Germany: The head of the Defense Affairs Committee calls for the reactivation of nine hundred thousand reserve soldiers in the German army
The head of the defense committee in the German Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, called on the Bundeswehr to train 900,000 reserve troops and train them in light of what she described as Russia’s aggressive stance under President Vladimir Putin.
Strake-Zimmermann, who belongs to the German liberal party, the Free Democratic Party, told the German media group Funke newspapers on Saturday that “Putin is training his people for war and pitting them against the West; So, we have to be able to defend as soon as possible”.
Strake-Zimmermann said that the Russian industry is focused on the manufacture of weapons, adding, “Textbooks are printed that portray Germany as an aggressor state; Children of primary school age are trained in the use of weapons; It’s all scary”.
Strake-Zimmermann called on the German armed forces to “activate our nearly 900,000 reserve troops,” adding that for this to happen, the Bundeswehr must first register qualified ones, noting that the armed forces stopped tracking those who left active duty decades ago.
The head of the German Federation of Reservists, Patrick Sensburg, made a similar proposal a few weeks ago, calling for a systematic recording of the health status and availability of former members of the Bundeswehr, so that they can be used for internal security and allow for their gradual retraining.
In Germany, reservists include all former military service personnel as well as long-serving soldiers.
However, former soldiers who served in the former communist East German Armed Forces and never joined the Bundeswehr after German reunification in 1990 aren’t included.
