On Thursday, Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel testified before the Bundestag’s inquiry committee on Afghanistan about why her government was taken completely by surprise when the Taliban suddenly seized power in August 2021 and why the evacuation of both German citizens and Afghan personnel was at times chaotic.
Reading from a prepared statement, Merkel said Germany’s participation in the US-led military invasion of Afghanistan was the correct decision even in retrospect.
Merkel said there was a “well-founded hope” that the military intervention would prevent terrorist attacks from being planned in Afghanistan.
She acknowledged that foreign governments had failed in Afghanistan on nearly every objective, from encouraging the rule of law to women’s rights issues.
Merkel said a lack of cultural understanding by Afghanistan’s Western allies, nepotism and drug trafficking were reasons for the failures.
The Bundestag’s committee of inquiry has been looking into decision-making procedures and actions of the German government and intelligence services, including the interaction with foreign actors.
The committee was set up in July 2022 and will have to present its final report before this legislative period ends in February 2025.
Merkel-era Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Development Minister Gerd Müller were among the last officials of the time to be questioned.
‘Transparent and thorough’
Just before the Taliban marched unopposed into the Afghan capital, Maas, of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), had claimed that such a scenario was very unlikely.
On August 16, 2021, Germany’s chief diplomat had to acknowledge something that could not be sugarcoated: “All of us — the German government, the intelligence services, the international community — we all misjudged the situation.”
Now, three years later, the inquiry committee asked Maas for his assessment of the German government’s policy in Afghanistan. “The cooperation within the government was very transparent and thorough,” Maas said.
Maas acknowledged that, on some specific factual issues, there were different interpretations.
“But everyone tried to make the best of the situation,” Maas said. He added that issuing visas for Afghan personnel who feared Taliban revenge could have been handled bette. “It may have been possible to get a lot of people out earlier if an agreement had been reached more quickly,” Maas surmised.
Federal Intelligence Service’s error
The SPD chairman of the committee of inquiry, Jörg Nürnberger, found this account plausible. Nürnberger told DW that this fatal misjudgment was made at all levels of the German government that were involved in the Afghanistan mission.
Information from the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) resulted in an incorrect assessment of the Taliban’s military capabilities, he said.
Even in August 2021, the Development Ministry, led by Müller, of the Christian Social Union party, was planning to continue its activities in Afghanistan. This was confirmed by Müller during his testimony to the committee of inquiry. He called the hasty withdrawal of international troops an “absolute surprise.”
This article was originally written in German. It was updated following former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s testimony on December 5, 2024.
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