BIt was not until the third date that 21-year-old Jeremy Meyer dared to take the aptitude test. So far, his weight is too light for the federal government. Now it finally worked. Not long after, Jeremy, wearing a camouflage uniform, was training. Helmet The assault rifle in his hand disappeared, just in case.
The ARD documentary “Soldiers” followed the development of three recruits for more than two years. What Jeremy, Alexis, and Jerry are involved in is very clear: the armored grenadier battalion in Hagenau (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) is a battle-tested unit. Can fly in difficult places.
“When I’m in front, they won’t fumble on their faces, whether it’s itchy or I know it.” The queue set the tone for the first day. Give up for the first time in the evening. “It’s like a school trip, just a little more strict,” recruit Alexis said as he tried on the new uniform. But the first impression will soon be deceptive.
The three-month basic training-a marathon through mud, water and forest-pushes the recruits to their physical and mental limits.By contrast Armed forces The “soldiers” shown in the specially produced public relations column are far more than slow-motion records of drill sergeants and helicopters. Documentary filmmakers Christian von Brockhausen and Wilhelm Conrad gave up their own comments and instead let their protagonists tell their stories. In the quiet and introspective moment of the film, we accompanied the three young people back to their hometown. “It would be better if there were no foreign missions, but someone must do it,” he recruited Jerell to his worried mother on the balcony of a rented apartment in Reinikendorf in Berlin. None of them knew he would fly to Afghanistan in a year.
Since the suspension of compulsory military service in 2011, the Bundeswehr has been a volunteer army. Who will be a soldier today? Driven by the desire to seek self-confidence, stable work or “giving back to the country”, recording I took sensitive photos of three different recruits with a calm camera.
They are afraid of returning from a threatened foreign mission and becoming a completely different person. Jerry’s time has come. He was called up as the last soldier in the Afghanistan mission, which is now over. He will be stationed there for six months. He must take care of his will before his death and his will before his departure. Before Jerry boarded the military plane bound for Mazar-e-Sharif, airport employees said goodbye to him with a “look again”. After the shooting, Jeremy left the Bundeswehr.
“From tomorrow, they are all the same,” the young team was predicted on the first day. The documentary “Soldiers” impressively shows that this is half the story at best. Through the stories of three men in camouflage uniforms, he brought a society that now knows little about the military closer to the Bundeswehr.
soldier Run on Das Erste at 11:50 in the evening.
