Military service as a mother: “exhausting and marked by feelings of guilt”

Podcast

Melanie Heyde has a partner who works for the Bundeswehr himself. After the birth of their child, both served as commanders. In the podcast, Heyde says: “It was extremely stressful and marked by a lot of guilt.” The commander has to endure comments that her husband doesn’t get. She tells us what it takes to get through this: “A whole village.” Melanie Heyde says today that without the support of her “emancipated husband” and her “great family”, she would not have been able to combine job and child like this.

As a woman in the Bundeswehr: “It must be clear that you will face hardships”

In the podcast she talks about being a woman in military service: “If you go into the Bundeswehr as a woman, it must be clear that you will face hardships.” The force is still rather male-dominated: “We are changing like any civilian company. But of course the change is not progressing as quickly as some people would like.”

On “Die Boss” Melanie Heyde also talks about how the role and perception of the Bundeswehr in Germany has changed since the start of the war of aggression in Ukraine and how she looks to the future of this institution, which faces more than one hurdle.

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Editor’s note: Stern belongs to RTL Germany.