President Roman Herzog of Germany has called for a thorough inquiry into recent allegations of widespread right-wing extremism among Bundeswehr soldiers.
His remarks yesterday came as prosecutors investigated claims by the son of a former cabinet minister that the expression of anti-semitic and neo-Nazi sentiments was routine among soldiers in an elite parachute regiment.
Mr Herzog told the mass circulation Bild am Sonntag newspaper that Germany's experience during the Weimar Republic showed how important it was to remain vigilant in the face of political extremism.
"Even if some of the cases that are being discussed here owe more to stupidity, they must be thoroughly investigated to prevent their repetition," he said. The president called for debate Bundeswehr is part of our society, so society itself must take responsibility when something like this happens. These young people all have parents and have been through school and I ask myself, what have they been learning at home and at school?" he said.
Prosecutors in Lower Saxony are considering whether to charge soldiers at an army barracks there after Mr Christian Krause, the son of a former transport minister in Dr Helmut Kohl's government, claimed that fascist remarks and Nazi salutes were tolerated there.
Mr Krause claimed that members of the 313th Parachute Regiment had given the Hitler salute and roared anti-semitic slogans during a party in the barracks.
His claim was supported by a second recruit last week, who told a television programme that a shooting instructor encouraged conscripts to imagine that their target was a Jew.
"Then you'll certainly hit him, right between the eyes," the instructor was reported to have said.
The defence ministry has reacted angrily to the latest allegations, which follow revelations that soldiers at one barracks decorated rooms with Nazi symbols and that a convicted neo-Nazi terrorist was invited to lecture at a military academy. One newspaper report suggested that Mr Krause was motivated by a desire for revenge because he was disciplined in September for returning late to his army unit.
A defence ministry spokesman condemned the refusal of the second recruit to be fully identified during the television interview in which he made his allegations. "Now is obviously the hour of anonymous witnesses and informers. If there were incidents, the witnesses should give precise details to the proper Bundeswehr authorities," the spokesman said.
