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There are around 1,500 fewer temporary and professional soldiers as well as those doing voluntary military service than a year ago.
© Frank May/dpa
In order to become capable of defending itself – even “war worthy” – the Bundeswehr should grow significantly.
Only: There are actually fewer soldiers than a year ago.
Is it possible without compulsory service?
Berlin - The Bundeswehr's personnel offensive has not made any progress: the number of soldiers fell to 181,500 men and women last year despite increased efforts.
As of December 31, 2023, there were around 1,500 temporary and professional soldiers as well as voluntary military service fewer than a year earlier, as the Ministry of Defense announced to the German Press Agency.
At the end of 2022, the Bundeswehr still had 183,050 soldiers.
The number of civilian employees fell by 400 to 81,500.
There was an increase to 19,100 in men and women who did reservist service (2022: around 18,700).
Overall, the declared goal of increasing the Bundeswehr to 203,000 soldiers by 2031, even against the background of the new dangers posed by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, became more distant.
Against the background of the emerging developments, there has recently been an increased debate about possible compulsory military service or the hiring of soldiers without German citizenship.
More staff remains a priority
The primary goal of the Bundeswehr is and remains the sustained strengthening of personnel readiness, said a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Defense regarding personnel development.
“We need qualified and operational women and men who are available in sufficient numbers for the upcoming tasks and orders.”
The increasingly noticeable effects of demographic and social change were evident in practically all professional and work areas.
“The former competition among job seekers for a job has turned into competition between employers for workers – especially skilled workers,” she said.
These developments were also reflected in the Bundeswehr.
A “bundle of measures and initiatives” have been introduced to increase the attractiveness, act more flexibly and react more quickly.
A detailed look at the number of personnel shows that there is a slight increase in the number of professional soldiers and those doing voluntary military service, and a decrease in particular in the case of temporary soldiers.
The number of women has also grown slightly, without this being able to reverse the trend.
Pistorius is already having models of compulsory service examined
Compulsory military service was suspended in July 2011 after 55 years under the then Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU), which in practice amounted to an abolition of military and community service.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is already having models of compulsory service examined.
A task force is examining human resources as a whole.
The SPD politician recently appeared open to soldiers without a German passport.
The Bundeswehr currently has around 1,400 civilian employees without German citizenship.
In August last year, Pistorius called for more speed in dealing with applicants for training or a position in the Bundeswehr.
In addition, efforts must be increased to attract women and people with a migrant background to the armed forces, said the SPD politician during a visit to a Bundeswehr career center in Stuttgart.
He called for the advertising campaigns to paint a more realistic picture of the Bundeswehr and not to advertise with action films - also in order to reduce dropout rates after starting service.
It is important “that we don’t make Mission Impossible films about what could happen in the Bundeswehr like in Hollywood, but that it is a realistic picture.”
The rising average age of soldiers is also considered a problem because the number of personnel can sometimes only be maintained by continuing to employ temporary soldiers.
It has recently been said from the troops that there is a lot of effort being made to ensure that contract soldiers extend their service.
dpa