The Bundeswehr has launched its first official online shop, and the first fan item has already sold out: a ten-centimetre rubber duck priced at €9.99 was gone within 24 hours. The shop went live on 12 November, the Bundeswehr's birthday, and the operator now plans to order fresh stock as a matter of urgency.

The rush on the duck is being read, with humour, as a nod to the armed forces' long-known procurement problems. When it comes to rubber ducks, too, the Bundeswehr is only partly ready for action, the piece says. It also recalls earlier, far more militarily sceptical times and asks whether the unexpected enthusiasm points to a shift in how society sees the forces.

Sören Pellmann responded with irony, according to Spiegel: when his side demanded that the Bundeswehr get out of schools, it certainly did not mean that it should take its advertising into toddlers' bathtubs.

Key points:

• The rubber duck at €9.99, ten centimetres long and weighing 20 grams, which has been on sale since yesterday as a fan item in the first official Bundeswehr online shop, has unfortunately sold out.
• The merchandise shop went live on 12 November, the Bundeswehr's birthday.
• The team is working flat out to order fresh stock.

Source: Süddeutsche Zeitung — Topthemen (German)