Towards a new German military identity? Change and continuity of military representations of self and other(s) in Germany

Abstract

ABSTRACTDuring the last two decades, the German armed forces (Bundeswehr) have undergone a profound change, both structurally and culturally, in order to adapt to the end of the Cold War and the emergence of ‘new’ military tasks such as peacekeeping and nation-building under democratic auspices, but also counter-insurgency and the training of foreign troops. These transformations have been accompanied by debates on concepts of the military profession both within the armed forces and among the German public, challenging the normative ideal of the citizen in uniform established in the Bundeswehr since its foundation, and the associated commitment to a ‘civilized’ military culture. This article retraces this development from a historical perspective, focussing on patterns of interpretation which have been taken up, modified, and abandoned in public debates and which are reflected in semantic forms like the distinction between friends and foes, heroes and victims, and, most recently, warriors and peacekeepers. It discusses the reasons for the renaissance of ‘classic’ concepts of military identity against the backdrop of blurred military roles in contemporary Western wars on the one hand and German normative prerogatives on the other.