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.

  • avater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    52·
    10 months ago

    you know that those people will not get send to the frontlines outside of germany, right? If drafted, conscripts only would be deployed on national territory and only if germany would be under attack.

      • avater@lemmy.worldEnglish
        53·
        10 months ago

        you get basic training for a lot of people in case germany gets attacked and also a lot of them get a deeper insight into the Bundeswehr in that way, maybe find it attractive and decide to stay and become regular soldiers.

        You also earn quiet good money for easy work, only the first months in basic training are mentally and physically challenging, the rest is pretty chilled.

        I did this in 2007, enjoyed the physical challenge and my job after basic training and extended my time in the Bundeswehr to bridge the gap to University, because they only started in winter there and I would have been without a job for 7 months. So I stayed longer, earned good money, exercised a lot and went pretty wealthy into university. We also did finish all Halo campaigns on legendary…

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
          43·
          10 months ago

          you get basic training for a lot of people in case germany gets attacked and also a lot of them get a deeper insight into the Bundeswehr in that way, maybe find it attractive and decide to stay and become regular soldiers.

          Why is this a good thing?

          • avater@lemmy.worldEnglish
            33·
            10 months ago

            because germany gets basic training to a lot of people that could be helpful if the worst case happens and germany gets attacked on their national territory and also they maybe get people attracted to be a regular soldier, ramping those numbers up, by providing them a deeper insight.

            I just wrote this in the comment above, are you deliberately being so slow on the uptake or just trolling?

            • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
              32·
              10 months ago

              are you deliberately being so slow on the uptake?

              No. I refuse to accept anything as absolute truth. Sorry if that makes your position difficult to argue, but every aspect requires a legitimate explanation for me to accept it. Who’s likely to invade Germany?

              • avater@lemmy.worldEnglish
                23·
                10 months ago

                No. I refuse to accept anything as absolute truth. Sorry if that makes your position difficult to argue, but every aspect requires a legitimate explanation for me to accept it.

                fair enough. I just explained the benefits and that it was not as bad as it sounds back in my days. I’m not saying that I personally think we need this again or that it is a particular great idea.

                Who’s likely to invade Germany?

                right now? My bet would be on the fucking russians, even if they would have to fight a few other countries and NATO before but at this point something stupid like this wouldn’t even surprise me.

                Also keep in mind that drafted people could also used to help and support in catastrophic events like flooding.

          • boomzilla@programming.devEnglish
            11·
            10 months ago

            Seen a documentation about poland recently. A new development there is that the state is conducting military training for every citizen interested. They showed a young women, a hairdresser in her dayjob, taking part in shooting practice. The acceptance of the program within the society was generally good. I would also take part if we had those here, considering what happened in Ukraine, although I’m a pacifist.

            https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/poland-announces-new-military-training-programme-for-civilians-37820