Overview

• Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that Europe is already in a real war due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and said voluntary recruitment alone may not fill Bundeswehr ranks.
• A draft law awaiting cabinet approval would introduce six-month voluntary service from spring 2026 and trigger selective conscription if recruitment falls short of 260,000 troops.
• Military historian Sönke Neitzel argued the Bundeswehr could absorb 5,000 conscripts immediately and urged early reinstatement of a selective draft to bridge a 60,000-soldier gap.
• ARD-DeutschlandTrend polling shows over 70 percent of Germans, including a narrow majority of younger voters, favor reintroducing compulsory military service.
• The SPD’s last party congress opposed instant reactivation of conscription and requires that all voluntary recruitment measures be exhausted first.