{"id":1835705,"date":"2023-02-05T08:35:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T13:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1835705"},"modified":"2023-02-05T08:35:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T13:35:54","slug":"germany-considers-reintroducing-military-conscription","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/germany-considers-reintroducing-military-conscription\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany Considers Reintroducing Military Conscription"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgermany-considers-reintroducing-military-conscription%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1835705&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Fast a year later, a familiar conversation has started in Germany.\u00a0<a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/war-in-ukraine\/t-60931789\">Russia began its war against Ukraine<\/a>Question: Should mandatory military service be reintroduced. Some countries, for example\u00a0Latvia, have recently reintroduced it, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius fueled the debate when he said earlier this week: &#8220;It was a mistake to suspend compulsory military service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>German Basic Law Article 12a states: &#8220;Men can be obliged to serve in the armed forces, in the Federal Border Guard or in a civil defense unit from the age of 18.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The obligation to serve in the military of the nation was imposed on German citizens between the ages 18 and 27 until 2011. <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/bundeswehr\/t-17430904\">Bundeswehr<\/a>You can either perform an alternative service, or you can do it for a short time in civilian areas like emergency management or medical treatment.<\/p>\n<p>General conscription was abolished in 2011, with the aim of professionalizing the troops and reducing the size the Bundeswehr. Today, the German army is made up of long-term contract troops and career soldiers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"placeholder-image master_landscape big\"><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"64542970\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/64542970_${formatId}.jpg\" alt=\"Boris Pistorius riding a tank\" src   style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"img-caption\">Boris Pistorius (l), Defense Minister, has declared that it was wrong to suspend mandatory military services<small class=\"copyright\">Image: Kay Nietfeld\/dpa\/picture alliance<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Patrick\u00a0Sensburg, a lawmaker with the center-right <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/cdu\/t-17351950\">Christian Democratic Union (CDU).<\/a>He still believes that the abolition or compulsory military service was a miscalculation. On March 24, 2011, he was also the only member from his party who voted against the suspension.<\/p>\n<p>Twelve years later, this is not the view of the reserve colonel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not good enough if we can only defend one or two states with a Bundeswehr that is too small and too poorly equipped,&#8221; Sensburg suggests. &#8220;Of course, conscription costs money, national defense costs money. That&#8217;s a decision we have to make politically: Do we want to be able to defend our country at all?&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>From conscription to an army made up of volunteers<\/h2>\n<p>The Bundeswehr has been reduced from 317,000 to just over 183,000 soldiers in the last 20 years. Sensburg feels that this, along with the roughly 100,000 reservists are not sufficient to meet an emergency. Voluntary military service isn&#8217;t attractive enough to significantly increase the number of Bundeswehr soldiers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"vjs-wrapper embed big\">\n<h2 aria-label=\"Embedded video \u2014 Soldiers as Disaster Relief Volunteers\" class=\"headline\">Soldiers serve as disaster relief volunteers<\/h2><source src=\"https:\/\/hlsvod.dw.com\/i\/dwtv_video\/flv\/gt\/gt20130522_soldaten_,sd_sor,sd_avc,.mp4.csmil\/master.m3u8\" type=\"application\/x-mpegURL\" \/><source src=\"https:\/\/tvdownloaddw-a.akamaihd.net\/dwtv_video\/flv\/gt\/gt20130522_soldaten_sd_avc.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\" \/><p class=\"vjs-no-js\">JavaScript is required in order to view the video. Upgrade to a web browser. <a href=\"https:\/\/videojs.com\/html5-video-support\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Support HTML5 video<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;We don\u2019t only need the super-specialists. <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/ksk-german-army-elite-force-has-a-history-of-links-to-the-far-right\/a-56964218\">KSK\u00a0special forces<\/a>Sensburg, who heads the association for reservists, said that &#8220;we also need a certain amount of soldiers to be in able to provide National Defense.&#8221; &#8220;Germany needs a strong military that is well-trained but also has many reservists from all walks of life. But we can only ensure that if we have compulsory military service.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>No quick fix<\/h2>\n<p>Interview with the <em>S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/em> national newspaper, the German defense minister admitted\u00a0compulsory military service would not help Germany at all in the next two or three years. But Pistorius, who himself served in the army as a conscript in the 1980s,\u00a0believes there must be an open discussion again about the benefits of\u00a0mandatory military service.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a DW inquiry, a spokeswoman from the German Defense Ministry stated:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Currently the Defense Ministry has no plans to reintroduce conscription. The Bundeswehr is a very different force today from what it was ten years ago or even further back. We have different tasks that require well-trained and specialized personnel. We have different structures and a different operational reality. And\u00a0we have opened our armed forces to women for the past 20 years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"placeholder-image master_landscape big\"><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"64597554\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/64597554_${formatId}.jpg\" alt=\"Male and female Bundeswehr recruits in blue uniform\" src \/><figcaption class=\"img-caption\">Since 2001, women have served in the Bundeswehr as soldiers.<small class=\"copyright\">Image: Uwe anspach\/dpa\/picture alliance<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>She adds: &#8220;The former format of compulsory military service would be impossible to implement in the current structures and would be an additional burden. Recruitment, training, and accommodation of conscripts alone would result in a considerable need for investment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to the Federal Ministry of Defense in principle, &#8220;In the event of tension or defense, up to 60,000 reservists could be drafted. Thus, the Bundeswehr is able to fulfill its tasks in national and alliance defense together with the armed forces of our NATO partners.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span data-slot-id=\"Article_InContent-1\" class=\"rich-text-ad\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What is a mere &#8216;theoretical conversation?<\/h2>\n<p>For defense commissioner Eva H\u00f6gl, the debate about compulsory military service is, therefore, a &#8220;theoretical debate,&#8221; and Finance Minister Christian Lindner \u2014 who heads the neoliberal <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/fdp-free-democratic-party-free-democrats\/t-17365530\">FDP: Free of Charge<\/a>, the smallest party in the three-way coalition government \u2014 has brushed it aside as a &#8220;discussion about ghosts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This debate about compulsory military service comes up every now and then, but it doesn&#8217;t have much to do with current reality,&#8221; says lawmaker Wolfgang Hellmich. Just like Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, he is\u00a0with the center-left <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/social-democrat-party-spd\/t-17437818\">Social Democrats (SPD).<\/a>. &#8220;It would mean billions would have to be invested in the introduction or re-establishment of structures that are all gone,&#8221; Hellmich tells DW.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hellmich is a member the German Bundestag&#8217;s defence committee. He believes that the suspension of conscription, like Sensburg and Pistorius was a huge mistake.<\/p>\n<p>But twelve years later, critics say there is no good reason to reintroduce it: There are\u00a0no district offices for medical screening, no military equipment to train conscripts, and no instructors to do so. For the 700,000 young women and men who reach 18 each year, there is no plan on how to introduce military service. To restart the conscription process, it would require double-digit billions of dollars in contributions.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"placeholder-image free_image big\"><img data-format=\"FREE_IMAGE\" data-id=\"4898710\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/4898710_${formatId}.jpg\" alt=\"A young man helping frail elderly man get dressed\" src \/><figcaption class=\"img-caption\">In Germany, young men who did not want to serve in the military could choose to work in healthcare instead.<small class=\"copyright\">Image: picture alliance\/dpa<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>It is important to make voluntary service more appealing<\/h2>\n<p>Hellmich believes that Germany should instead waste time on the reintroduction compulsory military service. It should concentrate on recruiting experts with a broad range of knowledge. &#8220;We don&#8217;t have a problem in recruiting officers and officer candidates, we have a problem filling jobs in the technical services. So everywhere where it&#8217;s about logistical supply for the troops and data engineering and cyber security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Bundeswehr has a huge diversity problem in 2023. Only one eighth of soldiers are female. Hellmich is part of <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato\/t-19016346\">NATO<\/a>&#8216;s Parliamentary Assembly, and during a recent visit to Norway he visited a special forces company that was made up entirely of women \u2014 which would currently be impossible in Germany, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to look more intensively at the issue of personnel recruitment,&#8221; The defense politician is done.&#8221;We need to think about how to get more people to serve in the Bundeswehr. We have to make voluntary service more attractive in order to reach people who will then stay in the Bundeswehr. But compulsory military service wouldn&#8217;t help one bit at this point in time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was originally written by German.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>While you are here, DW editors bring you the latest news from Germany&#8217;s politics and society every Tuesday. For the Berlin Briefing, sign up here.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fast a year later, a familiar conversation has started in Germany.\u00a0Russia began its war against UkraineQuestion: Should mandatory military service be reintroduced. Some countries, for example\u00a0Latvia, have recently reintroduced it, and German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius fueled the debate when he said earlier this week: &#8220;It was a mistake to suspend compulsory military service.&#8221; German &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1899511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[17659,5020,3946,4505,17660],"class_list":["post-1835705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-conscription","tag-considers","tag-germany","tag-military","tag-reintroducing"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1835705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1835705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1899511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1835705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1835705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1835705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}