“The Bundeswehr is still stuck in the old structures”

WirtschaftsWoche: Ms. Strack-Zimmermann, the Bundeswehr is lacking personnel. The CDU defense politicians Kerstin Vieregge and Serap Güler are now in one Concept paper Ideas on how young people in particular can be won over to the Bundeswehr. What went wrong in the last few years?
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann: It is It is pleasing that members of the CDU/CSU faction are thinking constructively about this and are not opposing everything and everyone in these challenging times. This is welcome because the Ministry of Defense was the responsibility of the CDU for 16 years and the claim of the then Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen to initiate the “turnaround in personnel” was not even remotely implemented. The minister has declared the number of 203,000 soldiers to be the target as a benchmark for the future personnel size of the Bundeswehr. In addition to the number and qualifications of the soldiers, the operational readiness of the Bundeswehr should also have played a central role: Does a person who decides to join the Bundeswehr also receive the equipment that is absolutely necessary in order to do this, which is not entirely ordinary job to fulfill? This applies to personal equipment as well as military equipment, regardless of the service in which the soldier is deployed. So it’s not just about fulfilling the task appropriately to the situation, but about the tools with which the soldiers are equipped. The equipment so far wasn’t what it should have been, so some applicants have distanced themselves from being a soldier. Commitment is the prerequisite for attractiveness.