THE GERMAN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONER OF THE FEDERAL ARMED FORCES: FROM CONSTITUTIONAL WATCHDOG OF THE INNERE FÜHRUNG TO CONVENTIONAL MILITARY LOBBYIST

Abstract

This thesis covers the development of the German Parliamentary Commissioner of the armed forces, the Wehrbeauftragten des Deutschen Bundestages, who has by law the obligation to oversee the military. The Commissioner is entitled to ensure the army’s compliance with Innere Führung, which is first the concept of the citizen soldier and a military that is fully integrated into a liberal democracy and pluralistic society. Examining literature from the Commissioner’s development until 2005 and assessing the Commissioner’s work thereafter, this thesis concludes that the Commissioner has lost focus on issues of Innere Führung, instead becoming an advocate of soldiers’ needs and interests and, recently, even a conventional military lobbyist that demands a greater military budget and more equipment (i.e., for more military strength and readiness). On the one hand, this shift is a result of ineffective means and instruments to assess the state and the essence of Innere Führung. On the other hand, it is an expression of a broader societal and political neglect of democratic and liberal values, which are taken for granted, as well as a lack of historical awareness regarding the dangers and risks of radical political tendencies and militarism.