Germany to replace Iron Cross

Sixty years after the defeat of Nazism led Germany to shun symbols of military heroism, Berlin is poised to bring back official honours for bravery, including a new medal for valour.

About 25 German soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001 but, unlike their counterparts, they can never receive anything like Britain's Victoria Cross or France's Legion of Honour as their country has allowed no such award since the end of the second world war.

Soldiers can be decorated for long service in the Bundeswehr, Germany's military force, but the absence of awards for courage has led to calls for a return of the Iron Cross - a Prussian medal whose origins lie in the Napoleonic wars.

However, the medal's association with Adolf Hitler, who awarded it to thousands during the second world war, makes such a revival unlikely.

Hans-Ulrich Wehler, a prominent historian, says the symbol is "too tarnished by Nazi history". A military version of Germany's top civilian honour would be more appropriate, he says.

However, there is wider backing for a new medal for bravery and President Horst Kohler is likely to support it - possibly this year. A separate defence ministry plan for a Berlin monument to fallen Bundeswehr soldiers has also gained favour.

Some still worry about how bravery should be defined but for Timmy Schwarz, a 25-year-old airman who led an early campaign for the honour within the Bundeswehr, it is clear.

"It makes a difference whether a soldier's job in Afghanistan is to peel potatoes or to go on patrols against the Taliban. Courage involves going beyond the call of duty," he told a German magazine.

The public appears to have accepted the medal idea, although there is little support for calls for it to take the form of the Iron Cross.

A new medal for valour would be notable in a country that has been steeped in pacifism for 60 years but, with 7,300 German troops in Afghanistan, Kosovo and nine other foreign operations, the move symbolises a shift in perceptions of the country's military, which now faces criticism from abroad that it does too little.

Colonel Wolfgang Gabelein, a senior commander in Potsdam, a town just outside Berlin steeped in Prussian military history and from which foreign operations are now co-ordinated, bristles at suggestions that the Bundeswehr is unwilling to fight the toughest battles.

"This is uncomfortable for us soldiers," he says. "I think we have proved many times that we are not cowards [in our overseas deployments], that we are as strong as everyone else."

At its root, the problem is not the troops but the politicians, he implies. "Don't forget, we are a parliamentary army," he insists. The message: We would willingly do more if we were allowed to by politicians, who - in voting on every mission - have to weigh public worries about more body-bags coming home.

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Overseas missions are changing the Bundeswehr with Nato and United Nations peacekeeping operations becoming, as one senior officer notes, the "only Bundeswehr reality for many younger soldiers", whose predecessors would have been confined to serving on German soil.

The proposed new medal, says Colonel Gabelein, is "a logical result of us increasingly facing violent conflict".

A separate defence ministry plan for a Berlin monument to fallen Bundeswehr soldiers has also gained favour. Burkhart Franck, a retired colonel who served in Potsdam and helps run a project to rebuild the town's famous Garnison Prussian military church, welcomes plans for both a medal and a monument.

"These are signs of Germany's postwar normalisation. It's just a pity that public opinion on the Bundeswehr's overall role is hanging so far behind."

Politicians in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government argue they are tackling this issue, too. When fully implemented, a 2006 military review - the first in 12 years - will streamline the 245,000-strong force and position it for more extensive overseas missions, they argue.

The chancellor's advisers also hint that the government will this year recommend to parliament an increase in the 3,500 troops in Afghanistan - thereby meeting a longstanding wish of the US and other allies.

Mr Wehler says the public must ultimately accept this. "Nato protected us for decades; it is not possible that we do not now play a greater security role."

In spite of such changes, Col Gabelein warns Germany's allies not to expect too much, too quickly.

"Is it better for Germany to do everything asked of us, but for our society to be pulled apart in the process? That's a difficult call to make."

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