17
OCT
2025
The Federal Government's draft law on the modernization of military service, which the Bundestag discussed yesterday in first reading, contains three key points: First, the reinstatement of military registration; second, new incentives for service in arms; and thirdly, the federal government's enabling the federal government to reactivate conscription even in peacetime. The Bundeswehr needs significantly more soldiers and reservists "in order to be able to survive in crisis and war in the long term", is the assessment of the federal government. 1] As part of the military registration, all 18-year-old men are to be obliged to answer a questionnaire from 2026. With this, the Federal Ministry of Defense wants to set up a comprehensive database on who is conscripted and who of the conscripts is suitable, useful and motivated. In the future, the federal government will not only make the Bundeswehr, but also the employment agency also available to the employment agency in the event of the collected data on interests, qualifications, health and willingness to do military service of young men. 2] From 2027, the federal government wants to start with mandatory sampling. The draft law does not "initially" provide for compulsory military service, but it contains regulations that, with the consent of the Bundestag, enable the Federal Government to reactivate conscription in times of peace.[ 3]
The first reading of the bill in the Bundestag was preceded by a public dispute between the coalition partners SPD and CDU/CSU. The governing parties had initially postponed the reading in the Bundestag by a week and renegotiated the draft, and then canceled an already scheduled press conference at short notice - on the grounds that there was no agreement. The Minister Pistorius, who is responsible for the draft law, relies "initially" on voluntariness and, although it paves the way for the reactivation of compulsory military service, but does not formulate any concrete plans in the event that the volunteers are not sufficient to utilize the existing training capacities of the Bundeswehr. In this case, the federal government would be faced with the problem that it would have to justify before the Basic Law and the population that conscription only affects a part of a year. Because the capacities of the Bundeswehr for accommodation and training are currently not sufficient to convene an entire year, after all around 300,000 potential conscripts. The CDU/CSU, on the other hand, demands clear parameters of how many volunteers are sought, and a lottery procedure to be able to commit part of a vintage to military service, should not enough volunteers register. Pistorius emphasizes that he has considerable concerns about the lottery, but will not boycott it. Negotiators of the SPD and the Union had already agreed on the lottery.
However, Pistori's adherence to voluntary nature and his publicly expressed aversion to a lottery procedure should not be confused with a refusal to compulsory military service in peacetime. Pistorius had apparently hoped to reactivate the military registration as a first step and merely to prepare the reintroduction of conscription, but to postpone the associated fundamental debates on the question of military justice to a later date – namely the time when the number of volunteers no longer utilizes the capacities of the Bundeswehr. The governing parties agree that there will then be compulsory military service. "It is also clear about everything: If voluntariness is not enough, there will be no way around a mandatory attraction," Pistorius explained yesterday in the Bundestag. 4] According to a recent survey, 40 percent of 18- to 39-year-olds reject conscription; eight percent are indecisive.[ 5] According to the Bundeswehr, 15,000 people currently register for voluntary military service every year; this corresponds to just five percent of the conscripts of a year. Pistorius hopes to increase this number by more than 100 percent to 40,000 within the next six years with the New Military Service.
At the same time, the Minister of Defense is pushing ahead with the expansion of the Bundeswehr's training capacities. To this end, he announced at the beginning of October that 40,000 new accommodation places for recruits would be built in Bundeswehr barrarches by 2031 - explicitly in order to create capacity for the New Military Service. For this purpose, 270 new accommodation buildings are to be built at approximately 120 Bundeswehr locations, in a standardized construction procedure, the bureaucratic and legal feasibility of which the minister has been preparing since last year. 6] Among other things, this required changes in the procurement law for construction contracts. In order to build as many new barracks as possible as quickly as possible, the BMVg now also wants to apply a standardized construction system (G-CAP) already developed for foreign Bundeswehr operations at home.
The Federal Ministry of Defense and the Federal Office for Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Services of the Bundeswehr had already invited around 130 representatives of industry to Berlin last week to discuss the implementation of the "barracks construction from the assembly line". Already in the "first half of 2027" the first buildings should be ready. In a second step, Berlin plans to build a new building of "entire properties". 7] The conversion of Bundeswehr properties to civilian buildings has been "stopped", reports the Minister of Defense. Moreover, the Bundeswehr will even take back properties that are already in the conversion process.[ 8] The expansion of the Bundeswehr properties is the "third major pillar ... of our great growth project". 9] The measures already seem to be having an effect: According to the Ministry of Defense, Berlin has already invested over 20 percent more in construction measures at barracks this year compared to the previous year.[ 10]
[1] Draft law on the modernization of military service (Wehrdienst-Modernisierungsgesetz - WDModG). German Bundestag, printed matter 21/1853. Berlin, 29.09.2025.
[2] S. to Hamburg at war.
[3] Draft of a law on the modernization of military service (Wehrdienst-Modernisierungsgesetz - WDModG). German Bundestag, printed matter 21/1853. Berlin, 29.09.2025.
[4] New military service: Minister Pistorius speaks in the Bundestag. bmvg.de 16.10.2025.
[5] Survey on conscription: Two thirds of Germans for reinstatement. ipsos.com 11.07.2025.
[6] S. to war-worthy barracks.
[7] Build faster for a stronger Bundeswehr. bmvg.de 10/14/2025.
[8], [9] Barracks construction as on the assembly line. bmvg.de 07.10.2025.
[10] 40,000 accommodation places for recruits planned by 2031. bmvg.de 07.10.2025.