Avoid compulsory military service is a serious failure

The Bundeswehr is said to be “warfare” in four years. The previous and presumably also future Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has issued this motto.

Specifically, this means that in the next four years the Bundeswehr must be reformed and equipped so that it could ward off a possible attack by Russia (or other opponent) to Germany or another NATO member state together with the partners. Usable for the “state and alliance defense”, for short LV/BV, is called in technical jargon.

How helpful is the new coalition agreement for this? Bundeswehr experts are different. The Potsdam military historian Sönke Neitzel ironically said ironically in the “NTV salon” that he had had to be “cared for” when he saw the coalition agreement for the first time. Not because of what is inside. But because of a word that is not in: the conscription.

Instead, the contract vaguely means: “We create a new attractive military service, which is initially based on voluntariness.” They want to orientate themselves “on the Swedish military service model”. A contradiction, because the Swedish model provides the possibility of a forced recording if the number of volunteers is not sufficient. The SPD has thus prevailed, which rejects conscription. The Union, on the other hand, had pleaded for reintroduction.

Pistorius currently operates the introduction of a slimmed -down version of the Swedish model. For 18-year-old men, there should only be the obligation to fill out a sample sheet (it would be voluntary for women). But patterns and military service remain voluntary. This is the first step in Sweden: it is not possible to recruit enough volunteers from the pool.

Historian Neitzel is convinced: “We have to introduce them again.” As in Sweden, a complete vintage does not have to be recruited for this. But this would not be a voluntary basis alone. Similarly, Carlo Masala, Professor of International Politics at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich, who was also a guest in the valley round.

Former Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense, Peter Tauber (CDU), also calls the waiver of the compulsory military service “a serious failure” by the SPD and Union. “If the minister Ernst means the implementation of the Swedish model for Germany, the Bundeswehr must also train 50,000 recruits per year,” said Tauber the star. “I am excited to see how this should succeed with the concept presented so far.”

According to its own calculations, the Bundeswehr would need 460,000 to 480,000 soldiers (including the reservists) to be fully defended. So far, despite all the advertising measures, she has not even managed to significantly increase the number of around 180,000 active soldiers.

Security expert Christian Mölling from the Brussels Thinktank European Policy Center sees the coalition agreement more positively than his colleagues. “My biggest concern was that you commit yourself to something that is then even more a reality than the current wording,” he told that star.

Now a discussion has to be held on how the Bundeswehr can solve its diagnosed “woven gap”, the lack of soldiers, with a military service model, which is both gender and generational. If it is not possible to motivate people to the Bundeswehr, the idea of ​​a new military service would “fly around your ears very quickly”. Therefore, it is good, according to Mölling, that the future government has not yet committed itself.