The outgoing Inspector General of the Bundeswehr, Eberhard Zorn, has expressed that he is leaving office without resentment or grief. Zorn, who accompanied Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Wednesday on a visit by the Air Force to the Baltic States and an official visit to the Estonian government in Tallinn, said: "I fully support the minister's decision and I have no problem with it at all. We have set a lot of course, but if there is a new beginning, then it is sometimes quite good to do it with new heads."
Peter Carstens
Political correspondent in Berlin
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When asked what he would do in the future, Zorn said: "I'm going home." On the sidelines of the visit, Zorn was greeted with particular kindness by many of the soldiers stationed in Estonia as part of NATO air surveillance. The circumstances of the change at the top of the Bundeswehr had occasionally caused astonishment in the armed forces. It was said that Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) should have made it clear that the change was not due to personal misconduct, but solely out of political considerations.
As far as his successor Lieutenant General Carsten Breuer was concerned, it was emphasized that he had a special proximity to the Chancellery and the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz had visited Breuer only a few days ago in his current area of responsibility, in the territorial command in Berlin. Officially, the change of office is to be communicated on Thursday by Defense Minister Pistorius.