The NATO exercise “Wettiner Heide” in Lower Saxony with 7,500 soldiers is completely under the impression of Putin’s attack on Ukraine, which violates international law. The specter of war makes more and more citizens suddenly see the Bundeswehr with different eyes. FOCUS Online has looked around on site.
Little Stepke seems a bit nervous as he places his beloved teddy bear on an olive-green tarpaulin in front of a broad-shouldered medical service soldier. The child’s wide-open eyes fixate on the surgical needle and thread that the medic is already holding in his large hands.
Normally the kids from Kleinburgwedel come here to play football on the lawn of the Schützenplatz in the middle of the village in the north of Hanover. But that hasn’t been possible for almost two weeks: the campus is paved with tents and mobile operating rooms from a medical unit of the German Armed Forces. Anyone who sustains cuts or fractures during the large-scale exercise “Wettiner Heide” by NATO’s “Rapid Response Force” at the Munster military training area from May 2nd to 20th will first end up here in the medical camp set up for combat purposes. If necessary, the injured person will then be transferred to a hospital.
But since conscription was suspended on July 1, 2011 and the troops became a professional army, complaints about the Bundeswehr’s lack of anchoring in society have been growing. Until the mid-1980s, every young man who was fit had to do his military service, but more and more families are now missing out on this experience. Not to mention the reduction in troops and equipment, which has long cost the Bundeswehr its ability to defend the country. And which was also much easier to understand than an operation in Mali or Afghanistan. “Peace Dividend” was what it was called in political jargon after the end of the Cold War. At that time, new disarmament agreements made it possible to reduce defense spending and invest the money saved in civilian areas.
But this word has been history since February 24, 2022 at the latest. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin finally cremated them with his illegal war of aggression against sovereign Ukraine.
But what do Vladimir Putin and the reputation of the Bundeswehr have to do with the Wettin Heath exercise in Kleinburgwedel?
As far as the Bundeswehr’s reputation in civil society is concerned, hardly anywhere else can it be observed as well in the context of Putin’s renewed war against Ukraine as here in Kleinburgwedel in the heart of Lower Saxony. The community with its 2,400 inhabitants is home to the command post of the VJTF supply battalion and various supply units for the duration of the exercise. Hundreds of soldiers are sheltered in rented civilian and public facilities with their heavy transport vehicles, fuel, ammunition and food supplies. Nowhere else in Germany are more deployed soldiers in close contact with the population than here.
The “Rapid Reaction Force” is a special combat force with the official name “Very High Readyness Joint Task Force” (VJTF). It was brought into being by the NATO states in autumn 2014 for just one reason – namely as a direct response to the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea by Putin’s army. 11,500 NATO soldiers from all branches of the armed forces belong to the VJTF force, which can be deployed anywhere in the world within 72 hours. The VJTF in turn is part of the “Nato Response Force” (NRF). The force, with a total strength of 40,000 soldiers, was founded in 2002 as NATO’s “reactive intervention force”.
Major Florian B., who came to Kleinburgwedel weeks before the supply units arrived and looked around the village to see who would be willing to help where and how, describes what such a “loving interaction” can look like. “A few days ago, when we were working here on Schützenplatz with the paramedics, suddenly several children stood in front of us, asking us questions about the equipment, vehicles and tents with a red cross on a white background that are standing around here. “
When Major Kleinburgwedel’s local mayor, Lars Wöhler, then suggested inviting the boys and girls from the primary school, which is directly opposite Schützenplatz, for a short tour, the idea of the “Teddy Consultation Hours” was born together with the staff doctors. About 20 children came. The soldiers let her climb into the medical excavator, which can bend almost like a “transformer”. Explain the sanitary rooms. Have chocolate bars distributed, which he pulls from his waist belt with a satisfied smile instead of cartridge magazines. And patch up injured teddies for fun.
Wohler was immediately enthusiastic. “I myself have a primary school-age nephew who keeps asking me about what’s happening in Ukraine. They also talk about it at school. I was immediately enthusiastic about the idea. We even invited the fire brigade!” says the mayor, while behind him a sturdy-looking skewer distributes chocolate bars from his ammunition belt to the children. He was particularly touched that some children even bought sweets with their pocket money to give to the soldiers.
The 44-year-old, who is also commander of the supply battalion in Krones Panzergrenadierbrigade 37 in Bad Frankenhausen, Saxony, is more than satisfied with the course of the NATO combat exercise so far. “Of course, such a big exercise also brings with it disabilities. Especially on the roads, where convoys keep causing traffic jams. We see one or the other finger pointing up again and again. But the waving clearly predominates. That didn’t happen before,” says the native of Magdeburg. In the past, however, there weren’t any such gruesome pictures from the Ukraine. “Regardless of whether people are watching TV or going to the gas station: they are reminded of Putin’s war everywhere.”
More and more often, says Wöhler, who is now standing with Heidel on Schützenplatz and watching the children climbing onto the excavator, Kleinburgwedeler would say to him: “We have the feeling that our safety is in danger. Tell the Bundeswehr to come here more often now. It gives us a sense of security again.” A sentence, says the mayor, that he has never heard before in his town. He also informed the 20 Ukrainian refugees about the exercise. “It’s good that the soldiers are here, they said.”
The 42-year-old junior boss and his father also “immediately agreed” to Heidel’s squad – and have done so in the past. In the past, however, the military presence would have felt very different. “Before, it was just an exercise. But now, it’s about a real, cruel war. A war in which tanks can also bring about peace. That’s why I get goosebumps now when I see Bundeswehr convoys.”
The heavy military vehicles of the Bundeswehr are even more noticeable on the Ebelingshof in neighboring Wettmar than on Torsten Pötke’s modern biogas farm. This magnificent half-timbered house is 500 years old, the gable of which is decorated with two carved “Lower Saxony horses”, the state’s heraldic animal. And it has been owned by the Knips family for 500 years.
On her jacket she wears a fabric sticker with a small bee on it, a symbol of the “country women”. The association confidently represents the interests of women in agriculture, the origins of which date back to the late 19th century. She thought carefully, she says, in which “ornate” she received the guests including the reporter – and decided on the elegant variant – with a hat, mind you. “Everyone knows immediately that I have my hat on here”.
Regina Knips also supports the Bundeswehr and NATO with full conviction. As the housekeeper of a large farm, she often has to “serve as an heiress” who builds on what others have created before. It’s similar in the Bundeswehr, she says. “The soldiers arrived very well prepared just a few days before the start of the exercise, which really impressed me.”
When the commander asked if she would make her courtyard available for the exercise, she didn’t sign it with the usual greeting, but with the words “For unity and justice and freedom,” the beginning of the national anthem.
To say goodbye, she turns back to the group of soldiers and calls out: “Thank you, soldiers, you are welcome here.” The soldiers straighten up and one calls back: “Thank you, madam!”
