Young Germans Revolt at Being ‘Cannon Fodder’ for the ‘Strongest’ Army in Europe as the Yanks Go Marching Home

Fifty thousand German students are skipping class to protest Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s plans to make the Bundeswehr “the strongest conventional army in Europe.” Steeped in the lessons of the World Wars, they’re rejecting military service, leaving Berlin asking who will defend it now that the Americans are beginning a troop withdrawal.After Mr. Merz declared that Americans had been “humiliated” in Iran and “clearly have no strategy,” Mr. Trump ordered 5,000 of America’s 35,000 troops out of Germany. Mr. Merz used the reassessment to buttress last May’s pledge to build up the Bundestag because Germany’s allies are “demanding” it.The Schulstreik gegen Wehrpflicht or School Strike Against Conscription — scheduled for V-E Day, May 9, the date of Germany’s 1945 defeat in World War II — is the result. It’s the third such boycott since the Military Service Modernization Act was passed in December.The law authorized sending questionnaires to ask 18-year-olds if they’re willing to bear arms. Starting next year, it mandates medical tests to evaluate potential soldiers. It also contains a provision to limit trips by 17-to-45-year-old men abroad to 90 days unless the military grants a waiver.The restriction sparked outrage, prompting Germany’s defense minister, Boris Pistorius, to issue a statement that “everyone is, of course, allowed to travel and currently does not need a permit for this.” He moved to issue a blanket exemption “to be implemented quickly.”Although Germany is not yet introducing conscription, Mr. Pistorius raised hackles by saying it may be resorted to if efforts to recruit volunteers fall short. The country’s military now consists of 186,000 active-duty personnel. The goal is to boost it to 203,000 by 2031 and 460,000 — almost 2.5 times its current size — by 2035. The strike group wrote on its website that “40,000 students in over 80 cities” turned out to protest in December. They “are not only speaking out against conscription in surveys but are also prepared to take action against it” and “don’t want to spend six months learning how to kill” or “to die in war.”Students protested in about 150 municipalities during the strike in March. Their banners carried signs reminiscent of those hoisted in American anti-war protests. Slogans included, “We Are Not Cannon Fodder,” “No War But Class War,” “The Rich Want War, The Youth Want a Future,” and “Friedrich Merz to the Front!”As this columnist wrote in The New York Sun for May Day’s “Workers Over Billionaires” protests, America’s teachers’ unions and schools encourage young people to skip classes for political campaigning, but the strike group wrote that “students took to the street despite repression and threats from education ministries, school principals, and assembly authorities.”Pupils were told not to demonstrate during school hours or they’d face penalties as severe as expulsion. One of those unwilling to follow those instructions, Golo Busche, told the strike group that schools “threatened us with absences and tried to intimidate us.” He judged any punishment small “compared to half a year in the barracks.”Another student, Phil Werring, said that young men are “supposed to become fit for war for Germany, but what about our right to live in peace?” The spokesman for the movement, Hannes Kramer, told the Guardian on Thursday that Germany was “preparing for war and we, the young, are supposed to become the cannon fodder.”The pacifism and anti-militarism imposed on Germany after World War II runs deep. In August, a Forsa poll found that only 16 percent would “definitely” take up arms to defend their country. Fifty-nine percent said they would “probably” or “definitely not” fight. Sixty-one percent of 18- to 29-year-olds opposed conscription.Mr. Merz can buy tanks, guns, and jets to arm the strongest army in Europe, but he faces a tough task to fill its ranks. In the 80 years since V-E Day, Germans have come to reject the idea of military service. Mr. Trump could be doing them a favor by sending a message that, in the event of invasion, Berlin would not be able to count on the Cold War-era strategy of fighting to the last American.

Young Germans Revolt at Being ‘Cannon Fodder’ for the ‘Strongest’ Army in Europe as the Yanks Go Marching Home

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