Johannes Arlt is a former soldier and was deployed abroad seven times from 2014 to 2019. Arlt who is now a lawmaker for the ruling center-left says he has experienced first-hand the lack of recognition the gets in German society.
There is praise for soldiers who help at home, for example during flood disasters, says Arlt, but many people don’t really care about their deployment abroad. “There was little empathy. For a long time, there seemed to be scant interest in these people,” he says.
Arlt aims to change that: Together with lawmakers from his coalition partners, the Greens and the neoliberal , and also the conservative /(CDU/CSU) opposition bloc, he developed a concept for a Veterans’ Day, which the Bundestag approved on April 25.
Every year on June 15, veterans are now to be commemorated. And on May 15, one month earlier, there is to be a central celebration in Berlin, as well as numerous events throughout Germany.
However, the MPs want to see more than the introduction of a new public holiday. They are also calling on the Federal Government to ensure better rehabilitation for traumatized soldiers. And also to address the burdens on their families. Arlt reports that 80% of the families of traumatized soldiers also suffer psychological stress.
Veterans like former Sergeant Major Andreas Egger say they’ve been waiting a long time for such an initiative from politicians. “It is actually the case that society has not been able to recognize this at all in recent years because there has never been a signal from politicians that our Bundeswehr is entrusted with special missions abroad and with special tasks,” the former soldier told the public broadcaster ARD. “If politicians don’t give this message, then society can’t appreciate what we do.”
Not a new idea
The idea to introduce a special day to commemorate former soldiers is not entirely new: twelve years ago, the then Minister of Defense Thomas de Maiziere (CDU) spoke out in favor. But hardly anyone wanted to follow his lead back then.
Now things are different, as CDU MP Kerstin Vieregge says: since , the number of people paying more attention to the Bundeswehr has increased.
Last September, the high-profile Invictus Games were held in Dusseldorf in the presence of Defense Minister . The Invictus Games are an international multi-sport event first staged in 2014, for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women and veterans.
The Bundeswehr has been part of NATO and UN missions for 25 years, but lawmaker Vieregge has observed a recent change following the end of the mission in Afghanistan in 2021. German soldiers were deployed there for almost 20 years as a combat and training force. 59 of them lost their lives. “After the end of the Bundeswehr’s deployment in Afghanistan, there was a movement among veterans who asked themselves: ‘What did that do for us and how does society treat us soldiers who were there?’” Vieregge says.
10 million veterans in Germany
The lawmakers put the number of veterans in Germany at ten million. This is also due to the very open definition of who can call themselves a veteran: The lawmakers behind the Veterans Day initiative include all soldiers who served for at least six months and were honorably discharged.
This also includes those members of the former “National People’s Army” (NVA), the military of former communist East Germany’s army, who were incorporated into the Bundeswehr after .
The supporters of the Veterans Day initiative are keen to stress they do not intend to glorify the military. “We don’t want to turn soldiers into national heroes. And we’re not thinking of a central military cemetery either,” Green Party lawmaker Merle Spellerberg explains.
Andreas Eggert says he’s not interested in hero-worshipping either. “For me personally, Veterans Day means recognition, appreciation of our profession, and, above all, being seen. In other words, that people see the special nature of this profession in our society.”
International commemoration tradition
Military cemeteries already exist elsewhere, for example in the United States, where the national cemetery in Arlington on the outskirts of the capital Washington D.C. is famous. The US has long marked Veterans Day on November 11, the day of the armistice in World War I. In the UK, November 11 is Remembrance Day, which is observed by most Commonwealth countries. In Belgium and France, November 11 is a public holiday and day of remembrance.
In Germany, June 15 was chosen primarily at the request of veterans’ associations. They have argued that more people may be ready to participate in remembrance activities in the summer when the weather tends to be good.
This article was originally written in German.
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