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.
“”””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.