Cabinet deliberates on Reserve Strengthening Act: Pistorius wants 200,000 reservists by 2035

At the heart of the law is the mandatory nature of exercises. Until now, the principle of so-called dual voluntariness has applied: both reservists and their employers could decline an invitation to exercises. In the future, exercises are to be mandatory under the draft law. This means that companies will, as a rule, have to accept the deployments of their employees.

Mandatory instead of dual voluntariness

Pistorius justified the initiative with the security policy situation. A modern democracy must be capable of defending its freedom. "Eine moderne Demokratie muss in der Lage sein, seine Freiheit zu verteidigen. Dafür brauchen wir eine Reserve, die schnell verfügbar, gut ausgebildet und engstens mit der aktiven Truppe verbunden ist," the Minister said.

For persons who served in the Bundeswehr for less than one year, the planned obligation applies until their 45th birthday. Currently, only about 60,000 are firmly designated as reserve. The draft defines reservists as all former soldiers who were not discharged dishonorably.

Support from the Reservists Association

Pistorius receives support from the Reservists Association. Association President Bastian Ernst, who serves in the Bundestag for the CDU, spoke out in favor of a mandatory reserve and addressed the business community. "Unternehmen brauchen ein sicheres Umfeld. Und ein sicheres Umfeld haben wir nur, wenn wir eine starke Bundeswehr haben. Und eine starke Bundeswehr braucht eine starke Reserve," Ernst said.

Criticism from the business community

Criticism, by contrast, comes from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Rainer Kambeck of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) fundamentally assesses the goal of strengthening the reserve — and a new law to that end — positively, but considers the abolition of dual voluntariness to be misguided. He argued for starting with voluntariness, as was done with the Military Service Modernization Act. "Man könne ja, wie beim neuen Wehrdienst auch, nach einigen Jahren auswerten, ob sich die Zahl der Interessierten nicht auch ohne Pflicht deutlich erhöhen lässt," Kambeck said.

Questions are also coming from the opposition. Greens defense politician Niklas Wagener is calling for a personnel reform at the Bundeswehr that would ensure that interested individuals are recruited more quickly and more straightforwardly. "Wenn ich mich in meinem eigenen Freundeskreis und Umfeld umhöre, wo viele bereit sind, was für die Bundeswehr zu tun, in die Reserve zu gehen, dann höre ich immer wieder, wie lange man auf Rückmeldung wartet, wie schwierig es überhaupt ist, ins System reinzukommen," Wagener said.

The draft law had been known since May and is to be presented on the day of the cabinet meeting. After the summer break, the Bundestag is then to take up the plans. With the law, the federal government is pursuing the goal of dovetailing the reserve more closely with the active force and being able to draw on additional personnel more quickly in a crisis.

Additional law on infrastructure construction

Alongside the Reserve Strengthening Act, there is a second initiative: the cabinet also planned to approve a draft of a law on accelerated construction of military infrastructure. This is intended to accelerate the expansion of Bundeswehr properties and installations.

The debate over the Reserve Strengthening Act comes at a time of growing security policy discussions in Europe and a debate over Germany's military capability. With the planned expansion of the reserve, the federal government is responding to experiences showing that voluntary structures alone cannot meet personnel needs in the case of defense.

The reactions from the business community show that the planned abolition of dual voluntariness is politically contested. Employer associations and chambers fear burdens on companies that would have to release their employees for exercises. Supporters, by contrast, point to the responsibility of the business community for external security.