The German armed forces (Bundeswehr) is also attempting to recruit past service members more heavily for reserve exercises. To this end, the Ministry of Defence began in July mailing men who completed compulsory or voluntary service before 2011.
Bastian Ernst, president of the Reserves Association, told the “Handelsblatt”, “We hope that people read this letter and say: I was in the Bundeswehr 20 years ago, and it was actually a nice time.”
The Ministry of Defence aims to achieve a higher number of mandatory reserve services through the Reserve Strengthening Act, which still needs to be passed by parliament. However, only professional and contract soldiers, as well as those who completed service under the new draft laws introduced in January, are eligible for compulsory duties. Past service members are exempt from these requirements.
Ernst, the CDU Member of Parliament from Lower Saxony who has led the Reserves Association since April, stated that keeping the Reserve Strengthening Act from having retroactive effect was a compromise with its coalition partner, the SPD. Nevertheless, the current effort is to write to those former servicemen and women to encourage them to participate in voluntary reserve duties.
Ernst believes the Bundeswehr’s personnel goals-which are set to grow to 260,000 active soldiers and 200,000 reservists by 2035-are difficult to achieve. “I believe the targets might be met this year, partly because the bar isn’t particularly high,” the Reserves Association chairman commented. “But I don’t believe we will succeed in the next year, or at the latest two years after that.” The Draft Service Act stipulates target corridors for personnel size for each year until 2035. If these targets are missed, the so-called compulsory reserve duty could be implemented.
