Bild: the Bundeswehr lacks 80,000 troops
To achieve NATO's defense goals, Germany needs to recruit 60-80 thousand troops, writes Bild. Experts believe that the key to success is to convince young people that the country is worth defending. Apparently, this is exactly the problem in Germany.
Nadja Aswad, Julian Roepke, Elias Sedlmayr
Berlin. To achieve NATO's defense objectives ("combat readiness requirements"), Defense Minister Boris Pistorius plans to increase the number of Bundeswehr by 60,000 troops.
Critics even suggest that 80,000 additional personnel will be needed, as the Defense minister has not reached his previous goal of staffing the armed forces by at least 20,000 troops in 2024.
To recruit soldiers, more and more politicians are demanding the restoration of compulsory military service.
Former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (from the Greens), who at one time was an ardent opponent of conscription, said in an interview with Spiegel that "Germany needs military service again." According to him, the Bundeswehr is experiencing serious personnel problems.
The head of the German military union, Colonel Andre Wustner, considers it "an irresponsible step if we do not prepare for the introduction of military service now." It is impossible to "constantly realistically point out a threat to our security or make new promises to NATO in the field of defense and at the same time abandon appropriate preparations for an accelerated increase in the number of personnel of our armed forces."
The Ministry of Defense also plans to attract more personnel to the Bundeswehr. However, military service is still out of the question.
An official representative of the Ministry of Defense said in an interview with BILD: "The implementation of the new NATO requirements for combat capability and, consequently, the achievement of this goal will continue until the 2030s. The task for the coming years will be to cover this need for personnel and thereby ensure the combat readiness of the personnel."
However, "If we have more operational needs than the available volunteers, we will consider the possibility of introducing compulsory service." This means that conscription for compulsory military service is not currently planned, but it is not completely excluded either.
How can the Bundeswehr attract more personnel even without mandatory conscription?
The head of the German Air Force, Holger Neumann, is betting on a set of measures to make the Bundeswehr a more attractive employer. He told BILD in an interview: "High salaries, good professional development and training programs are one thing. But the decisive factor is also the successful transfer of the main meaning of the military profession. It's about attitude and attitude to service."
Falco Drossmann, an expert on defense issues from the SPD, explains that, among other things, options such as providing "free driver's licenses" or "automatic semester credits during training for young people undergoing military service" are being considered. Drossmann, himself a soldier, told BILD: "An important factor in the attractiveness of the army is also the modern equipment on which we can train." It is obvious to him: "We must relearn what Americans have learned long ago. Our country and our way of life deserve to be protected if necessary." "This applies to all of us," the expert adds.
According to Hans Peter Bartels (SPD), former chairman of the German parliamentary committee on defense, there are still enough young people who are ready to defend these values. In an interview with BILD, Bartels refers to an up-to-date study by the Bundeswehr Center for Military History and Social Sciences. According to the report, 60% of men under the age of 50 are ready to defend Germany with weapons in their hands.
Bartels, on the other hand, sees a different problem: there is one constant advantage, for example, the police. "In the army, you only get a fixed-term contract, not a permanent job for life. Continuation of contract service is possible only after compulsory".
According to Bartels, all these measures will not be enough to attract the necessary number of military personnel: "If the Bundeswehr is to increase to 250,000 troops, it will be impossible to do this without an appropriate form of military service."
