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As I argue in my book, this idea of a liberalization of the German military is embedded in the larger myth of a new, liberal, democratic and peaceful post-1945 Germany that had nothing in common with its predecessors.
https://www.press.umich.edu/10154890/the_politics_of_military_force
https://www.press.umich.edu/10154890/the_politics_of_military_force
This myth is of course ideological in the sense that it glosses over various points of continuity between the Federal Republic and Nazi Germany, including personnel in security institutions like the Bundeswehr and the intelligence services.
This mythical self-image according to which the new Germany has rejected hyper-nationalism in favor of a constrained, "enlightened" patriotism hampers any acknowledgement of nationalism as a long-standing problem and encourages a reading of far-right violence as exceptions.
And of course this is linked to the imaginary of the "clean" Wehrmacht as a neutral instrument "abused" by the Nazi regime.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/wounds-of-memory/973690A2E0806E40C8E3202456B5351B#:~:text=Review%20of%20the%20hardback%3A',question%20of%20German%20national%20identity.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/wounds-of-memory/973690A2E0806E40C8E3202456B5351B#:~:text=Review%20of%20the%20hardback%3A',question%20of%20German%20national%20identity.
