Overview

• The pilot scheme obliges young adults to complete a mandatory questionnaire assessing their readiness and offers an initial six-month service term with the option to extend.
• Generalinspekteur Carsten Breuer credits the program with a 20% surge in enlistments during the first quarter of 2025 and warns that 100,000 additional personnel are required to meet the Bundeswehr’s 203,000-strong target.
• Defense Minister Boris Pistorius’s approach replaces universal conscription with a demand-driven muster while preserving the legal framework for activating a draft if volunteer numbers fall short.
• Public opinion surveys show that 58% of Germans support reintroducing some form of military service as security concerns grow over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
• Experts such as military historian Sönke Neitzel and DGAP’s Hans-Peter Bartels assert that a compulsory component is essential for force expansion, prompting calls from the Bundeswehrverband for early administrative preparations for a potential draft.