Why is Germany trying to build ‘Europe’s strongest conventional army’?

At the opening of the year, German men aged 18 began to person a compulsory questionnaire registering their fittingness for service work nether a instrumentality passed past month.

Joining the service is voluntary for now, but the instrumentality allows the authorities to present mandatory work to conscionable its extremity of gathering what it says volition beryllium the strongest service successful Europe for the archetypal clip since World War II.

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Last November, progressive work unit stood astatine 184,000 troops, a leap of 2,500 since May, erstwhile Chancellor Friedrich Merz archetypal told the parliament that the army, oregon Bundeswehr, “needs to go Europe’s strongest accepted army”.

“It’s the biggest they’ve had for a precise agelong time, and it’s already the strongest unit we’ve had since 2021,” Timo Graf, a elder researcher astatine the Bundeswehr Centre of Military History and Social Sciences successful Potsdam, told Al Jazeera.

The authorities is tempting voluntary work members connected 23-month contracts, with generous salaries and perks. Those contracts tin past beryllium extended to indefinite nonrecreational service.

“The wage is 2,600 euros ($3,000), and due to the fact that lodging is free, aesculapian security is free, they volition extremity up having thing similar 2,300 euros ($2,700) aft taxes and deductions. It’s a batch of wealth for young people,” said Graf.

Germany has made a NATO committedness to scope 260,000 progressive work unit by 2035, and to treble its reservists to 200,000. This would bring it adjacent to the half-million-strong service it had astatine the extremity of the Cold War.

The quality has discomfited Moscow.

“Germany’s caller authorities is speeding up preparations for a full-scale subject confrontation with Russia,” Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, told the German quality portal Apolut successful an interrogation past month.

From the German constituent of view, however, it is Russia’s refusal to retreat from Ukraine that has fuelled the governmental volition to walk 108 cardinal euros ($125bn) to rebuild the equipped forces this year, equivalent to 2.5 percent of gross home merchandise (GDP), and much than doubly the 2021 fund of 48 cardinal euros ($56bn).

“Just successful 1 year, we person gone from 58 percent to 65 percent enactment of an summation successful much defence spending,” said Graf.

By 2030, Germany is to walk 3.5 percent of its GDP connected defence.

According to a December survey by Politbarometer, a German predetermination canvass and tv programme, 8 retired of 10 Germans are present convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin is not superior astir pursuing a bid statement successful the warfare successful Ukraine, and galore person begun to judge quality officials’ warnings that Russia plans to yet grow its warfare to NATO countries.

The twelvemonth “2029 has been presented arsenic a imaginable day for Russia to onslaught NATO, and that has go the notation day for people”, Graf said. “We tin spot implicit the past 4 years of this warfare that we’ve been sleepwalking, not knowing the gravity of the situation. Europe’s aboriginal is astatine involvement here.”

Germans suffer religion successful Trump’s US

The menace cognition from Russia is lone 1 broadside of the equation. German nine has recovered its nonaccomplishment of religion successful the United States implicit the past twelvemonth arsenic transformative.

A canvass conducted by the authorities transmission ZDF successful June 2025 asked Germans, “Will the USA proceed to warrant Europe’s information arsenic portion of NATO?” Seventy-three percent said no. By December, this bulk had risen to 84 percent.

Nine retired of 10 Germans present spot US governmental power successful Europe arsenic pernicious, evidently fearing the unfastened encouragement of far-right, Russia-friendly parties, arsenic happened successful Germany’s national election successful February past year.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz astatine the little location of parliament, the Bundestag, pursuing a December 15 gathering betwixt Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European leaders, and EU, NATO and US representatives, successful Berlin, Germany, December 17, 2025 [Liesa Johannssen/Reuters]

US President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy, published past November, lectured Europe that it faced “civilisational erasure”, due to the fact that of over-regulation from Brussels and “migration policies that are transforming the continent and creating strife, censorship of escaped code and suppression of governmental opposition, cratering birthrates, and nonaccomplishment of nationalist identities and self-confidence” – nativist positions held by Europe’s far-right.

“They’ve realised… Trump has nary involvement successful helping Germany astatine all,” said General Ben Hodges, who utilized to bid US forces successful Europe. “The National Security Strategy was awful… it was a elephantine mediate digit from Trump to Europe,” helium told Al Jazeera.

Germans person specified small religion successful Washington, that six retired of 10 nary longer adjacent spot the US atomic deterrent, and three-quarters would similar to spot it replaced with an Anglo-French deterrent.

“People who worth NATO and those who are pro-EU converge successful the thought of a European NATO,” said Graf. “Germans inactive worth NATO arsenic a defence organisation, it’s conscionable that they bash not spot the Americans to play their portion successful NATO, and they bash enactment the thought of a European NATO.”

Graf said Bundeswehr polling showed that enactment for a European army, ever sketchy successful Germany, for whose information NATO was expressly built successful 1949, jumped successful the past twelvemonth by 10 points to 57 percent.

Will Germany get the occupation done?

Merz’s pledge is not new.

His predecessor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, had besides promised to physique Europe’s strongest service successful 2022, the twelvemonth Russia launched its full-scale penetration of Ukraine.

But though Scholz got parliament to o.k. a one-off, $120bn boost successful defence spending, the other wealth lone started trickling down later, successful 2024.

Scholz’s authorities astatine the clip blamed bureaucratic procedures, but immoderate judge determination were taste obstacles arsenic well.

“The Bundeswehr was not perceived positively and, therefore, cipher successful their close caput would take that arsenic a career. So past it would beryllium a much niche happening to do, possibly much for radical connected the close broadside of the governmental spectrum,” Minna Alander, a chap astatine the Center for European Policy Analysis specialising successful information and defence, told Al Jazeera.

“Well-educated Germans, older Germans, grew up proceeding astir however unspeakable Nazi Germany was,” said General Hodges, who present lives successful Germany. “And for older Germans who were children during the war, the implicit worst nightmare for them would beryllium a warfare with Russia, oregon without the United States.”

But perceptions person changed rapidly since 2022.

Merz came to power condemning some Moscow and Washington, demanding “independence” from the US.

By the clip helium assumed office, parliament had already approved a suspension of law deficit limits to springiness him an enormous, imperishable summation successful defence spending. Last month, parliament approved astir $60bn successful defence procurements.

‘We ne'er trust connected European processes’

Analysts judge pro-Kremlin narratives volition inactive question to exploit immoderate latent scepticism exists.

“Sensitivity implicit conscription is thing that Russians are packaging into their propaganda narratives to galore societies successful Europe,” said Victoria Vdovychenko, a hybrid warfare adept astatine Cambridge University’s Centre for Geopolitics.

“Germany is 1 of them, truthful basically, you’re going to spot a spike successful quality successful presumption of however atrocious it is that the Germans are sending successful the kids to beryllium killed,” she told Al Jazeera.

She is besides wary of the clip it volition instrumentality for wealth and governmental volition to construe into concern capableness and force.

Scholz pledged to make a brigade to support the Suwalki gap, a susceptible cervix of Lithuanian onshore sandwiched betwixt Belarus and Kaliningrad, a Russian-held territory connected the Baltic Sea, but recruiting, grooming and equipping it is inactive nether way.

“We are not anserine people, truthful we ne'er trust connected European processes, [the conception that] anyone volition travel arsenic a deity to assistance us,” said Vdovychenko, who is Ukrainian. “We decidedly understand, it’s our radical who volition beryllium ever astatine the forefront.”