The Abandonment of Moral Values in a Military Context: Moral Injury as a Distinctive Focus of Ethical Reflection in the German Armed Forces

The recent discussion about moral injury – actually a long-standing phenomenon − has once again brought the importance of ethics as a key military competence to the fore. This is particularly evident in light of current challenges to the norms of international humanitarian law. Moral injury refers to a profound moral shock in the context of psychologically traumatic events, in which one's own or another's actions or inactions clash with moral convictions. The phenomenon lies at the intersection of psychiatry and ethics: Moral injury has clinical relevance and requires ethical competence on the part of both those affected and therapeutic staff in order to recognize, identify, and deal with moral conflicts.  

This brings ethical education in the German armed forces into focus. It must overcome speechlessness when dealing with values, principles, and norms and enable soldiers to reflect on the moral challenges of everyday military life. The Moral-Fitness-Model on Coping with Moral Harm presented in this article illustrates the connections between ethical training, moral resilience, and possible outcomes after moral harm − from moral growth to moral injury requiring treatment. 

The prevention of moral injury thus becomes part of military professionalism: it focuses on strengthening moral fitness and serves to ensure a minimum level of humanity even under conditions of armed conflict.