Overview

• Ministers met in the Bendlerblock and advanced a draft that rebuilds recruitment through a voluntary six‑month service, paired with mandatory registration of young men.
• From 2026 the Bundeswehr will send questionnaires to 18‑year‑olds, with men required to respond and women able to opt in, and mandatory musterung for men planned from 2028.
• The bill keeps a conscription fallback that would require a Bundestag decision, a feature the CDU/CSU seeks to toughen into an automatic trigger tied to troop targets.
• Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius argue an immediate return to classic mass conscription is impractical because barracks and trainers are lacking.
• The cabinet session also took up broader security measures, as the government pursues NATO‑driven personnel goals of about 260,000 active soldiers and a larger reserve, while critics such as BSW’s Sahra Wagenknecht campaign against the reform.