Germany’s military is aging and shrinking, German Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces Eva Högl has warned, as the country debates a bid to massively increase defense spending in the wake of a recent election.
In an annual report released on March 11, Högl wrote that despite a recruitment drive sparked by the outbreak of war in Ukraine, there were 181,200 personnel in the Bundeswehr in 2024—down from 181,540 in 2023.
“At the same time, the Bundeswehr keeps growing older,” Högl wrote. “While the average age was 32.4 years at the end of 2019, it grew to 34 years by the end of 2024.
“We must urgently stop and reverse this trend.”
According to Högl, who acts as an advocate for service personnel and exercises parliamentary oversight, the Bundeswehr’s equipment, weapons, and infrastructure are also in poor condition.
“Some of the barracks and properties are still in a disastrous state,” Högl’s report states.
Despite a 100 billion euro ($109 billion) special fund pushed through Parliament by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after Russian forces rolled into Ukraine in 2022, the German military still lacks what it needs to fight a modern conflict, according to the report.
The force needs to update its infantry fighting vehicles, naval combat ships, and missile defense, as well as add more combat drones, weapons systems, and ammunition, the report states.
“The Bundeswehr still has too little of everything,” Högl said at a news conference.
According to the report, although the special fund established had helped to improve recruitment, develop infrastructure, and speed up new weapons procurement, the results are in many cases “not yet visible, noticeable, or measurable,” and about 82 percent of the money has now been used up.
“In order for the important projects started through the special fund to be completed or continued, an increase in the regular defense budget is essential,” the report states.
The report’s revelations may have made Germany’s goal of boosting military personnel to more than 200,000, a target postponed from 2025 to 2031 two years ago, even more difficult.
Increased funding allowed Germany, Europe’s largest economy, to reach the NATO defense spending target of 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024 for the first time since the early 1990s, but maintaining and increasing that spending will require further legislation.
Presumptive Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) are in negotiations to form a coalition after an election in February. The parties are seeking to overhaul the nation’s borrowing rules to finance a 500 billion euro ($545 billion) increase in state borrowing for defense and infrastructure.
They have agreed to exempt defense spending above 1 percent of GDP from Germany’s strict constitutional borrowing limit, known as the debt brake.
The debt brake caps the federal government’s structural net borrowing at 0.35 percent of GDP, adjusted for the economic cycle.
But they face resistance in Parliament, where the change to the constitution requires a two-thirds majority.
On March 10, the Greens, who hold 85 of the Bundestag’s 630 seats, vowed to block the plans.
“We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed, nor will we allow Friedrich Merz and [SPD co-leader] Lars Klingbeil to abuse a difficult European security situation,” Greens co-leader Franziska Brantner said.
“This is something that serves neither the country nor our interests in Europe.”
Germany’s plans come amid a broader European scramble to boost spending following indications from the United States that it intends to reduce its role in protecting Europe from Russia.
At a summit in Brussels on March 6, European Union leaders backed plans to spend more on defense and continue to stand by Ukraine.
They supported a European Commission proposal for a new loan plan worth 150 billion euros ($163 billion) to be used to boost cybersecurity and to buy air defense systems, drones, and “strategic enablers” such as air transport.
March 11 brought further clarity regarding these plans. European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen said the money from these loans must be used to purchase European-manufactured arms.
“These loans should finance purchases from European producers, to help boost our own defense industry,” she told the European Parliament.
Von der Leyen noted that the “contracts should be multiannual, to give the industry the predictability” it needs, and that countries should buy equipment together in groups because they have seen “how powerful this can be.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
