The German Military

The German Federal Defense Force, otherwise known as the Bundeswehr, is the name given to the current incarnation of the German military. It was formed in November of 1955, and retooled when East Germany merged with the West in 1990. The responsibility for controlling the military falls to the Federal government, and the constitution forbids the states from keeping armed forces of their own. The German military is currently under the command of Minister of Defense Franz-Josef Jung, as well as Chancellor Angela Merkel, with General Wolfgang Schniederhan serving as chief of staff. Currently, the military only has 250,000 active personnel, but in the event of war, another estimated fifteen million Germans aged 17-49 are eligible for conscription.

Following the dissolution of the Wehrmacht at the end of World War II, Germany was without any federal military for nearly ten years, save for a few smaller forces that served as border patrols and naval minesweeping units. Responsibility for providing German national defense fell to the occupying Allied Powers: The US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. The Allies, especially the French, were in favor of keeping the German military out of the new government, fearing that the country might once again use its military to terrorize Europe. Germany was not allowed to rearm until 1954, with its accession to NATO. Tensions between the Soviet Union and East and West Germany began to grow during this period as a result of the Korean War, as well as the fact that East German military was already stating to rearm in secret. The West German government first discussed its options for rearmament four years earlier, when former German officers were instructed by the chancellor to draw up plans for the creation of a new military in case of an emergency. The German military was officially written into the Constitution of West Germany on November 12, 1955, and Germany was allowed to join NATO.

The Bundeswehr was recently reorganized to encompass an entirely new infrastructure due to the increasing number of missions on foreign soil. The German government appointed a commission, led by Richard von Weizsäcker, to assess the options and present its findings, which it did during the spring of 2000. One of the many changes that were made was to condense logistics and other support services, like supply, communications, and military police, under a single branch, which became known as Streitkräftebasis, or Joint Support Service. Medical functions were put under the command of the Central Medical Services. The army, navy, and air force of the German military were redesigned to have five, two, and three divisions (or, in the case of the navy, flotillas), respectively. Since 1990, the Bundeswehr has taken part in operations in Yugoslavia, Cambodia and Somalia. Today, there are German forces in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ethiopia, and Eritrea, as well as 108 personnel stationed in the United States.