German army recruits were told to imagine that they were firing machineguns at hostile black people in the Bronx during a training exercise.

A video of an army instructor ordering a soldier to shoot and yell obscenities has caused outrage in Germany after it was leaked on the internet and shown on national television at the weekend.

Yesterday the German Army said that it had begun an inquiry into the incident, which involved two instructors. In New York, Adolfo Carrion Jr, the Bronx borough president, said: “It really saddens me. The German Government obviously has work to do to correct something that is insidious.”

The 90-second video clip featured one instructor with a platoon of young soldiers. “Every time before you pull the trigger I want to hear you shout ‘motherf*****’ very loudly,” the instructor shouts. A young soldier is seen doing just that. An earlier sequence shows soldiers rehearsing a hostage-taking. “That’s good,” the trainer says, “the terrorists are dead.”

The training video was shot in July 2006 in a north German barracks but has only just come to light after being posted on a website used by soldiers to exchange tips about living conditions.

Throughout the German Army, which was once considered the softest within Nato, trainers have been toughening up their exercises to prepare soldiers for missions in Afghani-stan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Balkans.

There is no real regimental tradition in Germany, and there are certainly no war heroes. As a result the modern Army is having to improvise and break free from its mild-mannered postwar philosophy.

In Mönster, 18 military trainers are facing possible jail sentences after recruits were blindfolded, tied up, subjected to electrical charges from a field telephone cable and had water pumped through their noses and into their trousers. Two sergeants, both with overseas experience, persuaded their superior officer that the recruits had to be given a “reality check” to gear them up for future crises.

The current video is likely to be explained away in similar terms — though its use of racial stereotyping has already alarmed politicians. Incidents of neo-Nazi ranting in the barrack room are already said to be on the increase.

Times Recommends

• 'Great Schlep' may seal deal for Obama
• Hindu 'storm troopers' flex their muscles
• Ahtisaari: deserved reward for (failed) plan