Barking or biting? Media and parliamentary investigation of right‐wing extremism in the Bundeswehr

Over the winter of 1997–98 Germany was rocked by a series of investigative media reports over right‐wing extremist incidents within its armed forces, painting a disturbing picture of racist violence and neo‐Nazi sympathies in the Bundeswehr. In response to the media reports and the ensuing public outcry, the Bundestag instituted a Committee of Investigation over political extremism in the Bundeswehr. The Committee concluded that, despite the severity of the some of the incidents investigated, most were initiated by extremist individuals who sought to use their military service to further their political goals, but it found no evidence of widespread right‐wing trends within the ranks. This affair proved the value of Germany's wide media freedoms as an inherent element in the stability of the German democracy and enhanced the ‘public watchdog' function of the German media.