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On May 8 2026, the anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi regime in World War 2, tens of thousands of German students marched in 150 towns and cities across the country, protesting against war, militarization and the looming prospect of compulsory military service. Since German parliament passed a law last December requiring all adult men born after 2008 to declare their intention and availability to perform military duties, the “School strike against conscription” campaign has already mobilized three waves of nationwide street protests.
Ruairí Casey is a freelance journalist based in Berlin. He reports on international politics, migration and the environment.
The government has assured young people that the Bundeswehr’s targets to increase its personnel by around 80,000 soldiers will be met with voluntary recruits. But with signups falling massively short, it is widely expected – and, as far as conservatives are concerned, necessary – that young men will soon be obliged to serve a six-month stint in the military for the first time in 15 years. Since mid-January, forms with questions about fitness, education and suitability have been sent to all men and women turning 18, with men obliged to reply or face a 250 euro fine. A generation already unfairly burdened by Germany’s mounting economic and social crises now finds itself thrown into the country’s manic drive to rearm and become Europe’s leading conventional military power.
A generation already unfairly burdened by Germany’s mounting economic and social crises now finds itself thrown into the country’s manic drive to rearm and become Europe’s leading conventional military power.
In the Bundeswehr’s social media videos, patriotic young men and women proclaim their eagerness to don a uniform and protect their freedoms and security. But their esprit de corps is not shared by most of their peers: almost two-thirds of 18-29 year-olds oppose compulsory service. “Preparation for war is being made, and we young people are supposed to be cannon fodder for it,” read a statement by the strike campaign organisers. At demonstrations, students have shredded their questionnaire forms, and speakers have demanded more investment in education, social services and mental health support for young people. Why, one participant in Berlin asked, should they die for a country that won’t clean their school toilets?
The strikes have been organized locally by school committees, alongside members of teachers unions, peace groups, and the youth wings of Die Linke, the Germany Communist Party and the Marxist–Leninist Party of Germany (prompting several media outlets to warn of “left-wing extremist” subterfuge). Class politics and anti-imperialism have been placed centre-stage, with widespread expressions of solidarity for victims of the Gaza genocide and the US and Israel’s war against Iran. Organizers have already forged links with supporters in Italy, Portugal, France and elsewhere; on stage in Berlin, one speaker read a letter of support from Greek dockworkers.
Teachers have locked children inside classrooms to prevent them from striking; more have been threatened with fines or expulsion for taking part. Organizers claim to have been questioned by domestic intelligence agents, and at least two striking teenagers have been criminally investigated for holding placards insulting chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has described the strikes as a healthy sign of Germany’s tolerance for free speech, but participants say they’ve been subject to repression and retaliation. In some schools, teachers have locked children inside classrooms to prevent them from striking; more have been threatened with fines or expulsion for taking part. Organizers claim to have been questioned by domestic intelligence agents and federal police officers, and at least two striking teenagers have been criminally investigated for holding placards insulting chancellor Friedrich Merz, reading "Friedrich, why don’t you die on the eastern front yourself?” and “Merz lick balls,” inadvertently popularising the slogan.
Reintroducing the Draft
If the minds of Germany’s youth are not yet set to war, their bodies may be regardless. Conscription, constitutionally established in West Germany in the early 1950s, was suspended in 2011, by which time there was cross-party agreement that it had outlived its purpose. However, the law was never revoked, and the state reserved the right to forcibly call up men (but not women) in case of imminent security threats. A debate about renewing it emerged as Germany announced its plan to remilitarize in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and polls show broad support for the measure, especially among conservatives and older voters. Political opposition has primarily come from Die Linke and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, although the Greens and AfD voted against the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition’s Military Service Modernization Act (the former wanting an expanded civic service, the latter out of concern soldiers would be deployed to Ukraine).
The defense ministry’s goal is to meet its NATO targets by raising the number of standing soldiers in the Bundeswehr from 184,000 to 260,000, with an additional 200,000 reservists, by 2035. Efforts have been made to make voluntary recruitment, which has stagnated for years, more appealing. The base pay for a soldier has been raised from 1,500 euro to 2,600 euro per month, made more attractive when free accommodation, food and professional training are considered. Flecktarn camouflage has been pasted onto billboards, trams and bus stops as part of a ubiquitous advertising campaign – and youth officers have doubled their visits to schools. Yet, even a bumper recruitment year in 2025 could only push the Bundeswehr just above replacement level. Figures within the armed forces, like chairman of the Bundeswehr Association, André Wüstner, have been clear that they think some form of conscription will be necessary. Beginning next year, around 300,000 men will be mustered annually for medical screenings at 24 “bright and friendly” conscriptions centres being opened around the country.
The Bundeswehr says the vast majority of questionnaires sent so far have been returned on time, with around half of respondents expressing some interest in serving (respondents are asked to rate their desire on a scale of one to ten). Yet, applications for conscientious objector status have risen sharply, with more than 2,500 filed in the first quarter of 2026. Groups involved in the strike campaign have set up consultations to advise people of how to apply.
Austerity to Finance Rearmament
If the Bundeswehr still lacks troops, it will soon have an abundance of arms with which to supply them. Germany’s defense budget of $114 billion (€98 billion) in 2025 made it the world’s fourth largest military spender, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. By 2029, Berlin plans to increase this to 3.9% of GDP, or €152 billion – more than France and the United Kingdom combined. A constitutional limit on borrowing introduced under Angela Merkel, which led to more than a decade of disastrously low state investment in public services and infrastructure, has finally been eased, primarily for defense expenditure. The budget for new tanks, drones, fighter jets and air defense systems is now theoretically unlimited.
Germany’s defense budget of €98 billion in 2025 made it the world’s fourth largest military spender. 2029, Berlin plans to increase this to 3.9% of GDP, or €152 billion – more than France and the United Kingdom combined.
Düsseldorf-based arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has been the economy’s star performer during this spending spree, its share price rising stratospherically as it ascends toward the pantheon of European arms manufacturers. In Germany’s ailing civilian manufacturing sector, battered by high energy costs and losing out to Chinese competitors, assembly lines are quickly being refitted. A Volkswagen factory slated for closure in Osnabrück – the pride of Germany’s auto industry now plans an astonishing 50,000 layoffs – is in talks to produce parts for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. The leader of Germany’s powerful IG Metall has voiced no objection, acknowledging that “the world has changed.”
The consensus across Germany’s political mainstream is that a war with Russia is all but inevitable unless Europe, led by Germany, can rapidly establish sufficient military deterrence. The Bundeswehr has deployed a 5,000-strong armoured brigade to Lithuania, and it's top general has warned an attack on NATO’s eastern flank could come as soon as 2029. But remilitarization will not drag Germany out of its economic mire, nor will the jobs it creates come close to replacing those lost in civilian manufacturing. Unemployment has now topped three million, with prospects most dim among young, entry-level workers.
The CDU/CSU’s remedy is a major rollback of the welfare state, currently being hashed out in talks with their Social Democrat coalition partners. Proposals include measures to increase working hours and the pension age. A recent report revealed government plans to slash 8.6bn from social support services for children, families and disabled, which Die Linke MP Heidi Reichenek branded as "unprecedented brutality.” For many families struggling, mounting rent payments and grocery bills will seem more inevitable and existential than the Russian bear.
A Bundeswehr under Far-Right Leadership?
The Bundestag’s most pro-Russian party, the far-right AfD, has profited most from Germany’s economic stagnation. It now holds a five-point lead in national polls, and is certain to win an upcoming election in Lower Saxony. Yet, the greatest democratic threat to postwar Germany has hardly figured in public debates about rearmament. In a sign of how unmoored discourse has become from reality, and how little future risks have been weighed, the co-leader of the Green Party recently confessed that he had never considered the possibility that the AfD could gain influence over the armed forces. The threat of conflict with Russia was more “real,” he said, suggesting that conscripts simply desert under an AfD government – a crime punishable by five years in prison.
Nor has much time been spent worrying about what Germany’s turn towards hard power will leave behind, namely its previous commitments to diplomacy, development and human rights. Watching Merz’s slavish endorsement of the US and Israel’s flagrant war of aggression against Iran – before backtracking upon realising the obvious economic consequences for Germany – one might forget that Germany was one of the architects of the JCPOA that Trump tore up in 2018. In cost-saving measures, Berlin has also slashed foreign aid funding by around a half. And it has continued its military and political support for Israel’s genocidal violence in Palestine, Lebanon and beyond. This February, the Bundeswehr signed a formal cooperation agreement with the IDF, a disturbing reminder of the model the German armed forces may choose to take.
The numbers of students participating in school strikes may still be small compared to the total number of call ups, but the demonstrations have quickly become an important means to link together these domestic and international challenges experienced most sharply by the youth – the dangers of austerity, militarism, fascism and foreclosure of a peaceful and comfortable future.
In committees and discussions around the country, including, organizers say, rural areas where the AfD has become the dominant force, students are encouraging each other to join the dots and resist.
