At the end of March, the German Armed Forces opened a pop-up store in Oberhausen's Centro, which is to remain open until the end of April. There, people will be able to find out about a potential "career" with the Bundeswehr and talk directly to soldiers about the profession. After shopping for new clothes in stores like Levi's or Urban Outfitters, you can stop by the Bundeswehr next door and pledge to fight for the interests of German imperialism at arms - just a "normal" Saturday afternoon in the shopping mall.
But such absurd advertising tactics are already known from the Bundeswehr. For example, this is not the first pop-up store of the Bundeswehr in North Rhine-Westphalia, there have already been predecessors in other federal states. Currently, there is also another one in Hanover, and more stores of this kind are to come to NRW in the future. The Bundeswehr also caused a stir with its advertising campaign at Gamescom. There the service at the weapon was compared in most disgusting way with the Zocken of baller plays, in order to motivate so young people to the entry. According to the motto: wars are only multiplayer games with very realistic graphics and shooting guns is fun anyway.
The pop-up store campaign is part of the Bundeswehr's general advertising campaign. For years, all means have been used to present the Bundeswehr as a "normal employer" and to anchor it in the middle of society. In times of the Ukraine war this effect is intensified. The German bourgeoisie uses the war of aggression of Russian imperialism in a cynical way to push its strategic rearmament. The goal is to present the Bundeswehr as an army for democracy and freedom, but the fact that it is already occupying countries in the third world, such as Mali, is concealed.
