The military commissioner Eva Högl has suggested a return to the draft and thus started a discussion about the compulsory military service, which has been suspended since 2011. Just a ghost debate?
Notice sign for examination at the district military replacement office in Kempten
Almost exactly a year after the start of the Russian attack on Ukraine, at a time of war in Europe, where countries like Latvia are reintroducing conscription, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says a sentence that Patrick Sensburg would immediately endorse: “It was a mistake to suspend conscription.” Germany then heatedly discussed Article 12a of the Basic Law, which reads: “Men can be obliged to serve in the armed forces, in the federal border police or in a civil protection association from the age of 18.”
Sensburg is a politician and Association President of the reservists of the German Federal Armed Forces. He has a very special history with the suspension of compulsory military service, because on March 24, 2011 he was the only CDU member of his parliamentary group to vote against the change in the law.
He even justified this in writing with security policy concerns, as can still be read in the minutes of the meeting. Patrick Sensburg not only opposed his party friends, but also the mood in Germany at the time: the country saw itself surrounded only by friends. In a Europe where there will be peace forever. “I said I can't take responsibility for the fact that we can't easily undo this in the next few decades,” he says of the suspension of conscription.
“Politicians have to decide: Do I take national defense seriously or do I just throw smokescreens?” – Patrick Sensburg
Twelve years later, the reserve colonel is no longer the lone voice in the desert, warning: “It's not enough if we can only defend one or two federal states because the Bundeswehr is too small and underequipped. Of course, one costs Conscript army costs money, national defense costs money. That is a political decision that we have to make in advance: Do we even want to be able to defend our country? Yes or no?”
From conscript army to volunteer army
In two decades, the Bundeswehr has shrunk from more than 317,000 soldiers to just over 183,000. However, Sensburg is convinced that this number, together with the approximately 100,000 reservists, is not enough for an emergency. At the same time, voluntary military service is far from sufficient to get the urgently needed young people into the Bundeswehr.
“We not only need the super specialists, we not only need the KSK as special forces, we also need a certain number of soldiers in order to be able to defend the country,” says the president of the reservists' association. Of course, Germany doesn't want to be a military state, but: “It needs good troops that are well trained, but also have many reservists. And I can only get them if we have conscription.”
Federal Ministry of Defense: “Other tasks”
The Federal Defense Minister said in February that compulsory military service would not help Germany at all in the next two or three years. However, Germany must openly discuss the issue regardless of the threat situation, according to Pistorius, a parliamentary army belongs in the middle of society. When asked by DW, a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Defense said:
“The ministry is not considering reintroducing conscription. Today's Bundeswehr is very different from what it was ten years ago or even further back. We have different tasks that require well-trained and specialized personnel to perform. We have different structures , other capacities and a different operational reality. And: We have also opened our armed forces to women for 20 years.”
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius during his inaugural visit to the Bundeswehr
Basically, according to the Federal Ministry of Defense: “In the event of tension or defense, an increase of up to 60,000 reservists is planned. This means that the Bundeswehr with its current parliamentary able to fulfill their national and alliance defense tasks together with the armed forces of our NATO partners.”
Get more people excited about the Bundeswehr with muster?
For FDP leader Christian Lindner, this debate is a “ghost discussion”, the military commissioner Eva Högl has therefore now brought a new idea into play: She proposes a return  ;to be drafted in order to attract more junior staff for the Bundeswehr.
In the future, all young people of a year could be invited to the aptitude test, regardless of gender. “You could, like in Sweden, invite an entire year of young people to be drafted into the Bundeswehr. And then, if they are fit for military service, let them decide for themselves whether they want to volunteer or not.”
Want to discuss the idea of a mandatory year of service in the military and civilian sectors – Eva Högl
Because there is a lack of trainers and infrastructure in Germany, Högl cannot imagine reversing the suspension of compulsory military service in Germany. Wolfgang Hellmich said the same thing to DW: “This debate about conscription keeps coming up, but it doesn't have very much to do with current reality. What purpose is conscription supposed to serve? That means billions in costs for the establishment or reestablishment of structures that are all gone. And we are not on the way to a conscript army, but to a professional army.”
Until two years ago, Hellmich was chairman of the Defense Committee of the German Bundestag and is still a member today. He is also spokesman for the working group on security and defense policy of the SPD parliamentary group. He has in common with Sensburg and Pistorius that he considers the decision of 2011 to be a big mistake, the idea was an “unconceptual hussar ride”.
“There were no concepts from Defense Minister zu Guttenberg, there was no thought on the questions: How do we recruit recruits for the Bundeswehr in the future? How do we deal with the issue of civilian service? The elimination of all the jobs has caused major problems for many welfare organizations There was nothing.”
“When it comes to equipment and recruitment, conscription is not the right way” – Wolfgang Hellmich
Twelve years later, there is nothing at all that speaks for a reintroduction of conscription, the critics say: no district military replacement offices for drafting, no military equipment to be able to train conscripts at the same time, and no trainers either. No plan for military justice with 700,000 young men and women who turn 18 every year and would be required to serve, but only a fraction of them could be drafted. And above all, no money in the tens of billions to restart the conscription apparatus.
Volunteer service must become more attractive
Instead of wasting valuable time on the reintroduction of conscription, Germany must use its own Focusing on recruiting professionals, Hellmich also says: “We don't have a problem recruiting officers and officer candidates, but we have a problem with the technical services. That is, wherever it comes to the logistical supply of the troops and about the cyber realm.”
And the Bundeswehr still has a massive problem in recruiting women in 2023: there is just one female soldier for every seven soldiers. Hellmich is also treasurer of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, during his visit to Norway he spoke to the special forces of a company that consists only of women – in Germany this is still completely unthinkable.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius with a woman from the Bundeswehr in Camp Castor in Mali
The conclusion of the defense politician: “We have to think more intensively about the question of Take care of recruiting. How do we recruit people for service in the Bundeswehr? We have to make voluntary service more attractive in order to also attract people who will then stay with the Bundeswehr. But conscription would not help a bit at that point.”
This post was published on February 3rd and updated on June 2nd.