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rehe president of the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), Christof Gramm, will be replaced in October. The Defense Ministry announced Thursday. Gramm had “initiated and accompanied the necessary reform of the MAD and thus achieved notable improvements,” it said in a press release.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) and Gramm agree, however, that the subsequent implementation of the reforms marked a “new section” that must also be “visible in terms of personnel.” Gramm will be temporarily retiring. The FAZ had previously reported on the decision to replace him. The group of defense policy officials had already said that the replacement would take place “by mutual agreement.”
In the past, the MAD had been criticized for numerous setbacks in uncovering far-right activities in the Bundeswehr. This was particularly evident in the suspected cases at the Special Forces Command (KSK). Parliamentary Secretary of State Peter Tauber (CDU) had stated in the course of the investigation of the KSK cases in the summer that the MAD had “still unacceptable deficiencies in professionalism.”
Kramp-Karrenbauer would then commission Gramm to come up with a package of measures by the end of August, coordinate it with his ministry, and then jointly develop a plan for its implementation. This should make the defense against extremists within their own ranks stronger, faster and more professional. The commitments, it was said from the ministry at the time, “were not possible.”
The Defense Ministry statement said that the Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence had a “leading role” in the fight against right-wing extremism in the Bundeswehr. Their tasks include “recognizing extremist tendencies at an early stage and fully identifying and uncovering possible network structures anyway.” The reforms initiated by MAD from October 2019 also yielded “results”: “More recently, this year, thanks to the work of BAMAD, serious cases were clarified.”
