Janosch Dahmen, the Green Party’s spokesperson for health policy, has decided that Germany may need to be defended with force. Dahmen has reversed his former decision to refuse military service, and he is now a reservist in the Bundeswehr, according to “Spiegel”.
“My conviction has been, and remains, that I do not want to kill anyone,” explained Dahmen. “However, I must admit that the times and the circumstances under which I had to make this conscientious decision have changed.” The emergency and accident physician completed a multi-day training exercise in the Military Medical Training Regiment in Feldkirchen, Bavaria, in June, officially taking the oath in Straubing.
The 44-year-old credited the Russian invasion of Ukraine, launched by Vladimir Putin in February 2022, with shifting his mindset. He reasoned that it had become clear to him, “it cannot only be the task of others to defend our precious country and our free, liberal society when it is attacked by their enemies.”
Dahmen is also campaigning within his party and parliamentary group for a new approach to the German armed forces. Currently, a parliamentary working group is discussing the pros and cons of both mandatory and voluntary service in the Bundeswehr. Dahmen proposed a concept of general societal service, suggesting that all people, both men and women, should complete this for six to twelve months after school. This service could take place with the Bundeswehr, humanitarian organizations, civil protection services, or social institutions.
According to Dahmen, these equivalent societal duties should not be a one-time event at the end of schooling. He continued by stating that “everyone should, for example, return to their respective field for six weeks every six years. We cannot solely entrust the task of ensuring military readiness and resilience to the younger generation.”
Last autumn, during the Green Party’s federal convention in Hannover, the party narrowly supported the mandatory conscription of young men, a policy now reflected in the new military law for those born starting in 2008. However, other service models, such as the one Dahmen advocates for, were not discussed at that time.
