Germany's top General says the military needs more soldiers. Will conscription return?

The head of the German armed forces has told DW News that Germany needs to be ready for war in order to prevent it. In an exclusive interview, Carsten Breuer warned that society needs to be militarily and mentally prepared for a possible attack. Breuer said the greatest threat was from Russia. His comments come weeks after parliament removed borrowing limits to allow for unlimited increases in defense spending. That interview from DW's chief political correspondent, Nina Haase, who we can speak to now for more on this. Nina, give us a bit of background here. What exactly are German attitudes toward this? Well, in recent weeks, we saw a huge amount of spending pledges for defense and Germany's parliament even made changes to the constitution recently to boost military spending significantly and long term. And there are two reasons, of course, in understanding that Germany can't rely on US protection to the extent it has done for decades anymore and two, military experts and analysts are not mincing their words anymore, including Germany's top general in our interview. They see Russia as a direct threat to Germany, too. So Carsten Breuer has been warning for a while now that Russia could be in a position to launch an attack on NATO territory, so possibly on an Eastern European country by 2029. And he told me that Russia is getting 1,500 battle tanks ready per year, as well as four million rounds of ammunition. Russia is setting up military structures that could point westward. So he says that Germany needs to build up its own military fast. It has neglected that for decades, of course, and to an extent that Russia doesn't even think about attacking. But Breuer is also trying to get out that other message that society needs to be made aware of such a worst case scenario, too. And so while it's not been a common thing for top army representatives to address the public here in Germany, Breuer has lately been appearing on panels quite regularly. And I had the opportunity to ask him a couple of questions. So I first asked him whether Germany was at war or at peace with Russia. I think the categories of peace, crisis and war, which we like to use so much to sort things out, to bring reliability into it for us, these categories are not used by the Russian side. Russia sees war as a continuum. And in this respect, measures are used that can already look like war, but probably aren't yet. I'm referring above all to hybrid measures. In other words, a situation is created that is no longer quite peace, but not quite war either. And it is precisely this grey area that we are moving in, that we are also moving in when it comes to our dealings with Russia. But you say that Russia sees war as a continuum. To what extent must German society and the German military also learn to think strategically in a new way? Of course, we have to be prepared for this. We have to see what can be set against us or how we could be attacked. And we have to be able to counter this. Once again, deterrence to me is the key point to this. And the best way to deter is to be ready to defend ourselves. And this readiness to defend is not just a result of weapon systems. It's not just a result of personnel numbers. It's also a result of a mentality, a resilience that must be present in the population, but also in the armed forces. But the size of the armed forces does matter. Denmark is now the latest ally to introduce compulsory military service for women. What steps should the next German government take? From a military point of view, I can say that we need to have a growth potential. So we need to increase our armed forces, increase the size of our armed forces. Our calculations show that we need to have a military force that is capable of We need to get to 460,000 servicewomen and men, both reservists and active servicewomen and men. This growth potential must be ensured through some form of military service, whether compulsory or voluntary. That's a political decision. I can only say that on the military side we need the potential for growth on the one hand. And on the other hand, we have created or are in the process of creating the conditions in the armed forces so that we can turn this potential for growth into reality. Surely German society must also become crisis resistant. It must be equipped to be able to prepare for scenarios. The Federal Ministry of the Interior is now calling for a school subject or more lessons so that pupils and students are better prepared for such scenarios, disasters and war. What is your take on this? Of course, we have to deal with this possibility. We have to deal with the worst case scenario. But we must not do it in such a way that we say something happens and we can't do anything about it. Instead, we must always do it in such a way that we recognize the possibilities where we can counter such a threat. That is resilience. We make a society stronger, make it more resilient by interlinking all the factors. By having politics, society, the economy and the military look at this threat together and determine together what can be done about it. It is not something where we can only react, but we can be active. And it is precisely this act of action that we need to take. Hina, fascinating to hear your interview there with the head of the German Armed Forces. And in it, we hear Carsten Breuer asking for a readiness to defend that is going to demand a mentality shift in the German population. Do you see that mentality shift in Germany actually taking place, though? Well, I think, Claire, you have to look at two things here, right? So, one, how Germans look at their own armed forces, the Bundeswehr. And you have to keep in mind that after the end of the Cold War, Germans thought it was the end of history. No more need for a strong army. The army got sent on peacekeeping missions abroad. Conscription was halted. And now more than 80 percent of Germans have a positive image of the Bundeswehr again. And Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago definitely has had a massive effect on that, of course. But the other thing is, how many Germans actually feel that crisis resilience is something that concerns everyone, that can't be outsourced to the army or to the state? And here the feeling is that across the board, in companies, the education system, administration, and even in the army itself, there are a lot of people, and some say too many people still, who are finding it hard to adjust to these new realities and are turning a blind eye to these new worst-case scenarios. And political parties are rising in popularity that accuse anyone who addresses this issue of warmongering. So, it's a very fine line that people like Carsten Breuer are walking. They're trying to not sound alarming, but definitely hammer home this sense of urgency. But he has said there that the German armed forces would need 460,000 servicewomen and men. Do you think Germany is going to see a return to compulsory conscription? Well, Germany has agreed to fulfill NATO obligations, and it has not enough soldiers. So, he says there's a shortage of some 100,000 soldiers. So, there is a debate about starting conscription again, but, of course, a number of hurdles. The structures in the army itself need to be built up again. A lot of it was dismantled when conscription was halted. Administrative structures to enroll people, barracks, and military trainers are missing material. But military conscription is enshrined in the constitution only for young men at the moment, and the next government wouldn't have enough votes to change the constitution to also target young women. So, that would be a problem. And while a majority of Germans are in favor of reintroducing conscription, the young generation that would be affected is not. So, a lot of work still needs to be done there in terms of getting people to actually approve of this means, but there's no way around it, according to people like Carsten Breuer. And what we'll probably see is a combination of civil and military service. Thank you so much for your reporting here. That was DW's Chief Political Correspondent, Nina Haase.