Germany: The Next ‘Arsenal of Democracy’?
The arms industry is booming worldwide, especially in Europe. European nations imported a third of all global arms exports from 2021 to 2025, a 210 percent increase over the previous five years. As that trend grows and Europe increasingly distances itself from the United States, Germany stands as the obvious supplier.
Germany is recasting “its industrial base as the West’s arsenal,” the Wall Street Journal noted on April 19. Instead of exporting more bmws and Porsches, Germany is increasingly exporting missiles and tanks. German weapons are in high demand and seen as the solution to its economic woes.
Global military spending hit a record high of $2.9 trillion last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (sipri) reported April 27. That means 2.5 percent of the global economic output was spent on militaries, up from 2.4 percent last year. That’s a 17-year high.
While global average military spending is up 2.9 percent, European military spending rose nearly five times faster to $864 billion.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and one of its largest arms producers, is set to benefit.
On March 9, sipri reported that Germany overtook China to become the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter. Only America, France and Russia export more. Germany could soon take the No. 3 spot as Russia’s weapons exports are declining.
Based on data from 2021–2025, Germany’s total global arms exports market share is at 5.7 percent, an increase of 0.3 percent from 2016–2020. In 2024, the German government approved a record $14.9 billion in arms exports; that number declined in 2025, but is expected to rise again.
Germany’s increasing exports are tied to its booming military production. According to sipri data, German exports include:
- 34 warships
- at least 66 surface-to-air missile systems
- at least 422 tanks
- at least 1,108 armored vehicles
- 78 pieces of artillery
Where are they going? Largely to other European nations. Twenty-four percent of German exports go to Ukraine; 17 percent, to other European nations.
Germany is becoming not only “the West’s arsenal”; there is also growing demand for German weaponry from the Middle East and South America. An analysis of these exports viewed alongside Bible prophecy shows that the weapons arsenal Germany is building poses a grave danger to the world.
Vehicle for German Imperialism
Germany’s arms exports are great for its economy and as a powerful foreign-policy weapon.
German arms exports expert Simone Wisotzki told Deutsche Welle: “[C]learly a lot of arms exports are driven by political interests.” Several other experts have also sounded alarms that the approval process for arms exports is not transparent—ultimately, only the chancellor and his cabinet decide on approval for major exports in secret.
The German Office for Export Control Affairs states, “German exports in crisis regions should neither reinforce conflicts nor contribute to internal repression or other significant human rights violations.” Yet Germany has exported to some less-than-reputable nations when it benefited its interests.
In 2024, it lifted the arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, which was placed after journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s death, to allow the sale of Dhiel’s iris-t missiles. This was after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack; Berlin claimed it would ultimately help Israel. However, another obvious reason for the decision is that the Gulf region holds 50 percent of the world’s oil reserves and supplies 30 percent of global oil, which Germany wants to access. Both Saudi Arabia and Qatar also received German arms despite accusations of human rights abuses in Yemen.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz further stated in February that he would loosen export restrictions to the Gulf states even more. The Gulf states already import significant amounts of weaponry. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are three of the top five arms importers in the Middle East, and Germany supplies part of those arms already, according to sipri data.
In 2021–2025, around 94 percent of the arms imported by states in the [Gulf] region came from the U.S.A. (which accounted for 54 percent) or Europe, chiefly Italy (12 percent), France (11 percent) and Germany (7.3 percent). France has consistently been the third-largest arms supplier to the Middle East since 2011–2015, but Italy and Germany have both significantly increased their roles.
—sipri
Germany has used weapons exports to ingratiate itself with Israel as well. This allows it to appear as a friend while making Israel partly reliant on it. Between 2022 and 2023, exports to Israel saw a 10-fold increase; 68 percent of Israel’s arms imports come from the United States (the world’s largest arms exporter at 42 percent of the global market), and 31 percent come from Germany. This makes Israel at least somewhat reliant on Germany for its defense. That’s a dangerous position to be in.
Mr. Flurry explained in his article “The Hidden Danger in Germany’s ‘Alliance Against Iran’” that Germany is building an alliance in the Middle East to confront not only Iran but also Israel, Britain and America.
Booming Industry
Germany’s booming military industry drives its rising arms exports. The Bundeswehr increasingly buys weapons from German arms makers instead of American companies. Up to $103 billion is slated to go to Rheinmetall and its subsidiaries in the coming years. To put that into perspective, just 8 percent (roughly $7.5 billion) of its planned 154 major defense procurements for 2026 will go to U.S. defense companies. Meanwhile, as much as 85 percent of its $706 billion military budget to be spent by 2030 will stay in Europe, mostly going to German companies.
Germany’s military industrial complex is alive and has been thriving in a way it hasn’t for over eight decades. Rheinmetall’s share price has multiplied over 10-fold since 2020, and it has become the largest defense company by market capitalization in continental Europe. Last year, it opened the largest munitions factory in Europe at a record speed of just 15 months.
There’s a high demand in Germany to work for defense companies. Rheinmetall reported that over 250,000 Germans applied to work at the company in 2025, compared to the 44,000 employees it has globally. The German arms sector, according to the Ministry of Economics in 2025, employs over 105,000 people, an increase of 30 percent since 2021.
Germany claims it is boosting its military capacity so it can defend against Russia, but Russia has been stuck in Ukraine for four years, so that seems unlikely to be the real reason.
Germany is fast becoming the arsenal of Europe and the Middle East. Where is this leading?
A Revived War Machine
When U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt declared that America ought to become the “arsenal of democracy” in 1940, the U.S. was engaged in a war against Germany. Since then, the fulfillment of that goal has played a role in transforming America into a superpower. Now, Germany sees it can become the new “arsenal of democracy.” Bible prophecy, however, says German weaponry will be used to spread tyranny, as it so often has, instead of protecting democracy.
Consider who it is selling its weaponry to. Germany has agreed to supply Croatia with its newest Leopard 2A8 tanks, despite the country’s well-documented affinity for far-right, anti-Semitic sentiment. Croatia was also closely allied with Nazi Germany.
Germany is rapidly expanding its capacity to build weaponry. Building partnerships built through arms exports is part of a plan to attack its historic enemies. Right after World War ii, Plain Truth editor in chief Herbert W. Armstrong warned of what we now see in Germany:
We don’t understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War ii, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War iii! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone underground. … Now a Nazi underground is methodically planned. They plan to come back and to win on the third try.
The Russian threat is used as an excuse to arm and export those arms without raising alarm bells. Germany’s real target has been America and Britain all along. For more information, read Chapter 8 of The Holy Roman Empire in Prophecy.