Watch the video: Ex-Minister Lambrecht said goodbye with a big tattoo.
STORY: It is the highest form of military homage by German soldiers: the so-called big tattoo. On Tuesday evening, this recognition was given to the resigning Secretary of Defense Christine Lambrecht. Numerous guests attended the event at the invitation of their successor, Boris Pistorius, in the inner courtyard of the Ministry of Defense in Berlin, including Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Lambrecht had chosen Trude Herr’s “Niemals man so geht” as music from the staff music corps. The hour-long ceremony is only performed on very special occasions. It includes musical and military elements. After massive criticism of her administration, Lambrecht announced her resignation in mid-January after only 13 months in office. After her predecessors Ursula von der Leyen and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, she is only the fourth woman to be honored by the Bundeswehr with a large tattoo.