kush. Instead, there has long been talk of a stabilization mission.
The withdrawal of the Bundeswehr follows the US decision to end the mission in Afghanistan.
Even if there is still no negotiated peace treaty with the radical Islamist Taliban, shortly after taking office, US President Joe Biden decided to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan by September 2021 at the latest.
In the meantime, however, it is assumed that the US troop withdrawal will also end by July 4, 2021.
The Taliban are already preparing to take over the country
For war-torn Afghanistan and its 38 million people, uncertain times will come with the withdrawal of NATO.
The Taliban had already captured dozens of districts in the past few weeks, but held back from attacking NATO troops.
A spokesman was certain of victory.
"We can see that you have started to withdraw, and we will not disturb or stop you with attacks," Sabihullah Mujahed told SPIEGEL.
A large ceremony to mark the end of the mission is not currently planned.
There will be a line-up of some of the returned soldiers at Wunstorf Air Base on Wednesday and an appeal from the Bundeswehr commander, Lieutenant General Erich Pfeffer.
But not even journalists have been admitted to the event.
This is how one of the largest missions of the Bundeswehr comes to an end quietly.
Most recently, the Bundeswehr got in the way of the delta variant of the corona virus when it was withdrawn. Because a German soldier was demonstrably infected with the variant in the field camp at the beginning of June, all returning soldiers at home should be in forced quarantine for two weeks. On Monday evening, just 24 hours before the last flights, the troops changed their guidelines. Instead of quarantine, all soldiers were tested again for corona before departure.
