We have taken over the German Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) and are now searching for weapons, explosives, and ammunition that have »disappeared« - or rather have been stolen by right wing extremists - from all units of the Bundeswehr. Right wing extremism is arming. Tips that lead to the apprehension of the perpetrators are eligible for rewards of €1000.
We wrote to 4281 departments of the Bundeswehr to inform them about the search (PDF in German). The response was overwhelming. Knowledge about anti-democratic activities is abundant, but no one has collected it yet. We are changing that now.
As a sign of the Bundeswehr's new willingness to clean up right-wing extremism in its own ranks, the Military Counterintelligence Service has set up a new reporting online tool. As MAD, we guarantee impunity.
Anyone who has made observations regarding the theft of weapons and ammunition, or who can provide information on the perpetrators or on organized right-wing extremist structures within the Special Forces Command (KSK) or the Bundeswehr, is requested to report immediately.
1. Silence is complicity: Your observations can be crucial in the fight against the enemy from within. Do not stand idly by as the reputation of the Bundeswehr is being tainted. If you remain silent, you are covering up criminal behavior against the Federal Republic of Germany!
2. Look at the big picture: What may look like solidarity with your fellow soldiers at first glance, is in fact a breach of your duty of fidelity towards your homeland. You were sworn to protect the German people, not to cover criminal extremists.
3. Your courage decides: It all comes down to you. No one can bear this responsibility for you. We are only strong together! You are not alone. The MAD can only counter threats if it has attentive ears within the troops.
The defense minister set a deadline of October 31, 2020 for the Special Forces Command (KSK) to "recover" 60 kilograms of explosives (PETN). Since 2010, substantial quantities of ammunition and weapons have disappeared from the KSK. There can no longer be a "black hole" tolerated from above, certainly not in the elite unit of the Bundeswehr, which specializes in sabotage attacks with explosives on critical infrastructure, covert operations, and liquidations in the hinterland.
Already 6 hours after the start of the new MAD reconnaissance campaign, hundreds of tips had been received. The tips were evaluated by specialist staff at the CPB. On the very first evening, this resulted in a list of 44 concretely suspected Bundeswehr or KSK soldiers, which went directly to the Minister of Defense (confirmation of transmission).
Generals are calling in from barracks in all parts of the country, requesting information material, providing tips, and receiving training by us in how to deal with suspected cases of right-wing extremism. On the very first day, we were able to recruit 14 reliable informants in the troops for our purposes.
»During my time of service back in Tauberbischofsheim, several G36s were also stolen (armory burgled). Oddly enough, they're not on the list, so did they turn up again or is that statute-barred?«
»I served in Hamm in 2004-5. In the neighboring town of Ahlen, an armory of the Westfalen barracks was broken into at the time and ›around‹ 200 weapons were stolen in the process alone. So the number of unreported cases is probably much higher.... unfortunately.«
»I wonder how sloppy they keep their armory that something like this can just disappear. In our days, the slightest deviation spelled big trouble. Ammunition, alright, but weapons and explosives?«
»Everybody may have a different point of view on the content of this campaign, but basically it is a complex information attack.«
»It's incomprehensible to me, when I was in the army, they already caused a scene on the firing range if a cartridge was missing. Then we had to crawl on all fours across the meadow and look for the cartridge.«
»I'm really surprised. If the armory was not full 30 years ago, no one left the barracks until the weapon was found. [...] The place really seems to be run-down.«
»When a maneuver cartridge device (attachment for a G3) was missing during our basic training in times of conscription we had to search the training area all night (without success, of course). And now you read something like this.«
»This is the responsibility of the defense minister and she deserves a proper kick up the backside. I was a conscript 45 years ago, such sloppiness was not possible back then!«
»Making ammunition disappear was never a problem. Even for me as a private. Probably almost everyone took live ammunition or flare ammunition as souvenirs.«
»When I was in the army, it was an open secret that the ›Horst Wessel Lied‹ was bawled by certain officers in drunken stupor in the officers’ mess and the ›German salute‹ was commonplace. When a magazine and a firing pin of a G3 went missing after a shooting training despite hours of searching, the skirting board was unscrewed in the weapons room there and ›replacements‹ were provided. All in all, they had probably stocked up with 1 MG3, a couple of G3s and quite a few P1s each with their associated live cartridges in stock as ›spares‹.«
»I remember this from NVA times. Back then, in our barracks alone, a complete box of hand grenades disappeared. It was never found. [...] There was also an illegal trade in 39 caliber ammunition. Roughly 15-20% of male uniform wearers were militant and nationalistic.«
»They can't even take care of their stuff. How embarrassing! We always had to hand in our weapons and ammunition in a controlled manner. If something was missing, everything was turned upside down until it turned up again.«
»The Bundeswehr has had problems for years with weapons that are obviously being stolen.«
»And who knows: in view of how plausible the whole campaign sounded, a responsible authority or even the MAD itself could possibly adopt the idea soon.«
»The elite unit of the German Armed Forces is suspected of being a rallying point for right-wing extremist views.«
»Help, more and more weapons are being stolen from the Bundeswehr! Where are they going? Who are the thieves? Never mind, says Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK), but ›the explosives must be back by the end of the week‹! [...]
Otherwise, Mutti will be angry. And that is why a ›war weapons return station‹ has now been set up directly in front of the Federal Chancellery. The repentant thieves may please return the stolen war equipment there, then they will go unpunished. Promise, for realsies!«
»The completely unironic name of the campaign: 'Where are our weapons?' The Defense Ministry is addressing the public with an extraordinary plea for help: Since the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) has ›unfortunately‹ received few leads so far on the whereabouts of ammunition stolen by suspected extremists, the intelligence agency has decided to ›turn to the people of the country with a broad media and attention campaign‹ and ask for help.«
»The first impulse when looking at it is: joy, about the fact that something like this is possible in this country. That such an installation, an arm's length away from the government headquarters, is allowed to stand at all.«
In cooperation with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, we set up a war weapons return station directly in front of the Federal Chancellery. For weeks, pistols, rifles, ammunition, hand grenades and explosives could be handed over anonymously at the site. The Minister of Defense assured all members of the Bundeswehr who had buried war equipment at home that they would be exempt from punishment if they returned it.
The Campaign Weapons Vehicle is touring villages in the northeast of the country to collect lost weapons from Bundeswehr stockpiles. The 35-ton truck has a weapons hatch where war materiel can be dropped off anonymously and there is a full tour schedule through the summer.
Brigadier General Markus Kreitmayr addresses the soldiers and staff of his Special Forces Command.
Parliamentary State Secretary Dr. Peter Tauber (member of the Bundestag) offers patronage of the campaign to Hansjörg Meyer of the Federal Ministry of Defense.
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer asks the citizens of Ulm and Calw for help and informs them about the Stuttgart-Ulm suspected explosive ordnance zone.
The Federal Office for Military Counterintelligence informs the Army Command via General Alfons Kohl: Extremists are no comrades!
»That's gotta be a joke. How is a bazooka supposed to fit in there?«
»Here’s to Austria. There, no one really knows what's missing.«
»The whole thing is completely unnecessary. If the socio-political situation continues to worsen, the missing weapons will reappear on their own.«
»If someone manages to steal 60 kg of explosives, they deserve it.«
»Tried to return a bazooka yesterday but your flaps are way too small unfortunately.
»Ha, just when @politicalbeauty starts searching for real, the first missing explosives reappear!«
»It’s like Easter only with guns and Nazis!«
»Change the reward to 10,000 Reichsmark.«
»Battle of the century: Combat 18 vs. Covid-19«
»The MAD: it was left-wing extremists!«
»The only thing that can stop a bad guy with 60 kg Sprengstoff is a good guy with 60 kg Sprengstoff!!«
»I would like to turn in Friedrich Merz. He’s only a small caliber, but could, if it goes badly, ruin the country for good.«
»Can I put Reichsbürger in there too? We have more than enough to give away here.«
»In Greta’s words: ›We want you to panic as hard as possible.‹«
»Doesn't the Bundeswehr have enough personnel to find their own weapons?«
In the absolutely secret report about the disappearance of 62 kg of explosives and about finding 2 kg of it in Collm/Saxony in the garden of a young soldier it says now: the 62 kg of explosives do not exist at all (»counting error«!). Thus, the explosives exist and do not exist at the same time!
A quote from the secret report of the Bundeswehr: »Since the ammunition was presumably never actually present, the annual inventory in Dec. 2019 led to a presumed understock of 62 kg. A counting and subsequent accounting error in 2018 is therefore to be assumed with great likelihood.«
Minister President Manuela Schwesig (SPD) declares the Schwerin metropolitan area a "suspected explosive ordnance zone" under the Civil Defense Act - i.e. areas where there is reasonable suspicion that right-wing extremist KSK soldiers have secretly created explosives and ammunition depots from Bundeswehr stocks.
The state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern currently has the highest incidence of found weapons and Reichsbürger. Previously, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer had also included the cities of Cologne, Hamm, and Giessen in the existing safeguard plan.
In the district of Ulm, there is a well-founded suspicion that right-wing extremist KSK soldiers have secretly set up explosives and ammunition depots from Bundeswehr stocks.
Caution: Danger to life! Also in Stuttgart.
All households in Blaustein/Ulm, as well as within a radius of 5 km around the residences of KSK soldiers who have raised suspicion, were informed by mail about the dangerous situation and called upon to be more vigilant.
After the measures became known, the Bundeswehr frantically attempted to cover up the situation: the KSK barracks in Calw arbitrarily dispatched military police officers, so-called Feldjäger (without service insignia), who unlawfully removed the warning notices from public space and intimidated citizens and soldiers who were willing to report.
Places where right-wing extremist soldiers hid weapons according to investigation files: In the garden, pantry, vehicle safe, there was a firearm in the hallway area, ammunition boxes in a safe, ammunition in unlocked boxes, in boxes in the shed, a long gun magazine filled with 10 rounds in a tactical vest in the study, parts of a Glock magazine in a backpack in the hallway, in the car dealership of somebody’s parents/adoptive parents in Halle, further a dagger sharpened on both sides on the driver's side of the car, a blue trash can with ammunition in the driveway, an alarm gun i the children's room, an unsecured rifle in the shed, ammunition parts in boxes and packets, a backpack with ammunition in the entrance aren, a box with unused Bundeswehr training grenades and war weapon ammunition in the house, 2 ammunition boxes in the bungalow in a gap between refrigerator and wall, in a workshop in the Örtzetal barracks, in a showcase in the bedroom, two wooden boxes with ammunition in the cellar,, a bucket with cartridge belts, plastic containers, clearly recognizable as Bundeswehr property, one soldier took ammunition, explosive devices, and weapon parts along in his mother's car and stored them on shelves in his room in the student dormitory.
»Finally something good coming out of the
@BMVg_Bundeswehr @akk: it's time to search for weapons, ammunition, grenades, explosives stolen over the years. [...]
You know me, as far as I’m concerned they can shut the #MAD down. But here it’s actually doing a good job: #WhereAreOurWeapons«
»I never thought I would be called upon by @BMVg_Bundeswehr to help as an investigator. But good to know what to look out for. #weapons«
»New campaign by @politicalbeauty: weapons reported missing by the Bundeswehr can now be handed in in front of the Chancellor's Office. Off into the garbage can. And the list of what's missing is depressing, anyway.«
»That's what I call successful privatization! WHERE ARE OUR WEAPONS?«
»Dear misguided lone perpetrators, please come forward and throw the 48,000 rounds of secret ammunition (!) of the KSK into one of these pretty drop boxes.«
»Heeeey, @politicalbeauty, I know where our German weapons are - e.g. in Turkey & Hungary, but they’re used worldwide... Winking Smiley!«
»There is also talk of a ›bounty‹«
»Did right-wing extremist KSK soldiers set up an explosives depot in the Ulm region?«
»Political protest in Ulm: police investigating.«
»Citizens' reactions to the campaign are mixed.«
»Posters that say ›danger to life‹ in large letters unsettle people.«
»Police investigates - ›You are in a suspected explosive ordnance zone!‹«
»On the Schlossplatz in Stuttgart last week, one or two people might have wondered about the signal red posters on which the Bundeswehr allegedly warned of ›danger to life from weapons‹.«
»Corona is already violent enough, stresses the administrator. There is a need for cohesion and rather than campaigns that further divide the population.«
»Police headquarters Ulm: It’s not the right way to scare citizens like this!«
»What seems martial turns out to be a campaign of the ›Center for Political Beauty‹«
»The red posters have a really threatening effect.«
Björn Höcke has praised the Center for Political Beauty as a »terrorist group«. Get close to the action and become an accomplice to a terrorist organization so far sadly recognized only by Höcke, Erdogan, and the Free State of Thuringia! As an accomplice you will make an invaluable contribution to inciting public unrest in the service of aggressive humanism. Nowhere else will you receive more unrest and dissent for every donated Euro.
»The message is clear, and so is the addressee - that's the strength of this campaign. Drawing attention to a problem that is still underestimated.«
»The Center for Political Beauty draws attention to itself with a new operation.«
»A created object can be art and activism - but activism cannot be art at the same time.«
»Again and again, the CPB collective surprises with spectacularly subversive art performances, which usually find a broad media response, stimulate controversial discussions, and are not infrequently accompanied by criminal charges.«
»So much effort has been put into this action, with so much attention to detail, that almost everyone who deals with the subject thinks very briefly 'Wait, is this maybe serious now?‹«
»With this action, the artist collective has returned to the themes that made them big and famous: Combating right-wing radicalism and keeping a close eye on state structures that may be propping them up or not watching them closely enough.«
Times Far-right suspected as German army weapons go missing
DW Satire stunt highlights German military's lost guns
Berliner Zeitung Missing weapons : Art installation shines light on links between far right and German army
The limited Times Center for Political Beauty collects »missing weapons« of the Bundeswehr
DW News Satire stunt highlights German military's lost guns
EuroWeeklyNews Political art collective highlights disappearance of German Army weapons
»I still remember that an acquaintance of mine from Thuringia met a Nazi from his small town again at the army. The Nazi dude had a flourishing trade with Bundeswehr weapons, he probably worked somewhere in the weapons warehouse.«
»What was stolen from the #Bundeswehr warehouses in recent years is enough for a #coup. Let's see what ends up in the weapons drop-off station in front of the #Chancellor's Office. Who dares & looks under the pillows of right-wing #KSK members?#«
»Let's face it - what kind of Bundeswehr is this, where it is possible to steal weapons and gear???«
»Pretty disturbing if true...«
»I think the campaign is destructive. No one needs this.«
»From experience, everything you throw into these containers ends up in Africa anyway.«
»Let's call a spade a spade. The concept that is followed here was invented by a certain Landolf Ladig: laying low until day X, then strike.«
»You don't know anymore whether to laugh at the action or cry at its background.«
»The #Bundeswehr can't take care of its weapons and makes a raffle out of it?Breathe a sigh of relief. It IS satire. The raffle, anyway.«
»Exaggerating as much as possible isn’t art. What some people do just to get in the papers is amazing.«
»Thanks to the best artist collective in the republic at the moment.«
»Thank you so much for scaring citizens like this for years.«
»Is this art or a serious appeal?«
»Style over content - as always.«
»Please let it be satire.«
»I am inclined to doubt that the CPB is aiming for an art performance with this. Otherwise the group would probably call itself CAB, Center for Artistic Beauty. Wink Smiley«
»The art project is very much part of the political system, you just need to look at the funders of this center, there are also ministries involved.«
»Scared by the truth? That's right, shame on you. Next time, please, some unicorns instead of weapons of war. Oh wait... The Bundeswehr didn't lose unicorns but lots of weapons of war?«
»I'm too old for this internet. This is a joke? Or real?«
»Art. The word you are looking for is art.«
»The challenge of satire these days is, after all, that it is regularly and ever more quickly overtaken by reality.«
