Bundeswehr
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The Bundeswehr (German: [ˈbʊndəsˌveːɐ̯] ⓘ, lit. Federal Defence) are the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Bundeswehr is divided into a military part (armed forces or Streitkräfte) and a civil part. The military part consists of the four armed forces: German Army, German Navy, German Air Force and Cyber and Information Domain Service, which are supported by the Bundeswehr Joint Support Command.
As of 31 January 2026[update], the Bundeswehr had a strength of 186,221 active-duty military personnel and 81,205 civilians,[4] placing it among the 30 largest military forces in the world, and making it the second largest in the European Union behind France. In addition, the Bundeswehr has approximately 860,000 reserve personnel (2025).[5] With the German military budget at $127 billion (€108.2 billion) for 2026,[7] the Bundeswehr is the fourth-highest-funded military in the world. Germany's defence spending had averaged approximately 1.2% of GDP over the preceding decade, well below the NATO guideline of 2%, which Germany first met in 2024.[10][11] NATO's revised spending guidelines call for 3.5% of GDP allocated to defence and an additional 1.5% to critical infrastructure resilience, a threshold endorsed at the 2025 Hague summit.[12] Germany is aiming to expand the Bundeswehr to around 203,000 soldiers by 2031 to better cope with increasing responsibilities.[13]
Following concerns from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany announced a major shift in policy, pledging a €100 billion ($116.344 billion) special fund for the Bundeswehr – to remedy years of underinvestment – along with raising the budget to above 2% GDP.[14] In 2025, the German constitution was amended, exempting military and intelligence spending above 1% GDP from the Schuldenbremse (debt limit).[15]
History
[edit]Founding principles
[edit]The name Bundeswehr was first proposed by former Wehrmacht general and Liberal politician Hasso von Manteuffel.[16] The Iron Cross (Eisernes Kreuz), a symbol that has a long association with the military of Germany, is its official emblem. The Schwarzes Kreuz is derived from the black cross insignia of the medieval Teutonic knights; since 1813 the symbol has been used to denote a military decoration for all ranks.
When the Bundeswehr was established in 1955, its founding principles were based on developing a completely new military force for the defence of West Germany. In this respect the Bundeswehr did not consider itself to be a successor to either the Reichswehr (1921–1935) of the Weimar Republic or Hitler's Wehrmacht (1935–1945), and did not adhere to the traditions of any former German military organization. Its official ethos is based on three major themes:[17]
- The aims of the military reformers at the beginning of the 19th century such as Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Clausewitz
- The conduct displayed by members of the military resistance against Adolf Hitler, especially the attempt of Claus von Stauffenberg and Henning von Tresckow to assassinate him.
- Its own military traditions set in 1955.
One of the most visible traditions of the modern Bundeswehr is the Großer Zapfenstreich. This is a form of military tattoo that has its origins in the landsknecht era. The FRG reinstated this formal military ceremony in 1952, three years before the foundation of the Bundeswehr. Today it is performed by a military band with 4 fanfare trumpeters and timpani, a corps of drums, up to two escort companies of the Bundeswehr's Wachbataillon (or another deputized unit) and torchbearers. The Zapfenstreich is only performed during national celebrations or solemn public commemorations. It can honour distinguished persons present such as the German Federal President, or provide the conclusion to large military exercises.
Another important tradition in the modern German armed forces is the Gelöbnis: the solemn oath made by serving professional soldiers, and recruits (and formerly conscripts) during basic training. There are two kinds of oath: a pledge for recruits, and a solemn vow for full-time personnel.
The pledge is made annually on 20 July, the date on which a group of Wehrmacht officers attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. Recruits from the Bundeswehr's Wachbataillon make their vow at the Bendlerblock in Berlin. This was the headquarters of the resistance and also where the officers were summarily executed following the failure of the assassination attempt on Hitler. National commemorations are held nearby within the grounds of the Reichstag. Similar events also take place across the German Republic. Since 2011, when conscription was suspended, the wording of the ceremonial vow for full-time recruits and volunteer personnel is:
- "Ich gelobe, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland treu zu dienen und das Recht und die Freiheit des deutschen Volkes tapfer zu verteidigen."
- "I pledge to serve the Federal Republic of Germany loyally and to defend the right and the freedom of the German people bravely."
- "Ich gelobe, der Bundesrepublik Deutschland treu zu dienen und das Recht und die Freiheit des deutschen Volkes tapfer zu verteidigen."
Serving Bundeswehr personnel replace "Ich gelobe, ..." with "Ich schwöre, ..." ("I swear...").
Cold War: 1955–1990
[edit]
After World War II the responsibility for the security of Germany as a whole rested with the four occupying Allied Powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. Germany had been without armed forces since the Wehrmacht was dissolved following World War II. When the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in 1949, it was without a military. Germany remained completely demilitarized and any plans for a German military were forbidden by Allied regulations.
Some naval mine-sweeping units such as the German Mine Sweeping Administration (Deutscher Minenräumdienst) continued to exist, but they remained unarmed and under Allied control and did not serve as a national defence force. The Federal Border Protection (Bundesgrenzschutz), a mobile, lightly armed police force of 10,000 men, was formed on 14 March 1951 and expanded to 20,000 men on 19 June 1953. A proposal to integrate West German troops with soldiers of France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy in a European Defence Community was proposed but never implemented.
There was a discussion among the United States, the United Kingdom and France over the issue of a revived (West) German military. In particular, France was reluctant to allow Germany to rearm in light of recent history (Germany had invaded France twice in living memory, in World War I and World War II, and also defeated France in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71). However, after the project for a European Defence Community failed in the French National Assembly in 1954, France agreed to West German accession to NATO and rearmament.
With growing tensions between the Soviet Union and the West, especially after the Korean War, this policy was to be revised. While the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was already secretly rearming, the seeds of a new West German force started in 1950 when former high-ranking German officers were tasked by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to discuss the options for West German rearmament. The results of a meeting in the monastery of Himmerod formed the conceptual base to build the new armed forces in West Germany.
The Amt Blank (Blank Agency, named after its director Theodor Blank), the predecessor of the later Federal Ministry of Defence, was formed the same year to prepare the establishment of the future forces. Hasso von Manteuffel, a former general of the Wehrmacht and Free Democratic Party politician, submitted the name Bundeswehr for the new forces. This name was later confirmed by the West German Bundestag.
The Bundeswehr was officially established on the 200th birthday of Scharnhorst on 12 November 1955. In personnel and education terms, the most important initial feature of the new German armed forces was to be their orientation as citizen defenders of a democratic state, fully subordinate to the political leadership of the country.[18] A personnel screening committee was created to make sure that the future colonels and generals of the armed forces were those whose political attitude and experience would be acceptable to the new democratic state.[19] There were a few key reformers, such as General Ulrich de Maiziere, General Graf von Kielmansegg, and Graf von Baudissin,[20] who reemphasised some of the more democratic parts of Germany's armed forces history in order to establish a solid civil-military basis to build upon.
After an amendment of the Basic Law in 1955, West Germany became a member of NATO. The first public military review took place at Andernach, in January 1956.[21] In 1956, conscription for all men between the ages of 18 and 45 was reintroduced, later augmented by a civil alternative with longer duration (see Conscription in Germany). In response, East Germany formed its own military force, the Nationale Volksarmee (NVA), in 1956, with conscription being established only in 1962. The Nationale Volksarmee was eventually dissolved with the reunification of Germany in 1990. Compulsory conscription was suspended – but not completely abolished as an alternative – in January 2011.
During the Cold War the Bundeswehr was the backbone of NATO's conventional defence in Central Europe. It had a strength of 495,000 military and 170,000 civilian personnel. Although Germany had smaller armed forces than France and the United States, Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis assesses the Bundeswehr as "perhaps (the) world's best army".[22] The Army consisted of three corps with 12 divisions, most of them heavily armed with tanks and APCs. The Luftwaffe owned significant numbers of tactical combat aircraft and took part in NATO's integrated air defence (NATINAD). The Navy was tasked and equipped to defend the Baltic Approaches, to provide escort reinforcement and resupply shipping in the North Sea and to contain the Soviet Baltic Fleet.
During the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s, German special forces of the Bundeswehr were deployed as part of a covert operation. During this time, Operation Summer Rain played a significant role. The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) conducted this secret mission, where special forces were infiltrated from West Germany to Pakistan and then into Afghanistan.
The primary task of these special units was to clandestinely acquire Soviet weapon technology, including armor for combat helicopters, vehicles, landmines, modern ammunition such as uranium rounds, rocket warheads, night vision devices, and navigation technology. Collaboration with the insurgent Mujahideen was central to this covert operation.
During this time the Bundeswehr did not take part in combat operations. However, there were a number of large-scale training exercises resulting in operational casualties. The first such incident was in June 1957, when 15 paratroop recruits drowned in the Iller river, Bavaria.[23]
German Reunification 1990
[edit]
At the time of reunification, the German military boasted a manpower of some 585,000 soldiers.[13] As part of the German reunification process, under the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany (Two-Plus Four Treaty), which paved the way for reunification, the Bundeswehr was to be reduced to 370,000 personnel, of whom no more than 345,000 were to be in the Army and Air Force.[24] This would be Germany's contribution to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, and the restrictions would enter into force at the time the CFE treaty would. As a result, the Bundeswehr was significantly reduced, and the former East German Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) was disbanded at the moment of German reunification, with a portion of its personnel and materiel being absorbed into the Bundeswehr.
About 50,000 Volksarmee personnel were integrated into the Bundeswehr on 2 October 1990. This figure was rapidly reduced as conscripts and short-term volunteers completed their service. A number of senior officers (but no generals or admirals) received limited contracts for up to two years to continue daily operations. Personnel remaining in the Bundeswehr were awarded new contracts and new ranks, dependent on their individual qualification and experience. Many were granted and accepted a lower rank than previously held in the Volksarmee.
In general, the unification process of the two militaries – under the slogan "Armee der Einheit" (or "Army of Unity") – has been seen publicly as a major success and an example for other parts of the society.
With the reduction, a large amount of the military hardware of the Bundeswehr, as well as of the Volksarmee, had to be disposed of. Most of the armoured vehicles and fighter jet aircraft (the Bundesluftwaffe – due to reunification – was the only air force in the world that flew both Phantoms and MIGs) were dismantled under international disarmament procedures. Many ships were scrapped or sold, often to the Baltic states or Indonesia (the latter received 39 former Volksmarine vessels of various types).
With reunification, all restrictions on the manufacture and possession of conventional arms that had been imposed on the Bundeswehr as a condition for West German rearmament were lifted.[25]
Since 1996, Germany also has its own special forces, the Kommando Spezialkräfte (Special Forces Command). It was formed after German citizens had to be rescued from the Rwandan genocide by Belgian Para-Commandos as the Special Commands of the Federal Police were not capable of operating in a war zone.
Reorientation
[edit]A major event for the German military was a series of defense spending cuts and the suspension of the compulsory conscription for men in 2011. These were introduced by Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble as part of austerity measures in response to the Great Recession and the European debt crisis.[26] In 2011/12, a major reform of the Bundeswehr was announced under Thomas de Maizière, further limiting the number of military bases and soldiers. The land forces of the Bundeswehr would have three large units at divisional level. There are currently five. The number of brigades decreased from eleven to eight.[27]
German military expenditures are lower than comparable countries such as the United Kingdom, or countries of the European Union such as France, especially when taking into account Germany's larger population and economy. This discrepancy is often criticized by Germany's NATO allies, as far back as Obama-era US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.[28][29]
As one result of the 2014 NATO Wales summit which was attended by both Merkel and Ursula von der Leyen in September 2014,[30] the Bundeswehr acknowledged in October chronic equipment problems that rendered its armed forces "unable to deliver its defensive NATO promises". Among the problems cited were dysfunctional weapons systems, armored vehicles, aircraft, and naval vessels unfit for immediate service due to a neglect of maintenance, and serious equipment and spare parts shortages. The situation was so dire in 2016 that it was acknowledged that most of Germany's fighter aircraft and combat helicopters were not in deployable condition,[31][32][33] although the Air Force had almost 38,000 soldiers,[27] and von der Leyen's daycare system.[34][35]
In 2015, as a result of the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Germany announced what was termed "a major increase" in defense spending. In May 2015, the German government approved an increase in defense spending, at the time 1.3% of GDP, by 6.2% over the following five years, allowing the Ministry of Defense to fully modernize the army.[36] The 2015 reform set a required strength of 185,000 soldiers.[37] Plans were also announced to significantly expand the tank fleet to a potential number of 328, order 131 more Boxer armored personnel carriers, increase the submarine fleet, and to develop a new fighter jet to replace the Panavia Tornado.[38]