In the middle of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Bundeswehr is planning a controversial KSK site in Baden-Württemberg. Merkur.de learns about the first military action on site.
Munich/Balingen – How Merkur.de learned, the Bundeswehr is planning a polarizing military exercise in southern Germany on April 27. An exercise by elite soldiers of the Special Forces Command (KSK) is to be simulated over the rural district of Zollernalb in Baden-Württemberg. For this purpose, a huge Air Force Airbus A400M is to fly several times to the planned drop area.
Bundeswehr: Polarizing KSK plans by the Stuttgart state government are causing huge resentment
A planned runway for parachutists has been causing a stir and displeasure for weeks. Specifically: At the instigation of the state government, a training area for KSK parachutists and for special forces of the US Army is to be built on the state domain “Waldhof” in Geislingen near Balingen. There is considerable resistance among the population, and several citizens’ initiatives have been set up.
The district administrator of the Zollernalb district, Günther-Martin Pauli (CDU), has now sharply criticized the behavior of the black-green government in Stuttgart and urged that open questions about the planned military site be answered quickly. “When the plans for the KSK jump area became public in mid-February, the state government should have sought direct talks with the affected farmers and families much more quickly. It would have been better not to have waited for the topic to boil up through a citizens’ initiative,” says Pauli in an interview Merkur.de.
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For the CDU politician, it is incomprehensible, among other things, why the state government of Winfried Kretschmann (The Greens) is not considering the neighboring Heuberg military training area. “I’m not the government spokesman and I can’t answer that for the country. This question has not yet been satisfactorily answered. We only heard that there was live shooting there and that it was therefore too dangerous. I would like more clarity here,” says the former member of the state parliament: “Is there really no area where the parachutists would be better off? We passed this question on to the state government two months ago. And that question needs to be answered now.”
Role of the Bundeswehr in the Russia-Ukraine War: KSK plans encounter resistance in Baden-Württemberg
The state domain “Waldhof” is owned by the state of Baden-Württemberg. According to the lawyer Pauli, the state government can freely decide on this with reference to paragraph 37 of the building code because it “allows state defense to have priority. As far as communication is concerned, the country is very weak. That’s why we’re trying to give advice on how the state government would communicate better with the directly affected citizens,” he says Merkur.de and says: “Unfortunately, the State Ministry has not sufficiently taken up the advice. I deeply regret that. More tact could be expected from the state government.”
According to the district office in Balingen, many citizens would be concerned, for example, about the expected aircraft noise caused by the transport of the parachutists. Even if there is a great understanding of the tasks of the Bundeswehr in times of the Russia-Ukraine war. The KSK usually use heavy Transall aircraft and Airbus A 400M machines for their exercises. “The Bundeswehr machines will fly over the site so that every citizen can get an idea of it. Horror scenarios are haunting the area at the moment. We have to approach this objectively,” explains Pauli.
Was a military site decided over the heads of citizens? Now the state government made up of the Greens and the CDU is coming under considerable pressure from the local level. (pm)
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