In some ways, it was a perfectly ordinary conversation — a trio of bright, ambitious German high school kids thinking out loud about what they might do after graduation. But their discussion reflected a sea change in social attitudes: They were considering joining the military.
A decades-old aversion to serving in the German armed forces — the scourge of Europe during World War II, underfunded and neglected after the Cold War’s end — is swiftly reversing itself as a result of the war in Ukraine.
These three 18-year-olds, all of them set to finish high school next year in the northern town of Koethen, are coming of age just as Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse, is aiming to rebuild and revitalize its military after generations of lingering Nazi-era stigma.
“The negative image isn’t really there anymore,” said Foerster. Naumann concurred: “The German army has become attractive again.”
Despite Germany’s strong postwar tradition of pacifism, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly seven months ago shocked the public into thinking very differently about national defense.
Three days after the war began, Chancellor Olaf Scholz — in office for less than three months — delivered a speech dubbed “Zeitenwende,” or watershed. With a single stroke, Germany embarked on the hitherto unthinkable: pledging to send heavy weapons to Ukraine and promising a $100-billion cash infusion for the military.
Those moves appear to have solid public backing. Polls suggest about two-thirds of Germans back the export of weapons to Ukraine and sanctions against Russia. The country has absorbed a flood of Ukrainian refugees. And according to a survey by the polling firm Civey, nearly a third of Germans say they have a better image of the Bundeswehr than before the Ukraine war.