CONVOCO! 0000

The Unswerving Optimist

I had the honor of serving in the German Armed Forces for over 42 years, most recently as the Commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast in Poland – NATO’s northeastern flank. We are most grateful parents of four wonderful children, and I am especially lucky to be the husband of this wonderful lady, sitting amongst you wisely supervising my following thoughts. I consider myself an open-minded, liberal-conservative Christian and have dedicated my life to the service of our nation, Europe, and NATO – a decision I have questioned many times over 42 years but never regretted. For almost three months now, we have been retired – a new and exciting phase of life has begun for us.

The title of my farewell address on the occasion of my Grand Tattoo in Berlin on March 5 was an attempt to express my emotional and intellectual state: The title was “Dona nobis pacem: A look back in humility and gratitude – A look forward in hopeful concern.” Allow me, to start off this evening, to briefly describe how I – and when I say “I” it applies equally to Harriet and our children, as they closely accompanied and supported my years of service – how I feel and think, having entered retirement amid such a demanding geopolitical situation. How does one feel in the mix of humility, happiness, and gratitude, yet confronted with the immense challenges of our shared immediate future?

It’s difficult to put these emotions and thoughts into words. So let me try to convey them through the questions that keep driving and unsettling me:

1. Have we, as a society, truly recognized the three fronts we face – Russia in the East; Trumpism in the West; and the internal fragmentation within our society, our country and across Europe?
2. How do we prevent the resurgence of exclusionary Nazi and socialist ideologies in our society from overpowering the blessings of a free, prosperous, and self-determined Europe – a Europe our parents, alongside North America, built from the ashes of World War II – and from sacrificing it on the altar of populism?
3. How can we revive a unifying societal consciousness that makes it plainly visible: “What do we stand for – what are we willing to defend – and what is my role, my responsibility in that ‘we’?”
4. When will we realize that strong words, bold speeches, and superficial popularity, when combined with obstructive systemic vanity, do not create resilience or military readiness – only bold and innovative immediate action does!
5. Could we – or how could we – survive militarily as a central power in Europe with less or no support from the US?
6. When will Germany finally become the reliable partner others seek? When and how do we pivot from hesitant passivity to forward-looking, proactive leadership?
7. How do we rescue the Bundeswehr and our Ministry of Defense from themself, ending their self-perpetuating, result-defeating bureaucracy and the overwhelming survival instincts of the bureaucratic “clay layer?”
8. How do we overcome the culture of paralyzing mistrust – especially mistrust in leadership?
9. And finally, the most personal question of all – why was I unable to prevent or avert many of the issues I just mentioned.

These questions trouble me, both in the big picture and on a personal level. That’s why I feel I’m not yet done – I feel I cannot hand over our earthly paradise to our children in this state – we can, and we must do better! I will now go into more detail on a few of these aspects.

At the start of this legislative period, let’s consider the geostrategic environment of our earthly paradise of self-determined freedom, prosperity, security, and diversity. It seems to a certain degree unlikely to remain what it currently is – at least it is under immense pressure. In my view, beyond the perennial issues like climate, migration, the Near Middle East, the Pacific, etc., Germany and Europe face upfront three specific, existential threats:

1. To the east, from Russia – a “classical” threat in every respect: inhumane, offensive, confrontational, uncompromising, existential.
2. To the west, the increasingly unpredictable transatlantic alliance, undermined by “Trumpism.”
3. Internally, in Germany and Europe, the fragmentation of our societies and the horrifying resurgence of Nazi and socialist ideologies that elevate the nation-state above all else, in ignorance of the fact that none of these challenges can be solved by any one country, by any one political party or elite, by any one military domain alone.

Let me begin with some good news: Despite over 40 years in our armed forces, I have remained an optimist. I still believe we can and will overcome these challenges – if we are willing to recognize them, to understand them, and to face them head-on, free of ideological blinkers. We must confront and address these issues directly: My motto still is: “Never miss an opportunity – never miss a good fight!” So let us first look at the danger rising to Europe’s east. This danger defined my professional life over the past four years. As the commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast, I was responsible for around 30,000 men and women stationed in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and northeastern Poland as part of NATO’s defense posture. With these forces, we planned the defense of our alliance territory. Latest after February 24, 2022, we knew: This mission was no longer theoretical – it was very real. In April 2022, I issued the real-live order to defend our sector against the remaining Russian threat along a 2,200 km land border. In retrospect, this was the final culminating point of my career. I had been conscripted as a young man for this very task – about 40 years later, I had to fulfill it. But something had changed: I was no longer sitting in my Leopard 2 tank on the banks of the river Elbe staring at the inner-German border and our then German enemy. I was serving as a German general in Poland, responsible for NATO territory across four Eastern European countries.

This area became very dear to me. My family and I found friends there who brought us closer to a different yet fascinating European culture. And I found citizens and comrades who showed me what “military readiness and resilience” truly mean at a societal level. These words are not made real by mere repetition – only by deeds. But in Germany, unfortunately, we always act only when the water is already up to our necks, when Putin has attacked Europe in Ukraine, and has ‘so to speak’ declared Narva or the Suwałki Corridor as his next objective. Right now, we are trying to outdo one another with statements that Russia might be ready to attack NATO in 2029. This thought-experiment is as academic and out-of-touch as the people promoting it. The fact is: Russia is already capable of attacking NATO – even while waging its illegal, dehumanizing war in Ukraine. The question is no longer if, but when, where, to what scale, in what form, and with what objective. In cyberspace and in safeguarding our critical infrastructure, we are already facing scenarios that some states would interpret as existential, even as acts of war. Let me be clear: Peace and Security does not necessarily mean the absence of threats or the hope that nothing will happen. It means controlling threats. Sadly, the phase of peace and security is long gone.

So, if we stare like lemmings at the year 2029, I ask you: Why on earth should Russia wait that long? It just makes no sense. Putin doesn’t have to declare war. He must simply count on us not being able – or willing – to defend the Alliance. If we allow Russia to dictate red lines, then we are allowing Russia to decide what constitutes a NATO Article 5 event and what does not. Have we, as a society and political leadership, truly grasped what’s at stake?

I’m sure many of you have visited the Baltics and Poland and are familiar with the region. I believe many of you will agree: If you want to understand what it feels like to live under the shadow of the Russian threat, travel to Tallinn. Travel to Warsaw, Riga and Vilnius and do something we Germans aren’t always known for abroad: Listen to the people! Listen, and you will see: The people in the Baltics feel the danger at their doorstep. They know, as former Soviet republics, what is at stake. When they see the images of the occupied territories in Ukraine, they see the streets of their own hometowns. They remember fighting in armed resistance against Soviet occupation and winning their freedom from Russia. A Latvian security advisor to the Latvian president once told me: “General, it’s pretty simple: back then we took our freedom from Russia. Now Russia wants it back. We will never allow that.” For these people, NATO is not one option among many – it is their only life insurance. That’s why they look at us with high expectations – and at the North Atlantic Treaty with worry and growing skepticism.

For someone who spent his life working in coalitions, in international combat formations, shoulder to shoulder with our great North American allies, the past months have been especially painful. One politician and president questions everything that we stood for shoulder to shoulder. What we in the Baltics represent every day, trying to assure people: “NATO has your back.” How betrayed must our allies feel when they hear the conflicting statements coming from Washington, when suddenly the long-standing commitments to the Alliance and loyalty are back on the table? For years, our Eastern European allies had to convince the Central Europeans and “old” NATO members that Putin didn’t want friendship – he was just expanding his power at the cost of our naiveté. And now? Do we gather as the betrayed and deny cooperation with our most important military ally? Or do we swing to the other extreme and pretend “this can’t be happening” and “move along, nothing to see here”? We in political Berlin have tended to go to both extremes. But with the new government, I am again far more optimistic. As I said earlier, I am personally more conservative – and the words “in good times and in bad” carry for me a clear and binding meaning. So, let’s put down the raised finger and continue to extend a hand to Washington – pragmatically and confidently from a position of strength and as partners on equal terms. Because the most uncomfortable part of Trump’s criticism and that of his eerie cabinet is that it often hits a nerve of truth. I do not agree with their conclusions, but yes, we Europeans have been free riders. Those days must be behind us. And I admit, there is a touch of wistfulness that I can no longer personally contribute to realizing our Chancellor’s mission of building the Bundeswehr into Europe’s strongest conventional army. But it is the right course – now, finally, with results in mind, without compromise or ornament – for the Alliance, for Europe, for Germany – for our earthly paradise. Along the uncomfortable but undisputed narrative: “Si vis pacem, para bellum” and “Only obvious social, political, economic and military strength creates the conditions for de-escalation!”

We’ve examined the threat from the East, the people living in its shadow, and our reliability within the Alliance. To close, let’s take a brief look inward – at ourselves. We have entered a legislative period that could not be more decisive. If we take the year 2029 seriously, then this is the last German government with the chance to prepare us – our society, you, me, our children, Europe – for a potential war, in order to prevent it or to win it if it is imposed on us by Russia and the Axis of Evil – Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, … – the alliance of autocratic and kleptocratic regimes. Assuming this government even lasts four years – as we know, four years can be a long time. If we fail, the future of our children will lie upon the altar of our inaction – both in the face of external and internal dark forces.

You – we – bear the responsibility to create the framework necessary to renew the defense ecosystem in Germany and Europe. So far, our typical German approach has been to throw a lot of money at the problem. And in equally typical fashion, the Ministry of Defense will measure success just by how much funding it has spent. That may be good for industry and for approval ratings. But is it also good for our troops and our immediate defense capability? I have serious doubts about that. Instead of asking who gets which slice of the cake and continuing to scatter money with an economy-driven, lobby-fueled watering can without meaningful effect, we should be asking who actually has a plan to conduct and win a defensive war – or, at best, to prevent it.

We need a whole-of-society, integrated, operational narrative for our politics and the role of our armed forces, one that takes precedence over the current, purely force-planning-driven narrative – a concept that defines the very essence of defense capability – of warfighting capability, measured by the ability to impose, to endure, and to win, and that places the ability to fight at the center of the soldier’s profession, and the will to fight for our earthly paradise at the center of our society: it is about nothing less than the defense of our country and of our freedom-oriented alliances – the survival of our earthly paradise. This operational narrative is not limited to the Bundeswehr or to the uniformed bureaucrats with general’s stars. It concerns the entire political and defense complex of our country, of which you and me – the civil society are a part of. For example, I would wish that representatives of industry would openly address the problems in procurement and production and present practical solutions on their own initiative. Why is it that – after three years of war in Europe and in the face of an “axis of evil” consisting of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela – thus, an alliance of autocratic and kleptocratic regimes – we are still confronted with the same bottlenecks in production, tenders, and procurement? I simply cannot comprehend it.

I would like to see us abandon the narrow, ideological view that soldiers are either murderers or second-class citizens, that readiness to defend and the will to defend are labeled bad or even evil, and that peace is just given. Instead, let us foster enlightened education, values-based upbringing, and an open, objective discourse – one that results in lifting peace clauses that block innovation and halt the sellout of critical skills and technologies. I would also like to see politicians who hold soldiers accountable. It’s nice when they express appreciation on Veterans Day. But in Germany as a soldier, you often can’t tell whether people are showing recognition or pity. Neither will buy us a new defense capability.

Politics must once again entrust soldiers with responsibility and demand honest, professional, forward-looking, and outspoken military advice! And then also be willing to listen to it. At present, the opposite seems to be happening: the Ministry of Defense is being reshaped into a second “Willy-Brandt-Haus” in the spirit of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), responsibility is being further diffused through the placement of loyal party supporters, compliant and inexperienced ministry-shaped uniformed personnel without sufficient leadership, training, and operational experience are being elevated into leadership positions, thereby making the military leadership pliable and pushing it into the background.

I said at the beginning that I have always remained an unswerving optimist. And that will not change. I just have one request to you: „Don’t make it too difficult for us“. It is in our hands whether we can prevent unrest on the three mentioned fronts from tipping over into conflict, oppression, and war – or whether we, from a position of regained comprehensive sovereign strength, can return to a state of peace and security. You and I, in my view, have a responsibility – each and every one in their place: Take the initiative, demand accountability, initiate and engage in the discourse within your families, your work, your clubs, your neighborhood and communities that must ultimately answer the question – who are we – what do we stand for, what do we stand up for, and what are we willing to fight for? That is what “Zeitenwende” should have meant but never achieved, a turning point. To achieve this, I firmly believe we must reduce individual and systemic egoisms and come together in a shared “we” – so that our children may still have a “for themselves” in this earthly paradise. Let us, together, move from a culture of passivity and administration to one of design – from a culture of control to one of trust.