Compulsory military service was required in Germany until 2011.
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Germany's new law on voluntary military service requires men aged 17 to 45 to obtain permission from the military if they are to stay abroad for more than three months. Germany has introduced a military service modernisation law on 1 January in response to Russia's potential aggression. A spokesman for the German defence ministry confirmed to the BBC that the law requires such permission. However, it did not specify the penalties for breaking the law. The defence ministry spokesman said the regulation was introduced to ensure a reliable and meaningful military registration system. "In an emergency, we need to know who may be staying abroad for a long time," he added. The new law is based on the German military recruitment law of 1956. The law, which has been amended several times, required compulsory military service in Germany until 2011. It was abolished under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel. But now Germany is tightening the law again after the threat of Russian intervention.
The Military Service Modernization Act plans to increase the number of active personnel from around 180,000 to 260,000 by 2035.
In December, the German parliament voted in favor of introducing voluntary military service, which means that from January all young people over the age of 18 will be sent a questionnaire asking whether they are willing to join the armed forces.
From July 2027, they will also have to take a fitness test to determine whether they are fit to serve in the event of war.
Women can also volunteer for military service. But under the German constitution, they are not forced to serve.
For now, voluntary service is optional, but if the situation worsens or the number of volunteers is lower than expected, the government could consider introducing compulsory military service. can move forward .
Many young people in Germany are against it . They are planning to demonstrate against it .
‘We don’t want to spend half our lives locked up in barracks, undergoing drill and discipline training and learning to kill,’ one young protester wrote on Facebook .
Like other European countries, Germany reduced its armed forces during the peacetime years of the 1990s . During the Cold War, its army numbered around half a million .
