Germany is Europe’s richest and most powerful nation. Unfortunately, Berlin has been the weak link in the Western alliance for a generation. Since reunification, under Chancellors Kohl, Schröder, and Merkel, Germany’s once-powerful military has atrophied (Americans sometimes forget that, during the Cold War, the West German army was a formidable and important component of NATO’s plan to defend Western Europe).
Every American president this century has asked, begged, cajoled, and pleaded with the Germans to take more responsibility for Europe’s defense. Alas, even during the Obama/Trump/Biden “pivot to Asia,” the Germans have been content to spend a pittance on defense — last year, barely over 1.5 percent of GDP, which is billions and billions of dollars below the NATO-country target of 2 percent of GDP.
What kind of real-world effect has this had on Germany military readiness and hard power?
Just last week, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, the German army’s chief of staff, wrote in a post on his personal LinkedIn account that “the Bundeswehr, the army which I have the honor to command, is standing there more or less empty-handed.”
The options we can offer the government in support of the alliance are extremely limited. We have all seen it coming but were not able to get through with our arguments to draw the consequences after [Russia’s] annexation of Crimea. This does not feel good. I am fed up with it.
This is not Frederick the Great’s army.
This morning, however, Chancellor Scholz, speaking to the Bundestag, the German parliament, called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a turning point in the history of our continent” and vowed that Germany will now spend 2 percent of GDP on defense “from now on, every year.”
You can watch the key part of the chancellor’s speech below, translated into English: