Overview

• The family ministry says administrative steps are underway to be ready for a revived Zivildienst if conscription is reinstated, noting the Wehrpflicht remains suspended but not abolished.
• Prien reports more than 1,500 conscientious objection applications in the first half of 2025 and says the workload at the responsible authority is increasing.
• The Bundesamt für Familie und zivilgesellschaftliche Aufgaben, which absorbed the former Zivildienst office, is cited as the hub for this work, with the old office having had about 600 staff as a capacity benchmark.
• The cabinet’s new Wehrdienst model prioritizes voluntary service, with an online questionnaire planned in 2026 for the 2008 birth cohort and mustering from 2027, and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius keeps compulsory service as a fallback if recruitment goals are missed.
• Local reporting captures mixed youth sentiment, with roughly one third of about 30 surveyed students willing to defend in wartime and others voicing concerns over gender equity and life plans under any compulsory scheme.