Bonn (dpa / lnw) – The Bonn Regional Court has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Bundeswehr soldier for an eight-hour cross-country march. The soldier, then 18 years old, collapsed with a heat stroke during the march in Munster in Lower Saxony in July 2017 and then sued the Federal Republic of Germany as the employer of the Ministry of Defence. He demanded compensation of around 90,000 euros. But as a court spokeswoman announced on Wednesday, the court did not follow suit.
The court ruled that the trainers had complied with the “order for leadership, training and education”, according to which the prospective soldiers were to be introduced to extreme loads. The warned mistakes of the trainers were not made intentionally. (AZ: LG Bonn 1 O 350/21)
The man, who had pledged to the federal government by 2030, had been flown by helicopter to a hospital where he had to stay in intensive care for a week. A multi-organ failure after overheating of the body (hyperthermia) was diagnosed. He never returned to the Bundeswehr.
The plaintiff accused his train driver of leadership failure. Two unplanned marches in combat gear and at a run had obviously served “arbitrary reprisals by the soldiers.” The third march had to be completed at 27 degrees in the helmet.
