It's a page four story, which has stirred up some Germans. So for decades....German soldiers (mostly the younger guys) would get relief early on Friday afternoon, grab a bag, get a lift to the local train station, and go home to visit their family....free of charge (if they were in uniform). At some point in the past decade, the free deal ceased.
Well, there was a deal made up by the new management of the German Army (AKK) and the Bahn folks (the national railway). A couple million Euro slipped over, and the Bahn put the old rule back into play. As long as you are in uniform (dress or combat uniforms, it doesn't matter)....you travel free on all railways, period.
I can remember traveling the railway system in the late 1970s and the mid-80s.....on late Friday trains, and you'd often see five or six young German soldiers on the train. It wasn't a big deal.
So this German movie director....Mario Sixtus....has a blog, and travels a good bit via the railway system. He noted the sight now of German soldiers on the train, and went to write a highly critical blog over the 'act'. In his eyes.....the combat uniform represents war, and you shouldn't have this in a public situation.
Curiously, an awful lot of criticism has been dumped upon Sixtus for his commentary. It would appear that Germans don't have a problem with soldiers on the railway system, but they do have a problem when someone criticizes them.
You can view Sixtus commentary in different ways. He certainly didn't care that they were getting free travel status....he just wanted them in civilian attire, or their dress uniform.
For most of these guys....they get off work by 3 PM and every second matters as they rush to grab their dirty clothing packed up.....get to a local station, and make their way home where Mama will serve them an evening dinner, and have their clothes washed by Sunday morning, and he'll make his way back to the barracks by Sunday night.
2 comments:
I love how people are so quick to condemn the people who'd actually put their lives on the line to defend that freedom. Whilst I'm not the sort of person who could imagine myself in the military, I certainly view them as answering a higher calling to the society than politicians do.
His criticism was strictly over the uniform business (not the plain dress-uniform, but the combat one). The amusing thing....if you travel around Frankfurt, this military attire business is now regular fashion for 14, 15 and 16 year old German teenagers. For all we know....the folks that he saw, might have been German teens on the way to a movie. If you had suggested to me 20 years ago that military attire would be teenage fashion (with the black combat boots), I would have laughed but it's that way.
I stood in a C and A shop last month, and here was the camouflaged pants and shirts on the rack (50 Euro). Older guy (maybe 60) was checking them out and was going to buy a set.
Post a Comment