Germany marks first ever Veterans Day

Germany is marking its first ever Veterans Day with a series of events in Berlin and across the country. Elsewhere, Bayern Munich get their Club World Cup campaign underway in the United States. DW has more. Germany is marking its first ever Veterans Day with events across the country A new memorial for the victims of the Nazi occupation of Poland is to be unveiled in Berlin Bayern Munich get their Club World Cup campaign underway in Cincinnati later Welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Germany on Sunday, June 15. Refresh page for updates. Veterans Day: Germany honors service personnel Germany is set to honor its armed forces personnel with its first ever Veterans Day on Sunday. With a series of events around the country, including in front of the Reichstag parliament building in Berlin from 1 p.m. local time, the German government is hoping to strengthen the bond between the army, known as the Bundeswehr, and the general public. A key topic on Veteranentag will be the physical and psychological injuries suffered by soldiers on deployment and the difficulties they face when it comes to reintegrating into civilian life. But critics have warned against what they see as the "glorification" of the armed forces and accused the government of using Veterans Day as a marketing ploy to boost recruitment for its understaffed army. According to government figures, there are around 10 million army veterans in Germany – defined as soldiers who are either currently in active service or who have been honorably discharged. You can read more about Germany's new Veterans Day and the country's complex relationship with its armed forces here. Monument to Nazi crimes in Poland to be unveiled in Berlin Germany's complex relationship with its armed forces can be traced back in large part to the crimes committed by German troops during the Second World War — especially in eastern Europe and in Poland in particular. On Monday, a new monument is set to be unveiled in central Berlin to commemorate the victims of the Nazi invasion and occupation of its neighbor between 1939 and 1945, during which an estimated six million Poles, around a fifth of the civilian population, were murdered. The new monument will consist of a large boulder from the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which borders Poland, on the site of the former Kroll Opera House. The Opera House served as the seat of the German parliament for much of the Nazi period after the nearby Reichstag building was damaged in the 1933 Reichstag fire. As such, it was the location for dictator Adolf Hitler's declaration of war on Poland in September 1939. Peter Oliver Loew, the director of the German-Polish Institute, told the Catholic news agency KNA that it is "important to send a message, even if it's only a temporary location for now." In June 2024, the German government approved plans for a permanent monument and a "German-Polish House," a precise timeline for which has not yet been set. Nowadays, Germany and Poland are key allies at the heart of the European Union, but the memory of the German occupation of Poland remains a live issue, especially in Warsaw, where nationalist politicians frequently raise the issue of German reparations for Nazi crimes. "I will fight for them from the very first day of my presidency," promised new Polish President Karol Nawrocki during his recent campaign, for instance. For historian Loew of the German-Polish Institute, the new memorial is therefore "a necessary and important step on the road to rapprochement between our two countries." Welcome to DW's Germany live blog Guten Tag! Welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Germany on Sunday, June 15. Germany is marking its first ever Veterans Day with a series of events in Berlin and across the country. The day is designed to highlight the difficulties faced by service personnel who return from deployments injured or traumatized, but critics have warned against "glorifying" the armed forces. In football, Bayern Munich are set to get their Club World Cup campaign underway in Cincinnati later. FIFA's new tournament is not without controversy.