In five years, the Federal Police and BKA received 33 disciplinary proceedings because of missing service weapons and ammunition. The Interior Ministry is keeping quiet about exactly how many weapons are missing, citing “state welfare reasons.” The Greens speak of an attempted cover-up.

An Uzi submachine gun that disappeared without a trace from the Bundeswehr's inventory in 1993 reappeared decades later in the basement of a former SEK police officer from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - along with around 55,000 rounds of hoarded ammunition from police authorities in at least seven federal states, from the federal police unit GSG 9, the Bundeswehr and customs. The man was part of the fascist prepper group Nordkreuz - probably the most prominent case in which ammunition and weapons disappeared from the police and the Bundeswehr.

And they apparently disappear regularly. Due to the loss or theft of service weapons, ammunition or weapon parts in the past five years, the Federal Police30 disciplinary proceedingsinitiated. During the same period, there were three disciplinary proceedings at the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The consequences are often mild: If an asset is lost in an “incomprehensible or culpable manner” and it is a first-time incident, it is usually a qualified written disapproval to those affected.

Interior Ministry conceals important information

Exactly when and how many service weapons disappeared was revealedMinistry of Interiornot known. In the federal government's response to the small question from the Alliance 90/The Greens faction it was said that certain questions could not be answered for “reasons of state welfare”.

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The information on the number, the regional allocation and the specific reasons for the loss could “allow conclusions to be drawn about the material operational readiness and logistics of the security authorities and endanger the security authorities’ ability to fulfill their tasks,” it also saidResponse from the federal government. In this case, “the interest in secrecy to protect the security of the Federal Republic of Germany outweighs the right of Parliament, protected by the Basic Law, to exercise its right to information.”

The Greens are calling for more transparency

The Greens consider the reasoning to be pretextual and have filed a complaint. IreneMihalic, parliamentary group leader of the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, wrote in a letter to Parliamentary State Secretary Christoph de Vries (CDU) that there was “great public interest” in finding out what happened to the weapons and ammunition at the Federal Police, Federal Criminal Police Office and Customs Investigation Service. She also called for the response to be made public.

“The confidentiality classification seems like an attempt to cover up,” said the domestic policy spokesman for the Federal Green Party.Marcel Emmerich: "It must not be the case that weapons and ammunition disappear and the Interior Ministry leaves the public in the dark about it. It is not the knowledge about it, but the missing weapons that are a security risk."

Not an isolated case

An evaluation by Welt am Sonntag from 2020 shows that it is not the first time that weapons have been lost by the police and co.: According to this, the whereabouts of at least105 service weaponsbetween 2010 and 2020 remain unclear, with the Bundeswehr accounting for more than half of the losses. Meanwhile, 35 service weapons were missing from the state police and the Federal Police, Federal Criminal Police Office and Customs were already missing twelve service pistols in 2020.

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In addition to a lack of weapons, the troops also have a significant gap in their ammunition inventory: As an evaluation from 2020 showed, at least 60,000 rounds of ammunition have been missing from the Bundeswehr since 2010. Of over 96,000 missing cartridges of various calibers, only around 36,000 were recovered. This does not yet include the inventory of the Special Forces Command (KSK), where the whereabouts of another 48,000 rounds of ammunition remained unclear. In addition, according to internal figures, around 62 kilograms of explosives were missing. In this context, the then Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) publicly criticized “sometimes serious deficiencies in discipline and procedural problems in dealing with ammunition and explosives” at the KSK.

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