Government, Defense

Since 1955 West German external security has been tied to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). East Germany was similarly tied to the Warsaw Pact until 1990. Even in peacetime, all major units of the German army and air force were assigned to NATO operational command, leaving no separate German army under German command. The final negotiations toward international recognition of united Germany gave Germans a choice of whether or not they wanted to continue in the Western alliance or to become a neutral nation; they chose NATO. As a condition of being accorded international sovereignty in 1990, Germany pledged to limit its armed forces to 370,000 troops and to continue to foreswear the production and use of nuclear, bacteriological, and chemical weapons. The cap on military forces meant that the West German NATO forces of about 500,000 and the East German forces of 200,000 were halved. The East German army was dissolved, and West Germany invited East German military personnel, but not high officers, to apply for transfer to the Bundeswehr (Federal Army).

About two-thirds of the Bundeswehr consists of army units, while the remaining one-third is naval and coastal and air forces. Half of the military personnel are regulars or extended-service volunteers for terms ranging from 2 to 15 years. The other half are conscripts who are drafted for 10 months. All men 18 years of age or older must serve in the military. Large numbers of persons subject to the draft opt instead for the status of conscientious objector, which obliges them to spend two years in civilian service in hospitals, old age homes, and other civilian settings.

After the defeat of the German forces in World War II, major efforts were undertaken to reduce the militaristic spirit of the German armed forces. Officers and soldiers were educated to be “citizens in uniform.” The Basic Law ensured civilian control over the military, specifying that in peacetime the defense minister has the supreme command over the Bundeswehr. If the Bundestag declares a “state of defense,” the command passes to the chancellor. The Bundestag also controls the defense budget, and its Defense Committee oversees the organization and procedures of the military. In addition, the Bundestag appoints a defense ombudsman to handle complaints by enlistees on subjects such as officer misconduct and other abuses.

Germany was accustomed to the presence of foreign military forces after it was defeated in World War II. From the beginning of the 1945 Allied occupation, 250,000 American troops and as many as 360,000 Soviet soldiers were stationed in West and East Germany, along with a huge quantity of lethal weapons ranging from tanks and planes to nuclear-armed missiles. The presence of foreign army units and recurrent military maneuvers were a constant reminder to the German people of how closely they lived to possible open warfare. A major change in German life occurred in the early 1990s when most NATO countries reduced their forces in Germany, the Americans to under 100,000 troops. The Russians completed the withdrawal from their bases in East Germany in 1994. The final and most symbolically meaningful exodus was the departure in 1994 of the token troops from four nations that had kept Berlin an occupied city since 1945.