Around a hundred service members were dismissed from the German Bundeswehr in 2024 for right-wing extremism.
This is stated in the federal government’s response to a query from Bundestag member Sada Salihović, as reported by Tagesschau.
In total, 97 members of the German Armed Forces were dismissed due to incidents related to right-wing radical extremism. In 2023, there were 62 such cases.
Generally, 280 Bundeswehr personnel were suspected of right-wing extremism in 2024 – approximately 30% more than in 2023.
It is reported that in more than 17 confirmed cases, soldiers allegedly performed the “Hitler salute.”
Meanwhile, the suspects included around 60 individuals who initially retained access to weapons, and more than 20 continued working as instructors. These figures do not include reservists of the Armed Forces.
The German Ministry of Defense notes that 280 cases are “very few” for a military consisting of 180,000 service members and 80,000 civilian employees. The Ministry emphasized that combating right-wing extremism remains one of the military’s top priorities, DW reports.
