How war in Ukraine convinced Germany to rebuild its army

Three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the German government said it would spend €100bn on modernising its army, the Bundeswehr. For Renzo Di Leo, a captain in Germany’s 37th armoured infantry brigade, the big question is: what took it so long?

“We’ve known about the threat from Russia at least since it annexed Crimea in 2014,” he says. “The political response to that could have come much sooner.” …

It was a bold move. Pacifist sentiment is strong in Germany, where many remain wary of their country’s army, mindful of the Wehrmacht’s role in Nazi atrocities. At a May Day event in Düsseldorf, protesters called Scholz a “warmonger” for sending heavy weapons to Ukraine.

But the reaction within the army was one of unconcealed delight. “The fact that 80 per cent of MPs stood up and applauded Scholz when he said it’s time to bolster the armed forces — to me that was an important moment,” says Brigadier General Alexander Krone, commander of the 37th armoured infantry brigade, who oversaw the Lüneburg Heath Nato exercise. …

Since the Russian invasion, though, there’s a sense that the army should get everything it needs, with no questions asked. “There’s a lot more support,” says Krone. “It’s also more sustainable — we won’t have to give stuff back at the end of our mission. The system’s working much more smoothly.” …

The destruction being wreaked on cities just two hours’ flying time from Berlin has made the problem headline news and started to change public attitudes. Suddenly Germany has begun to appreciate its army, an institution that it had previously treated, in the words of then president Horst Köhler in 2005, with a “friendly lack of interest”. A poll by Der Spiegel soon after Scholz’s announcement of the €100bn fund found 78 per cent of Germans supported his promise of more money for the armed forces. 

“Now people are saying, damn, maybe we need the army for its core mission after all,” Krone says.

But the effect of the war goes much deeper. “The happy-go-lucky German — surrounded by friends, with a rising standard of living, not worried about security, if there’s a problem the Americans will take care of it — that’s a thing of the past,” says Ekkehard Brose, president of the Federal Academy for Security Policy. “Now more of us see the world as a place where we have to stand up for the things we care about.”