German move to stamp out Nazi past of its armed forces

THE German government is renaming its old military barracks and banning Second World War memorabilia as it tries to cleanse its armed forces of their links to the past.

A military police school in Hanover, formerly used as an infantry barracks by the Nazis, was renamed after a German soldier who died serving in Afghanistan in 2011.

Previously named after Otto von Emmrich, a First World War general, it is to be renamed the Sergeant Lagenstein Barracks. It is the first of many scheduled to have their names changed under a code, unveiled this week by Ursula von der Leyen, the defence minister, which attempts to redefine the traditions of the German armed forces.

There was outrage in Germany last year when it emerged that military units were openly displaying memorabilia from the Nazi era, including images of fighter aircraft with swastikas, a mural of soldiers in Third Reich regalia, and a picture of Helmut Schmidt, the former chancellor, in Nazi uniform.

Several barracks are still named after figures from the Nazi era. The modern German military has always maintained it has nothing to do with the Wehrmacht, but the new code takes that fur- ther and explicitly disavows Germany’s military past as “incompatible with the values of our liberal democratic constitution”. It also repudiates East German communist army heritage.

Under the rules, military units will not be allowed to display uniforms, insignia or memorabilia from the Nazi or communist eras.