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Final remarks

Today the Bundeswehr finds itself in a period of profound change. It faces a number of major challenges posed by reductions in personnel, internal restructuring to meet changing requirements, participation in UN missions and budgetary constraints. As the Bundeswehr changes, so too do the tasks and functions of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces. This process is reflected most clearly in the annual reports submitted by the Parliamentary Commissioners to date. Until the end of the 1980s, they focused primarily on deficits and deficiencies for which the Bundeswehr and its personnel themselves bore the main responsibility. Since then, they have dealt above all with difficulties and problems caused, and still being caused, by decisions taken by parliament and government. If he is to fulfil his statutory mandate, namely to present a realistic picture of conditions in the Bundeswehr, the Parliamentary Commissioner’s reports are bound to comment in greater detail on the impact of political decisions on the Bundeswehr and of the developments they set in train. Increasingly, therefore, he has become an advocate for the Bundeswehr and its service personnel vis-à-vis parliament and the general public. At the same time, his work has become more closely intertwined with politics than could have been foreseen when his office was established. It has become more “political”.

As a result of the Bundeswehr’s participation in operations abroad, the Parliamentary Commissioner’s role as an auxiliary organ of parliamentary control will expand even more in future.

Visits to units have had, and will continue to have, a particularly important preventive function. Past visits, for instance to units serving in Cambodia, Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia, have at any rate proved extremely beneficial. By facilitating close collaboration between the Parliamentary Commissioner and military leaders, these visits allowed many problems to be solved quickly and efficiently.