Neither Too Hard, nor Too Soft: Hellmuth Heye, the Quick Controversy and West Germany’s ‘Citizens in Uniform’*

The introduction of the office of the Bundestag’s military ombudsman through a 1957 amendment to West Germany's Basic Law was and remains today an important manifestation of the Bundeswehr’s Innere Führung. This reform concept was aimed at transforming the new military into a force that respected the individual rights of the ‘citizen in uniform’ and the rule of law in the young democratic state. The ombudsman was to be an independent check on …