German Defense Minister Annegrett Krampa-Karenbauer said on Tuesday that she had ordered the partial disbandment of the Bundeswehr Task Force (CSC), which had been criticized for right-wing extremism.
KSK has “become partially independent” of the team chain with a “toxic management culture”, so KSK can no longer continue in its current form, the minister told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
She has announced that one of the four groups in the KSK, in which extremism is most prevalent, will be disbanded and will not be reinstated.
KSK Commander Markus Kreitmair will remain in office, but KSK will not participate in maneuvers or international missions until the restructuring is completed.
Krampa-Karenbauere described the latest findings on KSK, including the disappearance of 48,000 ammunition units and 62 kilograms of explosives, as alarming.
An internal investigation will find out whether the ammunition was stolen or whether the loss was due to poor records.
The CSC is usually entrusted with sensitive and risky tasks, such as hostage-rescue operations and counter-terrorism missions abroad.
However, in recent years there has been a growing suspicion that some KSK soldiers cherish far-right views.
In April 2017, at the farewell party of the KSK commander, soldiers threw pig’s heads, saluted with Nazi greetings and listened to the music of right-wing radical rock bands.
Krampa-Karenbauere set up a task force in May and is scheduled to take stock in October.
The German military intelligence service MAD has stated that about 600 Bundeswehr soldiers are suspected of right-wing extremism, including 20 soldiers from the KSK.
In light of the fact that relics of the Wehrmacht were located in an open place in the army barracks, in 2018 the then German Minister of Defense Urzula von der Leiena ordered the armed forces to get rid of all ties with the Nazi past.
Leiena also had to rename the barracks, which still had the names of the participants of the Second World War.
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