Friday, January 6, 2023

Growing Number Of German Soldiers Are Asking Not To Be Sent To War

German soldiers are often deployed domestically for all manner of non-combat roles, in this case troops are helping battle a bark beetle infestation in forests in Saxony in eastern Germany. Image: picture alliance/dpa/dpa-Zentralbild  

DW: Spike in German troop numbers asking not to be sent to war 

It's fewer than 1,000 troops, but nevertheless, the number of German Bundeswehr soldiers who asked to be exempted from serving in war zones rose markedly in 2022. This option dates back to the era of national service. 

Almost 1,000 German military personnel applied for an exemption from serving in combat zones in 2022, a sharp rise on 2021's figures, according to a report published on Friday. 

A spokesperson for the German ministry responsible for processing the applications told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland group of newspapers that 951 Bundeswehr soldiers had applied for the exemption. 

 "In 2021, 201 applications for exemption from combat service were received, in 2022 it was a total of 951 applications," the spokesperson for the Ministry for Family and Civil Affairs told the newspapers.  

The Bundeswehr has roughly 183,000 serving personnel, meaning far fewer than 1% of troops applied for the status in all.   

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WNU Editor: Then why join the military? What did German soldiers expect?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

how about you join the military to defend your home country? not to go to another country to fight their war. Unless Ukraine is already in NATO. Unless we agree that this should happen. Unless we are ok with our politicians to break their word for us to then die for them, AFTER the same politicians stole from us trillions, oversaw the losses of trillions more thanks to offshoring, inflation, budget overruns.

Think the military should fight one war and one war only: RID US OF THESE DEMONS who take our rights, steal from us and started these wars in the first place!

Enemies foreign and within.
DEFEND us against these!

Anonymous said...

How and why can a German soldier ask not to be sent to war?

The idea of a professional soldier being unwilling to go to a combat zone might very well seem odd.

The option to ask to be removed from consideration for service in a war zone dates back to the era when Germany still had mandatory national service for many young people.

Until 2011, most school leavers in Germany were required either to serve a short stint with the military or alternatively to work in some form of civic capacity instead.

New recruits to the Bundeswehr can no longer stipulate this, but soldiers who enlisted before the abolition of national service retained the option.

Anonymous said...

This is not your grandfather's Afrika Korps heh heh heh. Keep ducking

Anonymous said...

Some people join, because of the college benefits. As much as people pay attention to world events =, military science, demographics, leader psychology, yada yada yada, they stick their head up a little bit and figure there is no war(s) on the horizon and join for the college benefits.

I remember one gay in 1986 who said he was going to join for the VA benefits. He was not patriotic. He was not gung ho. He did not particularly want to fight in any war. He reasoned that the chances of getting HIV were high if not 100% and that with VA benefits it would cover medical expenses. In fact there were quite a number of excess deaths due to HIV and you could see it in a plot total population. This guy also whined that he was tired of one night stands and just wanted a relationship.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/why-do-people-join-us-military-here-are-top-5-reasons-180727

Mr Nobody said...

You join the military, you are stuck. Just the way it is. You follow the flag and get killed if necessity determines it.. Your destiny....to suffer, if need be die....

The draftee is different. Not a willing recruit, he is forced to serve by the government.

The Germans are not fools, they see what is coming and are starting to worry. Most of their military has also been purged of "true believers" what you are left with are the grudgingly willing. Sucks to be them.

Anonymous said...

A next door neighbor of a close family member stayed with us for overnight back in the day.

He was in the Afrika Korps. He said the best thing that happened to him was being captured by the Americans. It is not to say that American committed no war crimes and did not on occasion shoot prisoners. They did, but that was more the exception than the rule.

Surrendering to the Americans was much better than surrendering to the Russians.

This guy I believe got some training done while in captivity. You don't run off. You work at a local farm. You steer clear of the camp NAZIs who the fucking camp commander turns a blind eye to.

Anonymous said...

What happened to the German war machine?

Anonymous said...

What happened?

Demyansk, Kursk, Stalingrad, The Kuban, the three assaults against Karkov, Narva etc

example

SS General speaking to a SS Colonel after a recent engagement..... Well Standartenfurher where is your regiment now?

Sir...they are standing outside.

SS General looks outside his office widow. There are only 28 men standing out there .