The minister, as expected, did not announce the reinstatement of military conscription in Germany and instead suggested that the Bundeswehr enlist "the most qualified and the most motivated" recruits.
"The situation in the Bundeswehr is the following: we now have about 181,000 people in the armed forces, and the target is 203,000. We also have 60,000 reservists," Pistorius said on Wednesday, adding that the Bundeswehr and NATO need 200,000 more reservists.
Pistorius' plan suggests that all German citizens, regardless of their gender, will receive a letter from the defense ministry when they turn 18, inviting them to consider taking a six-month-long basic military training with a possible voluntary extension. Male citizens will then be required to complete an online questionnaire to answer a series of questions about themselves, their family and their health. Female citizens can complete the questionnaire at a wish, while male citizens will be held liable for refusing to take it.
Through these measures, as well as by making the armed forces more attractive, the ministry aims to increase the number of recruits by 5,000 per year from the current 10,000 recruits per year.
"The goal is to increase this number year by year and do so by improving our capabilities," Pistorius said, adding that much of Germany's military infrastructure has been lost since the end of the Cold War and the abolition of conscription in 2011.
The ministry said in late January that Germany will meet NATO's target of spending 2% of its gross domestic product on defense in 2024 for the first time since the early 1990s.
In June 2022, the German parliament backed Chancellor Olaf Scholz's initiative to create a special fund for the Bundeswehr worth 100 billion euros (over $108 million) so that the German armed forces could be considered the largest regular army in Europe after modernization.