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There are new investigations in the Bundeswehr against a group of possible extremists. On Tuesday, the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) approached a branch of the Bundeswehr Procurement Office and questioned several suspects.
The eight officials, including the director of the regional quality testing center in Ulm, are supposed to sympathize with the so-called citizens of the Reich. The movement rejects the state as an institution and does not accept any laws.
Investigations against the group of officials had already begun in late 2019, when an informant had contacted the MAD. During Tuesday’s action, the suspects were questioned and their technical devices were seized.
The Secretary of State for Defense, Peter Tauber, briefly briefed the chairmen of the Defense Committee on the MAD measures. According to a short letter from Tauber to MPs, the MAD’s suspicions were largely confirmed by interrogations. Tomorrow, other employees of the department will be interviewed. After interrogations, the suspects were not allowed to enter the offices.
MAD assumes a possible “Reichsbürger” network in various authorities
Consequently, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the State Criminal Police Office and the Federal Intelligence Service also participate in the investigation.
According to information from SPIEGEL, the MAD assumes that a larger network of Reich citizens could exist in different authorities. The now questioned head of the agency was previously employed by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and is said to have had many contacts there to this day.
Suspects may have had access to weapons
In security circles, it was also said that several officers who were now questioned were sport shooters and also had weapons at home. The researchers emphasized that the investigation was still in its infancy. However, the case is worrying.
Secretary of State for Defense Tauber said extremists of all stripes had no place in the Bundeswehr. This also applies to the “citizens of the Reich” as they “reject the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany, its legal system and the basic free democratic order,” Tauber said. The objective of the Bundeswehr must be to keep such people away from the force or, in a case like this, to expel them quickly.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) said, according to the AFP news agency, that extremism and a lack of loyalty to shared values are “incompatible with our mission, but also with the principles of camaraderie and collegiality.” Kramp-Karrenbauer called it “encouraging that essential information is again coming from internal sources.”
