(Der hierunterfolgende Tekst auf deutsch:
Kriegsbereitschaft (4.12.2007) - Deutsch-französische Militärkreise leiten in diesen Tagen die Gründung eines EU-weiten Verbandes zur Stärkung der Kriegsbereitschaft in der Bevölkerung ein...
Ready to Accept War
2007/12/04
KLINGENTHAL/PARIS/BONN (Own report) - In the next few days German-French military circles will be initiating the establishment of an EU-wide association to reinforce the population's readiness to accept war. This is based upon an agreement between the German Gesellschaft für Wehr- und Sicherheitspolitik (GfW) (Association for Defense and Security Policies) and the French Civisme Défense Armée Nation organization (CiDAN) (Civil Responsibility, Defense, Army, Nation). Both have been engaged in promoting military policy projects in their respective countries. Current planning seeks to convince particularly journalists and teachers ("multipliers") throughout Europe "of the necessity (...) of consolidating efforts in the realms of security and defense." The objective is "the maintenance of the [EU's] status in the world" through an EU army. The GfW, which, from the German side, participated in the planning, is closely linked to the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) and the German ruling parties. Over the past few years, the GfW has been repeatedly criticized because of its contacts to extreme rightist milieus.
Klingenthal Castle
Current efforts to reinforce within the populations of the European Union, a readiness to accept war, are taking place within the framework of this year's "Klingenthal Meeting" organized by the French CiDAN organization (Civic Responsibility, Defense, Army, Nation). It began Monday Dec. 3, in the Klingenthal Castle near Strasbourg and ended on Friday Dec. 7. Klingenthal Castle is owned by the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Foundation in Basel, which was founded in 1968 by the former Nazi cultural financier, Alfred Toepfer, taking over a large portion of the resources from a foundation in Vaduz carrying the same name. The institution that had been registered in 1931 in Vaduz, was a parallel foundation to that of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S, that, even today is criticized for its eponym's involvement during the Nazi period.[1]
Spirit of Defense
Since its founding in 1999, the organizer of the "Klingenthal Meetings," CiDAN, has been devoted to strengthening the "spirit of defense" and reinforcing the "rapport between the civilian society and the military world." With the "Klingenthal Meetings" CiDAN began, in 2001, to extend this work to the whole of Europe. The organization writes that the populations of every EU nation has to be won over to a "European defense consciousness".[2] Therefore once a year they invite politicians, military personnel and scholars to Klingenthal Castle. This year's meeting is being underwritten by the Fondation Entente Franco-Allemande (Foundation for French-German Understanding) as well as the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for Human Progress (in Lausanne). CiDAN has close links to the French Defense Ministry.
Global Interests
The German Association for Defense and Security Policies (GfW), that has as one of its objectives the "maintenance of the general defense readiness", joined this process in 2004. Following an initial accord reached in April 2006, GfW, together with CiDAN, agreed upon a "Charter for the promotion of a European Security and Defense Consciousness", that shows clear evidence of German involvement. This Charter serves as the groundwork for a pan-EU fusion that will include associations from all member nations. According to this document, to defend its territory as well as "safeguard its global interests", the EU requires "a common European security and defense policy alongside operational European organized and commanded armed forces."[3] To domestically secure the global combat deployment of the EU army, GfW and CiDAN want to "reinforce the support for the common European security and defense policy within the populations of the European Union." According to information from CiDAN, there are already organizations from 16 EU member nations interested in signing this Charter.
Afghanistan, Iraq
As announced by Manfred Rosenberger, a colonel in the Bundeswehr and member of CiDAN, the current "Klingenthal Meeting" will serve to consolidate the network for founding an EU-wide fusion in the spirit of the charter. "Global politics cannot be influenced without military capability," writes Rosenberger. "This is particularly evident when seen in the context of Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq." According to the colonel, the "concord of citizens throughout Europe" is indispensable for future combat missions of an EU army. "Everyone must be convinced of the necessity to consolidate efforts in the realm of security and defense."[4] Rosenberger calls for the development of a new readiness to accept war through "nurturing a security and defense thinking within educational institutions." Besides teachers ("at universities and schools"), journalists, above all, "must be won" as partners in cooperation.
Community Service
Rosenberger participated with CiDAN already in the early stages of planning for the new fusion. Since 1980 he has been a member of the inner circle of German-French military cooperation. He was (2001 - 2005) employed at the Federal College for Security Studies, which, through the close cooperation with Chancellery personnel is linked to the inner circles of power in German military policy.[5] The GfW, which joined CiDAN's planning in 2004, is unofficially the German PR organization for promoting the armed forces and military policy in public opinion. To make the task easier, it has been accorded the privileged status of a "community service" institution. Approximately three-fourths of its budget is furnished by the Federal Bureau of the Press, its staff is comprised mostly of Bundeswehr personnel (some of whom are retired), politicians and ministry officials. The membership has been steadily rising since 1990 to reach close to 7,500, divided, throughout the country, into about 100 sections doing PR work for the military.
"1939 - Many Fathers"
Founded in 1952, (under the name Gesellschaft für Wehrkunde - Association for the Science of Warfare), the GfW predates the Bundeswehr. Former Wehrmacht officers founded the organization to campaign - successfully - for the rearmament of West Germany. About half of its members were integrated into the West German army in the mid-1950s. During the years of transition (1954 - 1963) the GfW was presided over by a convicted war criminal. Retired Gen. Col. Georg-Hans Reinhardt had served in the Kaiser's army as well as in the Reichswehr. He had been convicted in the Soviet Union of war crimes and sentenced in 1948 to 15 years, but was released early in June 1952. Over the years, the GfW has been repeatedly the target of criticism because of the company, sectors of the organization, has been keeping in fascist milieus. When in 1999 it became public knowledge that the organization had invited lecturers with links to the extreme rightist milieu,[6] the defense ministry placed a former inspector general at the head of the GfW. He quit a year later.[7] Three years ago another scandal occurred, when the GfW's Rendsburg section planned the public reading of a new book. This could be prohibited at the last moment. The book's title: "1939 - Der Krieg, der viele Väter hatte" (1939 - The War Born of Many Fathers)".
[2] Colloques annuels de Klingenthal; www.cidan.org
[3] Charta zur Förderung eines "Europäischen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsbewusstseins"
[4] Auf dem Weg zu einer Europäischen Sicherheits- und Verteidigungskultur; www.military-for-peace.net
[5] see also Strategic Community, To Corner and Hintergrundbericht: Bundesakademie für Sicherheitspolitik
[6] Braune Kameraden - Mit Steuergeldern auf Vortragsreise; daserste.ndr.de/panorama/archiv/1999/t_cid-2943702_.html
[7] Der deutsche Militarismus. Analysen zur Militarisierung der bundesdeutschen Gesellschaft, Aachen o.J.