The debate about the limits of servicewomen and men’s capabilities reaches politicians. For days, members of the Bundeswehr have been posting their experiences on the short message service Twitter under the keyword #performance-weak when they can no longer cope with the constant pressure and stress of everyday life. There is talk of breakdowns, secret therapies, fear of the sudden end of a career if weaknesses become known. The reactions were triggered by Brigadier General Michael Matz, who heads the infantry school in Hammelburg, Bavaria, and in a report on the Bundeswehr website about his everyday work had said: “Stress is for underperformers.”
Now the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl, has sided with the soldiers. She watches over the state of the Bundeswehr as an official. Of the Süddeutsche Zeitung she said: “Every time I visit the troops at home and abroad, I feel how stressed our soldiers are.” This applies even more since the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
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Högl explained: “There are associations that are under constant stress and have to move from one mission to the next and still have to do exercises in between. And who have no time for post-operation follow-up and treatment – or where it is assumed as a matter of course that this right does not exist use is made.” Even in such associations there are 20 percent vacancies, and it is not uncommon for 30 to 40 percent of the soldiers to be unready for action. “The same people often have to do it,” said Högl.
Högl welcomes the debate on Twitter
Högl laments the difficult conditions under which soldiers have to do their service. “The barracks are in a pitiful state all over Germany: no accommodation, moldy showers, toilet containers, no WLAN, not enough lockers for equipment, no swimming pool, no casino. That is a lack of appreciation and support for our soldiers. And they take it it without complaint.” She welcomed the debate on Twitter and called it courageous that the soldiers shared “the many personal experiences and perspectives”.
The chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), has harshly criticized Brigadier General Matz for his statement. You belong in the category “apprenticeship years are not man’s years” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/.” With such an attitude made in 1960, you don’t motivate young people, but actually only show that you’re not like that in today’s world arrived correctly,” she said. Stress must be taken seriously, especially in such sensitive professions, in order to “have fully operational soldiers in these challenging times,” explained the MP.