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Schönbach last summer
Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / dpa
Within the federal government, the inspector's appearance far from home on Saturday caused severe irritation: During a visit to India, Schönbach said that the Crimean peninsula was lost to Ukraine, thereby contradicting the position represented by Germany and its partners.
Regarding Putin's motivation, he explained that the Russian president only demands respect and probably deserves it.
This wish is easy to fulfill.
Both in the defense department and in the Foreign Office, people were quite annoyed right up to the top management.
It quickly became clear that the video of his performance could not remain without consequences.
At a video conference that was hastily convened in the morning, Minister Christine Lambrecht, SPD, discussed with her inspector general Eberhard Zorn and her chief PR adviser how to deal with Schönbach.
The group agreed that the chief of the navy must clarify his statements publicly immediately, although some kind of apology was expected.
The officer was called in for a clarifying meeting with the inspector general on Monday.
Even at this point, many in the military department expected that Schönbach himself would ask for his release.
Otherwise, the minister would have had to retire him by the beginning of the week at the latest, since she cannot tolerate such a failure by a leading general.
Schönbach has now avoided the embarrassing situation by asking for his release himself.
