Germany

In September 2012 an antimilitarist action week took place in Germany – an evaluation

The idea of the action week arose from a small group during the 'PAXX (Peace) Action Conference' - an open meeting of antimilitarists – in March 2012 in Mannheim, and was originally related to the sector 'Bundeswehr (the German army) in schools'. Because of the high interest and the request of initiatives of the civil clause movement, the topic was shortly afterwards completed with the sector 'Military and armament research in colleges'. All the proposals were taken up and from September 24 to 29 the action week 'Für militärfreie Bildung und Forschung' (For Military-Free Education and Research) took place. The coordination of the action week, i.e. organisation and dispatch of a nationwide leaflet and maintenance of the action webpage was concentrated in the state of Baden-Württemberg and was taken over by the campaign 'Schulfrei für die Bundeswehr Baden-Württemberg' (No school for the Bundeswehr Baden-Württemberg).

Date published: 12 December 1966

Mr Grandrath, a minister of Jehovah's Witnesses, was a "total objector", seeking to be exempted both from military and from civilian service. He complained about his criminal conviction for refusing to perform substitute civilian service and alleged that he was discriminated against in comparision with Roman Catholic and Protestant ministers who were exempt from this service.

We oppose the export of terror and violence Made in Germany!

German exports of weapons and military equipment have doubled in recent years. Customers include dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Germany now ranks third in the worldwide list of weapon-exporting countries. Arms exports are a profitable business, but they do not provide many jobs: only 0.2 per cent of all German employees work in the weapons industry.

The debate about the “militarisation of research and teaching” is relatively new in Germany, and happens against the background of the restructuring of the German Bundeswehr from an alleged “defence army” to an “army in deployment”. This restructuring and the extent to which it affects the entire German population, are usually underestimated. While the defence army was, by design, relatively evenly distributed over Germany’s territory, at present, several military bases are being closed or merged, and military capabilities are concentrated at some locations.

As part of the work against the militarisation of education, since 2011, several schools in Germany have opposed cooperation with the German Bundeswehr and do not allow visits by Bundeswehr representatives to the school.

Robert-Blum-Gymnasium, Berlin: The school conference of the Robert-Blum-Gymnasium decided on Thursday, 24 March 2011, with a vote of 7 to 1 to adopt a proposal for making it a military-free school. The proposal was worded as follows:

Robert-Blum-Gymnasium – School without military

The German Bundeswehr in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the German people

Small and ready to fight. In spite of a general reduction in personnel, the German Bundeswehr (Armed Forces) should in the future be more fit for action: 10,000 German soldiers should be able to be deployed abroad at any time, instead of the current 7,000 . But since the suspension of conscription, the German Armed Forces have to meet their recruitment needs entirely by persuading the civilian population to join in: 170,000 (career soldiers, soldiers on contract, reservists), plus 5,000 (soldiers recruited for voluntary military service), plus X (less than 10,000 additional soldiers recruited for voluntary military service) – equal less than 185,000 soldiers. This calculation was presented by German Minister of Defence Thomas de Maizière (Christian Democrats) in a policy speech in Berlin on 18 June 2011. Presently, it does not seem to be a problem for the German Bundeswehr to find 5,000 new recruits every year. But it is less clear whether they can meet the more ambitious target of 15,000 new recruits annually, because conscription was only suspended in summer 2011 and up to now not all the figures on new recruits (and drop-outs) of the last quarters are available.

According to a report in the German newspaper Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 percent of recruits in one battalion in Lower Saxony had quit in the first few weeks of the new military recruitment system that started 1 July 2011, following the suspension of conscription. At a Berlin battalion, the drop-out rate was 10 percent.

The German Federal Bureau of Migration and Refugees denied the
asylum application of US AWOL soldier Andre Shepherd, Connection e.V.
reported. In its negative decision, the Federal Bureau writes, “But
whether the helicopters he maintained and their crews actually
participated in specific illegal actions (contrary to international
law) has neither been stated sufficiently, nor can it be determined
specifically otherwise.

Recruitment and publicity of the Germany military in schools

• Michael Schulze von Glaßer

The German parliament approved amendments to the conscription law on 15 December 2010, which will suspend conscription from 1 July 2011 on. The last conscripts will start their compulsory military service on 3 January 2011 for six months.

Besides suspending conscription in peace time, the medical examination of potential recruits will also be suspended.

Back to table of contents

Discussion about women in the military