Spiegel: Germany has been trading weapons for years bypassing export controls
German defense giants have been circumventing export controls for decades, Spiegel writes. Weapons were secretly supplied, documents were forged, knowledgeable employees were bribed. Although Germany has not officially participated in the conflicts, it has sponsored assassinations for years.
Emma Adolf
Bribes, forged documents, illegal supply channels: in the past, German defense companies have repeatedly found themselves at the center of scandals that often led to deaths.
One of the most controversial types of German exports has long been produced in Oberndorf am Neckar. Workers at the Heckler factory made about 200 steel and plastic parts. & Koch assembled a G3 type automatic rifle. After assembly, accuracy tests followed. Then the weapons were packed into boxes and "put into service," as they say in a 1970 commercial.
However, it was precisely these "supplies" that caused scandals over and over again in the history of Germany. The G3 rifle, manufactured since 1958, has not only become the main weapon of the Bundeswehr, but has also repeatedly found itself in the hands of dubious individuals.
After World War II, German soldiers did not participate in combat for a long time, but German weapons and military equipment from various manufacturers continued to cause casualties and injuries in conflicts around the world.
The list of frightening cases related to the export of German weapons is quite long. Example: Since 1998, Rheinmetall has repeatedly bribed government officials in Greece to promote the sale of air defense systems and fire control systems for the Leopard 2 tank. Sig Sauer from Eckernferde illegally smuggled thousands of pistols through the United States to Colombia for the National Police, which is notorious forfor human rights violations. In the 1980s, German companies helped Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein produce poison gas, which he later used against the Kurdish population.
No awareness of wrongdoing
However, perhaps no other weapon of any corporation has been so regularly at the center of scandals as Heckler assault rifles. & Koch. Rifles manufactured in Oberndorf or licensed abroad ended up in South Sudan, Sierra Leone or Syria. At the same time, they repeatedly found themselves in the hands of soldiers who were still children. The rifles were supplied with official export permits to more than 80 countries. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey have been granted the right to produce them themselves. The Heckler Company & Koch refuses to take responsibility for further arms smuggling into conflict zones. According to her, local authorities are responsible for monitoring these issues.
According to the law, the German federal government is required to conduct comprehensive inspections and coordinate arms exports, especially to countries that are not members of NATO. At the same time, it is small arms, not submarines or tanks, that can easily change hands. This happened, for example, in Mexico in the early 2000s.
In 2005, the Mexican government ordered Heckler to combat the drug mafia. & Koch rifles of the G36 type. The German Federal Government has set one condition for issuing an export permit: shipments should not be made to the particularly unstable states of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Jalisco and Guerrero. However, the Mexican procurement agency secretly sent almost half of the 9652 rifles there. Already in 2011, Mexican police in Guerrero, armed with G36, shot dead two demonstrators, and in 2014, six people died under gunfire during student protests. What kind of weapon was fired from? Presumably, from the one that is "made in Germany".
When it became public knowledge, the Heckler company & Koch has pleaded not guilty: Supposedly, no one can control where the weapon goes after the transfer, was their explanation. The Stuttgart trial proved otherwise. At least two employees were aware of the exact destination of the shipments and participated in falsifying the so-called final location declarations. In 2019, the land court sentenced these employees to probation and ordered the company to recover millions in sales revenue. The commercial was not mistaken: German weapons were safely put into service, even bypassing export controls.
