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Posted on 08/27/2025 9:31:40 AM PDT by ransomnote
BERLIN, August 27. /TASS/. The German government has endorsed Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s bill on a new model of military service, the DPA news agency reported.
The bill introduces a voluntary military service similar to Sweden, where all school leavers are subject to military examination but only some eventually enter active service. The document also contains certain "mandatory elements," which in particular reinstate the examination of conscripts and oblige all men between 18 and 25 years old to fill out a form with a paragraph on their readiness to perform military service. Women may do so voluntarily.
The authorities aim to make military service more appealing. To this end, they plan to increase military salaries, cover some costs for new recruits, including driving licenses, expand career and training opportunities, and improve access to language courses and sports facilities. Those who decide to remain in the army will receive additional payments.
The bill also specifies the conditions under which compulsory military service may be reintroduced. This may occur if the security situation deteriorates and the country faces a shortage of volunteers to ensure national security and carry out NATO missions.
The bill provoked fierce debates in the German government. Members of the conservative bloc of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CDU/CSU) demanded clarification on how many recruits are expected each year and under what conditions a return to mandatory service would take place. The bill will now be submitted to the Bundestag (parliament) for discussion.
Germany abolished mandatory military service in July 2011, switching to a professional army. The German Armed Forces (the Bundeswehr) currently number about 183,000. The German authorities believe that to fully safeguard the country’s security and perform NATO missions, the army needs at least 80,000 more professional soldiers and contract servicemen, as well as about 140,000 reservists.
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I think everyone knows TASS is Russia's state news media. I don't like it when other biased state news agencies hide behind fake journalistic sounding names so I want to be sure people are aware the source is the government.
The stupid krauts will never have a military that is anything but a hollow force and a joke. The whole country is entering a death spiral.
The blockheads badly want to impose their final solution on the eastern front…… Again.
"It currently has 180,000 soldiers, which it wants to increase to 203,000 by 2031, as well as 60,000 reservists.From the perspective of "Innenpolitik," this is in part politics for the populace, as Germany's current government is seeking to support the billions more they are promising to Ukraine. With the slow but continual advance of the AfD in the polls, and with the ongoing recession and rising energy costs, the government is keeping a close eye on its potential voters. Will they support Pistorius' SPD? Merz' CDU? Or those "populist" which now seem to number about 25 percent of potential voters."The aim is to eventually reach 200,000 more reservists, which would enable Germany to swiftly expand its troops to around 460,000 in the event of war."
German cabinet passes bill for voluntary military service Reuters, 27 August 2025
"Defense Minister Boris Pistorius of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) called the law 'a giant step forward.' Chancellor Friedrich Merz of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) expressed confidence in the draft, sure that the targeted personnel numbers were within reach.
"Under the new law, which still must be approved by parliament, military service itself remains voluntary. Nevertheless, the new law includes an obligation for all men to fill out a questionnaire when they turn 18."
Germany to boost military with new voluntary service bill Deutsche Welle, 27 August 2025
Above is highlighted "by 2031," which mirrors the EU's "proposal" to end imports of Russian energy and other products by the end of 2027. The whole is a messy geopolitical game, and now internal German politics is trying to stem the "populists" with war drums -- and that small detail of "by 2031." This is not a "clear and present danger" when one can set goals that far out into the future.
Fair assessment by Tass. You can get probably a better explanation from 3 or 4 German outlets.
Key factor....they wrote up a huge increase in reserves, and their recruitment so far (past dozen years)...has marginally worked. Added to this....there is a 30-percent failure rate for boot-camp and initial training.
For the reserves...they are allowing waivers on age, and I’ve seen commentary of 40-to-50 year old guys signing up. Their angle is reserve retirement at age 67...bumping up their current pension plan.
They’ll have to order a lot more high heels and build mosques for mandatory prayers.
We read the German news, as well, for having been legal residents there for decades before my bride retired. The German-language press reflects much of the same.
But for English-speakers, here's a wee look-back:
"A proposal to allow foreign citizens to serve in the German army, known as the Bundeswehr, could be extended to Europeans in countries outside of the EU.For what it's worth as anecdote, quite a number of our old neighbors and friends are not keen on the notion of conscription."German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had initially put forward the idea of welcoming non-Germans to enlist in order to combat a drastic shortage of personnel."
Germany weighs allowing foreign citizens into the army Deutsche Welle, 22 January 2024
Excerpt:
"The Bundestag's special commissioner for the armed forces, Eva Högl, has said that reinstating some form of conscription is one way to turn things around, but targeting women is a more obvious move to arrest the decline since potential there is 'far from exhausted,' the lawmaker wrote.Europe's soldiers keep quitting, just when NATO needs them Politico, 18 March 2024.
What is amusing about the above columns is that nation A wants to lure nation B's young to enlist in nation A's military, while nation B wants to lure nation A's to enlist in nation B's military. France, to Germany, to Poland, to Belgium and so on.
There is a "tower of Babel" tinge to this when Pistorius thinks a Croat speaking no German can serve in the Bundeswehr, and the Forces armées françaises thinks a German speaking no French would "serve" well.
“”””To this end, they plan to increase military salaries, cover some costs for new recruits, including driving licenses, expand career and training opportunities, and improve access to language courses and sports facilities. Those who decide to remain in the army will receive additional payments.””””
A potential pitfall of making military service similar to civilian jobs with pay and work conditions and a lifestyle that even females enjoy and want to do for their entire career, is that you get people that aren’t willing (or who can’t do it for long) to sacrifice like the hard stoic men who have always filled militaries, whether soldiers or sailors.
When men sought out the services although the pay sucked, the living conditions sucked, the life sucked, it was because they found elements in that austere manly living that appealed to the warrior type, elements that are all still there during nasty wars, they weren’t being torn from their comfy, injury free, co-ed life of being military only 8 hours a day, and barely that.
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