09/03/2025September 3, 2025
Bundeswehr commissioner calls for 1 year’s compulsory service
The Bundestag parliament’s special commissioner for the Bundeswehr military, Henning Otte, has weighed in on the ongoing dispute over .
Speaking to mass-circulation newspaper Bild, in comments published on Wednesday, Otte recommended that one year of service be mandatory — for all men and women, but not exclusively for the military. He recommended a system sounding more than a little reminiscent of the one Germany abolished as recently as 2011, except that it would apply to men and women alike.
Otte advocated “a mandatory year of service, for men and women, not just in the armed forces but also in emergency services, cultural, sports, or volunteer work.”
The current draft law, , foresees voluntary military service, but a compulsory questionnaire that only young men must fill out on turning 18.
Otte said the Bundeswehr urgently needed more women recruits, and also warned that the current emphasis on voluntary recruitment might not be sufficient.
He said abolishing the old system of a year’s mandatory service for men either in the military or in some other approved role made sense in 2011 because it was no longer necessary for national security.
“Now the situation is completely different. That is why we must discuss it again,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, the Left Party advocated striking the part of the German constitution that allows for the compulsory recruitment of men either into the military or border or civil protection agencies.
And the youth wing of the Greens criticized the draft law’s focus on young people, and argued that there was too much focus on the Bundeswehr over other areas like disaster response, climate change and social cohesion. It said that Russia’s “hybrid war of disinformation and attacks on social cohesion” could not be countered “with weapons and soldiers alone.”
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