The country approves a new law on compulsory enlistment and a recruitment incentive program. Service will remain voluntary, but some fear it will be a step back from mandatory conscription, which was abandoned in 2011. It’s cold and snowing, and Carlotta, 16, is standing on a vast military training ground in Grafenwöhr, southern Germany, watching an artillery piece fire live rounds. The noise is very loud when the projectiles are fired, which is why Carlotta must wear hearing protection.
It’s not just another day for the young student: while her friends sit in cozy classrooms in the city of Cologne, she travels alone by train to the German state of Bavaria. In the barracks of the 375th Tank Artillery Battalion in Weiden, she found accommodation and was given a uniform. Wearing this garment, she now stands in the winter cold on the training field, alongside about two dozen other young men and women.
A whole team of supervisors takes care of the young people: the German army spares no effort to recruit new soldiers. Carlotta also wants to know if the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) is really a vocation for her. To this end, he participates in “Discovery Days”, a sort of short training course within the troops, which includes physical activities and socializing evenings.
The student can imagine herself joining the army in the future. “To start with, for three or four years, and if I want, for eight years,” she told DW. However, she is not in favor of the reintroduction of compulsory military service: “We should not impose something on people. It is much better to join voluntarily than to be forced, because then you lose your motivation.”
Incentive campaign
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius shares this view: according to him, the aim of the new military conscription law, approved this week, is to motivate more young people to enlist voluntarily.
One of the incentives is a salary increase: from the beginning of 2026, new recruits will receive a monthly salary of 2,600 euros (R$16,000) before taxes. In exchange, they must serve in the armed forces for at least six months. Those who commit for at least twelve months will also receive a subsidy to obtain a driving license, which involves high costs in Germany.
The new German military conscription model, approved by the Bundestag (Parliament) on Friday (12/05), is therefore an incentive campaign that Pistorius wants to implement to avoid another scenario: a return to full compulsory military service, which his center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) rejects. Military service will remain voluntary “if everything goes as we hope”, Pistorius stressed during a debate in the Bundestag.
But will it be possible to fill staff shortages without compulsory service? Although the SPD believes this, politicians from the other parties in the current government coalition – the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) – are skeptical. They would prefer a return to national service, which Germany abandoned in 2011.
The Bundeswehr wants to recruit 80,000 new soldiers by 2035 and the new law charts the path to achieving this goal. Faced with the threat posed by Russia, the permanent strength of the army must increase from just under 182,000 soldiers currently to 260,000: this is Germany’s commitment to NATO. In addition, a contingent of 200,000 reservists must be formed. The Ministry of Defense must present semi-annual reports on the figures.
A proposal to draw lots provoked the rejection of young people
The dispute over future plans for military service has divided the ruling coalition for months. Among the models discussed that caused controversy was a lottery system. The proposal to draw lots for who would join the Bundeswehr was rejected by many young people. In general, many young people have the feeling of being excluded from the debate on the new military enlistment, even if the lottery project is not on the agenda.
The new “Military Service Modernization Law” remains a compromise: for the moment, military service remains voluntary. At the same time, all 18-year-old men will have new obligations: from the beginning of 2026, they will receive a questionnaire to complete. He will ask questions about willingness to serve in the Bundeswehr, physical fitness and training. For women, military service will be voluntary because, according to the country’s Constitution, they cannot be forced to perform military service.
From mid-2027, the process will take a further step: all men born in 2008 or later will have to appear, on a set date, for a physical fitness exam which will determine, in the event of a conflict, who can be summoned. Even if the process begins in 2026, it will not be until mid-2027 that the Bundeswehr will have sufficient capacity to accommodate new recruits.
Criticisms of compulsory medical examinations
The compulsory medical examination is particularly controversial: its critics see it as a first step towards a complete return to compulsory military service. They also fear that the lottery system will return to the agenda if there are not enough volunteers. In this case, the government could decide to introduce so-called “necessity recruitment”, whereby a portion of young people of a certain age group would be mobilized according to the needs of the Bundeswehr. The decision to reintroduce full or partial compulsory service rests with the Bundestag.
On the day the law was passed, students took to the streets in many German cities to protest: “We do not want to be locked in barracks for six months, trained in blind discipline and obedience and taught to kill,” the organizers of the “student strike against compulsory military service” wrote in a call for nationwide protests. “As a generation we feel neglected and we don’t see why our generation should throw itself into the trenches for the government,” Leo Reinemann, a student and co-organizer of a protest in Koblenz, western Germany, told public broadcaster SWR.
The number of conscientious objectors on the rise
For the moment, no one is forced to perform military service: the Bundeswehr continues to rely on voluntary candidates. And the right to refuse military service for reasons of conscience remains unchanged.
And more and more Germans are making use of this right: by the end of October, the government had received more than 3,000 requests for conscientious objection, from people who have never served as well as soldiers and reservists. As a result, the number of people who, for religious, moral, humanist or philosophical reasons, refuse to serve in the armed forces has reached a new record since the suspension of compulsory military service in 2011.