Unpopular Friedrich Merz’s incoming coalition government is looking for ways to strengthen military service, likely while keeping previous Social Democrat (SPD) defence minister Boris Pistorius in post.
A new voluntary military service model, aimed at revitalising recruitment into the Bundeswehr, is expected to bring in around 5,000 new service volunteers in its first year, indicating a further loosening of post-war German taboos on military activity.
Political preparation for the scheme took place under the previous government, and has now been rolled forward to the new coalition agreement between the SPD and the conservative Christian Democrats (VDU) under Merz and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU).
Pistorius asserted
We assume that an attractive service model will bring in enough volunteers …. If that is not the case at some point, a decision will have to be made on whether to mandate conscription for young men.
After 55 years, compulsory military and civilian service in Germany ended in 2011. Legally, it remains possible to conscript men into the Bundeswehr—now a standing army of around 180,000 soldiers, backed by the reserves—in an emergency, but the new government is proposing to strengthen the legal and logistical basis for further recruitment.
