Basic duty of the soldier
The basic duty of the soldier is a requirement which is placed on all soldiers in the Bundeswehr in Section 7 of the Soldiers Act .
"The soldier has the duty to serve the Federal Republic of Germany loyally and to bravely defend the rights and freedom of the German people."
The wording is the same as that used for the pledge and swearing-in of soldiers of the Bundeswehr: The soldier praises or swears to fulfill his basic duty. The meaning of the basic duty and the special duties of the Soldiers Act are explained to every soldier in the basic training (before his pledge) in the context of briefings by the superiors. In particular, this is the task of civil law teachers in teaching military law .
Meaning of the "basic obligation"
The wording in Section 7 of the Soldiers Act is kept very general and is specified in the following Sections 8-21, which contain special obligations . These include, for example, the duty to stand up for the free democratic basic order (§ 8), the duty to obedience (§11) or the duty to camaraderie (§12). The basic duty of the soldier is therefore legally in competition with the special duties and is generally superseded by them.
Nonetheless, Section 7 describes two core duties ("serving faithfully"), namely the duty to provide service at all times and the duty to preserve the property of the employer , which are not formulated as special duties. In addition, the phrase “to defend valiantly” indicates that it is the soldier's duty to overcome his personal fear. This includes the possibility of surrendering the physical integrity and one's own life, also in the support of other comrades in need and danger.
Web links and literature
- Section 7 of the Soldiers Act
- Heinz-Peter Ebert: Disciplinary law, criminal law, right of appeal of the Bundeswehr. Published by Karl Helmut Schnell. 20th updated edition, as of September 1, 2005. Walhalla-Fachverlag, Regensburg et al. 2005, ISBN 3-8029-6294-X .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cf. Marcel Bohnert : On the necessity of situation-specific rules of engagement for soldiers in missions abroad, in: Fabian Forster , Sascha Vugrin & Leonard Wessendorff (eds.): The age of the Einsatzarmee. Challenges for Law and Ethics. Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 2014, pp. 131f., ISBN 978-3-8305-3380-1
