German military parade for Afghanistan fallen provokes controversy

The spectacle of troops carrying flaming torches while parading in front of Berlin's Reichstag Building to commemorate the German fallen in Afghanistan provoked controversy on Thursday, reported dpa.

Many commentators made unfavourable comparisons with the parades of the Nazi era, while others described the Wednesday evening ceremony to mark the end of Germany's 20-year engagement in Afghanistan as entirely fitting.

Leftist politician Jutta Ditfurth quoted German artist Max Liebermann, who lived through the early days of Nazi rule in Germany, tweeting: "When Germans take up torches, I can't eat so much as want to puke."

Ditfurth described the parade, held in front of the German parliament in Berlin on Wednesday evening, as the "militarization of society."

Sevim Dagdelen of the hard-left party Die Linke noted the civilian death toll alongside the 59 German soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan, tweeting: "What is there to celebrate with this militaristic masquerade?"

But Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) said the ceremony had been appropriate and "at the only proper place - parliament's army in front of parliament."

Similarly, Omid Nouripour, the foreign affairs spokesperson for the Greens, described the parade as "proper, dignified and moving."