New German military service targets 40,000 teenagers a year
Russian threat prompts Berlin to boost numbers of army reservists and professional soldiers
Germany aims to recruit up to 40,000 teenagers a year to do a voluntary form of military service as it seeks to expand the size of its armed forces dramatically.
The scheme, which will be presented as a draft bill to cabinet at the end of August, will promise attractive pay and flexibility in an effort to persuade 18-year-olds to sign up, according to government officials.
The ministry of defence hopes to fill 15,000 spaces this year under an existing voluntary programme and increase that number by 3,000 to 5,000 young men and women every year, as Europe’s largest nation seeks to bolster its troops as part of Nato’s response to the fear of Russian aggression.
It has set a goal of reaching an annual quota of 40,000 by 2031, with the primary aim of boosting the number of the army reserves by automatically adding the volunteers to their ranks after they have completed their service.
But defence officials also hope that it will encourage more young people to become professional soldiers.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has promised to make Germany’s military the strongest conventional army in Europe as part of a drive to play a leading role in the continent’s defence and security as he also pours hundreds of billions into rearmament.
Military officials have said that the size of the professional military needs to grow from 182,000 today to 260,000 by 2035. It also needs to expand the reserves who can be called upon in a crisis from 60,000 to 200,000.
Since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Germany has repeatedly debated whether or not to return to conscription, which was suspended in 2011.
In neighbouring France, President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to relaunch a system of voluntary national service to help increase the number of military reservists from 40,000 to 100,000 over the next 10 years, but he ruled out a return to compulsory military service.
Germany defence minister Boris Pistorius, a member of Merz’s Social Democrat coalition partners, has also settled on a voluntary model inspired by the system in Sweden rather than on the idea of compulsory service.
If the draft law is approved by the Bundestag, all of the roughly 300,000 men who turn 18 will from 2026 onwards be required to respond to a questionnaire to assess their suitability, availability and willingness to serve in the armed forces. The survey will be voluntary for women.
Unlike in Sweden, where authorities select which young people are enlisted, in Germany only those who want to take part in military service will be chosen to do so.
But from 2028, when sufficient capacity is built up, all 18-year-old men will also be required to attend a mandatory health test so that authorities can create a comprehensive picture of the available personnel who could fight in the event of a full-scale war.
Defence officials hope to attract enough volunteers to the scheme by offering pay of about €2,000 per month post-tax, according to people familiar with the plan.
They will have the opportunity to acquire new skills and qualifications, access language courses and subsidised driving licences. The initial stint will be six months but can be extended.
Military planners hope that these incentives will be sufficient to attract enough recruits. But the draft bill will contain a provision allowing the government to reinstate mandatory conscription if that effort fails — although it does not include a fixed target or timeline that would trigger the fallback option.