The German military badly needed new recruits. So it did what one would expect nowadays: It harnessed the power of social media to persuade young people to enlist.
On official channels, officers were explaining jobs, equipment and training missions. Soldiers were showing off uniforms, gear and housing, or explaining how to properly apply camouflage makeup.
Then there were the more organic social media posts, usually by young recruits. These showed soldiers in workout videos, dance routines, with guns and in front of heavy military machinery.
That social media outreach, showing what life can be like in the military and what opportunities and adventures it can bring, appears to have helped in attracting Gen Z recruits.
But a little-noticed change in February to German Ministry of Defense policy, which requires officers approve any content shared from a military post or barrack, including on troops’ personal accounts, is putting an end to some of the posts from this new wave of influencers.
The defense ministry says the new rules are about security, and preventing hostile powers from gleaning sensitive information. But those who have been creating the content see the military intervening to carefully control its image.
“The army noticed that it didn’t do its image any favors by allowing people to be too lax with their communication,” said Mirco Liefke, who researches social media in the military at the Free University of Berlin.
The tension highlights the challenges that European countries face as they seek to rebuild their militaries, confronted with a belligerent Russia and a United States that is threatening to end eight decades of protection for the continent. To staff up quickly, Europe’s armies need to appeal to younger citizens — without losing their decorum and discipline. That balance is particularly hard to strike in Germany, where the Nazi era had long engendered a strain of pacifism.
But attitudes to enlistment are changing — not just because of the real fear of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. There are recognized perks, such as an agreement between the national rail company that gives off-duty soldiers free rail travel as long as they travel in uniform. It has made young people serving in the armed forces much more visible in public, while social media has made them more visible online.
Germany is trying to add 80,000 active-duty troops and 150,000 reservists by 2035, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz promises to build the continent’s “largest conventional army.” Although lawmakers have opted to keep recruitment voluntary for now, all 18-year-old men have to complete an army questionnaire intended to gauge their interest in serving.
But soldier-influencers like Joshua Krebs, who has already been letting his commanders sign off on his posts and will not be affected by the new guidelines, are seen as being an even more effective recruitment tool.
Known online as Cinematic Sergeant, he is a charismatic, tattooed tank commander, who has amassed an audience of nearly half a million followers on TikTok. In polished, stylish clips, he shares cool action sequences and warmhearted and humorous scenes with his comrades.
The military’s social media presence is a critical tool, says Martin Elbe, a sociologist at the Bundeswehr Center of Military History and Social Sciences, a research institute that belongs to the German armed forces. “The internet was the most important source of information for applicants, and — surprisingly — friends are the second most important source,” he said.
In one study, Mr. Elbe sent questionnaires to all applicants to the Bundeswehr in 2022 and found that the third most important source of information was social media, with a full 12 percent saying that they relied on it to get information about the service.
Besides Mr. Krebs, hundreds of other influencers have been flooding social media with lower quality content, much of which has dried up since the military’s policy change. The New York Times reached out to roughly a dozen of those soldiers, but most did not respond.
Many think a uniform or a tank can give them an extra boost with their followers, according to Artem Meininger, who runs an Instagram feed that targets active-duty and retired soldiers.
Those accounts feature men flexing their muscles, made-up women posing in barracks or clips featuring rudimentary gags that the military isn’t keen on.
Defense officials insist that the change in rules, which also includes a requirement for influencers to mark their accounts as unofficial, is only about operational safety.
Marcel Bohnert, who helped write the Bundeswehr’s social media guidelines and is part of the German Armed Forces Association, an organization representing soldiers’ interests, says the rules have become necessary because of cyberattacks and espionage attempts. “I’d say that in order to preserve freedom, I have to restrict it a little,” he said.
Mr. Meininger has other worries, and though he understands his fellow military influencers’ frustration with the new rules, he does support them. He doesn’t like seeing clips of recruits, who barely completed basic training, giving erroneous advice about a career in the military.
“When they see a uniform, they don’t necessarily know that it’s not official,” he said.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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