Increasing military personnel through military service and reserves. In 2011, a time when allocating massive resources to defence no longer seemed a plausible option, Germany suspended compulsory military service. The backdrop has changed, however, and the return of conscription is on the horizon. The army currently has 185,000 soldiers (80,000 civilians) but, according to defence minister Boris Pistorius, the country’s rearmament and Germany’s commitments to NATO mean that the number of troops needs to be increased to 260,000. Despite a sharp rise in applications to the army since 2023 (+41%), this target will be difficult to achieve. The return of military service and the expansion of the reserve forces should help.
For the former, Pistorius is counting on a voluntary scheme that could select between 5,000 and 10,000 candidates per year, compared to approximately 35,000 conscripts per year before 2011.
As a Berlin correspondent for the French and Swiss press since the late 1990s, I cover a wide range of economic, political and social issues, with a particular focus on the German business and labour market. My areas of interest include co-determination, digitalisation, demographics and ESG/DEI policies.