This is probably one of the most high profile cases showing that gender quotas are not a magic bullet.
Ihe US equivalent of this role is currently held by a retired general.
Note that in the US, this is recognized as a particular danger undermining the principle of civilian control, which is why a SoD from the military must be retired 7 years (formerly 10, this has been weakened) or have, in addition to Senate confirmation, a Congressional waiver.
Forget about "Credentials", "experience", "qualified", etc. A 90th-percentile high school kid could do better than she did.
Poor addresses happen all the time, and is more likely to be because of the PR/marketing/production team rather than her (lack of) military/army experience.
How many of them are the head of the military and have a giant amount of staff available to help them in that role?
(Italics added.)
I assumed that the HS kid knew how to read, was willing to learn basic facts, could judge whether a video was too low-quality to post on Instagram, etc.
I would wager against that. I am pretty sure almost all of the army ranks can be found fairly easy online, and the information that is classified is something a minister of defense has access to read up on.
As with almost everything else this is about priority. How much votes/internal party power will they get by spending time on etikett vs doing other aspects of the job. Politicians rarely get rewarded simply for doing a good job where their department are effective in budget spending and produce long term results in 10-20 years.
Sure, but how many civilians actually have enough interest (in Germany no less, not the US) to look that up and memorize it? How many of those that do have enough interest to look it up and memorize it, are high school kids?
I agree that it is stupid she didn't know it, as soon as she got the position, she should have looked it up if she didn't already know it. Obviously, in order to even be considered to the position in the first place, she should have known it.
Maybe there is some deep mystery in Germany, but I was generally familiar with the rank systems in the US for all the uniformed services under DoD before having direct experience with them. Seems pretty common, IME.
In any case, while I don't think its a minimum qual to be appointed to such a position, you’d think its something you’d pick up quickly preparing for it.