Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service – DW – 12/29/2023
www.dw.com
The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription.

At the end of October, the Bundeswehr said it counted 181,383 soldiers in its ranks — that’s still some distance from the target of 203,000 that the German military hopes to reach by 2025. This has given rise to concern in times of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has once again reminded Germans how quickly conflicts can erupt in Europe.

Since taking office at the beginning of 2023, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been thinking about ways to make the Bundeswehr more attractive as a career. He said he has received 65 concrete proposals from his ministry on recruitment and reforming training methods.

  • Glotzeulor@feddit.deEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    That is not how it was. You could refuse military Service due to “Glaubens- und Gewissensgründe”. The first being religious reasons, the latter being reasons of your own conscience. If you were physically able to fulfill your duty, but refused to do so, you had to do “Zivildienst” instead, which was a civilian service like caring for the elderly.