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German soldiers in Afghanistan (photo from June 2021)
Photo: - / dpa
The number of German armed forces in Afghanistan that Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) mentioned several times is far too high.
The politician claims that "over 150,000 men and women" in the Bundeswehr served in the Hindu Kush.
In fact, however, Bundeswehr experts assume that there are around 93,000 soldiers who have been sent to Afghanistan since 2001. This estimate is based in particular on the number of operational medals awarded, which almost every Afghanistan fighter has received, and corresponds to research by the Potsdam sociologist Anja Seiffert. A precise number is allegedly not available. A Bundeswehr spokesman claims that it is "technically not feasible for structural reasons" to determine this.
Kramp-Karrenbauer is probably based on the 163,980 so-called deployment participations.
However, these contain multiple missions and therefore do not say anything about how many Afghanistan veterans there are.
Experts suspect that the Bundeswehr slouched in collecting data in the first few years of operation and is now reluctant to go to the expense of determining the exact number afterwards.
On August 31, Kramp-Karrenbauer wants to pay tribute to the end of the Afghanistan mission with a big tattoo and an appeal, in which Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will also take part.
At the height of the German commitment in 2010, there were over 5,000 members of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan.
After the USA and Great Britain, Germany provided the largest number of troops.
As of 2011, their number has been reduced.
klw
