As an independent podcaster and journalist, Ole Nymoen admits to enjoy freedom of expression and other democratic rights in his country of Germany.
But he would not want to die for them.
In a book published this week, Why would I never fight for my countryThe 27-year-old argues that ordinary people should not be sent to battle on behalf of the states of the nation and their rulers-even to defend a occupation. Conquest by a foreign power can lead to a “timid” life, he told Financial Times. “But I would rather be busy than dead.”
Nymoen, a self-described Marxist, does not claim to be a representative of generation Z in Germany. But his attitude-and his striking honesty for him in a wider question that Europe faces as it re-arises to a scale that is not seen from the end of the Cold War.
Berlin has poured nearly 100 billion € on new Bundeswehr equipment, German Armed Forces, since Russia’s occupation in Ukraine in 2022. Chancellor pending Friedrich Merz has announced plans to allow unlimited borrowing to finance defense costs after he promised to make “whatever” to defend “.
But while those funds are helping to insert gaps into weapons and equipment, one of the biggest issues left is the workforce.
Germany’s Commissioner of the German Armed Forces, Eva Högl, announced this week that the country was no longer closer to its intention to have 203,000 active troops by 2031, as the overall size of the armed forces decreased last year, in part due to a large number of abandons. One quarter of 18,810 men and women who were registered in 2023 left the Armed Forces within six months.
“This development must stop and return as an urgent matter,“ Högl said.
A Bundeswehr spokesman told FT that the army had taken steps to try to curb the flow of new recruits, including a period of notice to avoid “last -minute, emotional” decisions.
But a senior army commander said that members of the generation Z – known in the business world for their efforts to reshape corporate culture – were also entering the armed forces with different ideas and views. “People are vulnerable, they cry easily,” he said. “They talk about the balance of work and life.”
“I understand this,” the commander added. “They grew up at another time. It’s not a bad perspective. But it doesn’t match so well with a war situation.”
While Europe has again calculated with the fear of an aggressive Russia, the continent’s political and military leaders have dramatically increased their language for what they expect from the public.
A senior United Kingdom General, Sir Patrick Sanders, last year told the British people that they were part of a “premature generation” that could be prepared for themselves to enter the fighting. In Germany, whose 1949 constitution involves a commitment to promote global peace, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius caused shock last year stating that the nation should be “ready for war”.
The warnings have escalated since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January and began to push Ukraine to agree with a ceasefire, and threatened to withdraw long US security guarantees for Europe. Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said last week that his country was preparing “large -scale military training for every adult male”.
Germany has not gone so far. High officials from Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, both parties that are likely to form another government, have ruled out a revival of traditional recruitment. Merz favors a year of national service that would provide military and non -military opportunities.
However, the question remains to what extent populations in Europe are willing to accept calls to join the Armed Forces in a much greater number.
Sophia Besch, an elderly associate at Carnegie Endowment based in Washington for International, said that although the perception of the threat between the European public was changing rapidly, “the next step (governments are asking citizens to do) is a great-I want to fight for my country and I want my children to fight for my country.”
Besch said that nations, including Germany, lacked that deep confidence and the common understanding of the threat between citizens and the government that had been falsified in places such as Finland, which is famous for its decades of concentration on a willingness to an attack by Russia.
Moreover, she added, in the worst case scenario, the young Germans will most likely not be sought to fight for their country, but for Latvia or another first line nation. “We have to ask ourselves what the young Germans would be ready to fight for today. Is Germany? Is the European project?”
Since Russia’s full -scale occupation in Ukraine, Germany has had a huge increase in the number of conscientious opponents (including both regular soldiers and part -time reservists). The figure reached 2,998 last year – from 200 to 2021.
Klaus Pfistere, from the German Peace Society – the United War resistors, a campaign group, said many of them did military service years ago, before recruitment was repealed in 2011, and were then assigned as reservists. In previous years that did not look like a difficult commitment. But today, against the current global backdrop, “they see this decision in a completely different light,” he said.
Christian Mölling, the director of Europe at the BertleSmann Foundation, estimates that German troops numbers should increase from 181,000 today to 270,000 in the coming years in order to achieve NATO objectives – and fill the remaining gaps if US forces set in Europe are withdrawn.
This excludes the reserve forces, which currently stand at 60,000 but defense officials have said it should increase to 260,000.
Mölling said the Bundeswehr needed to drastically improve his recruitment campaigns to compete in a narrow and competitive labor market, as well as doing more to modernize the military and make it an attractive employer.
“It can’t be an imitation, where you claim you are a modern army,” he said. “You have to do it.”
But many young Germans can simply oppose the idea of registration. Last month’s federal elections resulted in two parties that oppose the Ukraine Armed-Right-right armed for Germany and leftist left Link-Present almost half of those aged 18 to 24.
While a recent study by the Youugov survey found that 58 percent of the Germans would support a recruitment, only one -third of those aged between 18 and 29 years old.
Nymoen, a Linke voter himself, is deeply suspicious of the European race to re-armed. It was very good for European leaders to sound combat, he said. “The thing is that, after all, I’ll be in the trenches.”
Visualization of data by Keith Fray
