Bundeswehr: Bundestag chooses Henning Otte as a military officer

The CDU politician Henning Otte is the new military officer of the Bundestag. The deputies elected the 56-year-old to the office with a large majority as the successor to Eva Högl (SPD). The Lower Saxony was already a defense policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag by the end of 2021.

For him, 391 parliamentarians voted for him – significantly more than the number of seats of the black and red coalition. The Greens had already announced in advance to vote for Otte.

Pistorius: “We’re not yet finished”

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) said that he was looking forward to working with Otte and at the same time thanked his party friend Högl for her commitment: “We have done a lot, but we are not yet finished,” he said at the plenary debate and emphasized: “Security is an order and responsibility.”

Otte represents Celle-Uelzen constituency in the Bundestag. He went through an apprenticeship as a reserve officer in Panzerbattalon 333 in Celle and was already campaigning for more and better equipped armed forces when the Greens and SPD were still on the brakes.

Example is the long controversial armament of the drone Heron TP, which was only “armed” due to political -moral concerns – i.e. without ammunition. In 2019, Otte asked in the Afghan Mazar-i-Sharif: “We cannot deny our soldiers parts from the military instrument case, especially not if they serve the elementary protection of our troop.”

The military officer is considered the lawyer of the soldiers

The military officer is elected to five years by the members of the Bundestag and appointed by the President of the Bundestag. He is considered the lawyer of the soldiers who can contact him at any time and should support the Bundestag in the exercise of parliamentary control of the armed forces.

The military officer can also make registered or unannounced visits to the group at any time. His core tasks include awakening the protection of the fundamental rights of the soldiers and the principles of inner leadership in the Bundeswehr. The military officer submits a report once a year.

Högl’s annual report: Bundeswehr in severe personnel needs

Before Ottes election, the MPs debated the last annual report of the outgoing military commissioner Högl, which she published in March. In the report, she warns that the Bundeswehr gets into increasingly serious personnel and pounded to the introduction of a new military service.

While the number of soldiers remained at around 181,000, the average age has increased significantly within five years, she stated in the report. She said on Wednesday: “Sufficient and completely ready -to -use staff is the key to defending our Bundeswehr. And unfortunately, unfortunately our Bundeswehr is getting older and she shrinks.”

New military service “initially for voluntariness”

In its coalition agreement, the new federal government of the Union and SPD has agreed to create a new and attractive military service “which initially is based on voluntariness”. This is a compromise and meets the SPD’s demands.

The Union, on the other hand, had asked to end the suspension of compulsory military service – because of the massive threat situation and to enable the Bundeswehr to be expanded rapidly.

Among the first steps should now also be a new weir recording for the service in the armed forces, which was abolished when the compulsory military service in Germany in 2011 was abandoned. Since then, the state does not know comprehensively who could be activated for the service in the armed forces.