Does Germany want to be a battlefield again?

“Secret Operational Plan Germany”

by Marita Brune-Koch

(3 August 2024) For a long time, we have been hearing that Germany needs to prepare for a major war. It’s hard to believe: Germany at war? Again? The great misery that we went through twice in the last century, once again? But when you listen to the interview that Lieutenant General André Bodemann gave to NTV,¹ you realise how concrete the preparations already are.

André Bodemann is responsible for the “Operation Plan Germany”, which was drawn up in secret. In detail it sets out how, for example, the transport and supply of American troops is to be organised via the “German hub”.

An example: US troops land in a Dutch harbour, then march or are transported through the Netherlands towards the “eastern flank”. On the way, they take a break somewhere on the motorway, just like civilian travellers. “And while they are resting, they are supplied with fuel, food, fresh water and perhaps also with the necessary medical care.” “We call this the convoy support centre,” says Bodemann. Who will supply the troops? The Bundeswehr can’t do that, it must be done by civilian forces, because: “I assume that the main parts of the Bundeswehr, the active parts of the Bundeswehr, will already be on the eastern flank or on their way there. And that means we are working with the principle of maximum civilian service provision”. The “catering does not come from the Bundeswehr’s troop kitchen, but from a civilian caterer”.

Furthermore, Deutsche Bahn and civilian transport companies are needed to bring troops and heavy equipment to the “eastern flank”. Troops and equipment are also to be transported by sea from a German harbour to a Lithuanian harbour using “roll-on roll-off ships”. In other words, we are talking about a general mobilisation of the whole of Germany, its citizens and civilian institutions. We’ve been through all this before!

Secret plan to turn Germany into a battlefield

So how does the Bundeswehr command staff envisage this: NATO troops landing in various ports in Holland, Germany and Lithuania; troops driving across the whole country on the motorways, trains crossing the whole of Germany and the Baltic state – loaded with weapons and troops – and Russia simply watching and letting it happen? This is not a plan to safeguard the security of Germany and Europe, but a plan to turn Europe into a battlefield, with Germany at the centre.

The civilian blue-light organisations such as the Malteser, Johanniter, the German Red Cross, the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, federal agencies and the industry are already on board. The interview must be understood to mean that all of them have already been included in the secret plan and entrusted with tasks when it comes to the “eastern flank”.

Eastern “flank” or Eastern “front” – what’s the difference?

In the last wars, when it was against Russia, people still spoke of the “eastern front”; today, the term “eastern flank” is probably less treacherous. But is there any significant difference?

Well, at that time Germany was recognised as waging a war of aggression against Russia. But in 1939, when Germany attacked Poland, it also spoke of defence. You remember: since this morning they have been shooting back? Even today, according to Bodemann, Germany must defend itself and protect its citizens from the evil Russians. Does he have any proof of this?

NATO propaganda

Bodemann: “Formally and legally we are not at war in Germany, [...] but in my opinion we have not been at peace for a long time because we are being attacked every day. We are in a phase in between. Let’s call it a grey area, a hybrid phase, whatever. Hybrid fits quite well because we are currently under a particular threat from hybrid attacks. I always mention four different things that are already happening in Germany. One is, of course, disinformation and fake news, which we see daily, especially on social media. The second is cyber-attacks on the federal government, large enterprises and energy companies.”

This is all very vague: Who defines what is truth and disinformation? What cyber-attacks is he talking about? It doesn’t look very concrete, especially when he says: “It’s very difficult to define both cases: Who is actually attacking us?” But this is part of the current narrative in Germany that Russia is already attacking us invisibly (and unverifiably!) with disinformation, espionage and cyber-attacks. You suddenly hear this narrative all the time, and always without proof.

Obviously to fabricate proof of Russian sabotage, Bodemann mentions the blowing up of Nord Stream 2, of all things. That was sabotage, but certainly not by the Russians!

The fairy tale of Russian attack plans

“Russia is constituting its armed forces. We expect that in about 5–8 years Russia will have reconstituted its armed forces during the war in Ukraine in such a way that they will be quite capable of attacking the NATO alliance territory using traditional military means. In the past, Putin has addressed a number of issues, which he has since implemented. And after all, he has said that he wants to restore the old territory of the Soviet Union, and that includes the Baltic states.”

However, Putin never said that, and Bodemann provides no evidence of this either. On the contrary, Putin has repeatedly made it very clear that he has no such plans, most recently at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on 5 July this year, where he explicitly and extensively contradicted such ideas.

Bodemann simply makes the assertion without providing any evidence. Of course, the well-behaved NTV presenter doesn’t ask either. However, journalist Florian Warweg from the “NachDenkSeiten” asked at the Federal Press Conference on 3 July. Mr Collatz, the high-ranking member of the Bundeswehr responsible there, replied flippantly that he had read something like this before, spoke of “rumours that one hears from Putin”. He could not provide any evidence, but Warweg should do his own research. Even “Der Spiegel”, which is not necessarily known as “Putin friendly”, ran the headline: “Putin doesn’t want the USSR back.“² What would be the point of Russia attacking the Baltic states or even Germany? The country is big enough, it has plenty of natural resources and is obviously in a good economic position – despite sanctions. So why go to such lengths?

German citizens don’t want war either. In March 2024, 81 per cent of German citizens rejected the idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine.³

Let’s not allow ourselves to be incited into a war – support neutrality

None of this is of any concern to politicians. It is inconceivable how Germany, and indeed the whole of Europe, is being led into a new war that may be even more destructive than the last one. Even Switzerland is not protected from being drawn into the war. It is therefore urgently necessary to strengthen neutrality instead of weakening it. Instead, the DDPS and the Swiss military leadership are trying with all their might to lead our country into NATO.

At least we Swiss will soon be able to vote on preserving and strengthening our neutrality.

But even the German government and military leadership cannot ultimately prevail against a people who is clearly and decidedly opposed to starting a war.

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)

1 https://www.n-tv.de/mediathek/videos/politik/Geheimer-Operationsplan-Deutschland-betrifft-uns-alle-article25055402.html, 1 July 2024

2 https://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/russland-putin-will-die-udssr-nicht-zurueck-a-1068868.html, 21 December 2015

3 https://www.stern.de/politik/ukaine-krieg--deutsche-gegen-einsatz-von-nato-bodentruppen-34514820.html