Summary: State Party Germany was among the first 30 ratifications to trigger the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010. A 2009 legislative amendment enforces its implementation of the convention. Germany has participated in all of the convention’s meetings and served as the convention’s first coordinator on stockpile destruction and retention in 2011–2013. Germany regularly promotes universalization of the convention and was a lead sponsor on a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. It has condemned new use of cluster munitions, including in Syria. Germany has elaborated its views on several important issues relating to interpretation and implementation of the convention.

In its initial transparency report for the convention, provided in 2011, Germany confirmed it never used cluster munitions, but produced, exported, and imported them in the past. Germany completed the destruction of its stockpile of over 573,000 cluster munitions and nearly 63 million submunitions on 25 November 2015. During 2015, it destroyed 7,526 cluster munitions and 4.8 million submunitions. Germany is retaining 570 cluster munitions and 52,801 submunitions for training and research purposes, which is the highest number retained by any State Party.

Policy 

The Federal Republic of Germany signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008 and ratified on 8 July 2009. It was among the first 30 ratifications that triggered the convention’s entry into force on 1 August 2010.

Germany’s War Weapons Control Act was amended in June 2009 to enforce its implementation of the convention’s prohibitions and includes penal sanctions of up to five years imprisonment for violations.[1]

Germany submitted its initial Article 7 transparency report for the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 27 January 2011 and has provided annual updated reports ever since, most recently on 5 April 2016.[2]

Germany participated throughout the Oslo Process that produced the Convention on Cluster Munitions and its position evolved significantly to support an immediate and comprehensive prohibition on cluster munitions.[3]

Germany plays a leading role in the work of the convention. It hosted an international conference on the destruction of cluster munitions in Berlin in June 2009 and served as co-coordinator on stockpile destruction and retention in 2011–2013.

Germany participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, where it made several statements. In an address to the high-level segment of the meeting, Germany said the destruction of the final portion of its stockpiled cluster munitions “will be accomplished within the next few weeks.”[4] In November 2015, it announced the completion of stockpile destruction (see Stockpile destruction section below).

Germany has attended every Meeting of States Parties of the convention as well as intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015.

Promotion of the convention 

Germany has continued to promote universalization of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. At the First Review Conference in September 2015, Germany affirmed the importance of finding ways to illustrate how cluster munitions are “a terrible weapon which causes tremendous human suffering.” Together with Croatia and Handicap International, it hosted a “sitting volleyball” match by delegates and local players during the Review Conference.[5]

Germany was a lead sponsor on and voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution on the convention adopted on 7 December 2015, which urges all states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[6] A total of 139 states voted in favor of the non-binding resolution, including many non-signatories.

Germany has condemned new use of cluster munitions, sometimes naming the states where use occurred, particularly Syria.[7] It has also expressed concern at reported use of cluster munitions in “Africa and eastern Europe.”[8]

At the First Review Conference in September 2015, Germany said, “we strongly condemn the reported use of cluster munition and call upon all governments and all actors to refrain from using these weapons.”[9]

Germany has condemned the use of cluster munitions in Syria since October 2012 when Minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle condemned the cluster munition attacks “in the strongest terms.”[10] Germany has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria, most recently in December 2015.[11] It has voted in favor of four Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[12]

In September 2015, Germany welcomed the publication of Cluster Munition Monitor 2016, which it financially supported.[13]

Germany is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is also party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Interpretive issues 

In 2012 and 2013, Germany elaborated its views on several important issues relating to interpretation and implementation of the convention, including the prohibitions on assistance during joint military operations with states not party that may use cluster munitions, on transit, and investment in cluster munitions production.

During the negotiations of the convention, Germany advocated strongly for provisions on “interoperability” (joint military operations with states not party). In June 2012, the German Federal Foreign Office reaffirmed to the Monitor that prior to the convention’s entry into force “clear orders” were issued for the German armed forces that “forbade German soldiers from using cluster munitions themselves, and from requesting or ordering the use of cluster munitions.” The instructions also “further prohibited the transport of cluster munitions using Bundeswehr [Federal armed forces] vehicles and/or personnel. Ordering or assisting such transport was also banned.”[14] Germany’s implementation legislation prohibits the transit of cluster munitions.[15]

Germany has yet to express clear views on the prohibition on foreign stockpiling of cluster munitions, but United States (US) diplomatic cables made public by Wikileaks in 2011 show that Germany has engaged with the US on the matter of cluster munitions stored by the US in Germany.[16]

Germany’s implementation legislation does not explicitly prohibit investment in cluster munition production and in June 2013, the Federal Foreign Office reaffirmed its position, previously expressed to the Monitor that “the Federal Government expects the German private sector including financial institutions to implement their voluntary commitments aimed at disinvesting in business segments related to CM [cluster munitions]. It is following the relevant developments closely.”[17]

Motions submitted to and rejected by the German parliament in 2011 and 2012 called for Germany’s national implementation legislation to be amended to include a comprehensive ban on direct and indirect investment in cluster munition producers.[18]

In a June 2016 report, PAX identified three German financial institutions, Allianz, Siemens and Deutsche Bank, as investing in cluster munition production. Facing Finance and other German NGOs are campaigning to achieve a comprehensive ban on financing cluster munition production.[19]

Use, production, and transfer

Germany has never used cluster munitions according to the Federal Foreign Office.[20] It unilaterally renounced the use of all cluster munitions on 29 May 2008, the day before it adopted the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin.[21]

In the past, German industry actively produced and exported cluster munitions. According to the Federal Foreign Office, Germany stopped production and transfer of cluster munitions in 2005.[22]

In its initial Article 7 report, Germany declared that “all former production capabilities were dismantled prior to 2008.”[23] The last known export was in 2004–2005 when Germany sent M26 rockets with submunitions to Slovakia.[24]

The company Diehl GmbH and numerous subcontractors were involved in the production of M26 rockets for the 227mm multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) as part of the MLRS European Producers Group.[25] Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH produced the MW-1 dispenser (that deploys submunitions) for aircraft.[26]

The company Rheinmetall produced several types of 155mm artillery projectiles containing dual-purpose improved conventional munition (DPICM) submunitions.[27] These were produced for the German armed forces as well as for export customers including Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy (co-production), and Norway.[28]

Germany also imported cluster munitions from the United Kingdom (UK) and the US.

A consortium of Diehl, Gesellschaft für Intelligente Wirksysteme GmbH(GIWS), and Rheinmetall produce the SMArt-155 artillery projectile, a weapon that employs two submunitions but is not considered a cluster munition under the Convention on Cluster Munitions because it meets the five technical criteria set out by negotiators as necessary to avoid the negative effects of cluster munitions.[29] This has been produced for the German armed forces and for export customers Australia, Greece, Switzerland, and the UK.[30] The consortium granted licensed co-production rights to Alliant Techsystems in the US for the SMArt-155, and Alliant has marketed the munitions in the United Arab Emirates.

Stockpiling and destruction 

Germany once possessed a total of 573,700 cluster munitions containing 62,923,641 submunitions, as listed in the following table. It reported the highest number of cluster munition stocks out of the convention’s States Parties.

Cluster munitions stockpiled and destroyed by Germany[31]

Under Article 3 of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, Germany was required to destroy all stockpiled cluster munitions under its jurisdiction and control as soon as possible, but not later than 1 August 2018.

Germany completed the destruction of its stockpiled cluster munitions on 25 November 2015, just under three years in advance of the deadline.

During 2015, Germany destroyed 7,526 cluster munitions and 4,845,750 submunitions, which represented its last remaining stocks except the portion retained for training:

• 7,524 M26 rockets and 4,845,456 M77 submunitions by 25 November 2015; and
• Two BL-755 cluster bombs and 294 Mk.1 submunitions by 30 June 2015.[32]

On 25 November 2015, the Federal Foreign Office and Federal Ministry of Defence issued a joint statement announcing that, “the last Bundeswehr cluster bombs were destroyed today.”[33] The Federal Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen said, “the destruction of such a massive amount of munitions is another milestone in our work towards worldwide disarmament” and is a demonstration of Germany’s “capabilities and experience in explosive ordnance disposal.” The Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier pledged that, “the German Government will continue to help other countries destroy their stockpiles and clear their territory of explosive mines and munitions,” stating, “our goal is and remains a worldwide ban on cluster munitions.”[34]

Germany often expressed its intent to complete stockpile destruction by the end of 2015 and provided regular updates on its progress.[35] It held an event on 25 November 2015 to mark the completion of destruction at the specialized ammunition disassembly and recycling company Nammo Buck GmbH in Pinnow, with German parliamentarians, media, and a representative from Handicap International on behalf of the CMC.

Germany destroyed the cluster munition stocks at three locations in Germany: Nammo Buck in Pinnow, Spreewerk Lübben in Lübben, and Muniberka in Dietersdorf. It also shipped cluster munitions to Norway for destruction at Lökken Verk outside Bergen.[36] The Article 7 reports describe the safety and environmental standards observed.[37]

Germany began destroying the BL-755 cluster bombs in 2001, while destruction of DM612 155mm artillery projectiles began in 2007, and destruction of the other types followed in 2009.[38]

In April 2013, Germany reported that it spent a total of €11.8 million on stockpile destruction prior to the entry into force of the convention and allocated another €29.6 million from 1 August 2010 to 2016, making a total expenditure of €41.4 million (US$53.2 million).[39]

Retention

In its April 2016 Article 7 report, Germany declared that it is retaining a total of 570 cluster munitions and 52,801 submunitions for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training and research purposes, as listed in the following table.[40]

Cluster munitions retained in accordance with Article 3 (as of 31 December 2015)[41]

Germany initially reported in 2012 that it would retain 782 cluster munitions and 71,872 submunitions, so the 2015 total represents a 27% reduction from the original number retained.[42]

Germany progressively reduced the number of cluster munitions retained by using them during EOD training. In 2011–2015, it consumed a total of 212 cluster munitions and 19,071 submunitions in EOD training as follows: 17 cluster munitions and 2,010 submunitions in 2015, 70 cluster munitions and 4,744 submunitions in 2014, 28 cluster munitions and 3,125 submunitions in 2013, 58 cluster munitions and 6,330 submunitions in 2012, and 39 cluster munitions and 2,862 submunitions in 2011.[43]

Despite this reduction, Germany still retains the largest number of submunitions of any State Party. The CMC has expressed concern at the retention of such a high numbers of cluster munitions and asked if Germany’s training program is large enough to require them.

In 2015, Germany reported that it continues to review of the amount of retained submunitions needed for EOD training.[44] In September 2013, Germany reported that “the calculations and plans for retention of selected items are kept under constant review, thus upholding the spirit of this convention. Thus, we can ensure that we retain only the very minimum quantity of cluster munitions necessary for permitted development and training.”[45]

Previously, in September 2012, Germany informed States Parties that it planned to intensify EOD training in light of the increasing dangers faced by German armed forces from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). As a result, it stated there would be “an estimated increase in consumption of individual submunitions of approximately 30% from 2013 onwards.”[46] In June 2012, the Federal Foreign Office provided the Monitor with a list of criteria used by the Federal Office of Defence Technology and Procurement to determine the number of cluster munitions to be retained for training.[47]