”We must be ready for war by 2029,” declared German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius in a much-noted speech last June. Chancellor Friedrich Merz went further in July, announcing that the German army would assume a “model character” within NATO, with the goal of making the Bundeswehr the strongest conventional army in the EU. Less than three months later, this grand plan is already set to fail.
The mess became painfully clear last week when a hastily announced press conference had to be cancelled at short notice. What was meant to be a celebration of decisiveness—proof that both coalition partners, the conservative CDU and the Social Democrats, had grasped the gravity of Germany’s security threat—descended into rumors of terrible rifts, infighting, and even a state secretary in tears.
At stake is a question with no easy answer: how to find young people willing to join the army.