There it is again, the debate about renewed conscription. There is great concern that Germany could be drawn into a war. The combat readiness of the civilian population is not.
According to a survey, in the event of a military attack on Germany, a good one in ten Germans would be prepared to defend their country with weapons in their hands. In such a case, however, only five percent of Germans would volunteer for military service, as the results of a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the German Press Agency show. Another six percent of adults expect to be called up in the event of war and, if necessary, trained for national defense.
A quarter of all Germans would leave the country in the event of war
According to the survey, one in three (33 percent) would try to continue their usual life as far as possible. Almost every fourth German (24 percent) would leave the country as quickly as possible in the event of war.
The question, put to 2,000 adult voters by the pollsters, was: “Suppose there were signs of a military attack on Germany comparable to the Russian attack on Ukraine that began in February 2022. What do you think you would personally think of in most likely to do in such a situation?”
A good one in ten (11 percent) stated that they would volunteer to help or support other than military service. Four percent of the participants suggested other courses of action. 18 percent of citizens either had no opinion on the question or did not provide any information for other reasons.
Slightly more young people than older people opted for the option of leaving their own country in the event of war. According to the survey, the willingness to help, even if not with a weapon in hand, is more pronounced among the over 60-year-olds, for whom combat deployment is not an option anyway, partly for health reasons, than among the younger ones.
The pollsters did not find any significant differences between Germans in East and West. Men and people who said they voted for the Greens in the 2021 general election were slightly more likely than women and supporters of other parties to volunteer for armed service in the above attack scenario.
Every fifth German states that they can handle a firearm
According to the survey, people who know how to use a firearm are slightly less likely than average to leave Germany in the event of a war of aggression. The willingness to volunteer for military service is also low among them, but still more than twice as high as among those who cannot shoot.
According to the survey, a little more than one in five German citizens knows how to use a firearm: When asked whether they had learned how to use a gun, for example in a professional context, for hunting, as a marksman or during military service, 23 percent of the participants answered with “Yes” and 74 percent with “No”. Three percent of those surveyed gave no information.
Germans are divided on whether conscription, which has been suspended since 2011, will be reactivated in one form or another in the next ten years. After all, more people are convinced that this will happen than of the opposite. 42 percent of those surveyed assume that military service will become compulsory again. 37 percent of Germans don’t believe that. 21 percent of those surveyed did not dare to judge or did not want to say anything about it.
Boris Pistorius called the end of conscription a mistake
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) recently described the suspension of conscription by the black and yellow federal government in 2011 as a mistake – but at the same time emphasized that this could not be brought back “just like that in the twinkling of an eye”.
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Leopard 2, Challenger, Abrams and Co.: data, facts and functions of various weapon systems
The “Security Report 2023” published on Tuesday by the Allensbach opinion research institute together with the Center for Strategy and Higher Leadership shows that the German population’s fear of a military confrontation has increased significantly since February 2022. According to this, the war in Ukraine is a major concern for 85 percent of the people in this country. 63 percent of the population now fear that Germany could be drawn into military conflicts. In the survey a year earlier, significantly fewer people – 37 percent – had expressed this concern.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
