Militarism: Well, it works!

What the rest of the country didn’t notice: there was a week-long maneuver in Bremerhaven in the middle of the month. The “turning point” makes “realistic training” “indispensable.” This is what the colonel in charge of “Homeland Security” says, a volunteer force of Bundeswehr reservists that was founded in 2021 at the behest of then Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer.

The colonel particularly likes the fact that he is now commanding a “novelty” with the “Fishtown Guard exercise”: “We are training in the city area.” Aha? The military-oriented “Weserkurier” likes to skip half a page to introduce its readers to the Bundeswehr’s operations inside, here in the city’s harbor and even in the middle of Bremerhaven’s urban area. A challenge: The newspaper puts it in an almost cabaret-like manner, saying that the Basic Law “doesn’t actually say” that internal security falls within the Bundeswehr’s remit.

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And even the organizer was clear-sighted enough not to want to win over the war-weary residents of Bremerhaven to his side until the very last moment before the start of this war against “ten heavily armed attackers”. Instead of a starting signal, the completely unarmed Bremerhaven Marine Music Corps was ordered to cover up the impending seriousness of the situation with a public concert (Kurt Tucholsky: “hand grenade orchestra”). But then an “emergency” was declared, there were “acts of disruption, sabotage and espionage” in the city’s port area, but the “port as a hub for NATO … and especially the Americans” had to be kept functional. As soon as this “disturbance” was averted after an “intense exchange of fire,” the simulation game suddenly went haywire in the city center: “Demonstrators who were chanting slogans like ‘never again war'” had “came too close to a building «, the press briefly summarizes the events. But don’t worry: “With the support of the home guards, police arrested the troublemakers and took them into custody.” Well then, go ahead!

Military against demonstrators who are demonstrating against war – is this the “novelty”? A “legal advisor” was also involved in the exercise. What did the press spokesman say? “In this case, the operation is based on our protection mandate for the building,” and the Basic Law also provides for the possibility of “administrative assistance.” All in all, a musically accompanied object lesson that it can’t be wrong to have the basic law under your arm in battle – which, admittedly, is not that easy and should therefore best be ordered beforehand.

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