The German military will in future be able to use its weapons on German streets in an extreme situation, the Federal Constitutional Court says.
The ruling says the armed forces can be deployed only if Germany faces an assault of "catastrophic proportions", but not to control demonstrations.
The decision to deploy forces must be approved by the federal government.
Severe restrictions on military deployments were set down in the German constitution after Nazi-era abuses.
The court says the military still cannot shoot down a hijacked passenger plane - fighter jets would have to intercept the plane and fire warning shots to force it to land.
After World War II the new constitution ruled that soldiers could not be deployed with guns at the ready on German soil, the BBC's Stephen Evans reports from Berlin.
The court has now changed that, saying troops could be used to tackle an assault that threatens scores of casualties.
By: Brant
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3 comments:
"...after Nazi-era abuses."
Actually, the Nazis used other forces for domestic employment than the military.
Instead, the pre-WWI Imperial-era military was the coining force. There was a particularly scandalous episode in the imperial-controlled Alsace-Lothringia (not a German state, but German post-1871) that still motivates a German aversion against domestic employment of the military.
Hypocritically, the major charge against the 1919-1933 Reichswehr is that it was not available for center-left governments against right-wing uprisings, but did help smash left-wing uprisings.
The failed coup by Hitler et al in 1923 was shot to pieces by a line of policemen with carbines instead, for example.
The Bundeswehr can be employed for domestic purposes in case a 2/3 majority of the Bundestag rules to declare that the very existance of the FRG as described by the constitution in in danger.
Uh-huh. Because we all know that if the German civil police had been unable to restore order, the Wehrmacht would have refused an order from Hitler to shoot any rioters. Maybe the fact that the Wehrmacht mostly remained loyal to the Nazi regime still makes Germans a bit uncomfortable.
But as Basil Fawlty said, we're all friends now. Let's have no more talk about the war.
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