The Total Memory – The September 11, 2001 Terror Attacks

25 years ago, Islamist terrorists attacked the United States. The September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington D.C. struck the West at its core and marked a turning point in German and NATO security policy. How did soldiers of the Bundeswehr and allied armies experience this day of attacks?

Who knows what he did on September 11, 2001? Raise your hands! Probably everyone who was at least a teenager at the time knows exactly. The shocking images of the attacks in New York and Washington D.C. have become etched in the collective memory of an entire generation. For many soldiers of the Bundeswehr, "9/11" also marked a turning point in their lives. On September 13, 2001, the NATO member states formally declared the collective defense situation. A few weeks after the attacks, soldiers of theKSKwere deployed to Afghanistan, where they worked alongside American and British special forces to hunt down the al-Qaeda terrorists. Shortly thereafter, the German Bundestag paved the way for the Bundeswehr to participate in theMission International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)priest.

Datum as a turning point for many Bundeswehr personnel

Tens of thousands of German soldiers and women should participate in the following almost 20 years within the framework of ISAF andResolute Support (RS)) in Afghanistan. 59 of these soldiers lost their lives there, and 35 were killed in combat with insurgents. The terms "war" and "fallen" would only become common in Germany through involvement in the Afghanistan conflict. The terrorist attacks thus led the Federal Republic into a new security policy reality. On September 11, 2001, all of this was not yetenDetail to be foreseen. Much more is worth a look into the emotional and mental world of soldiers at their personal "Point Zero".A stroll.

I was cramming for an exam at the university in Munich. In the background, the television was on, and suddenly, the first news reports started coming in on a channel. I was shocked and ran out into the hallway. Everyone rushed out and tried to figure out what was going on. Was it an accident or an attack? It soon became clear that it was a terrorist attack. No one could imagine what it would mean for us in the future. In 2006, I was deployed as a commander with my paratrooper battalion 373 in Afghanistan.

I was then the commander of the 295 artillery battalion in Immendingen. On September 11th, we were in combat training at the training ground, when a completely distraught sergeant came to me: "Sir, you must come to the conference room immediately. The US has been attacked." We immediately went in, shocked and speechless. In the conference room, the entire staff was sitting in front of the familiar television images, apparently on an endless loop. It was completely silent. I just thought: "What happens now? This is a turning point." About three months later, the German Bundestag passed the first Afghanistan mandate. This deployment has shaped the Bundeswehr to this day.

At this time, I was serving in theMultinational Division CentralWith its headquarters in Mönchengladbach. I was on vacation and traveled with a comrade thousands of kilometers through Europe. At the time of the attacks, we were near Santander on the Spanish Atlantic coast. It was the end of the season, so there were not many people at the campsite. We did not have television and the phones were out. Therefore, we initially did not hear about the attacks. However, we eventually noticed the constant chatter of the other guests. We then saw the images from New York on a television. I think we saw them two days later. This was of course a shock. Shortly thereafter, we contacted the division again.

I was a young captain on duty that day, tasked with supplying Senegalese troops serving with theUN mission MONUCin the Democratic Republic of Congo. We were flying with ourTransallfrom Libreville in Gabon to Kananga. Twice five hours flight over the jungle without external support in navigation, and my first flight as commander of a crew. The weather was terrible, we saw nothing. It was like being in a washing machine, a purely instrument-based flight. Around 10 PM local time, we landed completely exhausted in Libreville, without having had contact with our people in between. The mechanics rushed to the aircraft. I thought that our Transall was damaged. But then they told us about the attacks in America. They showed us on the television, where we repeatedly saw the planes flying into the towers. No one said a word, it was completely silent. I had a strange feeling, very difficult to describe. Especially because I am a soldier and now just a spectator. I wanted to help, but we could do nothing. The consequences of the attacks were still unclear, but I thought there would be a war. Those were our thoughts.

On September 11, 2001, we were on vacation in Mallorca with our then two-year-old son. Around lunchtime, we had just chosen a restaurant. On the terrace, images were playing on TV of a plane crashing into a high-rise building and exploding. We were shocked and asked the waiter why they were showing this. He said it was live from New York. It was a shock. We went back to the hotel and watched the news, waiting for clarification. When it became clear that it was a coordinated attack, it was difficult to process. My first thought was: "Do I have to go back immediately?"

In September 2001, I was a non-commissioned officer in the Parachute Battalion 261 in Lebach. With my comrades, we were at a NATO shop in Saarbrücken on September 11th, where there was also a television hanging from the ceiling. There, I saw the impact of the first plane hitting the tower. We were all mesmerized and shocked. Shortly thereafter, we returned to the barracks. Due to the attacks, parachute jumpers from our battalion were sent to the US bases in Baumholder and Ramstein as support. There was a lot of speculation at the time. What happens now? But I was completely clear: This will not remain unanswered.

I was with most of the press representatives on that day.U. S. Marine Corpsat a conference in Reno, Nevada. As I was just getting ready for the day, my wife sent me a message to turn on the TV. I sat on the edge of my bed and watched as the events unfolded, with more and more details becoming known. It was a challenge to cope with the horror that was unfolding on American soil. In addition, there was the question of how we could work together while we were stranded in Nevada. Instead of taking courses in crisis management, we began to respond to real crises very quickly on that day, while we followed the reporting on a portable TV in the conference room. At that time, I was working at theCalifornia Motion Picture Liaison OfficeInLos Angeles.The following day, I drove back with the rental car. In October 2003 and later again in 2006, I was deployed to Iraq.

I was then working as a speaker on disarmament and arms control within the military policy area of the BMVg. We saw the live broadcast of the first aircraft from the office. Shortly thereafter, the second machine crashed into the tower. This attack on symbols of Western dominance was so shocking that I initially saw no consequences. The feeling of vulnerability was a shock, and the terror suddenly felt very close. This also affected me personally because I had been on official business in New York for many weeks in the spring of 2001. It was an attack on the heart of the West.

Ten years after the shock of September 11, 2001, I was a military attaché in Pakistan. In early May 2011, I had just attended an attaché conference at the Julius-Leber-Kaserne in Berlin. There, I learned about the US operation in Abbottabad, in which Osama bin Laden was killed. As a German military attaché, I had only recently spent a few weeks in the city, giving lectures to the cadets at the local military academy. I had even participated in the academy's operations. It is incredible that the mastermind of "9/11" had been hiding right next to this Pakistani training center for so long. Shortly thereafter, I was back at my post in Islamabad. The relationship between the Pakistanis and the Americans had cooled significantly.

Editorial Note:These memorial contributions were first published in September 2021.