Bastian Ernst, the new president of the Reservist Association, has called for raising the mandatory retirement age for reservists from 65 to 70. Speaking to Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland, he stated that increasing this age makes sense for various reasons, noting that the general retirement age is also rising. According to Ernst, society should not waste the experience and vitality of its people, suggesting that if there are concerns about a lack of young personnel, improvements must also be made concerning the older generation. He believes this change should be codified within the proposed Reserve Strengthening Act.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is scheduled to present a strategy for the reserve forces on Wednesday and plans to introduce the Reserve Strengthening Act by the summer.
Ernst further argued that the principle of voluntary participation should be removed from employers, meaning they shouldn’t have the right to object when reservists are called in for exercises. However, he specified that reservists themselves should not be forced. He emphasized that some level of planning is necessary to determine how many reservists should participate in exercises each year, allowing both employers and employees to prepare accordingly.
The association’s president, who was elected on April 11th, also advocated for adequately equipping reservists and creating meaningful training opportunities. He remarked, “If we want a big improvement regarding personnel, then we must plan better here”.
When questioned about the total number of reservists, Ernst replied that the Ministry of Defense does not have precise figures, making it difficult to determine accurately. He noted that it is known that eight to nine million people have served in the German Armed Forces, and approximately 60,000 reservists are currently on active deployment and readily available from the Bundeswehr. This number is expected to increase to 200,000 by 2035, according to the Defense Service Modernization Act. Additionally, he cited the association’s membership count, which stands at around 110,000. During the COVID-19 crisis, between 10,000 and 15,000 reservists were deployed. Ernst concluded by stating that the new defense census effort will be responsible for accurately collecting these figures.
