Bundeswehr PR Tours
About half a year ago, the military leadership of Germany made a breakthrough decision to create a Bundeswehr Information Work Center (Das Zentrum Information and Arbeit Bundeswehr - ZInfoABw) based on the well-known Information and Communication Academy (AIK) in the armed forces of the NATO member countries. The headquarters of the center is located in Strausberg (Brandenburg) near Berlin.It is here that the painstaking work of promoting the positive image of the German armed forces in the public consciousness is carried out. And it is precisely here that the favorable attitude of society towards the defense policy of the government is being formed, declaring the military presence of German soldiers in seven countries of the world as their allied duty. It also guides the entire propaganda machine of the Bundeswehr, including the production of high-quality campaign materials, the training and training of military and civilian specialists in the field of advocacy for the needs of the Armed Forces of Germany, allied countries and partners of the alliance.
“For the first time, we had a chance to independently carry out all information work from start to finish,” said Colonel Christian Dienst, head of the center, a former naval pilot, and most recently the head of the press service of the Federal Ministry of Defense. - We connect all competences in the Bundeswehr into a single knot. This has never happened before.
We want to respond more quickly and professionally to social changes, to find the right answers to current political issues. ” The motto here was “Development, training, production” of the final propaganda product.
ACADEMY ON INFORMATION QUESTIONS
The Academy of Information and Communication of the Bundeswehr and its employees 230 are still perceived as one of the pillars of the new center. The Academy is present in its structure as a research and education unit, the development and recommendations of which, aimed mainly at maintaining a positive image of the Bundeswehr in society, are actively used by the printed and electronic media of the German military. At the same time, intensive training of journalists and media specialists for the military media and the army's PR service is being carried out within the walls and well-equipped laboratories of the AIK. Future staff promoters of the Bundeswehr are offered more than 40 different training courses for up to four weeks. The annual number of students is almost 1500 people.
Thanks to the magnificent campus in Strausberg, the Academy is used as a platform for holding numerous and diverse meetings with the national and international community. As conceived by the leadership of the center, it is intended to serve as “a broad forum for the dialogue of the Bundeswehr with the public.” For congresses and meetings, there are two large conference rooms for 600 and 200 seats, as well as many classes, studios and auxiliary facilities. The academy supports annually around 270 various Bundeswehr events. Conferences and seminars lasting from a few hours to several days gather thousands of participants a year to 14,5. It offers guests a comfortable accommodation at 190 places, in fact, being a first-class hotel - the only one that is supported by the Bundeswehr. Last year more than 26 thous. Nights were registered here.
The second pillar of the center is the Publishing House of the Bundeswehr located in Berlin with its various print and electronic products and the promotion of materials in social networks. The Bundeswehr YouTube channel has posted more than 1700 videos of its own production, there are more than 100 thousands of subscribers, more than 40 million hits have been recorded. The third and fourth areas of activity of the center received the corresponding names "Bundeswehr and the public" and "Further development". The military specialists involved in these areas organize political security seminars for the interested public, work with young people, constantly work to maintain the positive image of the Bundeswehr in the eyes of the national and international community. “What used to be,” explained Christian Dienst, “the recruit told about the Bundeswehr at home with his family at dinner, is being spread via Facebook. And we also want to participate in this. Confidentially, seriously, intelligibly, in a language understandable to young people. ”
A new, but quite expected form of working with the public (primarily with young people who receive humanitarian and IT education) was the conduct of joint training sessions on media training for reservists of the Bundeswehr with students of civilian specialized universities. The first invitation to take part in such an event, previously considered a purely military exercise, received members of the Federal Union of Higher Education (BSH), engaged in the study of security policy.
Eike Petersen and Katharina Kolhaas said that the five-day media seminar was “extremely interesting and extremely tense”, told about the tremendous impression received by students in joint exercises with the reservists of the Bundeswehr. The importance of the media seminar and the content of it is evidenced by the appointment of the command of the best PR specialists of the center by its command. Among them, the Bundeswehr’s spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Boris Schnell, a popular representative of the Bundeswehr reservist research center (SKA KompZResAngelBw), Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Thomas, a prominent expert from AIK on national and international security Dr. Hene, instructor-communicator, psychologist Andrea Hellenthal, expert on NATO activities, Mr. Schuhardt, Also well-known television and radio magazines were involved in the work of the media seminar as instructors Mike Mühlenberg and Marc Angerstein.
BSH was not by chance among the closest partners of the Bundeswehr. He has strong ties with the military. Twice a year, BSH members make excursions on security policy issues to the capital of NATO, Brussels. The BSH Central Board organizes regular student visits to Koblenz to participate in seminars on security policy, which are held at the Bundeswehr Control Center, headed by Brigadier General Alois Bach. BSH President Andreas Ahammer, for special services to the Bundeswehr awarded the Minister of Defense an honorary bronze cross, he himself once took a training course here as a reservist. The propaganda work of the union is welcomed by the German Bundestag.
Among the German universities in 25 cities of the country, the student groups of which are part of this organization, there is also the Hamburg Military University. Helmut Schmidt, and the Bundeswehr University of Munich. The BSH central board does not hide its intentions "to serve as a mediator in the dialogue between students and actors providing security policy", to which it, as we see, primarily refers the Bundeswehr. BSH seeks to interest students in "scientific discussions on security policy" and the possibility of publishing their work in its publications - the specialized scientific quarterly Aktualisierte Dresdner InfoLetter for Auzen - und Sicherheitspolitik (ADLAS), print and electronic editions of the Science and Security series (Wissenschaft & Sicherheit Online, Schriftenreihe Wissenschaft & Sicherheit).
RELATIONS WITH JOURNALISTS
The eternal theme of relations with civilian media remains topical for the Bundeswehr. Last autumn, in the new Bundeswehr Demonstration Hall in Berlin, creative discussion meetings were held for the Press Staff officers, journalists, PR specialists, historians and sociologists. The subject of discussion was the theme of the Bundeswehr and the new media in the information space. At a similar event in Lower Saxony, were invited employees of the Center for Military stories and the Academy of Information and Communication. In turn, in Berlin, the famous Bundeswehr and social media: a journalistic view made a presentation by the famous Berlin reporter, editor of the military website News Augengeradeaus Thomas Wigold. The activities of the armed forces in the new communication environment and social media are dedicated to the book “Military Leadership in the Age of the Internet” by Miles-Velag, a recently published book by Miles-Velag.
A public relations specialist, a reserve officer, a teacher at the Bundeswehr Academy of Management in Hamburg, Giza, speaks of the need to rethink traditional approaches to the field of communication. "The Bundeswehr needs a modern concept of strategic engagement, close to what the US Armed Forces have already developed." Military personnel "involved in the field of strategic communications, according to Giza, urgently need to increase their competence."
The Bundeswehr Information Center seeks to become a full-fledged link in relations between the armed forces and society, a competent forum in organizing an army-public dialogue. To this end, numerous and diverse meetings, seminars, and symposia are held on the basis of the center on a regular basis. Of particular interest are two to five-day seminars for civilian journalists. Critical-minded representatives of the journalistic workshop are invited to participate in these seminars. The center offers three types of workshops. Basic seminars focused on journalistic youth are intended to explain the future sharks of the pen to the key points of the defense policy of the military department, familiarize with the work of the Press and Information Staff of the Defense Ministry and the concept of security, establish promising private contacts to provide background information and possible future interaction.
The two-three-day editorial seminars are aimed at drawing the attention of civilian media news editors to defense topics in the light of the government’s policy of broadcasting the information received at the seminars "in their daily work in their own editorial offices, as well as preparing materials as independent journalists." Prompt response to current foreign policy events should be considered thematic seminars designed to assist journalists in developing an appropriate position on the substance of the problem. Themes of seminars of this type are not planned in advance. It is determined by the course of political events. Journalists are invited to the seminars, covering their defense policy issues in their articles. As a rule, the number of participants in all types of seminars is limited to 4 – 8 people, with the exception of cases of joint work with the Bundeswehr partners. Center staff have the right to select candidates.
The Bundeswehr is interested in the establishment and development of good relations with the national and foreign public. Activities for the implementation of these intentions, the researcher of this issue, Martin Gottfried Joseph Boker, is developing in several directions. Therefore, along with the publication of its own press organs, the Bundeswehr conducts special training for journalists who wish to cover events from the countries in which its divisions are located. The main reporter of the German armed forces, Martin Gottfried Josef Boker, calls Captain Thomas Brackman, who visited Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Djibouti, who sailed on a U16 submarine. He is both a soldier and a journalist who reports from the scene. He is a true Bundeswehr journalist. And it “cannot be compared with civilian journalists implanted into US military patrols.” The officers of the operational information units come up with conceptual materials in civilian press agencies to explain the military-political situations that are taking shape in the regions and countries in which peacekeeping operations are carried out with the participation of the Bundeswehr.
At the same time, civilian journalists who wish to fulfill their professional duty in crisis regions (hot spots) receive a special offer from the army command after they pass special training at the educational center of the Bundeswehr in Hammelburg. The headquarters of the press and information of the Bundeswehr sends an invitation only to well-prepared, highly skilled journalists sent abroad by their employers. Such cooperation between the Bundeswehr and the professional partnership of press workers, from the point of view of Boker, is extremely useful “to ensure the personal safety and health protection” of journalists in a war zone.
Four or five times a year (spring and autumn) courses for journalists are held entitled “Protection and behavior in crisis regions”. The essence of the weekly training course in Hammelburg is to “realize the dangers” that await the reporter in the crisis region. Among other things, the Bundeswehr instructors teach journalists to avoid meetings “with cunningly disguised mines and charges”, work with listeners of courses in a situation of “hostage-taking”, imitate the conditions and conditions of a civil war in a crisis region. Physical activity for students on training days is set according to their psychophysical constitution.
The Bundeswehr provides journalists and the opportunity to accompany the armed forces in the zone of military action. However, according to the press secretary of the Federal Defense Ministry, the involvement of civilian journalists in combat areas "does not reach such proportions as is practiced by the US Army." And, if "the Americans integrate civilized reporters into combat units in a complex and for a long period, the Bundeswehr does this in exceptional cases and for a limited period." Journalists wishing to inform the public from the war zone are required to obtain special permission. At the same time, even critical journalists are welcome, as “the ministry itself is interested in receiving objective information from the scene.”
PREACHERS OF TRANSATLANTIC SOLIDARITYPromotion of the positive image of the Armed Forces of Germany is facilitated by the activities of numerous organizations close to the Bundeswehr that carry out interactive communication with various sectors of society. Recently formed by the Union of Reservists of Bavaria “Dialogue-Forum. Security policy "outlined the purpose of his work" the formation in the society of awareness of the importance of security problems. " The chosen format is designed to help establish a broad public consensus in determining the contours of a country's security policy. All interested parties who are able to make a constructive contribution to the discussion are invited to the dialogue. The hopes associated with the activities of the forum are evidenced by the appointment of Oberstleutnant Reserve, Professor Eberhard Grein, as its head.
The outreach planners of the center consider it expedient to use the whole arsenal of methods of direct influence on the mentality of their fellow citizens. This is dictated by the need to address a whole range of urgent tasks: from ensuring public approval of the reforms of the Bundeswehr and the allocation of budget funds for their implementation to depicting in a favorable light the participation of German soldiers in NATO’s military-political actions and the formation of an approving attitude of the country's population to the presence of the German armed forces abroad.
By painstakingly building trusting relationships with various sectors of society, the Bundeswehr is increasingly using repeatedly tested means. The most effective means of PR-support of the government's defense policy are well-known propaganda seminars on security policy, in the organization of which the staff of the Information Center of the Bundeswehr have already succeeded. Along with reservists, management personnel engaged in economics, science, and the political sphere, employees of public associations, power structures, the media, teachers, members of political parties, and businessmen are invited to participate in the seminars.
The most famous today is the annual Manfred-Wörner-Seminar seminar on German-American cooperation for young people, from 25 to 35 years, 15 German and 15 American scientists, economics, and the political sphere. A seminar dedicated to the memory of the German statesman Manfred Hermann Werner, Minister of Defense of Germany, and later NATO Secretary General, was held in June 2015. Only the presence among the organizers and sponsors of the seminar of the famous Marshall Foundation “Germany - USA”, which is famous for its ability to identify and recruit transatlantic solidarity ideas among young cadres preachers, by the study of the thinking patterns, is alarming. In addition, among 20 Americans who are members of the Foundation’s administrative council, many are somehow involved in US secret activities.
The participants of numerous seminars are offered meetings with prominent experts, the opportunity of frank discussion of exciting problems is provided. The organizers of the seminars do not conceal their intentions to “develop the listeners' skills of conducting discussions with various social groups of the population on selected topics and in the right direction”. At the same time, to strengthen the psychological impact on students, the structure of seminars includes mandatory reports and visits to such landmark institutions of Germany, NATO and the European Union as the Main Operational Base of the NATO E-3A Component, one of the two operational elements of the NATO AWACS Force - Radio Detection and Guidance Aviation Complex in Geilenkirchen, the Bundeswehr Verification Task Force located there, NATO Headquarters in Bryunsum (Netherlands), European Commission in Brussels (Belgium), Council of Europe, European Parliament and the European Corps in Strasbourg (France), the OSCE and the United Nations Office in Vienna (Austria), the Bundestag and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, the Joint Operational Command of the Bundeswehr in Potsdam-Heltow, the Ministry of Defense in Bonn or Berlin.
The peak of activity in conducting PR seminars promoting the security policy of the German government came in the summer of 2015. The employees of the Bundeswehr Information Work Center have succeeded in organizing these large-scale and public events. To the rich and already announced Bonn / Brussels-Seminar program, visits to The Hague and Eindhoven in the Netherlands were unexpectedly added “for a better acquaintance with the actors and structures of European and international security policy”. Among them, the initiators of the trip, scheduled for November 2015, included the European aviation the Transport Command (Das European Air Transport Command - EATC) in Eindhoven and the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Center for European Integration Strasbourg will be remembered by the participants of the Strasbourg-Seminar seminar not only by visiting the Council of Europe and the European Parliament, but also by visiting the US Air Force headquarters in Ramstein, which is also one of the NATO bases. The program of the Berlin / Wien-Seminar workshop is under development, but a visit to the German Ministry of Defense and the German embassy in Vienna has already been announced.
The credo of the first-ever Berlin / London-Seminar seminar, which was offered in summer 2015, is quite brief: “The current security policy from Spree to Thames”. However, his five-day program is clearly oversaturated. It includes a visit to the German embassy in London, including a confidential conversation with the German military attache, visits to the German and United Kingdom defense ministries, the headquarters of the Command and Command component of the naval forces in Northwood, discussions with experts on the ATALANTA EU naval operation another.
The Berlin / Rostock / Stettin-Seminar workshop, which invites you to visit the Steinhoff’s 73 tactical squadron (Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 73 “Steinhoff”), is held as a propaganda event focused on admirers of naval and military aerial shows. All German pilots who fly Eurofighter fighters are trained. The seminar participants will also visit the naval base of the German Navy on the Baltic Sea in Warnemünde, where the compound of missile boats is based. But the main point of the seminar program, designed to simply stun its participants, is a visit to the border city Stetine of the multinational corps Nord-Ost, which consists of units of the armed forces of Germany, Poland and Denmark. For a decade, the corps is in full combat readiness, is part of the rapid deployment team and participates in NATO missions abroad. According to the Headquarters of the High Command of the Joint Armed Forces of NATO in Europe (SHARE), the corps of Nord-Ost "plays a key role in the integration of new members of the alliance in the framework of NATO expansion to the east." And it is clearly unnecessary here to include in the seminar program visits to the Bundestag and the office of the Federal Chancellor.
From the point of view of the propagandists of the center, seminars glorifying the irresistible power of the German Navy, Air Force and Army of the North look attractive. According to the organizers, they should impress the imagination and make a stunning impression especially on members of the public who have a humanitarian education. “Sea and safety” is the motto of the 2015 summer seminar on “ensuring the maritime security of Germany and its trade routes”. A visit to the well-known naval school of Murwick, the bases in Kiel and Eckernförde with a tour of the warships in Stralsund should instill in the seminar participants an unshakable confidence in the correctness of the government’s security policy.
The Berlin / Dresden / Prag-Seminar workshop, scheduled for December 2015, is also marked by the indestructible desire of the staff of the Bundeswehr Information Center to acquaint the seminar participants with the well-functioning work of the elite units of the NATO member countries, capture the imagination with modern military technology, awaken and reinforce a positive impression caused by the clear cooperation of the host military units and on this basis form a strong belief in the fairness of the government’s security policy allegiance. Achieving this goal should be a visit to the officer school in Dresden and the nearby one of the largest military-historical museums in Europe. The rest of the time, the participants will be filled with visits to the ministries of defense of Germany and the Czech Republic, the Bundestag and the German embassy in Prague.
WORKSHOPS AND THEIR SPONSORS
Undoubtedly, a special place in the chain of propaganda trips organized by the Information Work Center and aimed at forming a loyal attitude of society to the federal security policy belongs to the seminars Bundeswehr-Seminar and Europa-Seminar. The program of the first of them, scheduled for October 2015, is still in the finalization stage, but the declared mission sounds cheerful and optimistic: “The 2015 Bundeswehr: presentation of the achievements of the German armed forces”. The German Defense Ministry scheduled for September 2015 a multi-day seminar, Europa-Seminar is going to "continue a series of informational events to promote the goals of the government security policy, to make the Bundeswehr and Europe closer and more understandable."
The selection of future seminar participants is carried out very carefully by the Center for Information Work of the Bundeswehr. Preference is given to representatives of universities, land ministries of culture, school management, teacher unions, political institutions, business and financial circles, employers and workers unions, youth party organizations and the federal parent council. These people are united by a common feature: being public people with a wide range of formal and informal communication, they can become excellent repeaters of political ideas and ideological attitudes of the government learned by them during seminars that the Bundeswehr offers them in a friendly and unobtrusive manner. The documents of the Bundeswehr of these people called the capacious word "multipliers". Seminar groups include people who are not familiar with each other. The terms of the invitation expressly state that "the presence in the same group of spouses or relatives is fundamentally excluded, even if they possess the qualities of multipliers." The explanation, in our opinion, is simple: no one should stand between the multipliers and the communicator leader, nothing should distract their attention and weaken the significance of the words and actions of the employees of the center.
Undoubted interest are sources of financing the project. On the external basis, it seems that it is carried out by the participants of the seminars themselves. The program of each of them is accompanied by an indication of the cost of participation. Trip prices range from 75 to 350 euros. Therefore, we can assume that the costs of multi-day PR passes through several countries of the Bundeswehr significantly exceed these amounts and are replenished from the state treasury. The joy of German Defense Minister Ursula von der Layen becomes clear, which some have already tipped as successor to Chancellor Merkel, who managed to achieve an increase in the budget of her department’s advertising campaigns by 18%. The influential magazine Der Spiegel also pointed out the concentration of efforts by the Ministry of Defense in connection with the implementation of the plan to promote the positive image of the Bundeswehr in the public consciousness.
A curious recognition of the organizers of these large-scale PR events confirms the desire of the Bundeswehr to ensure strong public relations and enlist its support: "The seminars are designed for multipliers of various areas of political education, as well as leading cadres of science, industry, politics." The center's employees proudly informed the public "about the recognition of the seminars by the Federal Center for Political Education worthy to be called state-political educational events."
In other words, the Bundeswehr Information Center discovered a new function - the training of propaganda personnel for the political education system with taxpayers' money.
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