The failed New Year's Eve speech by Christine Lambrecht (SPD) prompted the opposition to call for the defense minister to be dismissed.
In the traffic light coalition, on the other hand, there is a clear effort to keep things small.
The government's comments about the video uploaded to Instagram are correspondingly cautious.
"No reason to rate this"
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Berlin said it was a privately recorded video for which no Ministry resources were used.
When asked if filming was an appropriate way to welcome the New Year given the war in Ukraine, he said: »The words of the minister in the video speak for themselves.
It's not up to me to comment on that." The deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann made a similar statement: "I don't see any reason to evaluate this here."
The video with comments on the Ukraine war had been publicly criticized as embarrassing.
The short clip looks unprofessional, it was recorded on New Year's Eve in Berlin.
Lambrecht can hardly be understood because of whistling rockets and exploding firecrackers.
Many observers also had something to complain about Lambrecht's choice of words.
The year presented us all with incredible challenges, said Lambrecht.
And: “A war is raging in the middle of Europe.
And that meant a lot of special impressions for me that I was able to gain.
Many, many encounters with interesting, great people.«
»I find the setting a bit unfortunate«
Union politicians in particular sharply criticized the wording.
Lambrecht showed no sense for the suffering of the people in the Ukraine war.
"With the thunder of the New Year's rockets in the background, she tells something about the war in Europe and the great encounters she had in 2022," tweeted the Saxon CDU politician Paul Schäfer.
He accused Lambrecht of not bringing enough dignity to the ministry.
The chairwoman of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), was also extremely distant: "The New Year's video in question is a matter for the minister and her communications staff.
I personally find the setting a bit unfortunate.
I do not want to say more."
mrc/dpa
