Army Trainer Dismissed

A Defense Ministry spokesman said the lance-corporal, whose name is being withheld, had been stripped of his rank and pay.

The ministry also said it was still investigating a second solider who filmed the training scenes with his camera-phone.

The army instructor was filmed last year as he told a recruit to imagine he was in the Bronx borough New York City.

"You're in the Bronx, a black van pulls up in front of you and three African-Americans get out and start really insulting your mother," the video shows the instructor telling a recruit. "Every time you pull the trigger I want to hear you shout 'mother....' very loudly."

As the recruit fires his weapon, he repeats the obscenity each time, as the trainer tells him to yell louder.

German television broadcasters aired the 90-second video clip over the weekend, weeks after it had already been posted on the Internet.

"Contradicts ethics"

On Monday, Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe said the video was "absolutely unacceptable" and that it contradicted the armed forces' educational standards and ethics.

Raabe said military authorities had known about the video since January and were treating the situation as an "individual case" that was not indicative of further racism in the Bundeswehr.

In New York, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also condemned the video on Monday.

Under German military law, an enlisted man can be immediately dismissed during his first four years in service if he breaches military discipline and his continued service would undermine the good standing of the armed forces.

The German army has been faced with numerous, embarrassing scandals in recent years that have damaged its image.

One includes the publication of pictures German soldiers in Afghanistan took of each other while holding skulls they had found. Another incident involves allegations that torture has been used during army training exercises.