Your Excellencies,
Dear Major General Xiong Mingfeng,
Dear Defense Attachés,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to you as we commemorate a remarkable milestone in the Federal Republic of Germany’s history today — the 70th anniversary of the Bundeswehr, the German Federal Armed Forces.

Let us go back to the beginning: 10 years after the end of WW II in a divided Germany, the Western Federal Republic of Germany decided to found the Bundeswehr.

In 1955, public memory of Germany’s brutal war of aggression and atrocities committed against neighbours and Jewish fellow citizen during the holocaust was strong and fresh in people’s minds all over Europe as well as in Germany. And the „Wehrmacht“, Hitler’s widely feared armed forces, had brought death and destruction over Europe.

You can imagine that the rearmament of Germany and the founding of new German Armed forces only 10 years later was a deeply divisive issue. France, UK, Belgium - European nations that had just emerged victorious from WWII did not really welcome the idea of a new powerful German army. West-Germans preferred to rebuild their country and were sceptical, too. The historical decision by the Government and Parliament in Bonn met with wide-spread criticism in society, including from the social-democratic party in opposition.

Why was the Bundeswehr created? WW II ended in total defeat and occupation of Germany, but it did not bring peace to Europe and the world. The first years after 1945 were marked by high tensions and the specter of renewed confrontation as East-West divisions emerged in Europe and globally - connected to clandestine or open Soviet interference: coup in Prague, civil war in Greece, total blockade of West-Berlin by Soviet troops 1948/49 and finally outbreak of the Korean war in 1950. In mid-1952, Moscow gave order to the East-German Government to build-up a National People’s Army. By then, everyone understood that the world was locked into an existential struggle along ideological lines.

In the West, ideas about European Armed Forces emerged. In 1949, 11 European countries and the US committed to collective self-defense in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. West-Germany was out of the game - but could it remain that way?

In 1955 NATO members and West-Germany decided that a German contribution to collective defense was needed and the Bundeswehr was born – a remarkable leap of faith given that the democratic Federal Republic was only 6 years old.

For decades, NATO, including the Bundeswehr, and the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact were locked into a Cold War yet managed to keep a precarious peace.

At the height of the Cold War, up to 1.5 million soldiers faced each other at the inner-German border. The Bundeswehr had but one mission: self-defense. Never ever during the Cold War did West-German soldiers engage in any armed mission abroad.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, post-war East-West divisions ended with German and European unification.. The last Russian soldier left Germany on 31^st August 1994. By necessity, the nature of NATO and the mission of the Bundeswehr changed too.

True, the Cold War was over. However, it did not bring peace for all immediately: both the dissolution of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslavia led to civil war with many civilian victims. As hundreds of thousands of Kosovo refugees arrived in Germany, a fundamental question arose: Should the Bundeswehr contribute to peacekeeping and international Crisis Management in a clear departure from its founding principles? A German Government nearly lost power amidst heated public debate but finally made the fundamental decision: yes, it should. German contingents have since served in peacekeeping missions abroad, mostly under a UN mandate and side by side with NATO and EU partners and peacekeepers from around the world, i. a. in Kosovo, Cambodia, East Timor, Lebanon, South-Sudan, Djibouti and Afghanistan.

The fundamental nature of the Bundeswehr, however, has not changed: To this day, German armed forces are a „parliamentary army“. They may only be deployed abroad with a mission mandate from the German Parliament.

The 90ties brought a peace dividend for unified Germany: it allowed to considerably reduce the number of personnel, switch to a professional Bundeswehr rather than having universal conscription and scale back the defense budget. Would that we still lived in that time of disarmament and partnership for peace with Russia.

For me, this dream was over with the Russian invasion into Georgia in 2008 when I was German Ambassador there. For some others, the Russian annexation of Crimea and hybrid warfare in the Donbas signaled times had changed. For everyone else, Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion into Ukraine in 2022 was the wake-up call. These actions by a permanent member of the Security Council egregiously violated the UN Charter and international law. Today, the Bundeswehr and NATO are back to their core mission of old: defend NATO territory in line with the pledge of NATO’s collective security framework „an attack on one is an attack on all“!

Deterrence through military strength has become an unavoidable necessity as it was four decades ago. That’s why we are committed to spend 5% of GDP for defense. Germany has a large share of responsibility for security in and for Europe, for the Alliance and particularly for countries bordering Russia such as the Nordic and Baltic States which have become primary targets of hybrid attacks and Russian incursions by air and sea. We know from the past what it means to be a state at the frontline.

Of course, we most sincerely wish that it will never come to a worst-case scenario. That is why Germany and the Bundeswehr remain committed to:

• peace, stability, security and the upholding of the principles of the United Nations Charter and International Law.
• assist in restoring peace by participating in international peacekeeping missions mandated by the UN, NATO or EU
• and to seek peaceful conflict resolution and trust building through dialogue and confidence building measures.

Across different histories and military cultures this is also the objective of relations between the PLA and the Bundeswehr: regular dialogue to enhance mutual understanding and explore CSBMs. We would like to continue bilateral cooperation in this spirit and look forward to a fruitful future trajectory.

In conclusion, let me stress once again: During the Cold War, West-Germany and the Bundeswehr were ready to defend our sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and freedom. Trust me: Unified Germany and the Bundeswehr will be ready and well-equipped to defend us and our allies today and tomorrow!