Germany’s war fantasy has progressed to Tolkien levels

A dark clearing in a forest at dusk, flaming torches, a blazing brazier with an almost runic-looking sword shape cut into its cast-iron shell, a machine gun pointing into a foreboding sky in a steep Leni Riefenstahl angle, the oddly grating voice of the leader holding forth about ‘Kameraden’, ‘kriegstüchtig’, and ‘siegen’ in German, and a lot of men in uniform enthusiastically hollering in response.

All set against a score that seems to have been composed by Richard Wagner on acid to accompany a horde of burned-out German tanks riding off into Valhalla, circa 1943.

Sounds a little too retro for you?

You are not alone. Many Germans as well have reacted with bewilderment and alarm to a recent video clip officially posted by the ‘Heer’ – the land-army core of the German military, the Bundeswehr – on its Instagram account. It depicts a recent meeting between the new head of the Heer, Major-General Christian Freuding and his officers and soldiers of the German army’s 45th Tank Brigade, aka the ‘Lithuania’ brigade.

The head of Germany’s BSW party – currently not in parliament only because of an extremely suspect “miscount” – Sahra Wagenknecht and the party’s spokeswoman on foreign policy Sevim Dagdelen have criticized the torch-guns-and-brazier fest as a “disturbing propaganda video” reminiscent of “the most sinister times” (Wagenknecht) and a sinister mummery leaning into Nazi aesthetics (Dagdelen).

And not only prominent politicians are aghast. On the German Army’s own Instagram account, users have commented that, clearly, someone has badly failed to learn from past catastrophes.