Overview

• The concept includes tailored refresher courses to prepare volunteers for homeland defense roles, ending with an oath to the Basic Law.
• Current law excludes most former NVA members from reserve duty unless they continued in the Bundeswehr after 1990, a path taken by about 18,000 of more than 170,000.
• Bundeswehr planning calls for roughly 200,000 reservists who can mobilize quickly, but only around 51,000 are currently available.
• A legal revision could open eligibility to several hundred thousand men now roughly 50 to 65 years old who completed compulsory DDR service.
• This is the first public backing from a prominent CDU figure after earlier appeals from the Left, aligning with plans to grow the active force from about 182,000 to 260,000.