An internal German Defence Ministry report has revealing the practice of sexual rituals in the country’s armed forces has caused a firestorm. According to Spiegel magazine, the report describes a female soldiers being forced by her trainers to perform a pole dance while being touched in private areas. The report comes from a female soldier’s account from an incident last year at the Pfullendorf barracks, which has been the focus of the scandal for some weeks in Germany. The woman said that she was forced to undergo some kind of recruitment test where she had to dance against a pole in a common room.
She also said that throughout the training sessions, trainees were made to strip naked, and women were touched by trainers, not wearing any gloves, in intimate areas. The trainers then did a ‘smell test’ in front of the whole group. The trainers also had trainees sign a consent form, and took pictures which they said were for training purposes. Further internal investigatiion showed the pole had been used on multiple occasions while soldiers sat and had their drinks watching. The woman also alleged she was compelled to do exercises that served no military purpose other than to sexually degrade her, like how to insert medical devices into her anus. Spiegel reports that these incidents have also been confirmed by more investigations.