Berlin seeks to enlist up to 40,000 youths annually in a bid to turn the Bundeswehr into the “strongest army” on the continent
Germany’s cabinet has approved a draft law introducing voluntary military service for teenagers as part of a wider militarization push by officials who have repeatedly claimed that Berlin must be “ready for war” by the next decade.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed to turn the Bundeswehr into the “strongest conventional army in Europe,” in a speech delivered less than a week after the world marked the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Third Reich in May. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stated in July that volunteer enlistment alone may not suffice to achieve that goal.
During a special session held in a secure bunker at the Defense Ministry in Berlin on Wednesday, the German cabinet approved a new program targeting up to 40,000 young recruits annually by 2031.
“The Bundeswehr must grow. Only then is deterrence against Russia truly credible,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius claimed, repeating the usual NATO talking point about a looming Russian attack. Moscow has long dismissed such speculation as “nonsense.”
The plan will require all 18-year-old males to complete a questionnaire assessing their willingness and fitness to serve beginning in January 2026. The questionnaire will be optional for women. Selected candidates will undergo a minimum of six months of basic training. The initial intake is capped at around 20,000 recruits next year due to logistical constraints, with gradual expansion planned over the next six years.
The legislation also includes a mechanism for a potential return to universal military conscription, which was suspended in 2011, but critics have demanded automatic reactivation of the draft should the voluntary scheme fail to deliver sufficient numbers. The plan must still be approved by the Bundestag and will not be passed without “significant changes,” according to ruling CDU/CSU defense spokesman Thomas Erndl.
Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in early 2022, Berlin has significantly increased military spending and become the second-largest supplier of arms to Kiev after the US. Kiev used German Leopard tanks in its incursion last year into Russia’s Kursk Region – the site of the largest tank battle of WWII.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in late May that Berlin’s “direct involvement in the war is now obvious,” warning that “Germany is sliding down the same slippery slope it already followed a couple of times in the last century.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that “Germany is becoming dangerous again” in response to recent comments by Pistorius suggesting German troops are prepared to take lethal action against Russian forces if “deterrence” fails.
