The special forces of the army are under special observation after extremist incidents. However, the KSK has already been certified as a successful reform. Now the elite soldiers have a new boss.
Brigadier General Ansgar Meyer (56) is the new commander of the elite unit Command Special Forces (KSK) of the German Armed Forces. During a roll call in Calw (Baden-Württemberg), he took over command of the association of around 1500 men and women from Brigadier General Markus Kreitmayr.
This had initiated a reform process after extremist incidents, but was then criticized and the focus of investigations because of a collection campaign for hoarded ammunition.
The KSK is responsible for military tasks such as the liberation of abducted Germans abroad and was most recently deployed in the Kabul airlift. Meyer was also the commander of the last German contingent in Afghanistan and had controlled the withdrawal from the NATO mission. He is now taking over an association that is also under special observation of federal politics. The 2nd command company was dissolved after right-wing extremist incidents.
The defense commissioner of the Bundestag, Eva Högl, called for the clarification of grievances to be continued. “The criminal and disciplinary processing of right-wing extremist activities still has to be resolved,” said Högl of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “It has to be made clear again and again that right-wing extremism has no place – neither in the special forces nor in the Bundeswehr,” Högl made clear. Meyer brings a lot of experience to this task.
Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had prescribed a reform program for the KSK. More than 90 percent of the 60 individual measures had been implemented, the Ministry of Defense stated in a final report in June.
The personal responsibility of former KSK commanders remained unnamed. “In retrospect, it must be stated that the causes of grievances and undesirable developments go far back into the past, the effects have accumulated over the years and have sometimes established themselves as an ominous bad culture,” says the paper. “This involuntarily raises the question of the responsibility of former superiors.”
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