The reservists’ association does not consider the target set by the federal government to increase the number of soldiers in the Bundeswehr to 203,000 by 2031 to be sufficient. Association President Patrick Sensburg said in ARD’s “Morgenmagazin” on Thursday that one has to look at the number of personnel the Bundeswehr needs in order to be able to defend Germany in the alliance. “It’s doubtful whether 203,000 will be enough. We’re assuming significantly more.” The Bundeswehr has “been reduced in size over the past 30 years, it has shrunk, units have been dismantled,” said Sensburg. Undoing that now will take time.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, Eva Högl, had previously expressed skepticism as to whether the target of 203,000 could even be reached.
Sensburg described the suspension of compulsory military service as a mistake and advocated a reintroduction. Germany needs a corresponding number of soldiers in the Bundeswehr in order to be able to defend itself.
Sensburg: More interest among young people
Due to the Russian war of aggression against the Ukraine, there is again an increased interest in the Bundeswehr. “Young people come and want to serve because national defense is an understandable task,” said Sensburg.
The association president welcomed the public pledge of 400 new soldiers this Thursday in Berlin as part of the commemoration of the resistance against the Nazi regime 79 years after the failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on July 20, 1944. “I think it is very important for our country that we have soldiers in the middle of society, the citizens in uniform, but it is also very important for the recruits that they feel they are doing a valuable job en service for the population, for the people of our country,” said Sensburg.
