The Parliamentary Military Commissioner, Henning Otte, has urged the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) to limit the promotion freeze announced over the weekend for “Feldwebel” (Staff Sergeant/Corporal) to the bare minimum time necessary. Speaking to the “Tagesspiegel”, Otte stated that “potential must not be destroyed, and legitimate expectations and trust must not be disappointed”. He emphasized that after establishing suitable foundations, the promotion freeze must be lifted promptly, noting that legal certainty and predictability are crucial for the entire armed force.
The criticism stems from the fact that while Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) announced the new promotion practices were meant to comply with a court ruling from the previous year-which recommended that promotion require performance criteria rather than solely years of service-Otte pointed out that the initiative itself has created uncertainty. Although Otte acknowledged that resolving the legal discrepancy is positive, he added that “the promotion freeze and an intended streamlining of duty positions have actually led to unrest within the troops”.
Reinforcing this critique, Thomas Erndl, the Union faction’s defense policy spokesman, also demanded that Pistorius’s ministry quickly develop a comprehensive concept for modernizing career law and pay grades. Erndl warned that failure to do so risks not only eroding the trust of the entire non-commissioned officer corps-dubbed the backbone of the army-but also damaging the general personnel pool. Meanwhile, Sara Nanni, his Green colleague, criticized the ministry in the “Tagesspiegel”, arguing that the BMVg had fundamentally failed to prepare for the changes dictated by the court ruling and communicate them effectively to the troops, asserting that the ministry “once again failed to see a wave of indignation coming”.
