Germans interested in military service

This year, the Bundeswehr received approximately 38,500 applications expressing interest in enlistment. This is 24 percent more than in the same period of 2025. The number of enlistments during this period rose by 13 percent, translating to approximately 11,000 new soldiers. The Bundeswehr is struggling with personnel shortages. Berlin plans to increase the army’s strength from the current level of over 180,000 to 260,000 soldiers. Approximately 200,000 reservists will also be required.

The law modernising military service came into effect on January 1. Under the new legislation, every 18-year-old German citizen receives a questionnaire regarding their motivation and aptitude for service. Completing the questionnaire is mandatory only for men. According to the German Ministry of Defence, approximately 300,000 such surveys were sent out by June 18; based on the responses received thus far, 530 men and women have been selected to begin service in 2026.

The survey system itself will therefore not allow for a mass recruitment of manpower for the German army. Compulsory military service was suspended in the country in 2011. The currently governing CDU/CSU and SPD coalition included a provision in its coalition agreement to create a “new, attractive model of military service, initially based on the principle of voluntariness.”