“You should draw a line in the calendar for 2029!” Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer advised young soldiers at the Command and Staff College in 2024. We had better take heed, because the year 2029 may be a turning point far greater than 1939.

At the time, the year seemed random. But Germany’s military leaders have been working toward it as a hard deadline. On June 24, the “Bundeswehr’s Defense Structure 2029” was presented to the Bundestag’s Defense Committee. Like the overall Concept for Military Defense, the document is classified.

We don’t know exactly what Germany is planning for the year, but the meticulous preparations and the secrecy suggest something big.

On June 5, 2024, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said:

We must not believe that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will stop at Ukraine’s borders if he gets that far. We must be kriegstüchtig [ready for war] by 2029. We must provide a deterrent to prevent things from escalating to the extreme.

Putin has advanced little further in the past two years, but the year 2029 has become anchored in German military thinking and is even a key year in the planning of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The word kriegstüchtig is hard to translate, but it is the same word Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels used in 1944 when he said: “I promise the German people to leave nothing undone over the next few weeks to make the homeland kriegstüchtig in every way.”

Germany had been engulfed in intense warfare since 1939, but by 1943 and 1944, the country shifted to what Goebbels called total war. Germany is using similar terminology today.

“We have to be prepared. … We must be ready to fight,” Lt. Gen. Christian Freuding, Germany’s army chief, told Politico at the ila Aerospace Show in Berlin, held June 10 to 14. “2029 is not a German timeline. It’s nato-agreed intelligence. All 32 nato partners agree that Russia might have the capability to invade a nato partner country in 2029.”

Russia’s advances provide Germany with the perfect cover to advance its militarization. But Germany may be serious when it plans for a war with Russia in 2029.

Germany’s Urgency

“Speed is of the essence now,” Freuding said. “We must improve our capabilities for the ‘fight tonight’ every day as the German Army.”

The German military is speeding up its preparations to be ready for war at any moment. But the year 2029 is becoming increasingly relevant:

• In 2025, Breuer ordered the Bundeswehr to be fully equipped with weapons and materiel by 2029.
• Germany is projected to have a military budget of at least €150 billion (us$174 billion) by 2029, roughly double France’s projected budget.
• Germany plans to incorporate unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft, also known as the “loyal wingman,” into its air force by 2029.
• The European Union is working on a system of 290 satellites, originally planned to be ready by 2031. But on January 26, European Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said he wanted it ready by 2029.
• Germany plans to spend $12 billion through 2029 on civilian defense infrastructure, as announced in May.
• Germany canceled contracts to build the largest class of German warships since World War ii, to instead buy eight cheaper multipurpose frigates from Germany’s ThyssenKrupp to be ready by 2029, as announced in June.
• According to investigations by wdr, ndr and SZ, four German test satellites are set to be launched into space as early as 2027 with jamming capabilities. They are expected to be “combat-ready in space” by 2029.

Germany’s urgency and fixation on the year 2029 is remarkable when you consider Bible prophecy.

World War in 2029?

Germany claims that Russia could be attacking nato territory by the year 2029. This might be true. Russia has had many setbacks in Ukraine but has drawn closer to China and other Asian allies while modernizing its armed forces.

Bible prophecy reveals that Germany and Russia will clash. (You can prove these prophecies in our free booklet Russia and China in Prophecy.)

Even before that clash, dramatic and horrifying events will happen that will mark the official start of World War iii. Daniel 11:40 prophesies of a clash between the king of the north, Germany-led Europe, and the king of the south, Iran. Germany’s first major military confrontation will be with Iran; its last, with Russia and China.

But while Bible prophecy gives comparatively few details about these wars, it does give us a time frame for the events God is most concerned about.

In “Germany Is Arming for World War III” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry warns that God will use Germany to punish the modern descendants of biblical Israel—primarily the United States and Britain as explained in The United States and Britain in Prophecy. It is America’s coming calamity that Bible prophecy focuses on most and for which Germany is preparing.

Mr. Flurry wrote:

Isaiah 10 shows that it will soon start another war, the most destructive in history! It says God will allow this—because He is going to use the modern-day Assyrians to punish the modern descendants of biblical Israel.

After Germany conquered Iran, Ezekiel 5 and other Old Testament prophecies reveal America’s fall through an economic siege followed by military conquest and captivity. Germany is now forming economic and military alliances to prepare for this moment; meanwhile, the U.S. and Britain are becoming increasingly isolated.

Will the actual military invasion occur in 2029? We don’t know, but other biblical prophecies indicate that 2029 is a hard deadline. The Bible specifically reveals who will be ruling the U.S. when these prophecies begin to come to pass.

In Amos 7, God is recorded saying: “And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword” (verse 9).

Mr. Flurry has identified who this Jeroboam is in Bible prophecy—and his term ends on Jan. 20, 2029 (read “A Miracle Victory” to learn more).

We could see some unexpected turns, such as a third term for President Donald Trump. But the indications are mounting that 2029 is a hard deadline, and we, just as the German soldiers, “should draw a line in the calendar for 2029.” But by no means should we wait to turn to God till then.

“Beware! Germany is a country fertile in military surprises,” Winston Churchill warned before World War ii. We shouldn’t assume Germany will wait to wage war till 2029. If they truly expect to fight Russia in 2029, they may seek to accomplish their other military conquests before then.

Germany’s military preparations should give us urgency. But at the same time, we need to realize that God is the one who is bringing about these prophecies.

Revelation 17:17 reads: “For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will.” In Isaiah 10:5, God calls Assyria, modern-day Germany, “the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.” And in Jeremiah 1:12 God says, “I will hasten my word to perform it.”

We don’t know the day or the hour of Jesus Christ’s return (Matthew 24:36) or the preceding Great Tribulation, but the time will come when we can count the days (Daniel 12). Germany’s urgency should give us urgency in seeing that God is hastening the fulfillment of His prophecies.