Germany must prepare itself for a European war, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has announced.
“We have to get used to the idea that there may be a threat of war in Europe,” the minister said in an interview with German media. “Germany must be able to defend itself. We must be prepared for war,” he said.
Warning that the ongoing Ukraine crisis and the latest explosion of violence in the Palestinian-Israeli crisis will have consequences for German society, Pistorius said that Germany must act defensively, and that this applies to both the Bundeswehr and society at large.
Pistorius rejected allegations leveled by some of Germany’s political class that the government has been too slow in its ambitious rearmament plans, insisting that “it doesn’t get much faster than that,” and pointing out that the Bundeswehr is not only getting €100 billion in extra money, but is also being reorganized.
The defense minister went on to blame the current government’s predecessors going back to the 1990s for the military’s shoddy state.
“Everything that has been messed up and fallen into disrepair over 30 years cannot be corrected in 19 months,” he insisted. But by the end of the current decade, Germany will find itself in a completely different position, he promised.
Germany’s rearmament is on track to becoming the largest of its kind since the Second World War, with spending continually ticking upward for more than 60 years, with the exception of a brief drop in spending in the 1990s after the end of the Cold War.
But the outlays have not coincided with visible improvements in the European nation’s military capabilities, with the Bundeswehr regularly complaining of shortages of military equipment and parts, and limitations to training stemming from restrictions on the use of fuel and ammunition during drills.
Despite these problems, Berlin has been highly generous in supporting the US-led proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, committing over €17.1 billion in military assistance to Kiev since 2022 – more than any other country apart from the United States itself. Major equipment deliveries have included Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tanks, Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled howitzers, Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and Panzerfaust RPGs.
After the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis this month, the German government quickly offered to assist Tel Aviv as well, pledging to prioritize arms exports to Israel, including ammunition for warships, and allowing the IDF to use two Luftwaffe drones which had been involved in training in Israel at the time of the escalation.
Berlin’s readiness to expend its limited military resources abroad has caused the Bundeswehr major problems at home, with media reporting last year that the military had enough ammunition for just “two days” of fighting in the event of war on German soil.
In July, Bundeswehr chief Alfons Mais complained that his army could not scrape together even a single 20,000+ troop-strong combat-ready division, with the first of three planned new ones to be fielded only by 2025, in part thanks to Berlin’s move to send weapons to Ukraine. “If we rush ammunition to Ukraine, we don’t have it available ourselves until the new orders come in. You can’t buy munitions at the DIY store, production capabilities have shrunk over the past 30 years,” Mais said at the time.