Pistorius wants to move quickly and have at least 5,000 fresh troops signed up next year, but rather than rushing bodies into active service, he proposes first to whip the state into shape to be able to hire, train and house recruits at scale.
“It’s a start,” Pistorius said modestly of his plan, which will cost €1.4 billion initially. “We’re setting up the recruitment processes for increasing our troop size.”
When the Cold War ended in the early 1990s the Bundeswehr numbered some 500,000 troops in addition to reservists; three decades later, the ranks of full-time soldiers have dwindled to just over 180,000.
Part of the decline owes to the decades of relative peace that followed the Cold War, but poor conditions have also been to blame, Eva Högl, an MP from Pistorius’ Social Democrats who serves as parliamentary coordinator for the armed forces, said earlier this year.
Högl put the cost of upgrading Germany’s military infrastructure such as barracks at around €50 billion, which is half the €100 billion fund the government made available to buy new military gear last year.
To get the ball rolling, Pistorius dodged the need to amend the constitution, a time-consuming process, by making the proposal optional for women. His plan will still have to be scrutinized by the Bundestag, however, as well as by Germany’s increasingly fractious ruling coalition.
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