Overview

• A party paper urges a compulsory, cross‑gender year of public service framed as a Society Year rather than a return to traditional conscription.
• Service would last nine to twelve months, begin after full‑time schooling and be completed by age 28, with military participation allowed from 18.
• Participants could choose placements in the Bundeswehr, civil and disaster protection, or social institutions.
• The draft includes a legal right to undertake societal service for all genders and generations, including beyond retirement age, and has roughly 89 signatories such as Mona Neubaur, Katharina Fegebank, Katharina Schulze and Tarek Al‑Wazir.
• The proposal enters a broader national dispute, with the Union advocating a lottery mechanism and Defense Minister Boris Pistorius supporting continued voluntariness.