HOW SERGEANT FIRST CLASS LAGENSTEIN DIED PROTECTING HIS COMRADES

Hauptfeldwebel Tobias Lagenstein was a close protection soldier in the Bundeswehr who was killed by a bomb attack in Afghanistan in 2011. He was the first Bundeswehr military police soldier to be killed on deployment since the force was founded in 1955.

On 28 May 2011, a memorial service was held at Camp Kunduz for Hauptmann Markus Matthes († 25 May 2011), who had also been killed by an IED. At that point Lagenstein was leading the close protection team for the German contingent commander, Major General Markus Kneip. The 31-year-old bodyguard escorted the general to the memorial service and then to an important security conference with the police chief of northern Afghanistan, which took place outside the camp in the provincial capital Taloqan. When the group stepped out of the building after the meeting, an attacker disguised as an Afghan policeman walked toward them and set off a bomb that was meant for the police chief. The attack killed 7 people, among them the Afghan police chief, HptFw Lagenstein and Major Thomas Tholi, Kneip’s adviser. The general himself survived, badly wounded.

According to the Afghan intelligence service, the explosives had been buried in the building beforehand and were then detonated by the attackers. That contradicted the investigation by the military police, who assume it was a suicide attack.

HptFw Lagenstein knew the risks that came with close protection work, for him and for his comrades. He put on his uniform that day anyway, with the aim of protecting not only himself but also the people in his care. He lived up to that responsibility until the very end, and he paid for doing his duty with the highest price there is.In his memory, the Emmich-Cambrai barracks were renamed Hauptfeldwebel-Lagenstein-Kaserne in 2018. They are in Hanover and home to the military police school.

Rest in peace, brother!