(REUTERS) — The names of German military barracks honoring a handful of World War Two officers should changed to show that the country’s post-war armed forces have made a clean break from their Nazi past, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Sunday.
Having come in for criticism herself after accusing the Bundeswehr armed forces of “weak leadership” amid a national debate over whether there are right-wing extremists in the military, von der Leyen told Bild am Sonntag newspaper the barracks should no longer be named after Nazi-era officers.
“The Bundeswehr has to send signals both internally and externally that it is not rooted in the tradition of the Wehrmacht,” she said, referring to the World War Two-era name for the German army. The Bundeswehr was created in 1955.
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