A distinguished visitor at our office: the Vice-President of the Militärischer Abschirmdienst (MAD), Dr Even, met our chairman. The MAD is one of the three German intelligence services at federal level and performs the tasks of a federal authority for the protection of the constitution. It is the intelligence service of the Bundeswehr and, as such, is responsible both for protecting the Bundeswehr against espionage and for countering activities hostile to the Basic Law within the Bundeswehr. Recently, the public debate about a series of right-wing extremist cases, among others in a special unit of the Bundeswehr, unfortunately brought the Bundeswehr negative headlines. These cases are now being dealt with. In our conversation, Mr Even reported that about 80% of the tip-offs the MAD receives come from within the ranks of the Bundeswehr itself. We agreed that this is a good sign of the attitude of the bulk of the troops and that under no circumstances can a general suspicion against the Bundeswehr be derived from the right-wing extremist and isolated Islamist cases. For our chairman it was important to emphasise the close connection between antisemitic attitudes and hostility towards democracy, which Mr Even has also experienced himself in a number of cases.
Our impression has been reinforced: the intelligence services are not only aware of their great importance for the protection of our free democratic society, they also do a great deal to that end. And they are constantly striving to improve the quality of their work. That also includes talking about mistakes as well as knowing their limits. Many thanks for your visit and the pleasant, interesting conversation.
